Holy Wisdom
Does not wisdom call and does not understanding raise her voice? Proverbs 8:1
When I look to the heavens, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Psalm 8:3-4
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. John 16:12-13
This spring, according to the US Census Bureau, 3,195,000 high school seniors will graduate. There will be a great many speeches and speakers. They will extol the virtues of knowledge learned and competency gained and they will encourage graduates to loftier goals and greater dreams. They will offer graduates words of wisdom to take along into adulthood.
In our Biblical tradition, wisdom is not merely acquired knowledge. Nor is it knowledge integrated into maturity and personal experience. Wisdom, in fact, is not about human achievement at all, but about the character of God.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, Wisdom is portrayed as one aspect of God. Wisdom is not just a characteristic or attribute of God, but is an expression of God’s own being. Listen again to the description in Proverbs. Wisdom stands in the gate by which one enters the city; she stands in the market place, she stands at the crossroads of the main thoroughfares. There, in the midst of bustling traffic, in the midst of daily commerce and business, she stands and calls to any who will listen. What she says is noble and right and true. She identifies herself: She is the firstborn of all creation, brought forth before the earth or the sea, before the hills or the mountains, before the soil or the fields. When God created all that we know, she was there beside God, like a master craftswoman. She delighted in all that God created. She especially delighted in God’s creation of humankind. (See Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-36)
Those who listen to her words will find life but those who pay her no heed will injure themselves and ultimately realize that they are infatuated with death.
Like the Word, Wisdom was in the beginning and was with God and was God, and helped God create the world. In Greek, the word for Word is Logos and the word for Wisdom is Sophia; they are masculine and feminine expressions of God’s creative presence by which all the world is created.
As Christian theology developed a schema to describe God, Logos became identified with Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Messiah, Christ. Sophia became identified with Spirit, the gift of God’s presence poured out upon the disciples on Pentecost and subsequently evident in the lives of all believers. Sophia was a feminine presence until St. Jerome, in the last decade of the 4th century, translated both Hebrew and Greek Biblical documents into Latin. In the years 390-400, God became male and the Spirit, neuter.
Reaching back into the Hebrew language and Aramaic culture, Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John might well have sounded like this: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into the whole truth, for she will not speak on her own, but will tell you what she has heard. She will take my words and declare them to you.” (Wil Gafney, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia).
Even if you are not so sure of your own faith, even if you are full of questions and some skepticism, you have been blessed by Wisdom. Wisdom after all, does not reside in a church building and is not interested in primarily religious things. She stands out in the middle of life’s daily routine and traffic. She calls out to you—and wherever you experience that which is noble and true and right in life, you are hearing her voice.
Whenever you catch a glimpse of your own self-worth and your own potential for goodness, you are hearing her. Whenever you sense that inner conviction that you are being drawn to what really matters in life, you are hearing her voice. In the book Small Graces, Kent Nerbern observes that we tend “to dream our lives in grand gestures, but we live our lives in small moments.” Few of us do great things with our lives, but, blessed by Wisdom, we can do many, many small things with grace and love and honor.
Wisdom, promises Jesus, will lead us into the whole truth—but only, I believe, step by step. Jesus did not tell his disciples everything, for there were some things they could not yet bear. In Fragrant Palm Leaves Thich Nhat Hanh describes how we grow—we discover Truth—and when we discover it, it is so familiar that we cannot imagine why we did not recognize it sooner. For a while, nothing much changes. Thich Nhat Hanh imagines truth saying to him at the moment of discovery: “And what will you do tonight?” The Buddhist priest answers, “When I am hungry, I will eat. When I am tired, I will sleep.” But, then, one day, in a moment it will seem as if we lose everything and at the same time find that we possess everything—it is like dying and coming to life—Strange that a Buddhist should use language that sounds so Christian. Wisdom is not about a certain set of religious doctrines. Wisdom is about life.
Wisdom delights in God and the wonders of God’s goodness. In his I, William Sloane Coffin raises an interesting question for his reader to consider, “Do you think God is too hard to believe in; or too good to believe in, we being strangers to such goodness?” He then confesses that though he finds God not too hard to believe in, God’ great goodness is quite another matter. We are such strangers to great goodness, it is hard for us to fathom the depth of God’s love for us and it is difficult for us to realize how deeply God believes in us.
Wisdom sings the words to today’s Psalm, “When I look at the heavens and works of God’s hands, the moon and stars, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, O God? You have crowned them with glory and honor.” Wisdom utters the words at every child’s baptism, “You are my beloved.” To revel in the beauty of God’s creation; to know oneself as God’s beloved; these are Wisdom’s blessings.
Enjoy these days. Enjoy the sense of accomplishment and success. Enjoy this bittersweet time with your friends. Enjoy the tingles and trepidations that come with saying goodbye to one part of life’s journey and beginning another.
Trust that God’s love surrounds you—that God’s love embraces you—that God has a deep and abiding faith in you. Listen for what is noble and right and true in life. You are part of a community blessed by God’s Wisdom, and though you may venture away from us, we will hold you in our hearts. And Wisdom will go with you. Amen.