Sermon for May 12th, 2019

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Proverbs 4:5-9

5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight. 8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

Luke 7:31-35

31 “To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; 34 the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Wandering, Wondering and Seeking Wisdom – Part III

Today is mother's day. We recognize and thank all the mothers among us, and also those who care for and nurture us in a mothering sort of way, including aunts, grandmothers, step-mothers, mothers-in-law, big sisters, teachers, mentors, female role models, and all strong and loving women who contribute so much to the fabric of our society.

I'm reminded of the story of a man who was walking along the California beach one day, deep in thought, pondering all the women who had been influential in his life, and in particular his mother who lived in Hawaii. All of a sudden he said out loud, "Lord, grant me just one wish."

Suddenly the sky clouded above his head and in a booming voice the Lord said, "Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish." The man said, "Build me a bridge to Hawaii, so I can drive over anytime I want to and visit my mother." The Lord said, "Your request is very materialistic. Think of the logistics of that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific Ocean...the concrete and steel it would take! I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for such worldly things. Take a little more time and think of another wish, a wish you think would honor and glorify me."

The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, if I cannot drive to Hawaii and visit my mother, then grant me this wish: Help me to understand the mind of all women--my mother, my wife, my daughters. I want to know how they feel inside, what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment, why they cry, what they mean when they say "nothing" and how I can make a woman truly happy."

There was silence. After a few minutes God said, "So...you want two lanes or four on that bridge to Hawaii?"

For the past few weeks, we've been talking about our church's new vision statement: To be a church for Wanderers, Wonderers, and Seekers of Wisdom. Two weeks ago, I talked about what it means to be a spiritual wanderer, to be on a journey that sometimes leads us on different paths through different faith traditions and divergent beliefs. Last week, Dr. Craig Field spoke about those who wonder and question, and his own journey of faith through doubt. This week, we conclude the series by talking about the pursuit of wisdom.

I think this is a highly appropriate message for Mother's day--for many of us, the earliest source of wisdom in our lives came from our mothers, who said wise things like, "How do you know you won't like it if you've never tried it?" or "If you fall out of that tree and break both of your legs, don't come running to me!"

In the Bible, and especially in the Book of Proverbs, the virtue of wisdom is almost always personified as a female. "Prize her highly, and she will exalt you," says the author of Proverbs 4. "She (wisdom) will honor you if you embrace her."

The pursuit of wisdom was important in ancient Israel, and in many ancient Middle Eastern cultures--so much so that it almost takes on the form of a religion itself, with sacred texts and temples dedicated to Wisdom, priests and practitioners like the Magi (or wise men) who visit the baby Jesus in the gospel of Luke, and at the center of it all, the goddess, חכמה (hokmah) in Hebrew, or σοφία (sophia) in Greek. Both are feminine words in their respective languages, and both are translated into English as the word Wisdom.

Eventually the people of ancient Israel embraced monotheism, the belief in one God alone. But there are still traces in our Bible of an earlier time when Wisdom was worshiped as a deity alongside Yahweh. Proverbs 8 describes Wisdom (again in female form) as being present with God in the very beginning, sharing and participating as a "master worker" in the creation of earth.

In the Hebrew Bible (what we sometimes call the Old Testament), the books that are part of this wisdom tradition include the Book of Proverbs, the Book of Job, and the Book of Ecclesiastes. Some of the Psalms also have characteristics of wisdom literature.

In the New Testament, the wisdom tradition shows up in many of the parables of Jesus, which are riddles and extended metaphors designed to teach, not in a didactic question-and-answer sort of way, but in a more mystical and imaginative way, subject to interpretation or sometimes left unexplained altogether.

The other book of the New Testament associated with the wisdom tradition is, interestingly, the letter from James, who tradition holds was the earthly brother of Jesus and the earliest leader of the Christian church after the death of Jesus.