Shalom
Mennonite Church
Sunday,
May 26, 2013—Wisdom's Call
Texts:
Psalm 8; Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-36; Matthew 7:24-27
Eric
Massanari
“wise
understanding and wise action”
Do
not look for apples under a poplar tree. (Slovakia)
When
elephants battle, the ants perish. (Cambodia)
He
that goes barefoot must not plant thorns. (England)
A
needle hidden in a rag will eventually be found. (Vietnam)
Throughout
the world
wisdom
is conveyed through
proverbs
such as these—
pithy,
direct, often colorful sayings
that speak to deeper truths of life.
Sometimes
you can find proverbs from two different cultures
created to convey the same bit of wisdom:
Here
in the United States we have the well-known proverb:
The
pot calls the kettle black.
In
Pakistan there is a similar message:
The
sieve says to the needle: you have a hole in your tail.
Jesus
offers yet another version of the same wisdom:
Why
do you point out the sliver in your neighbor's eye
and
ignore the giant log in your own?
When
our church small group gathers
at
John and Karen McCabe-Juhnke's home
we
love to play a game called, Wise and Otherwise.
Everyone
in the room is given the first part
of some
proverb from around the world,
such
as this Yiddish saying:
You can't spit on my back....
The
challenge is to complete the proverb
in
some sort of convincing way so that
when
everyone's proverb is read alongside
the real proverb, people might choose yours.
You
can't spit on my back....
How
would you complete that statement
to
create a wise saying?
The
actual proverb is:
You
can't spit on my back
and
make me think it's rain.
People
around the world have often used
proverb,
parable, poetry and story
to
speak of wisdom.
Perhaps
that is because wisdom is not
easily
spoken of or described directly.
How
would you describe Wisdom to someone?
Where
does wisdom come from?
How
do you know it when you meet it?
I
conducted a simple survey this week.
I
posed the question on Facebook:
What
is wisdom?
There
were plenty of wise replies—
some
of them probably falling
more
under the category of “wise cracks.”
One
person cited the sapiential words
of
country music legend, Kenny Rogers:
You've
got to know when to hold 'em,
know
when to fold 'em,
know
when to walk away,
and
know when to run.
A
number of responders noted
the
importance of distinguishing
between
knowledge and wisdom,
suggesting
that wisdom might
include
knowledge about things
but
it also includes perspective,
and
a deeper insight into life.
One
of my friends put it well when he said:
Knowledge
is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom
is knowing not to put tomato in a fruit salad.
The
poet, T.S. Eliot suggested a similar distinction
between
knowledge and wisdom
when
he asked the question:
Where
is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
A
much older Hebrew saying puts it this way:
A
book gives knowledge,
but
it is life that gives understanding.
It
struck me how much resonance there was
between
these Facebook responses
and
biblical insights about wisdom.
One
of my friends, who has a strong mystical
and
poetic bent, wrote this in response to my question:
Wisdom
is Sophia, God's intimate companion
who
longs for union with us.
But
such a union demands a high price
to
enter into, and sacrifice to maintain!
My
friend appeals to an understanding of wisdom
rooted
deep in the Hebrew scriptures,
Wisdom
as an extension of God's own being
personified
in the form of Sophia, or “Woman Wisdom.”
This
morning's text from Proverbs speaks of her this way:
Wisdom
calls and understanding raises her voice.
On
the heights, and beside the way,
at
the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside
the gates of the town,
and
at the entryways she cries out....
This
proclamation of wisdom through life
is
what I think the psalmist is singing of
in
these words of the 19th psalm:
The
heavens themselves are telling the glory of God;
and
the skies are proclaiming what God has done.
Day
to day pours forth speech,
and
night to night declares knowledge.
There
is no speech, nor are there words;
their
voice is not heard;
yet
their voice goes out through all the earth,
and
their words to the end of the world.
Psalm
19:1-4
Wisdom
is the Word beyond all words,
the
knowledge beneath all knowledge;
it
is ever present, and speaks to all.
So,
one thing that could clearly be said
about
Wisdom from the context of the scriptures,
and
perhaps from our own experience of it
is
that its source is from some place beyond us.
From
the point of view of the biblical texts,
Wisdom's
source rests in God,
it
is an expression of God's own Spirit,
and
wisdom speaks and flows through all life.
Our work
is to listen for wisdom's call,
to
be open to receiving it
through
the flow of our days,
the
rhythms of our relationships,
the
myriad of our life experiences.
No
one can claim not hearing the voice of wisdom,
because she speaks to all.
Part of the insight here is also that
no
one can claim to possess the fullness of wisdom.
As
Origen described it long ago in the second century:
Travelers
on the road to God's wisdom,
find
that the further they go
the
more the road opens out,
until
it stretches to infinity.
This
is a second important understanding
of
wisdom in the scriptures:
wisdom
asks for our humility.
To
be grow wise is in some sense to remain a beginner,
to
maintain an openness to new understanding.
This,
too, I heard echoed it my friends' Facebook replies.
As
one friend put it:
Wisdom
is being comfortable with what you don't yet know.
