Crying In the Marketplace
by Pastor Kirby Williams
Text: Proverbs 1:20-21
Date: 01/06/2011
Series: "Proverbs" Part 12
It was Tuesday afternoon at the African Bible College and that meant "outreach". The entire college (faculty and students alike) looked forward to Tuesday afternoon, because it gave them the opportunity to fan out into the communities around Lilongwe, Malawi to engage in various types of ministry. Some would go to the hospitals to encourage the sick. Others would go downtown and share the Gospel with passersby in the busy financial district. Still others would go to a local prison to play soccer and then share a Bible study with the inmates. I was assigned to a group heading to the local market for some "open-air" preaching.
My purpose for being in Africa on this occasion was to make a video for the African Bible College, and on this day to record the various types of outreach the school was involved in. I was excited to be going to the marketplace because I knew it would provide excellent opportunities to photograph the locals and be immersed in the culture.
The sights, sounds, smells and people of Africa swirled around us as we walked among the closely positioned stalls of the market. Some were selling brightly-colored fabrics, with bold African prints. Another was selling freshly butchered cuts of meat covered with dust and buzzing with flies. We stopped near an open area where a vendor had spread a large cloth on the ground and stacked a small mountain of freshly-dug sweet potatoes in the middle. He had positioned small girls (presumably his daughters) on each of the four corners to keep them from flapping in the dry wind that whipped through the market.
Our little team consisted of two students, a missionary teacher, and myself. Seemingly satisfied with the location, my three companions looked at each other briefly, gave a nod and suddenly began to clap loudly and sing at the top of their lungs. One of the students, an attractive African woman in her early twenties, took a tambourine out of her satchel and began to keep rhythm with the clapping. I grabbed my camera and got to work filming the event.
The marketplace was a mass of confusion, with people pushing past us, shouting at each other, and hurrying about their business. The little team of evangelists made a valiant effort to attract attention by singing as loudly as they could over the din of the marketplace-- but without much success. After several songs, the young lady put away her tambourine, and the other student on the team, a young African man, picked up a large, tattered Bible and began to preach.
For 30 minutes the young man paced back and forth in the aisle between the sweet potatoes and the fabrics, gesturing widely with his arms, opening his Bible and reading from it, pointing to specific phrases, and trying to make his point. He was speaking in Chechewa, the local dialect, so I couldn't understand a word he was saying. But I could tell from his body language he was putting everything he had into his sermon. I later learned from others that he was a wonderful preacher with a true heart for sharing the Gospel with his countrymen. Towards the end of his message, his voice began to break from shouting so loudly. By the time he was finished he could barely talk.
A photographer has an acute eye for people's faces, eyes, and attitudes in any given situation, for this is what captures the essence of the event being recorded. On this day, the eyes and the faces of the people passing by were indifferent. They paid little or no attention to this young man or the words he was saying. To them, he was just another noise and obstacle in an all ready loud and crowded market. The wisdom that he brought to this marketplace-- the Wisdom of the ages from the very heart of God, went unheard and unheeded.
As I watched the scene unfold through my camera lens, my heart began to sink until I, too, was "crying" in the marketplace. "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?" "Are you so wise that you don't need to hear God's wisdom?" "Are you so happy and your lives so complete, that you can afford to ignore its calling?" But no one stopped that day. No one listened. The young man ended his message with an invitation that no one responded to. With a hint of sadness in his eyes, he closed in prayer, packed away his Bible and left. It was as if we were never there.
Prov. 1:2-210 "Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:"
Solomon might as well have been right there in that marketplace in Malawi with us when he wrote these words. They are just that relevant. He personifies wisdom and warns us of the impending destruction of all those who ultimately ignore the wisdom that comes from God's revelation.
I wonder what kind of excuse the people in that marketplace will offer when faced with God's fierce judgment. Perhaps they will say that no one ever told them. That they were never confronted by Wisdom, nor recognized her voice in the busy marketplace. Yet Wisdom was there, they simply chose to ignore her. Tragically, as Paul warns in Romans 1:20, on that day they will be "without excuse".
The book of Proverbs is all about listening to God's wisdom. It literally screams at us from all corners. David says that "the heavens declare the glory of God". Solomon adds that Wisdom "cries aloud in the marketplace". The prudent person will slow down and take the time to listen to what He has to say. The wise person will take heed and implement what they hear and fashion their lives around it.
So what is your excuse? Are you listening to the cry of Wisdom in the marketplaces of your life? If not--perhaps it's time you did.
-pastor kirby
