promptings about wisdom a sermon preached at the Eucharist at Goolwa and Mount Compass

 

A sermon for 23^rd July preached at Holy Evangelists Goolwa and St Christopher Mount Compass

 

Wisdom 12:13 ‘For there is no other God but you who cares for everyone’

How can we live wisely in this rapidly changing febrile world? The book of Wisdom was compiled not long before the birth of Jesus in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria in modern day Egypt. It is attributed to Solomon because of his dedication to seeking the true wisdom in his life and work. Wisdom contains passages of deep beauty:

‘For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; she is so pure she pervades and permeates all things. She is the breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty She is the reflection of the eternal light’ (7:22 New Jerusalem translation)

What do we mean by wisdom? This is not information to be analysed but intuition, imagination, and insight and the Book of Wisdom calls us to wonder, longing and hope.

Anglicans read the Deuto canonical books or the Apocrypha in worship and we print them in our Bibles between the Old and New Testaments. Roman Catholics include them in the Old Testament and Protestant Churches omit them altogether. For us they are a secondary, or bridge Scripture. Anglicans retained these books as with much else as part of our vision to reform and renew the medieval Catholic Church.

We value these books because they serve to a greater understanding the New Testament. The Gospel of John and the Letter to the Colossians draw from this wisdom literature. Wisdom also serves to remind us that from beginning to end the Bible is Jewish and that we Christians who have down the centuries often treated Jewish people shamefully have been grafted into the New Covenant alongside people of the Covenant. That is why all Church leaders have expressed repentance  for the toxic weeds of antisemitism that growing more poisonous still, lead to the gas chambers.

In Wisdom the Jewish community is living in the often-hostile culture of the city of Alexandria. The church of Matthew’s Gospel is living with conflict in Syria with rabbinic Jews. Paul in Romans is seeking to find a way to bridge the gulf between Jewish and Gentile followers of the Way as well as respond to his own deep inner conflict against the background of empire, colonisation, and strong intellectual currents of thought.

Where is Wisdom to be found? The Divine is always experienced through a series of images. We do not worship these images but move deeper into the mystery. For us Wisdom depicted as a ‘she’ is Christ the Word, the image of the unseen God who becomes fully human to complete creation and restore the whole created order in which the divine has become broken and distorted by human wilfulness and folly. Through this eternal wisdom of the Christ, we understand that everything is within God, the universal consciousness or energy, life itself.  ‘She pervades all things’ and as Paul said, in him we live and move and have our being’

Paul speaks of this energy using female images of pregnancy and birth and in the waiting for the harvest in the Gospel there is a call for patience and discernment, responding not reacting. This is a tough call in our society where our media and society call on us to react, resent, judge and express hostility to others deemed to be ‘weeds’ or worthless people.

Some promptings –

Prayer, alone and together is more about a patient waiting, less about words, more about noticing, being open, receptive more reverent in the Holy Spirit. Wisdom searches the heart and calls us to hope seeking the goodness in life.  Despite all the evidence God cares for everyone, Philaropia.

Wisdom takes the long view, being patient, noticing when the weeds of resentment grow but avoiding trying to rescue or control. Wisdom is more about responding, not reacting.  Patience is not about passivity but responding with humility to the reflections of eternal life.

Let us call on Holy Wisdom, Sophia, Chockmah, the Living and eternal Christ for whom there never has been a time of place in the Cosmos when Wisdom has been absent and like the wise person in the parable told by Jesus wait for the guidance to respond at the right time.

The picture is of Valamo Monastery in Finland. A monastery created after the monks fled after the Soviet revolution as a place to seek sanctuary and wisdom.