DATE: May 26, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 8: 1-4; 14-31
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
Saugatuck Church front lawn
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” — Socrates
I was walking along one day, when I came to a crossroads, and there I met Lady Wisdom. She stood tall and erect, not bent over at all, even though she is as old as the hills; her eyes were bright and her whole face lit up with a smile as I approached; she ran to meet me. Lady Wisdom has no need for a cane. She moves with the agility of a dancer – because that’s what she is. The one who danced with God at the beginning of time. “I was brought forth,” she says, in the poetry of Proverbs: The Hebrew verb, translated as ‘brought forth’ can also be rendered as ‘danced or whirled’ – So you could say she was born spinning: like the heavens in Van Gogh’s iconic painting, Starry Night, or like a swirl of water teeming with life: Lady Wisdom danced across creation, delighted in everything.
You know how a child will enthuse about the most inconsequential things, stuff adults don’t even see? I was leaving church one autumn morning when I spotted a small girl, about 2 years old, walking along the sidewalk. The path was strewn with fallen leaves: one, two, three, ten, twenty, fifty…countless leaves. She toddled along, then suddenly stopped in her tracks, eyes locked on one leaf among dozens. She bent down and retrieved it from its resting place, utterly captivated, then gave it to her mother, like it was a gift more precious than gold. I looked over her shoulder, trying to discern what made this leaf among all the others, special. I couldn’t tell. It looked ordinary enough to me. But to that little girl, it was extraordinary, and she delighted in it, the same way she might admire a single ant or a dandelion or the camel at the zoo. Each thing a new discovery and worthy of wonder.
That’s Lady Wisdom: the first witness to creation – witness and participant: both audience and collaborator: Proverbs says she is the ‘Master worker’ or “darling child” – the Hebrew word can be translated either way. Lady Wisdom skipped across the landscape like a child and applauded every creative act: here a fountain; there a sky; “Oh, well done, God! Yes – that cloud color is perfect. No other would do as well. How about adding a few fir trees to the side of that hill? O, bravo!” At the turning of soil and the planting of seeds she clapped and cheered. Lady Wisdom was an Allelujah!-Amen Chorus of one.
And when everything was complete; when God finally sat back in satisfaction and declared it all “good and very good,” Wisdom took up her post at the crossroads, beside the gates at the entrance to the city – where the people gather to trade news and merchandise; where beggars beg and prophets preach; where all the people come and go, choose east or west, this road or that…She took her place right where she could see and be seen by ‘all that live.’
That’s where I met her; where we meet her: at the intersections of human experience, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, wherever and whenever we have choices to make. Wisdom, it turns out, is not just the property of priests and professors, those with libraries full of books, bushy eyebrows and distinguished looking spectacles. Wisdom belongs in the public domain – available to all who call. She says herself, “Those that seek me diligently will find me.”
But back up: Find who? You ask… Who IS this Lady Wisdom? Is she part of God’s character – like strength or love? Is she another way of speaking about the Holy Spirit or the Word-made-flesh? In Proverbs, Wisdom says, “When God established the heavens, I was there…” And then in the Gospel of John it says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” So, yes: Wisdom is in God and of God and somehow part of that Holy Trinity. But if you press me, I won’t be able to explain how. Is she more Creator? Or Christ? Or Holy Ghost? Maybe it depends on the poet.
Maybe, we don’t have to know for sure. Perhaps what matters is this: that we recognize Holy Wisdom when we meet her.
Because we do meet her: On the corner, at the gate… on a bus. Ten-year-old Matthew was riding home from school on the bus, when a classmate started harassing a girl named Tamara. He called her ugly. ‘Because you’re Black,’ he said. Tamara’s face turned red with hurt and anger. She threw her hairband at him, and he threw it out the bus window. Matthew turned to the offending boy, stepped into the gap created by those ugly words. “That’s not o.k.” Matthew said. “That’s never o.k. Words like that, don’t you see? They can really hurt a person.” For his effort, he suffered a string insults. Still, Matthew says he’s glad he spoke up.
