Sermon: "When Wisdom Calls"

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 – Scripture Intro

On this Trinity Sunday, the lectionary gives us a passage that helps us to better understand how God moves in our world –

as Creator, Companion, and Spirit.

In this reading from the Book of Proverbs, this presence of God comes alive in the voice of Lady Wisdom.  

"Wisdom” is the most developed personification of God's presence in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The word for Wisdom in Hebrew is “Hokmah,” in Greek it is “Sophia,”

Throughout the Old Testament Wisdom is depicted as a prophet, the establisher of justice, the breath of God that is blown into the world to create order out of chaos.

Wisdom is also consistently named as sister, mother, and an assortment of other female roles in which she symbolizes transcendent power ordering and delighting in the universe.

She is that presence which pervades the world, interacting with both nature and human beings in an effort to lure them along the right path.

Looking through our Christians lens, Wisdom is the Holy Spirit.

In this passage, we’re told that Wisdom was with God at the time the universe was created.

In fact, Wisdom claims that she was the first of God’s creations.

If we look back to the opening line of the book of Genesis, we’re told a wind from God swept over the face of the formless void and there was light.

That wind, that breath of God, was the manifestation of God’s Spirit.

That wind was Wisdom.

We Christians with our Trinitarian theology may think that we developed the concept of God’s Holy Spirit taking up residence in this world to guide us and delight in us.

But our Jewish sisters and brothers were way ahead of us on this one.

In the Hebrew scriptures, Lady Wisdom is a street-wise, justice-driven, passionate figure who wants nothing less than for everyone to follow in her playful, determined footsteps as she seeks both to transform and delight in the created world.

Listen to the words from the book of Proverbs, and listen for the Word of God:

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
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, then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

Here ends our reading from the Book of Proverbs.

May God grant us understanding of these words. 

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

June 16, 2019 – Trinity Sunday

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

“When Wisdom Calls”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…”

This opening verse from the Gospel of John was intended to mirror the Creation story we find in the book of Genesis.

For Christians, the Word is Jesus

– the physical manifestation of God’s teachings -

 birthed into this world as a human being –

for us to learn from and lean on and exemplify.

Our Christian scripture tells us that Jesus was with God from the beginning.

And our Jewish scripture tells us that Wisdom was there as well.   

Showing us that from the very beginning creation occurs in community.

From the beginning God was three in one.

One God expressed in three different forms.

Moving in our lives in three different ways.

This is the Trinity in a nutshell.

But if you’re still confused or even wondering why any of this matters,

it might be more helpful to think of the Trinity in terms of family.

You may have noticed in our Call To Worship,

the three different expressions of God are framed in terms of family.

Our father mother Creator.

Our brother Jesus.

Our sister Spirit.

In the simplest of terms, God is a relational being – made up of three expressions of the Divine that live in relationship with one another.

And because WE are created in the image of God –

we are relational beings as well.

We have an innate need to live in relationship - with one another –

with the created world -  and with the power that lies outside of us –

whether we call that power God – or the Universe –

or the collective creative energy, spirit,

and wisdom of all of humanity over all time.

Even those who struggle with their understanding of God would admit to living in relationship with the collective wisdom that informs our lives.

This is a good time to remind ourselves that wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing.

Knowledge centers on facts and ideas that we acquire through study, research, observation, or experience.

Wisdom is the ability to discern and judge which aspects of that knowledge are true, right, lasting, and applicable to our lives.

Knowledge is about learning.

Wisdom informs how we apply what we learn.

Like many of you, much of the wisdom I gleaned early on in life came from my parents.

My father in particular saw it as his role in the family to impart his wisdom upon his children, to ensure that we didn’t make the mistakes that many do.  

From my father we learned commitment and responsibility –

He exemplified the Protestant work ethic.  

He’d leave for work at 6 in the morning and didn’t return until after 6 at night.

On occasion, he would eat dinner and then go back to work until 9 pm.

With ten children to feed and clothe, he discerned that, financially, this was a wise use of his time.

Raising ten children in a tiny 4-bedroom house, he likely also discerned that staying at work an hour or two longer was a wise move for his sanity as well.

