Recently, I heard the pastor use “connoisseur” from the pulpit. His comment set me thinking.
“Connoisseur” comes to us from an Old French word meaning “an expert, a judge, one well-versed.” We usually think of connoisseurs pursuing the finer things in life – music, art, cooking.
But, let’s enlarge the field. Hopefully, you are a connoisseur of Montana. By day, John is a banker. Otherwise, he is known as a connoisseur of rivers and streams. John doesn’t go “fishing” – he goes “catching.” And then there is Luke. Luke is a connoisseur of Helena’s mountain biking trails. He’ll hop on his bike during lunch – eager to climb and descend – fast!
Of course, John and Luke would probably feel a bit awkward being called “connoisseurs.” Our word is not an everyday Montana word. Why use a word we’re not sure we can spell?! We sense that this candidate for a spelling bee would be more at home on 5th Avenue in New York City than on 5th Avenue in Helena.
Still, it was on 5th Avenue in Helena that Myrna Loy got her start in acting – putting on plays in the basement of her home. By 1935, her talent took her to New York City. In her biography, “Being and Becoming,” she compares Helena’s 5th Avenue with New York City’s 5th Avenue. Although the contrast between those Avenues is great, by 1991, this girl with humble beginnings received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in film.
Like Myrna, you may rise from humble beginnings. Begin where you are – but count the cost. Malcolm Gladwell tells us that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master our chosen skill. What attracts you so much that you would invest?
Let’s look at our word again as you wonder about that question. Perhaps we can get some clues that will help us. Like many French words, “connoisseur” comes from what some call the “mother of languages” – Latin. The Latin word is: “cognoscere” – “to know, to become well-acquainted with,” from “com” (“with”) + “gnoscere” – (“to recognize” or “notice”). A connoisseur lives life with attention – with the constant drumbeat of desiring to understand in his heart – in her head.
Wise Solomon gives us a word picture of connoisseurs at work: “Set your heart on a life of Understanding. That’s right—if you make Insight your priority and won’t take “No” for an answer, searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt. Believe me, before you know it… you’ll have come upon the Knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2, “The Message”).
To “come upon the Knowledge of God,” recall those odd “gn” words – ‘cognoscere” and “recognize” – we saw earlier. These “gn” words come to us from the Greek word, “ginṓskō” – “to know, especially through personal experience.” This kind of first-hand experience is illustrated in Luke’s Gospel. After Gabriel told Mary that she would become pregnant with the Messiah, she “said to the angel, ‘How will this be since I do not ‘ginṓskō’ a man?'” (Luke 1:34). She was not yet that kind of connoisseur.
But, already, young Mary was beginning to be a connoisseur of God. When she went on to say: “I am the Lord’s servant,” she could have also said: “I am the Lord’s connoisseur” (Luke 1:38).
What better gift could she give her child? Being a connoisseur of God became one of Jesus’ specialties. Not long before his crucifixion, Jesus declared: “And this is eternal life, that they (my disciples) “ginṓskō” you” (in other words, ‘that they connoisseur you’), the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Jesus told his followers: “I am the good shepherd. I ‘connoisseur’ my own and my own ‘connoisseur’ me, just as the Father’ connoisseurs’ me and I ‘connoisseur’ the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14,15). Rich!
Let’s come back to the pastor who used “connoisseur.” He told us about a young mother whose four-year-old daughter suffers from leukemia. In the presence of such a deadly affront, how does this mother choose life? Her heart yearns to become a connoisseur of the Trinity. She does not treat God as Anonymous (literally, “no-name”) Energy. No, Father, Son, and Spirit are Persons to be named as known – even in sorrow. She wrote: “I allow my whole self to experience this journey, and I am on the lookout for my Father who says He will turn darkness into light!” This Mother joins the Apostle Paul, who wrote: “that I may ‘connoisseur’ him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings” (Phil 3:10). Remarkable.
We would not be surprised if this young mother handled her grief by backing away from God. Great mysteries – like suffering – especially the suffering of children – can bamboozle us. What can we say?
And, why would this young mother press on – leaning into the suffering – finding an interior space where she is consciously seeking God?
After the service, a woman sitting near me told me that she admired this woman for turning to God – and the church – in her time of need. Would we turn to or turn away?
Let me tell you about another conversation as a partial response to these questions. A few minutes after I met a woman, she told me she had lost her only child in a terrible car accident. I asked: “Have you come to understand that God the Father knows your exact loss in the death of his only son?”
What an honor to contemplate that question. Why would the true God send “Jesus,” “Rescuer,” to die? Because he wanted us to “ginṓskō” that he is the Connoisseur of sinners like us. For those of us who have hearts eager to understand such mystery, that gift prompts us to be – of all things – connoisseurs of God.