The
biblical texts hold many reminders that
we
all grow old, but we do not necessarily all grow wise.
Wisdom
is a gift we must remain open
to
receiving throughout our lives.
To
receive it we must sometimes let go
of
previously held assumptions, judgments,
and
much-treasured answers.
To
grow wise usually means letting go of
more
prideful and self-centered ways.
Among
the scriptures that Protestants
consider
non-canonical or apocryphal,
but
Catholics and Orthodox include
in
their own canon of scriptures,
is
“The Book of Wisdom,” sometimes
also
referred to as “The Wisdom of Solomon.”
At
one point in this text, the author,
in
the voice of King Solomon, writes:
I
perceived that I would not possess wisdom
unless
God gave her to me—and it was
a
mark of insight to know whose gift she was—
so
I appealed to the Lord
and
implored God,
and
with my whole heart I prayed...
Wisdom 8:21
And
in the prayer that follows in the Book of Wisdom
the
author prays for a broader perspective,
for
a discerning heart, for righteousness and justice,
for
a capacity to act and lead
in
according to the will of God.
This
points to a third aspect of wisdom
as
it is spoken of in the scriptures:
Wisdom,
when it is given and received,
is
meant to be lived and shared
through
word and action.
Wisdom
is not an abstraction,
it
is not meant to remain
in
worlds of words and ideas;
wisdom
is a living reality.
Perhaps
this is why it is conveyed
so
much better through parable and story
and
poetry, because through these channels
we
more easily go to the depths of life experience.
Jesus
tells his parable of the wise person
building
a house on rock at the very end
of
the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's gospel.
He
has just finished a lengthy teaching
on
what the gospel looks like
when
it is lived out in the world.
And
with the parable he reminds his friends
that
wisdom is not just in hearing this message,
it
is found in living it.
Both
of the builders in the parable,
the
one who built on sand
and
the one who built on rock,
may
have been smart people.
Both
may have known very well
the
power of wind and water.
However,
it may be that the one builder
was
taken in by the allure of a good view
and
a beautiful location,
and
this trumped common sense.
He
lost good sense and built on the sand.
Meanwhile,
the other builder was wise
in
that she maintained perspective,
and
a deeper understanding of things
beyond
her immediate needs and desires.
In
the same way, Jesus tells his friends,
we
are called to wisely build our lives
on
the deeper truths of God's life and love
that
are speaking in and through the world,
even
though they may be obscured
by
the conventional wisdom of our human making.
Wisdom's
source and speech rises from within us and beyond us.
Wisdom
calls us with humility to remain beginners and learners.
Wisdom,
when she comes to us, asks to be lived and shared.
As
I thought about these aspects of Wisdom this week,
with
the help of the scriptures and my Facebook friends,
I
thought about this congregation of Shalom
and
where we are on the journey together.
For
obvious reasons I've been thinking
a
lot about this lately, and I've been considering
all
that I have learned from you
while
serving as a pastor in this community.
There
is good wisdom here in this place.
Part of this wisdom is reflected in
the
strange and wonderful mix of people
who've
gathered and connected here over time.
I
have experienced this to be a congregation that is
reluctant
to say to anyone: “You do not belong here.”
I
remember when I first arrived,
someone
shared with me the story of
sitting
in one of the local cafes and hearing
someone
at the next table who was
talking
about the different churches in town.
And
he overheard the comment:
“Well,
then there's that Shalom place over on First Street.
They'll
let anyone in the door over there!”
It
may not have been meant as a compliment,
but I heard it as a very high affirmation of this church.
That
is not to say that there haven't been times
when
we have failed to show hospitality
to
the stranger or left someone feel unwelcome.
And
there have certainly been occasions when
we
have had to struggled to remain open
to
different points of view in this community.
However,
I believe this congregation
embodies
and practices in vital ways
the
difficult and joyous wisdom of community,
of
committing to journeying together
with
and sometimes in celebration of our differences
rather
than in spite of our differences.
This congregation has learned together
that
we are most transformed by
encounter
with people who look at the world
differently
than we do.
This
is a wisdom conveyed through our name, Shalom,
the
"wholeness" and "unity" made possible through God's love.
To
use the Apostle Paul's wise metaphor,
this
is indeed “one body with many members,”
and
rather than being too quick to define
who
we are as members of Shalom,
there
is wisdom at work here that would
say
instead, let's explore who we are becoming.
And
I see wisdom at work here that would
say
that the next person who walks in the door
has
gifts from God to offer us in our becoming.
The
community and world around you
needs
this wisdom of Shalom.
People
seem to be finding every reason
to
separate from one another,
and
live partisan lives,
especially
in the wider church.
There
is a great need for this wisdom of
remaining
with one another,
and
committing to the beautiful mess
and
joyful struggle of God's Shalom with friend and stranger.
May
God help this congregation
bear
witness to the wisdom of Shalom.
As
Jesus taught his friends, over and over again,
the
very highest wisdom we might learn and practice
is
love.
Amen
Hi Eric,
ReplyDeleteGood luck and God's blessings as you set to begin a new journey. "My Grace is sufficient ...
2nd Corinthians 12:9
Regards,
Chuk