PROVERBS 8:1-4, 22-31
Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling?
Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice?
She’s taken her stand at First and Main,
at the busiest intersection.
Right in the city square
where the traffic is thickest, she shouts,
“You—I’m talking to all of you,
everyone out here on the streets!
“God sovereignly made me—the first, the basic--
before he did anything else.
I was brought into being a long time ago,
well before Earth got its start.
I arrived on the scene before Ocean,
yes, even before Springs and Rivers and Lakes.
Before Mountains were sculpted and Hills took shape,
I was already there, newborn;
Long before God stretched out Earth’s Horizons,
and tended to the minute details of Soil and Weather,
And set Sky firmly in place,
I was there.
When he mapped and gave borders to wild Ocean,
built the vast vault of Heaven,
and installed the fountains that fed Ocean,
When he drew a boundary for Sea,
posted a sign that said no trespassing,
And then staked out Earth’s Foundations,
I was right there with him, making sure everything fit.
Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause,
always enjoying his company,
Delighted with the world of things and creatures,
happily celebrating the human family.
Today is the first Sunday after Pentecost – also Trinity Sunday – and, of course, Father’s Day.
Today we are going to be talking about Wisdom -- that's Wisdom with a capital W because Wisdom is personified here as Lady Wisdom. She is a fairly complicated subject as treated in scripture – and as we treat wisdom in our everyday lives. Before we move on into the subject there is one simple, basic truth we need to have clarified. While Wisdom and Knowledge are often used interchangeably today, they are not the same thing. At its simplest, knowledge is possessing information. Wisdom is knowing what to do with that information.
The reading we just heard is clearly from the Old Testament, but I’m going to begin today with the New Testament and the prologue to The Gospel according to John:
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It sounds a lot like the reading we just heard from Proverbs. The two readings sound similar because they are meant to sound the same. We, as readers, are intended to get the connection.
In the original Greek in which the New Testament was written, the Word, as used by John, was Logos. Also in Greek, the word for Wisdom, as used in the Old Testament, is Sophia. And both of these words are understood as being aspects of the Holy Spirit. Remember these Greek names -- we’ll come back to them.
In the Hebrew scriptures we have several examples of Wisdom literature -- Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and some Psalms. These come in different styles – some poetry, some straight narrative, some just lists of sayings – but the intent of them all is to instruct us in how to live in a wise and godly manner. Also, Wisdom is one of the very few surviving biblical instances of speaking of any aspect of the Divine as feminine.
In today’s reading, we heard Wisdom introduce herself – quite forcefully, making it clear she has the right to speak where and as she pleases. That’s why I included the Message translation today:
The point here being that Wisdom is not something we can brush aside as something it would be nice to have but not really necessary. Instead, Wisdom is an integral part of all that is – part of God’s own self. This was clearly understood and accepted in Old Testament days, but with the coming of Jesus, there was a shift in understanding.
Here, all the attributes of Wisdom are being claimed for Jesus – God incarnate – as Logos. Logos translates directly as “Word,” but also as “reason.” Jesus, as Logos, is Sophia incarnate – the Word/Wisdom made flesh.
Along the way which leads from Sophia to Logos, the concept also becomes conflated with the Holy Spirit – sometimes fairly straightforwardly, other times following a pretty twisted, tortuous path. Remember, the ideas we believe and claim for ourselves today, have grown and been developed by the reasoning of hundreds of believers over 3000 years or so.
They have led to bloody battles – between the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom – over whether Jesus as Logos/Sophia has always been co-existent with the Creator – and therefore equal – or if he is merely the first among God’s creations. Is he the Son of God, or God, the Son?
This discrepancy in understandings has led to much confusion through the centuries and we still find ourselves tripping over seemingly conflicting explanations of who Jesus is and the words we use to describe him. As Trinitarians – remember, this is Trinity Sunday – we claim Jesus as God, the Son -- co-equal with the Creator and the Spirit -- but the language we use in theological discussions is often a confused mish-mosh of both points of view.
Some people are delighted by these “discussions.” I find them fairly pointless, myself. Theological arguments always make me think of the story of the three blind men and the elephant: The first man happens upon its leg, and announces that it’s a tree. The second man bumps into its trunk, and concludes it’s a snake. The last blind man feels its tail, and concludes it’s a broom. The moral of the story? One person's personal truth may not be another's truth, let alone the whole truth or even any part of the truth. We each can only view the world from the POV of our own lived experience and the information we have been given in our lives.
Ponderous theology is often an attempt by people to categorize God into something manageable in order to contain the unimaginable immensity that is God. Too often it is also a deflection when we wish to avoid acknowledging that we cannot ever know all there is to God and we truly are out here operating on faith alone. Our job is to know ourselves and to leave understanding God to God.
