Sermon preached by the Rev. Lillie Mae Henley 20 Aug 2006
There was a rabbi having a late afternoon picnic with her young teenagers, a chance for some family time before the new school year started. They were quietly admiring the beautiful sunset as they finished their meal. A voice from the Heavens spoke, and said, “Rabbi Rachel, you have been such a remarkable servant throughout your life. I believe I would like to offer you a gift. You may pick one of these three: infinite power, infinite riches, or infinite wisdom.”
Without hesitation, she said, “I’ll pick infinite wisdom.” A mighty rush of wind blew by and then stillness. She sat there, looking stunned, but very wise. Her son said, “Well mom, what do you have to say, oh wise one?”
“I think I should’ve picked infinite riches!”
Wisdom, something we all want. When our teenagers are challenging our intelligence, as well as our sanity. When our little ones have problems that overwhelm us. When our parents need the kind of help that we never dreamed they would need.
Wisdom is something we all want.
People generally believe that one has to have a lot of life experience to be wise. I read a quote by anonymous that said, “Everything I know I learned after thirty.”
But that is not necessarily so. I’ve known some very wise young adults in my time. There was a young woman in her mid-twenties at seminary who was so wise that many asked her advice at one time or another. Solomon was only twenty when he asked Yahweh for “an understand¬ing mind … to discern between good and evil…”
Wisdom is essential a way of thinking about how we make decision for our lives.
Wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures comes from God. It isn’t something that a person develops on her/his own. And wisdom is specifically to ensure survival of the tribe. Or in the case of Solomon, to be able to discern between right and wrong so that the people will have harmonious relationships.
In ancient Greece and Rome, one developed wisdom. As we learn in from classical thought, a citizen (meaning only men) educated themselves so that they could achieve the best and highest use of wisdom to serve the state or the republic.
Up until the last 3 centuries before our common era, these were generally the ways of thinking about wisdom. Either a gift from God or one you developed, but the use was for ensuring the well-being of the tribe or the state.
Then a way of thinking, a different view of wisdom developed in the Hebrew tradition. Here is what happened.
The Assyrians, from about from the 9th to the 7th century b.c.e. conquered and took into captivity the tribes of Israel. This is the time in the Hebrew story when the Ten Tribes were lost.
The Assyrians took “the best” of the people and scattered them throughout their empire, leaving behind what the Scriptures name “the remnants” of the Israelites.
After a few hundred years, the Israelites were allowed to return to Israel.
When the Israelites came back to Israel from the many lands of the Diaspora, they brought with them a cosmopolitan worldview. The world view of those who had remained was very insular and narrow, as it took all the wisdom they had to ensure the survival of their tribe and the worship of Yahweh.
The returning Hebrews had been “world citizens” and they wanted to embrace the cultural diversity that surrounded them.
There was, naturally, conflict. And from conflict, we know, comes opportunity for creative thinking. That is what happened.
It is in these last 300 years before Jesus was born that the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Scriptures was written. It is here, we find Sophia, the feminine presence of God. She is creative and compassionate. She is a justice seeking, prophet, and teacher.
Remember that there were still Hebrew priests at this time, the rabbinical Judaism we know was still waiting to be born. It was the priests who felt responsible for the people and they could not embrace Sophia wisdom, it took them too far away from the conventional wisdom of survival and harmonious relationships.
Nevertheless, scholars tell us that Sophia wisdom was a strong influence on the people, and they know this because the Wisdom literature is part of the Hebrew Bible. It was, scholars tell us, a significant influence on the people of that time.
We can describe Sophia wisdom as unconventional wisdom.
What is even more fascinating about Sophia, is that it is from Sophia wisdom that we find the unconventional wisdom of Jesus, and it is from Sophia wisdom that we find Christ.
The Gospel of John identifies Jesus as the Word that was with God from the beginning, pre-existent, before creation; the same language used in Proverbs (8:23) for Sophia: “Ages ago I [Sophia] was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.”
The Apostle Paul wrote many times that Christ is the “wisdom and power of God.” In some translations, Paul writes, Jesus is Sophia of God.
That is why many theologians and scholars refer to Christ as Christ/Sophia, wanting to emphasize the feminine presence of God in Christ.
We find in our Jewish-Christian and Greek-Roman heritage, two kinds of wisdom, conventional thinking, which ensures cultural stability, and Christ/Sophia wisdom, a way of thinking that embraces diversity and inclusivity.
After several hundred years of modernity and post-modernity, there are still two concepts of thinking in which wisdom is rooted; however we call them logical thinking and intuitive thinking. Some may say “head thinking” and “heart thinking.”
Some patriarchal influences have called these two kinds of thinking, man’s thinking, and women’s thinking, but I refuse to buy into that. I believe that all humans have both in them.
As I stated in the first part of the sermon, we all want wisdom. Wisdom to deal with the decisions that face us each and every day in our lives, whether it is a family situation, a work situation, a friend situation, or even a church situation.
Now, with the help of our
Deaconess Vicki Pepper and Deacon Clint McCully,
we are going to give each person a rose.
Parents, our little ones will get one too.
Will you make sure the thorns are broken off?
It is a rose of discernment. A metaphor that will lead us to discernment.
Look at the rose. Imagine yourself sitting in a family meeting—whatever that looks like to you, with whoever that is. Imagine that you disagree on the solution to a problem. Both of you, or all of you have your own ideas about what it will take to have an affirming, creative outcome.
Look at the rose. It is a symbol of your ideas and solution. But look, those with whom you are in discussion has or have a rose, too. Their rose is as beautiful to them as your rose is to you. Their solution is as affirming and right as your solution is affirming and right. Both of you have roses with thorns. That must mean that neither plan is perfect.
How do you choose what is best?
Which is most affirming?
Through discernment, that is how you choose, compromise, or collaborate.
Discernment is using the wisdom you have, the logical and the intuitive—the head and the heart. One without the other will leave something out.
There will be times when you will make decision based on logic, but that will generally be business or financial decisions. And who’s to say, maybe a little heart thinking will make those decision a little more affirming and creative.
There will be times when you will make a decision based entirely on intuition, but that will generally be where family and friends are involved. And who’s to say that a little logic wouldn’t make a difference there, too?
We want our wisdom, our different ways of thinking, to be discerning, so that we, too, can be like Solomon, knowing the difference between what is good and evil.
May the rose of discernment always remind of the wisdom you have within.