Sermon for May 26th, 2013

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

8Does 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.

22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
   the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I 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.

The Call of Wisdom

There are many different types of writings in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures.

There are ancient Origin stories, like Genesis and Exodus, that explain who we are, who God is, and how we came to be. There are books of Law, like Deuteronomy and Leviticus, that teach us how to live. There are books of History, like 1st and 2nd Chronicles, 1st and 2nd Kings, that record victories and defeats, and reigns of kings -- they teach us through story, personality, and example...what to do, and often what not to do. There are the books of the Prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel -- they teach us to hear God's voice in unlikely places and times. There are books of poetry like Psalms and Lamentations, that teach us to sing out and cry out to God in times of joy and despair.

And then, there are the books...three of them...that we call the books of Wisdom. They are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.