Wisdom teaches us how to live as the people God created us to be. Jesus lived among us to show us how to be the people God created us to be. I give thanks to God for teaching us and showing us, over and over, what we seem to have so much trouble remembering.
Wisdom, Word, Spirit, Sophia, Logos – God lives in us and with us. That’s more than enough for me.
Thanks be to God.
Today we are going to be talking about Wisdom -- that's Wisdom with a capital W because Wisdom is personified here as Lady Wisdom. She is a fairly complicated subject as treated in scripture – and as we treat wisdom in our everyday lives. Before we move on into the subject there is one simple, basic truth we need to have clarified. While Wisdom and Knowledge are often used interchangeably today, they are not the same thing. At its simplest, knowledge is possessing information. Wisdom is knowing what to do with that information.
The reading we just heard is clearly from the Old Testament, but I’m going to begin today with the New Testament and the prologue to The Gospel according to John:
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It sounds a lot like the reading we just heard from Proverbs. The two readings sound similar because they are meant to sound the same. We, as readers, are intended to get the connection.
In the original Greek in which the New Testament was written, the Word, as used by John, was Logos. Also in Greek, the word for Wisdom, as used in the Old Testament, is Sophia. And both of these words are understood as being aspects of the Holy Spirit. Remember these Greek names -- we’ll come back to them.
In the Hebrew scriptures we have several examples of Wisdom literature -- Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and some Psalms. These come in different styles – some poetry, some straight narrative, some just lists of sayings – but the intent of them all is to instruct us in how to live in a wise and godly manner. Also, Wisdom is one of the very few surviving biblical instances of speaking of any aspect of the Divine as feminine.
In today’s reading, we heard Wisdom introduce herself – quite forcefully, making it clear she has the right to speak where and as she pleases. That’s why I included the Message translation today:
- She’s taken her stand at First and Main,
at the busiest intersection.
Right in the city square
where the traffic is thickest, she shouts,
“You—I’m talking to all of you,
everyone out here on the streets!”
- I was brought into being a long time ago,
well before Earth got its start.
I arrived on the scene before Ocean,
yes, even before Springs and Rivers and Lakes.
Before Mountains were sculpted and Hills took shape.....
- I was right there with God, making sure everything fit.
Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause,
always enjoying his company,
Delighted with the world of things and creatures,
happily celebrating the human family.
The point here being that Wisdom is not something we can brush aside as something it would be nice to have but not really necessary. Instead, Wisdom is an integral part of all that is – part of God’s own self. This was clearly understood and accepted in Old Testament days, but with the coming of Jesus, there was a shift in understanding.
Here, all the attributes of Wisdom are being claimed for Jesus – God incarnate – as Logos. Logos translates directly as “Word,” but also as “reason.” Jesus, as Logos, is Sophia incarnate – the Word/Wisdom made flesh.
Along the way which leads from Sophia to Logos, the concept also becomes conflated with the Holy Spirit – sometimes fairly straightforwardly, other times following a pretty twisted, tortuous path. Remember, the ideas we believe and claim for ourselves today, have grown and been developed by the reasoning of hundreds of believers over 3000 years or so.
They have led to bloody battles – between the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom – over whether Jesus as Logos/Sophia has always been co-existent with the Creator – and therefore equal – or if he is merely the first among God’s creations. Is he the Son of God, or God, the Son?
This discrepancy in understandings has led to much confusion through the centuries and we still find ourselves tripping over seemingly conflicting explanations of who Jesus is and the words we use to describe him. As Trinitarians – remember, this is Trinity Sunday – we claim Jesus as God, the Son -- co-equal with the Creator and the Spirit -- but the language we use in theological discussions is often a confused mish-mosh of both points of view.
Some people are delighted by these “discussions.” I find them fairly pointless, myself. Theological arguments always make me think of the story of the three blind men and the elephant: The first man happens upon its leg, and announces that it’s a tree. The second man bumps into its trunk, and concludes it’s a snake. The last blind man feels its tail, and concludes it’s a broom. The moral of the story? One person's personal truth may not be another's truth, let alone the whole truth or even any part of the truth. We each can only view the world from the POV of our own lived experience and the information we have been given in our lives.
Ponderous theology is often an attempt by people to categorize God into something manageable in order to contain the unimaginable immensity that is God. Too often it is also a deflection when we wish to avoid acknowledging that we cannot ever know all there is to God and we truly are out here operating on faith alone. Our job is to know ourselves and to leave understanding God to God.
Wisdom teaches us how to live as the people God created us to be. Jesus lived among us to show us how to be the people God created us to be. I give thanks to God for teaching us and showing us, over and over, what we seem to have so much trouble remembering.
Wisdom, Word, Spirit, Sophia, Logos – God lives in us and with us. That’s more than enough for me.
Thanks be to God.
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