WISDOM - A REFLECTION

 This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on January 24, 2021.

Genesis 3:1-13 

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

REFLECTION

       Eternal wisdom make us wise.

  Amen.

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We all have verses from scripture that stick with us. At the end of today’s psalm is one that has stuck with me probably from the first time I read it,  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… .”  My initial reaction to it was to literally take it to mean “be afraid of God;” to watch out because God is unpredictable.  I later learned that fear in this sense was used to mean that we should show reverence where God is concerned.  Nevertheless, when I read this psalm again I took a second look at fear in the sense that I first understood it.

The path to wisdom as traced throughout our scriptures begins with being afraid. When Adam and Eve sought to be Godlike by knowing good and evil, their first experience with such knowledge was an immediate sense of being in danger.  Suddenly Adam and Eve felt themselves divorced from the intimate sameness they had possessed.  For the first time in their lives, they experienced discomfort with each other as they no longer felt sure of who they were or whose they were. They no longer felt safe with God.  They tried hiding the difference they saw in themselves because it was the cause of their painful separation. They knew if God was the one who made them, God could destroy them on the spot. When God came looking for them, they hid and when found, God questioned them. Being afraid, Adam and Eve wisely told the truth.

Things didn’t turn out as Adam and Eve originally thought they would and things didn’t turn out as they feared they would. They didn’t become Godlike and they didn’t die on the spot, but they knew the reality of death as they experienced the death of relationships between themselves and between God. It is through their story and the story of others that we understand the difficulties we face that comes with trying to go it alone.

The emergence of wisdom can be traced through the stories of individuals like Noah and Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites where hiding from God is converted to seeking God and carrying out the will of God in their lives.  Along with their stories, a profound collection of wisdom literature emerged; such as, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and other writings that proclaimed the handiwork of God in all things.  Wisdom literature moved our primal fear of God as being afraid to meaning the deep respect and reverence due God.   

Fear as deep respect and reverence for the divine leads to humility and submitting to the fact that there is no such thing as a self-made person.  As our first canticle reminds us, “The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us and we are his.” Wisdom relinquishes the desire to become something one is not, to become a god unto oneself.

Wisdom is like a door that leads to a deeper understanding of who we are and whose we are. 

Wisdom opens us to the will of God and the willingness to participate in God’s will.  

Wisdom guides us in the right use of the knowledge we acquire.  

Wisdom is not the shrewdness or slyness employed by those who consider power, fame, and wealth the measure of one’s worth.  Wisdom sees the value of every living creature and the sanctity of all creation. Such wisdom is found in Jesus’ teachings; that holy wisdom which turns worldly knowledge and worldly values upside down. It is the type of wisdom where the first becomes the last and the last first, where the poor, the mournful, and the persecuted are more blessed than the rich, the self-satisfied, and the powerful. 

The wisdom of Jesus is symbolized in his cross; that paradox where being disgraced led to grace, where the fear and hatred that tired to eradicate Jesus’ life and message was eradicated by his forgiving love, and where the curse of death led to the promise of life,.   

While the worldly continue to mock holy wisdom as weakness, it is the wise who, throughout our tumultuous history, have time and time again picked us up from the wreckage of battling over our perceived differences. The truly wise know the limitations of the knowledge we acquire.  As much as we know or think we know, we will never know enough to go it alone.  We will always need God’s loving guidance.   

If fear is the beginning of wisdom, love is its end.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Ultimately, wisdom is rooted in the love of God and in loving that which God loves.     Amen.

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Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm