Difference between revisions of "Sermon for May 26th, 2013"
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==Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31== | ==Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31== | ||
| − | <poem> | + | <poem>1Does not wisdom call, |
and does not understanding raise her voice? | and does not understanding raise her voice? | ||
2 On the heights, beside the way, | 2 On the heights, beside the way, | ||
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The second story is about the early church father, Saint Augustin. Agustin was a great philosopher and theologian who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he saw a little child all alone on the beach. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustin went up to her and said, "Little child, what are doing?" and she replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this vast, immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, "And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the vast immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared. | The second story is about the early church father, Saint Augustin. Agustin was a great philosopher and theologian who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he saw a little child all alone on the beach. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustin went up to her and said, "Little child, what are doing?" and she replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this vast, immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, "And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the vast immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared. | ||
| − | Today is Trinity Sunday, but thankfully, today's sermon is not about the Trinity. Today's scripture passage has been used by ancient and modern theologians as a justification of the Trinity, and perhaps it is, but I prefer to take it for what it is at face value: It is a poem on Wisdom, in the Book of Proverbs, which is one of the great Wisdom | + | Today is Trinity Sunday, but thankfully, today's sermon is not about the Trinity. Today's scripture passage has been used by ancient and modern theologians as a justification of the Trinity, and perhaps it is, but I prefer to take it for what it is at face value: It is a poem on Wisdom, in the Book of Proverbs, which (along with the books of Job and Ecclesiastes) is one of the three great Wisdom texts in the Bible. |
| + | |||
| + | Wisdom. What is wisdom? When I was a teenager, I remember my father giving me the classic definition: Wisdom is knowledge rightly applied. I remember asking him, "So how do you learn to apply knowledge rightly? How do you learn wisdom?" To which my Dad replied, "Trial and error. You make a lot of mistakes, but never the same one twice." I think my father's understanding of wisdom, and how you get wisdom, is a pretty common one. According to his understanding, those who have lived the longest have had the opportunity to make the most mistakes, have had the most experience, and therefore are the wisest among us. In our culture, we often associate wisdom with gray hair and wrinkles. And there is certainly some truth to this. Most of the wisest people I know are among the oldest people I know. | ||
| + | |||
| + | But I think the wisdom we see reflected in the Bible sometimes (not always) cuts against this popular understanding. King Solomon prayed for, and received the gift of Wisdom as a young man, at the beginning of his reign. Joseph, the second youngest son of Jacob, while still a young man was declared by Pharaoh to be the wisest man in all Egypt. And Jesus, when surrounded by Pharisees with years of age and experience on their side, told them they must "become like little children" in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In today's scripture passage, Proverbs 8, we find a wisdom that is ancient...and yet also child-like, and that (rather than the Trinity) is the mystery, the paradox that I'd like to explore this morning. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Earlier, I asked the question "What is Wisdom?" But for Proverbs 8, the question is more appropriately, "Who is Wisdom?" Right from the beginning of the chapter, Wisdom is personified as a female voice: "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." | ||
| + | |||
| + | So Wisdom is a woman. Several commentaries refer to her as "Lady Wisdom." But I'm going to suggest that she's not just any kind of lady--she is actually "Young" Lady Wisdom, perhaps even "Young Girl" Wisdom. And the reason I believe this is because Proverbs was written as a collection of wisdom addressed to...a young man. A boy. In the NRSV translation, many of the chapters of Proverbs begin with the phrase, "my child." But this is a translation of the Hebrew word בְּ֭נִי (bn'i) which literally means Son of me, or my son. A lot of times, translating a word like that to be more inclusive is a good move, and I do think Proverbs has much to offer to people of all ages and genders. But the authors of the Old Testament scriptures were very careful in other places to include both בְּ֭נִי (bn'i) and בִּתִּ֗י (bt'i) when they want to include both a young boy and a young girl. | ||
Revision as of 19:54, 25 May 2013
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
1Does 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
Today is Trinity Sunday, so I'd like to start with two stories about the Trinity...and then we'll all move on to something we can actually understand. The first story is from the NIV translation of the Bible. You may remember that when I say NIV translation, that has nothing to do with the New International Version. No, the NIV stands for "Neal's Improvised Version." And today it goes something like this:
Jesus had gathered his disciples to himself, and he asked them, Whom do men say that I am? His disciples answered and said, Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or another of the old prophets. Jesus answered and said, But whom do you say that I am? Peter the fisherman stood up, and with great confidence, he said: "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple." And Jesus answering Peter, said, "What?"
The second story is about the early church father, Saint Augustin. Agustin was a great philosopher and theologian who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he saw a little child all alone on the beach. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustin went up to her and said, "Little child, what are doing?" and she replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this vast, immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, "And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the vast immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared.
Today is Trinity Sunday, but thankfully, today's sermon is not about the Trinity. Today's scripture passage has been used by ancient and modern theologians as a justification of the Trinity, and perhaps it is, but I prefer to take it for what it is at face value: It is a poem on Wisdom, in the Book of Proverbs, which (along with the books of Job and Ecclesiastes) is one of the three great Wisdom texts in the Bible.
Wisdom. What is wisdom? When I was a teenager, I remember my father giving me the classic definition: Wisdom is knowledge rightly applied. I remember asking him, "So how do you learn to apply knowledge rightly? How do you learn wisdom?" To which my Dad replied, "Trial and error. You make a lot of mistakes, but never the same one twice." I think my father's understanding of wisdom, and how you get wisdom, is a pretty common one. According to his understanding, those who have lived the longest have had the opportunity to make the most mistakes, have had the most experience, and therefore are the wisest among us. In our culture, we often associate wisdom with gray hair and wrinkles. And there is certainly some truth to this. Most of the wisest people I know are among the oldest people I know.
But I think the wisdom we see reflected in the Bible sometimes (not always) cuts against this popular understanding. King Solomon prayed for, and received the gift of Wisdom as a young man, at the beginning of his reign. Joseph, the second youngest son of Jacob, while still a young man was declared by Pharaoh to be the wisest man in all Egypt. And Jesus, when surrounded by Pharisees with years of age and experience on their side, told them they must "become like little children" in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In today's scripture passage, Proverbs 8, we find a wisdom that is ancient...and yet also child-like, and that (rather than the Trinity) is the mystery, the paradox that I'd like to explore this morning.
Earlier, I asked the question "What is Wisdom?" But for Proverbs 8, the question is more appropriately, "Who is Wisdom?" Right from the beginning of the chapter, Wisdom is personified as a female voice: "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."
So Wisdom is a woman. Several commentaries refer to her as "Lady Wisdom." But I'm going to suggest that she's not just any kind of lady--she is actually "Young" Lady Wisdom, perhaps even "Young Girl" Wisdom. And the reason I believe this is because Proverbs was written as a collection of wisdom addressed to...a young man. A boy. In the NRSV translation, many of the chapters of Proverbs begin with the phrase, "my child." But this is a translation of the Hebrew word בְּ֭נִי (bn'i) which literally means Son of me, or my son. A lot of times, translating a word like that to be more inclusive is a good move, and I do think Proverbs has much to offer to people of all ages and genders. But the authors of the Old Testament scriptures were very careful in other places to include both בְּ֭נִי (bn'i) and בִּתִּ֗י (bt'i) when they want to include both a young boy and a young girl.
