It says if we want wisdom, we have to start by knowing that we don’t know much. When we hear Wisdom’s servant girls calling out, “Yoo-hoo! Dummies!” we have to say, “That’s me! Here I am! Over here!” We have to admit we are dummies.
I see this week’s lesson from Proverbs as “Wisdom for Dummies.” Wisdom, it says, in the overview, is like a woman who builds a house, sets a table with bread and wine, and goes out into the street to invite all the dummies to come in and eat and drink and talk with her. Then, after they have learned enough to get started, she sends them out to get on with their lives according to what they figured out at the table.
It says wisdom isn’t something that can be packaged in a few verses or rules or slogans. It’s too big for that. People can’t come up and knock on the door of Wisdom’s house and be given a pat answer to take home with them like a trick or treat. They have to come in and sit down and talk through the issues they are struggling with.
It says no one person has all the answers, all the wisdom to tell us what to do. Only God does. Those struggling to find answers must discuss the questions with one another in Wisdom’s house, in the presence of Wisdom. They must listen to Wisdom, let Wisdom lead the discussion, as they talk and listen to one another.
It says that wisdom isn’t just something that lives in our heads and is fed by logic and words. It’s also something that lives in our guts and our souls. Wisdom feeds the seekers bread and wine at her table while they are talking. In the gospel, Jesus says in similar fashion that we gain life by eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
It says that wisdom is not just a bunch of facts we accept, or theories we believe, it’s the way we live our lives. As we say nowadays it’s, “walking the walk, not just talking the talk.” In this passage, Wisdom asks the seekers to, “live and walk in the way of insight.”
It all sounds very Episcopalian to me. It’s what I love about our church. I see the people of St. Martin’s grappling with wisdom this way every day: starting meetings with prayer; humbly sharing and listening to one another; centering our life together in prayer, meditation and the Eucharist; making a real effort to be agents of Christ’s love in the world. I feel wiser every day I’m here, and very grateful.
Blessings,
Rev. Phyllis Taylor
