A message on wisdom 6.17.19

Around Christmas time, we read one of our favorite stories of creation which talks about Jesus (or the Word)  who was with God in the beginning. 

It goes like this:

“In the beginning,

was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. ² 

[The Word] was in the beginning with God. 

³ All things came into being through him…

…What has come into being ⁴ in him was life,^[a] 

and the life was the light of all people. 

Many centuries before these words about Jesus were written in the book of John, ancient Jewish texts spoke of Wisdom. A great number of scholars and mystics have long expressed that our uniquely Christian tradition understands that Jesus, the Word with God, Is the embodiment of sacred Wisdom.  Now hear today’s reading from the book of Proverbs:

22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I [Wisdom] was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills, I was brought forth—
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields,

or the world's first bits of soil. 

27 When he established the heavens, I was there,

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 

28 when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep, 

29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always, 

31 rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the human race. (Proverbs 8:22-31)

1 Does not wisdom call,

and does not understanding raise her voice? 

2 On the heights, beside the way,

at the crossroads she takes her stand; 

3 beside the gates in front of the town,

at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 

4 "To you, O people, I call,

and my cry is to all that live. (8:1-4)

Who is one of the wisest people you know?  When I think of wisdom, I don’t necessarily think of people with a high level of formal education. I think of 87 year old Louise who served on my internship committee when I was a pastoral intern.  Yes, Louise had had a long career as a nurse and was a smart, practical, lady, But somehow, without saying much she knew how to cut through the noise and support me as a painfully-earnest intern who was hyper sensitive to all the feelings and demands that come with being a pastor. Louise was wise.  I think of my grandpa, Vernon, who took time to quietly watch the sunrise over the farm each morning from his kitchen table.  My grandpa raised hogs on the farm. He delighted in animals and found large scale animal farming disagreeable simply because of how the animals were treated. He loved the earth. Just because. Grandpa Vernon was wise.  I think of my 35 year old cousin with stage 4 liver cancer who has this way of being present with her 3 year old daughter and a way of savoring each moment that is deeply wise.  

If I wanted to talk about wisdom in a secular way, I’d say something like: that it is the sum of all the things we experience in life.  That’s probably why there is something about a child’s wisdom: it has been unjaded by experience. And that is why, there’s also something about one who has lived for many, many decades whose wisdom has been refined by experience.  (If three year olds and 93 year olds are the ones who are deeply wise, don’t ask me what that means for those of us who are somewhere in the middle!)

In our reading from the book of Proverbs today, we hear of Wisdom who is created by God in the very beginning.  She is, Proverbs tells us, a “master worker” and a creative essence who delights in everything that gives life. She is of God and at the same time God’s companion. She is, as Matt Skinner says, “an expression of God’s creative heart, of God’s love of God’s presence.”

Wisdom can’t be invoked in partisan politics that pit people against each other.  She won’t be used to try and proclaim how one individual is better or more pure than another.  Wisdom won’t be claimed or stuffed down anyone’s throats.  She sees through  self-serving intentions and false piety. Wisdom is truthfulness.  She makes clear right from wrong. She cuts through the noise.  She calls out to us, the book of Proverbs says, from the street corners. From the places where the daily grind of life intersects with God’s surprising presence. 

I sat with several of you around a kitchen table earlier this week and listened as we talked about searching for or listening for the voice of wisdom in our lives.  (Just to note: I did check with folks before sharing). One of you spoke of searching for a job and trying to listen to where God is leading you.  Another spoke of struggling to hear God’s wisdom in the midst of an exhausting illness.  Yet another spoke of trying to trust the inner voice of wisdom when a particular family member got under your skin by reminding yourself (through gritted teeth)  that this person was sacred and beloved to God.   Everyone around the table needed a minute (or 10) to settle into wisdom’s rhythms because Wisdom is slow moving.  She is reflective.  Wisdom speaks to the heart and not the head. True to Wisdom’s creative character, everyone in the kitchen the other night had new things to reflect on.  New medical treatments, new businesses endeavors, new developments with children, new spiritual questions.

When you think of things that you have created in life, what is one of the things that has made you most proud?  Maybe it’s something you’ve participated in at school.  Maybe you’ve made a garden or a meal or composed something you’re proud of.  Maybe it is a perspective that you have grown into, a relationship with a family member that has healed, a conviction that you want to find a way to be happy, a sense of recovery in your life. There is a keen sense of Wisdom in all of this that is created. All of this we create together with God in whom we abide.  All of this, we create together with God who dwells in us. 

One of you recently told me a story about creating something new with the life-giving wisdom of God.  You told me about a Muslim colleague who struggled to meet the demands of work during the month of Ramadan. (with all the fasting and waking at night to pray) (and again, I asked for permission to share this). The person here at LMC who told me this story was a little more reflective and modest as they shared this with me, but as the story unfolded, they told me how they paid attention, supported their Muslim colleague, listened to them, helped troubleshoot and ultimately helped to effect some change at their shared workplace.

Paying attention to wisdom isn’t the easiest in our digitized, frantic, programmed and scheduled world. How do we connect with Wisdom? Ancient Israel didn’t picture God as some far off, distant being but as One who was keenly present in our lives.  How do we connect to this Source that is our constant companion? In her splendid book, “An Altar in the World,” Barbara brown Taylor writes that "Wisdom atrophies if it is not walked on a regular basis." She goes onto to suggest that we exercise wisdom in our lives by being attentive. She writes: “The easiest practice of reverence I know is simply to sit down somewhere outside, preferably near a body of water, and pay attention for at least twenty minutes. It is not necessary to take on the whole world at first. Just take the three square feet of earth on which you are sitting, paying close attention to everything that lives within that small estate." I think she’s on to something…

The book, The Wisdom of Solomon, written several hundred years before Jesus reads:

Wisdom is radiant and unfading,

And she is easily discerned by those who love her.

She pervades and penetrates all things,

A breath of the power of God,

An image of God’s goodness.

She renews all things;

In every generation she passes into holy souls

And makes them friends of God and prophets.

She is more beautiful than the sun.

Wisdom is something to be internally cultivated and sought out.  We cultivate Wisdom here at church, we seek her out in silence at the side of a lake, and around the kitchen table with dear ones late at night. Wisdom warms our lives the way the sun warms a stone bench on a cool day.  Wisdom is our great sustainer.  She imagines what might be.  She urges us forward. She carries us during the dark nights of the soul.  In our moments of loneliness, weariness and pain, it is Wisdom that connects us to our Source…Our Source that that has been there since the dawn of creation.  She sustains us in this beautiful and hurting world. Wisdom knows us, holds us, and frees us (and the world) to be the children of God we are called to be.