Proverbs 8:1-4,
22-31
Today is Trinity Sunday, one of the
few Sundays of the year that is devoted to a theological idea, rather than a
particular story. Today is all about
lifting up and celebrating the doctrine of the Trinity, or that idea that God
exists as three persons in one being; commonly thought of as Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
Rather than making this morning’s
sermon a complicated theological lecture, I thought I would narrow our focus a
bit. We are going to talk about the Holy
Spirit this morning, since I didn’t get a chance to last week for
Pentecost. Then we will zoom the camera
lens out a bit and talk about the Trinity in general.
This morning’s scripture reading is a
little known section from the book of Proverbs.
This is not a book that modern Christians spend very much time
with. We are much more familiar with the
gospels then we are with the Old Testament Wisdom literature.
The book of Proverbs is a collection
of folk wisdom and wisdom from the sages, or wise men, of the time. This is wisdom from around the cook fires in
small villages to wise sayings of nearby Egyptian religious leaders. While it has been traditionally attributed to
Solomon, the book is actually a collection of the sayings of many writers and
is therefore anonymous. Scholars believe
that the book gained its current form after the Israelites returned from exile
around 540 BCE. So these are really old
sayings of the Israelite culture, designed to be read by a young male on the
cusp of adulthood. This is basically advice
on how to live a good life.
In the section we are looking at, the
young person is encouraged to seek Wisdom.
In the Hebrew tradition, Wisdom is seen as a feminine aspect of the
divine. Wisdom is of God, connected to
God, but also has her own individual identity.
The writers of Proverbs contrast this woman Wisdom, with Folly, also
portrayed as female. In chapter 7, Folly
calls to young men with a tempting mix of sexuality and rule bending. Folly is seductive and the writer says that
young men will fall for her “like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that
it will cost them their life.”
In chapter 8, we meet Wisdom who calls
to all from the heights and beside the way.
Unlike secret societies, where wisdom and knowledge are held by a
limited few or a select inner circle, the book of Proverbs portrays Wisdom
calling to all out in public. Wisdom is
available to everyone in the world and she calls to us from everywhere in life.
This idea of Wisdom is what Christians
will later come to call the Holy Spirit.
Wisdom is part of the Trinity, along with the Creator and the
Christ. The book of Proverbs tells us
that Wisdom was there in the beginning, a part of creation. We see that in the famous image from the
Sistine chapel, Wisdom in the crook of God’s arm at creation. As the writer of Proverbs says, Wisdom was
beside God like a master worker, the architect of creation.
Just like we can talk about the
presence of the Holy Spirit within us, we can talk about the spirit of Wisdom
that is found within our lives. This is
our call to learning, to education, to intelligence. This is the human desire to study and know
the world around us. This is the integration
of science and faith. Wisdom is the
created order and our desire to understand and know the creation. Wisdom is the truth that we find in the
natural sciences. Wisdom calls to us to
continue to study, to continue to strive to discover, to continue to seek a
deeper understanding of the wonderful world that has been created and of our
place within that creation.
When I was younger, one of the
problems I had with the Christian religion was that I felt people were
encouraged not to think. My experiences
at an early age, led me to believe that people of faith were not to question
things. I thought that people of faith
were supposed to just believe everything that they are taught, about the
created world and about God, and to not ask questions. To ask questions about evolution, the role of
women, or the true history of the scriptures was to demonstrate one’s lack of
faith. Not only were people supposed to
follow the shepherd like sheep, they were supposed to be as dumb as sheep to do
it.
When I finally realized that I could
use my brain to engage my faith was when I finally fell in love with God. I didn’t want easy answers, I wanted more
questions. I could hear Wisdom calling
to me in the world and in my own life experience, and I wanted to respond with
seeking intelligence, with questions, and with knowledge. For many of us faith starts in the brain, and
only then is planted in the heart. Just
like tongues of fire or the rush of the wind, Wisdom of faith is the working of
the Holy Spirit and it has the power to transform lives.
In our culture, we often hear the name
of God being used to justify all sorts of things. From arguments about the bathroom to
justification for violence and war, the image and language of God is often used
as a hammer to club one’s way through the world. Wisdom does not lend herself to be used in
such a way. Wisdom is about a posture of
truthfulness, about seeing things clearly, and about the ability to see through
the facades folks may be using to try to trick us. Wisdom is about seeing what is truly there,
and knowing what the truth really is.
When we examine the Trinity, we can
see that it is simply about relationship.
God has tried many ways to reach us, and God is continually trying to
reach out to us in love. If you are like
many folks who struggle with this strange idea of God being three-in-one, then
I invite you to hold on to the idea of God simply trying to reach out to
us. God created us in love, Jesus came
to help us see God, and the Holy Spirit helps us see Jesus; that’s the Trinity
right there.
All around us the world invites us to
see the deep love of our creator. We are
always in the presence of God, what is absent is our awareness. Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, is always calling us
to look and see God in our own intuition and in the world around us.
I want to close with a re-imagining of
this woman Wisdom that Pastor Jeff Paschal shares in Feasting on the Word. He writes:
“I was out shopping yesterday, and whom did I
run into? Wisdom. Yeah, there she was. She called me over and we began talking,
Wisdom and I. Then, I went down to the
courthouse, and there she was again, making a plea for justice in some dingy courtroom
where somebody and been unjustly accused.
After that, I dropped by the school, and she had gotten there before me,
calling for students and teachers alike to always seek truth. Then I went for a walk in the woods, moving
along the trail in quiet meditation.
Wisdom snuck up on me and said, “Now that we are alone, I have something
I want to share with you, a present I want you to enjoy. You know, I have been around a long time,
really before the beginning of time. I
have been whirling and dancing with God all along. I am God’s delight, laughing and playing. I want you to know the lightness of spirit
and gladness that come when you welcome me.
Will you set aside those thoughts, words, and deeds that make life heavy
and sad for you and others? Will you
come and laugh and play with me? Will
you come and dance with me? Will you?”
Amen.
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