SPEAKER_00: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my God, my rock, and my redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is a woman.
SPEAKER_00: That may sound to some like a song lyric or a line by a beat poet, or maybe to some like a feminist slogan, but whatever you want to make of that saying, it actually is from a biblical tradition taken up by writers of scripture and other religious writing to personify the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Since the Hebrew word for wisdom, chokhmah, is feminine, as is the Greek word for wisdom, Sophia, and because imagery in Scripture is actually far more gender-fluid when it refers to God, as many people want it to be.
SPEAKER_00: She promises a good life to those who will follow her instruction, saying, Happy is the one who listens to me, and whoever finds me finds life.
SPEAKER_00: But Lady Wisdom is not just a literary device.
SPEAKER_00: As those who have studied Scripture see, she is actually a living representation of the mind of God, divine herself, from God, and yet a distinct personality.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs describes Lady Wisdom as belonging to God in the beginning, and all things were made through her.
SPEAKER_00: The writer of the wisdom of Solomon says that she emanates directly from God and is the very image of his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Ben Sirich says that Lady Wisdom sits with God in the assembly of heaven, and the pillar of cloud that went with Israel, the revealedness of God, that was Lady Wisdom, the image and mediator of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_00: The writers also say, wisdom only comes to those whom God chooses to reveal her.
SPEAKER_00: The writer of the wisdom of Solomon describes Lady Wisdom in this way She is a breath of the power of God, the pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
SPEAKER_00: For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the workings of God, an image of his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself she renews all things.
SPEAKER_00: In every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Who has learned counsel?
SPEAKER_00: Unless you, O God, have given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high.
SPEAKER_00: If we listen to that last bit, it almost sounds like the wisdom literature is describing Lady Wisdom as one of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before you start calling me a heretic, I did go to seminary.
SPEAKER_00: You may want to know that there was a first century Jewish philosopher who was named Father of Alexander writing about this same person, Lady Wisdom, and reaching into that tradition.
SPEAKER_00: But because of his time, he bent her gender and reassigned her the masculine name, the word.
SPEAKER_00: It is this masculinized version of lady wisdom that we read about in the Gospel of John, chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: Lady wisdom, feminine imagery.
SPEAKER_00: The word, masculine imagery, the same person.
SPEAKER_00: And there is your systematic theology lesson for today.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more systematic theology, I love talking about this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's fun for me.
SPEAKER_00: We'll sit and talk.
SPEAKER_00: Take me out to lunch.
SPEAKER_00: You're buying.
SPEAKER_00: But I did promise this was going to come back to our gospel lesson.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to read something that Ben Sirich, one of the wisdom literature writers, says about Lady Wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: He puts these words in her mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Lady Wisdom says, Draw near to me, you who are uneducated.
SPEAKER_00: Put your neck under my yoke.
SPEAKER_00: Let your souls receive instruction.
SPEAKER_00: It is found close by.
SPEAKER_00: And now let's look at what Jesus says in our gospel reading.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what Jesus has done here by speaking these words?
SPEAKER_00: He has made the claim at being Lady Wisdom incarnate.
SPEAKER_00: By alluding to her words and speaking similar words, Jesus making a point to speak as Lady Wisdom to his audience.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you can bet that the educated scribes of his generation who prided themselves on knowing the biblical theology, they got his point.
SPEAKER_00: They knew what he was saying.
SPEAKER_00: But they rejected that claim.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says it's not about a claim at being divine wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the words I'm speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to point the central phrase to everything that he says here, which can almost get lost as we read through.
SPEAKER_00: But it is the center core.
SPEAKER_00: He says, wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus claims to be divine wisdom, he does not merely do so in word.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, look who I am.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I am the second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is proven to be wisdom because the needs of the helpless are being met in Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom sees the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the powerless, the disenfranchised, and acts out of compassion, using whatever is in her power to ease the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Praise Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But don't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus, Lady Wisdom Incarnate, invites us to learn to do the same.
SPEAKER_00: He used his miraculous power to show compassion in his time on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Now we may not all be able to work miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might, I don't know, and hook me up.
SPEAKER_00: But there's plenty that is within our power to do.
SPEAKER_00: We can feed the hungry when we have the resources.
SPEAKER_00: We can sit with the lonely when we have the time.
SPEAKER_00: We can speak words of loving encouragement to the downtrodden, visit the sick, stand up for the oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: We can teach that there is a better future when we act together in love.
SPEAKER_00: And what else can you think of that wisdom would do?
SPEAKER_00: If we want to learn wisdom, can we do these things?
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
SPEAKER_00: So are we.
SPEAKER_00: Humility doesn't spend energy on selfish pursuits.
SPEAKER_00: Selfish pursuits require a great deal of energy.
SPEAKER_00: They're very frustrating in their results.
SPEAKER_00: They cause us to exert ourselves, sometimes trying to bend others to our will.
SPEAKER_00: And we can never completely do that, which leads us to cry out in frustration, we played the flute and you didn't dance.
SPEAKER_00: Even doing good for selfish reasons can be frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's when we find that we don't do what we want to do, what we want to do, what we don't do, and we can't do what we want to do, and all it's frustrating, it's exhausting.
SPEAKER_00: But when we take the attitude of humility and gentleness that we learn from wisdom, we don't waste energy on the egocentric life.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, when we embrace the attitude of humility, we begin living in order to show love to other people.
SPEAKER_00: We find the joy of seeing them get what they need, and that's an energy enhancement, not a waste at all.
SPEAKER_00: The paradox of working out of humility and love is that it doesn't seem like work at all.
SPEAKER_00: It feels natural, like breathing.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like rest for the soul.
SPEAKER_00: A light yoke, indeed.
SPEAKER_00: So let us heed Jesus' call.
SPEAKER_00: Embracing wisdom and humility and devoting ourselves to living the kind of life where acts of kindness and compassion flow.
SPEAKER_00: Let us find the opportunities for doing good out of a heart that desires for others.
SPEAKER_00: Let us reach out.
SPEAKER_00: Let us love with our deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Our glory and praise to you, to God our Father, through Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.