That’s Wisdom at work: at the intersection of Distress and Kindness, working through a 10-year-old boy to teach us something about standing up and speaking out.
Then there’s Carol. Carol is in her 80’s. She’d been a member of her church for 50 years. When I asked her what she thought about that, what she’d learned in all that time, she said she always felt grateful for those who had come before, the generations who planned for her arrival the same way we are called to plan for those who come after us. We are part of a continuum, Carol said. “I feel it whenever I’m here.”
That’s Wisdom at work: at the intersection of Memory and Gratitude: speaking through our elders to teach us all something about honoring our history and holding the church lightly, because it is not ours to keep.
The list keeps growing: Diana Cozzi. Bill Lindenmuth. Hazel Baldwin. David Kidney … These are just some of the members of this community who have passed away in the last year, beloved children of God, each with his or her own life story to tell. With every death, we have gathered to re-member; to weep and to laugh, to sing the songs that bring tears to our eyes and hear again the promise that God who created us also waits to joyfully welcome us home. On those occasions, the ones who grieve often re-dedicate their own lives – to live and love well, and thoroughly; to honor the memory of one who has died. So we participate in the Relay for Life to fight cancer; we care for our veterans and pray for peace; we work for change, love our grandchildren and pass along the stories.
That’s Wisdom at work: at the intersection of Love and Grief: speaking through those who mourn to assure us that God is working to restore all creation; calling us all to lend a hand.
It is wise to grieve, and to love. It is wise to remember, and to give thanks. It is wise to stand up and to speak out…
Because in the grieving and the loving, in remembering and giving thanks, standing up and speaking out…we get swept up in something that’s been going on since the dawn of time: It’s Lady Wisdom who started it, and Lady Wisdom who carries on. I know because I have met her, right here, among our youth and elders, professors and prophets, historians and visionaries, in board rooms, worship and fellowship hall…. Lady Wisdom who stands tall and is full of joy. She leaps and whirls and calls out to us, reminds us, again and again, that all this inhabited world is cherished by God, including each of us. She’s is the one who teaches us to delight in creation, every day.
When we look in the eyes of an ordinary ten year old boy or an ordinary 80 year old woman and discover something extraordinary, something worthy of wonder, worthy of love… When an ordinary moment can stop us in our tracks, stir in us the impulse to stand up and cheer for all that God has done; when we feel an irresistible urge to get up off the curb and join the dance – to build and tend and love and mend this precious planet…That urge, that seeing, that responding: That is Wisdom. So, people of God, look up and look around. Find Lady Wisdom and welcome her. For surely, her gifts are more precious than gold, even the finest gold. For that I say: Thanks be to God!
Scripture Texts
Introduction to the reading: This morning’s reading comes from the Book of Proverbs. We don’t read this text in worship very often. So, in the way of introduction: Proverbs belongs to the category of Wisdom literature, along with the books of Job, The Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. All of these books focus on what we can know of God through our human experience – through intuition and observation, joy and struggle. Most of Proverbs is comprised of two-liners – pithy words of advice intended to teach a young person how to live a righteous life. Lines like: “The wise will inherit honor, but stubborn fools, disgrace.” (Prov. 3:35)
But in chapters 1, 8 and 9 we find extended poems featuring a character named Wisdom. Hear these verses 1-4; 14-31 of chapter 8…
Proverbs 8: 1–4; 14–31
1 Does 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.
14 I have good advice and sound wisdom; I have insight, I have strength. 15 By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; 16 by me rulers rule, and nobles, all who govern rightly. 17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. 18 Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and prosperity. 19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. 20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, 21 endowing with wealth those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of God’s 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 God had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. 27 When God established the heavens, I was there, when God 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 God’s command, when God marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 then I was beside the creator, like a master worker; and I was daily God’s delight, rejoicing before the Lord always, 31 rejoicing in God’s inhabited world and delighting in the human race.