Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
September 29, 2024
How many decisions do we make in a day? I asked Google but couldn’t find a definitive answer. Apparently, “somebody, somewhere” decided that 35,000 seems like a good number, but my guess is it could be much higher than that depending on your day and on how we define decisions. All I know for sure is that decision-making sometimes feels exhausting.
I mean, just think. How many decisions have we made this morning? Existential-life-altering decisions aside, even if we just think about deciding whether to jump right out of bed or hit snooze, whether to shower before or after breakfast, whether to have coffee or tea, whether to sit in the living room or at the table while eating breakfast, whether or not to go to church…..to say nothing of tiny split-second decisions like “do I turn left or right at this intersection?” and “do I say ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ to the person sitting next to me in the pew?” Many of the decisions we make happen effortlessly - thank God - but others keep us awake at night.
This is one of the reasons I like to shop at Aldi, incidentally, where there is ONE kind of peanut butter and ONE kind of tortilla and ONE type of ketchup. Fewer decisions to make. Whew.
Once upon a time, there was a young man who found himself, quite suddenly and quite unexpectedly, king of a nation. He was the son of the king, but a younger son, so he had no reason to think he would ever ascend to the throne. As his father aged, he became unable to rule and there were behind-the-scenes machinations which resulted in the young man becoming king. Shortly after ascending to the throne, the young man went on a religious pilgrimage and was visited by God in a dream.
God asked the young king, “What would you like from me?” And the young king responded that he desired an understanding mind so that he could govern well, and the ability to discern carefully between good and evil.
Overwhelmed with the massive amount of decisions a leader has to make, this young king was wise enough to know that if he asked for wisdom, everything else would follow. [1]
The young man was King Solomon, son of Bathsheba and King David; poster boy for Biblical Wisdom. Several books in the Bible have historically been attributed to Solomon. A rabbinic teaching asserts that Solomon wrote the Song of Songs when he was a young man, the book of Proverbs when he was in middle age, and Ecclesiastes when he was an elder. [2] The Wisdom of Solomon, which is an apocryphal text, was also traditionally attributed to Solomon, though it’s been common knowledge for centuries that he likely didn’t really write it.
Together, these books plus Job, portions of the Psalms, and the apocryphal book Sirach are designated by Biblical scholars as “Wisdom Literature” - books of scripture that help us grapple with the idea of Wisdom.
So….what is wisdom anyway? It depends on who you ask. Psychologists would probably tell you that wisdom has something to do with the way knowledge and experience combine to help a person make good decisions. It’s definitely something more than innate intelligence or book-knowledge and it seems pretty clear that wisdom is intimately related with decision-making. Wisdom is the ability to carefully discern right paths. Wisdom is the ability to adapt and understand things at a deep level.
In the Bible, Wisdom is personified as a woman. In Greek she is called Sophia. Sometimes in the Hebrew Bible she is simply called Woman Wisdom. The personification of Wisdom is not unique to Judaism or Christianity. In Greek mythology we have the titan Metis and goddess Athena. In Roman mythology, it’s Minerva, whose symbol, the owl, is one we still associate with wisdom. Wisdom isn’t always a woman, though. In Norse mythology, Mimir and Odin are both associated with wisdom. And in Ifá (from the Yoruba peoples in what is now Nigeria), wisdom comes to humans as Orunmila - one who connects people to the divine. [3]
Across many religions, there is broad agreement that wisdom - however we define it - is immensely important, connected to God, and accessible to us through some kind of mediator. Speaking of mediators, I would be remiss, of course, if I failed to mention that in the Christian tradition, Jesus has been strongly linked to Wisdom. Early Christians looked to the Hebrew Scriptures for precursors to Christ - trying to understand exactly how Jesus came to be. This is why, at Christmastime, we sing so many songs with texts from Isaiah! And one of the figures from the Hebrew Bible that early Christians believed pointed the way to Christ was Woman Wisdom. [4]
Woman Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible is present with God at the beginning of creation. In fact, you may have noticed in today’s text that “in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,” the author of Proverbs claims that Woman Wisdom was the first thing created by God...even before the light and the dark, the sea and the earth.
Present with God from the beginning of time, Woman Wisdom is a constant presence in the lives of God’s children. She stands in the town square and at busy intersections calling out to us loudly. Her only desire is for us to listen to her and walk in her ways. The vision of Wisdom painted by the authors of the Hebrew Bible goes far beyond book-smarts + good judgment. Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible is a force to be reckoned with: holy, all-encompassing. Wisdom originates in the Divine but is always reaching out to humanity and cannot be contained. Wisdom is a free gift from God, given to us again and again and again. If we find a way to tap into Wisdom we will be connected to a force that represents all that is good, all that is faithful, all that is loving, all that is just.
She’s kind of a big deal.
Now, I could do a whole ”five things you can do to seek wisdom” thing here and that would probably make for a cool sermon. I could talk about the spiritual practices that can engage our spirits and help us turn toward Wisdom.
But, instead, what I want to do is call our attention back to the contemporary reading we heard a few moments ago. UU Minister Robert Fulghum tells a story about kids in his neighborhood playing hide and seek. Fulghum is looking out his window one day and notices a kid who has been hiding in a pile of leaves right under the window for a long time. Too long. The other kids are about to give up searching for him – he’s hidden too well. Unsure of how to be helpful, but desperately wanting this kid to understand that the game just doesn’t work if everyone hides too well, Fulghum yells out, “GET FOUND, KID!” And the kid scurries off. [5]
Woman Wisdom is like that. She stands in the busy market square, at the biggest intersection in town yelling at us “GET FOUND, KIDS!”
In this season where we’re exploring curiosity together, it is right and good to think about how we can seek Wisdom….but it is equally important to notice that Wisdom is seeking us. When we are frustrated, exhausted, anxious, unsure about the thousands of decisions that we make each day, we are not alone. It’s not just us and our intelligence and knowledge and lived experience guiding the way.
Woman Wisdom stands there day after day after day after day trying to remind us that God is seeking us. God reaches out to us with heavy and high hopes that we humans can walk in right paths; do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly; love our neighbors as ourselves.
God is the force that never stops reaching out to us, encouraging us and helping us as we carefully discern right actions. (God is also the one who picks us up off the floor and dusts of off when we’ve made catastrophic mistakes.)
Wisdom comes to us in the still small voice we hear in our hearts. Wisdom comes to us when community comes together to listen and learn and discern wise paths together. Wisdom comes to us when we are distracted with other things - shouting and cajoling and begging us to pay attention to what she has to say.
Wisdom is God’s gift to us. We are not left to our own devices. We don’t have to rely solely upon ourselves. We are supported, inspired, uplifted, and guided by Wisdom, who is always seeking us.
Thanks be to God.
[1] see 1 Kings 3 for a full account
[2] http://mplsjewishartistslab.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/2/5/24253472/solomon_the_wise_-many_views.pdf
[3] https://www.howard.edu/library/reference/cybercamps/camp2002/YorubaFaith.htm and http://www.religioustolerance.org/ifa.htm
[4] https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/Gender/Gnosticism.htm
[5] from All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
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