From my father we also learned the importance of punctuality and planning. My father was one who liked to arrive at least 2 hours early for any appointment, meeting, or train/plane/or bus departure. 

Just in case he encountered traffic on the way, or the car broke down,

or he missed a turn and got lost.

And if he did get lost, he seemed to think it was wise to never admit it.

At least not to my mother.

My father also leaned heavily on the wisdom of pragmatism and frugality.

When we each turned 18, he made sure we had our own bank account and life insurance policy, and if we had a credit card, we were to pay it off every month and never carry a balance.

In our house, my father also controlled the thermostat, and made sure we never wasted heat by opening a window in a month that contained an “R”.

My father passed along most of his wisdom by example.

He was a man of few words, despite being of Italian descent and a native New Yorker.

When we made a mistake or demonstrated a need for wisdom to be imparted upon us, he would take note of our infraction, sit us down, look us in the eye and say…. “What’s the matter with you…huh?” 

We were never quite sure if this was a rhetorical question or if he actually wanted to know what the matter was with us.

The point of my telling you this, is that like most fathers, my father was far from perfect.

He was exceedingly kind, he had a wonderful sense of humor,

and he was generous to a fault.

He was punctual and pragmatic, and he poured himself into his work –

but he also struggled with patience for those who didn’t do the same.

He liked things to be ordered and predictable, and as we know, both children and life, rarely are either.

It helps us to frame the Trinity in terms of human families because this is our understanding of what it means to live in relationship.

We may call God “father” or “mother” but it’s important to remember that God is not like our human fathers, or our human mothers.

God is not imperfect or limited.

God can handle our chaos, our messiness, our tendency to make mistakes, and offers us unconditional love and grace in return, always.

Likewise, our sister, Wisdom, is not like our human wisdom.

Which is restricted by our human limitations…

Our limited perspective, our limited understanding,

our limited capacity to use our wisdom for the benefit of all,

rather than for the benefit of the small circle of relationships that we’ve cultivated and value.

Our sister, Wisdom, shouted at the city gate:

“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live” 

She carried within her the wisdom of our all-powerful and un-limited God.

Would she deem it wise to follow the human wisdom that we often rely upon?

The wisdom that tells us it’s practical and frugal to create barriers that keep some on the inside – well fed and favored - while others stand on the outside, with little hope of ever being the same?

The wisdom that tells us that war and violence, and inequity and injustice

are a natural byproduct of our humanness – our aforementioned limitations – and therefore it’s pointless to seek peace, or equity, or justice –

even in a limited way?

The wisdom that tells us it’s compassionate and kind to teach others about a God who loves them unconditionally, while simultaneously creating a list of those who are destined to be rejected and punished by that same God, because WE see them as broken, and imperfect in some way?

Our sister, Wisdom, speaking through our brother, Jesus, had much to say about the human wisdom that we often call upon to guide us.  In response,

Jesus offered divine wisdom, which looks very different from our own.

“Love your neighbor, and your enemy, as yourself.”

“Do unto others, as you would have done to you.”

“Whatever you do for the least among you, you do also for me.”

We are relational beings. Created in the image of God.

Through our brother Christ and our sister Spirit,

God teaches us what it means to live in relationship.ZS

If we can just get ourselves out of the way,

our fears – our biases – our misunderstandings -

there is much wisdom to be had in the sacred Word

and words that we hold dear.

There is much wisdom to be had in the examples that Jesus set for us in his time, and the movement of the Spirit that is still whirling around us in our time.

Our sister Wisdom is constantly pushing us, pulling us,

in some cases dragging us –

towards the life of full relationship that we were created to have –

and long to have – with others, with God, with Creation…

even as we resist it, over and over again,

because we fear what we will lose,

rather than anticipate all that we have to gain.

When Wisdom calls, are we listening?

To the voice of our divine Father and Mother,

Brother and Sister,

who together as one God,

delights in this created world and the human beings contained within it,

and who continually calls us back into relationship.

And reminds us that God does not create alone.

Wisdom and Word were with God at the beginning.

Creation occurs in community.

Thanks be to God, and Amen.