Preached by the Reverend Canon Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, November 5, 2006, at the 8:40 and 9:50 am services.
The grace of our Master Teacher — the love of God in the unity of Spirit — be with you all.
God of all knowledge and understanding, you give us wisdom and love that transcends all that our senses can perceive. We marvel at your wondrous care; as you constantly guide our choices, inviting us to creative living.
Yet sometimes life frightens us. Lord have mercy.
We fail to use your gift of wisdom for the benefit of all. Christ have mercy.
We often choose emptiness rather than the fullness of life. Lord have mercy.
God of Vision, help us to broaden our sights, to wake up and truly see that we are vital to your holy plan, to help, heal, and encourage positive changes in this world. May we walk in your light, sharing your wisdom and love with all we meet. We ask this in the name of your son Jesus. Amen.
The Phoenix Affirmations: # 10
The Path of Jesus is found where Christ’s followers value the pursuit of wisdom, which is found at the intersection of head and heart, where God seeks relationship with the human soul.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.
13Happy are they who find Wisdom and who gain understanding! 14For Wisdom’s profit is better than profit in silver, and better than gold is Her revenue; 15She is more precious than corals, and none of your choice possessions can compare with Her. 16Long life is in Her right hand, in Her left are riches and honor; 17Her ways are pleasant ways, and all Her paths are peace; 18 She is a tree of life to those who grasp Her, and they are happy who hold Her fast.
54Jesus went to his hometown. He taught in their meeting place, and the people were so amazed that they asked, “Where does he get all this wisdom and the power to work these miracles?”
The book of Proverbs is a collection of pithy little sayings meant to convey wisdom to help us live our lives more sensibly. So we heard from Proverbs this morning that people are happier who hold fast to wisdom. I grew up hearing lots of pithy, folksy wisdom sayings to help guide me through life. I still remember them, and they continue to convey a lot of truth to me. Such sayings as:
If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving ain’t for you.
You can put your boots in the oven, but that don’t make ’em biscuits.
Never squat with your spurs on.
Never try to teach a hog to sing; it annoys the hog and wastes your time.
Never slap a person who’s chewing tobacco.
Don’t kick a cow chip on a hot day.
Letting the cat out of the bag is a lot easier than trying to put it back in.
Wisdom. We pursue it with our thinking and with our feeling, our intellects and our emotions, our heads and our hearts, our will and our affection, our logic and our imagination. I cross myself as a reminder that it takes thinking and feeling to achieve balance.
Wisdom is that wonderful gift that helps us comprehend divine revelation. It’s that special insight, the knowledge of what is true (and not merely what is factual). It’s understanding. It’s enlightenment. It’s the sum of accumulated learning through the ages. It’s appropriate interpretation. It’s where God seeks relationship with the human soul.
In the 3rd chapter of Proverbs we read, “Happy are they who find Wisdom and who gain understanding!… Long life is in Her right hand, in Her left are riches and honor; Her ways are pleasant ways, and all Her paths are peace; She is a tree of life to those who grasp Her, and they are happy who hold Her fast.” A little later, in chapter 8 of Proverbs we find these words, “I, Wisdom, love all who love me, and those who seek me will find me.”
In the gospel this morning, people asked where Jesus got all his wisdom. Almost 20 years after Matthew’s gospel is written, the writer of John’s gospel offers a possible answer. The gospel of John opens with this hymn of the early Church: “In the beginning there was the [Logos] and it was what God was. It was there with God from the beginning. Everything came to be by means of it; nothing that exists came to be without its agency. In it was life, and this life was the light of humanity.” Isn’t that beautiful?
In the beginning there was Logos, logic, reason. One group of scholars translates the passage that opens John’s gospel as, “in the beginning there was the divine word and wisdom…” Where did Jesus’ wisdom come from? He embodied it. He lived it. He turned to the scriptures and learned them, quoted them, digested them, interpreted them, taught them, turned them on their side… he took the learning of the ages and added his own experience, thoughts, and questions to it and so integrated the word of wisdom into his consciousness that he became the expression of wisdom, the embodiment, the incarnation, the manifestation of the very creative and eternal word of God. He took the stories of his people and made them his story, and empowered by his evolving story which included the ancient stories, he exhibited enlightenment, understanding, hope, power, insight, knowledge, comprehension, imagination, logic, courage… in short, wisdom.
The book of Proverbs says the beginning of wisdom is — get wisdom! The songs, the poetry, the one-liners, the sayings, the stories, the myths, the parables, the histories, the politics, the prayers, the sermons… the record of people’s feelings and thoughts and experiences and hopes and disappointments and questions that we call the holy bible… get it. Learn it. Read it. Wrestle with it. Question it. Argue with it. Interpret it. Claim it. Apply it. Make it yours. Let its story be your story, and as you begin to live in the power of the eternal story, people will ask, “Where did she get that? How does she know that?” And the answer will be, “in the beginning there was wisdom” and it has been told and shared and passed on ever since, and you have tapped into that tradition and made it yours and added to it and lived in the power of that never ending stream of grace.
Let me add this about our sacred texts and our relationship to them. It is unwise of us to not know them, to not engage them, to not claim them as our own. If we do not live in the power of relationship with the unlimited truths that can be discovered in our sacred stories, then we wind up giving the scriptures to those who would narrowly define them and use them to exclude or control others. Hear me, and please forgive me if this sounds challenging to you, but when scripture has been read in a vacuum, overly literalized, idolized, and used without a sense of history, context, or relationship and when it has been read and taught apart from reason, imagination, and critical thinking, that’s when the evils of slavery, segregation, colonization, military aggression, homophobia, the exclusion of women from pulpit and altar, and other atrocities have been shamefully committed in the name of God. But when a community makes the bible their own, when the words of ancient wisdom become the text of daily life, then when an oppressor quotes the bible to say “slaves obey your masters” rather than accepting an oppressive understanding of the bible, the intended victim of bible abuse can respond with another biblical maxim, “Let my people go!”
The bible isn’t God’s words, it is God’s word. That means, it isn’t words dictated by God, it is words spoken about God in the language, metaphors, and customs of people who experienced God for themselves. In that tradition, we continue to know God for ourselves, and to bring all of who we are to the sacred texts, allowing the whole story of the bible to be integrated into our wholeness and not just isolated proof texts that have been misunderstood and misused to hurt or control us. We know God and in the light of our love for God we learn our scriptures and we challenge them and we are challenged by them and in that mutual, life-giving relationship, we grow in wisdom, insight, courage, enlightenment, understanding.
Where did Jesus get his wisdom? He turned to his scriptures. He engaged them as the person he was. He was empowered by them and shared the empowerment, salvation we might call it, with others. When we allow the bible to be ours again, and know it for ourselves, then it can never be taken from us or used against us. That, I believe, is the course of wisdom, found at the intersection of head and heart, where God seeks relationship with the human soul. This IS the Good News. Amen.
Wisdom guides me to health.
Wisdom guides me to joy.
Wisdom guides me to success.
Wisdom guides me to abundance.
Wisdom guides me to empowerment.
I grasp Wisdom, and hold Her fast.
And so it is! Amen.
