Biblical Words [733]
Wisdom is
in the streets, and along a road toward
Proverbs 1:20-33 .
The reading from the Proverbs of Solomon presents a
dramatic piece of street preaching –
prophetic preaching. We hear a narrator
tell how Wisdom cries in the street, and then we hear her words in the rest of
the passage.
This figure is Woman Wisdom. She appears
in several passages through
But in our passage we hear the
I-told-you-so sermon of Woman Wisdom.
To repeat, Woman Wisdom does street preaching. She is heard in the street, in the squares,
at the busiest corner, and at the entrance to the city gates – which were
indeed the busiest corners in any ancient walled city. What she offers concerns the real world, the
world of traffic, trouble, and turmoil.
This is not ivory tower wisdom, not school-marm learning.
The key question is, Is it too late?
Woman Wisdom seems to summon the simple, the scoffers, and the fools to learn from her, but goes on to say that they have already rejected her and her ways, and now disaster – panic and calamity – impend over them. Therefore she laughs at them because of their foolishness.
Looking at disastrous lives
around her, she says, “I told you so!”
When it is too late, “then they will call upon me, but I will not
answer; …” Because they hated knowledge
and despised Wisdom’s “reproof” (disciplining), they must suffer the
consequences of their perversity (verses 29-31). “For waywardness kills the simple, and the
complacency of fools destroys them.”
Is it too late?
Apparently there are still some who could listen and learn: “[T]hose who listen to me will be secure and
will live … without dread of disaster” (verse 33).
It may still be possible to learn from the mistakes
of others!
Psalm 19.
The Psalm for this Sunday is a familiar one. It appears twice in the Lectionary in Year B,
here and on the Third Sunday in Lent (along with the Ten Commandments). It also appears once late in Year A (along
with the Ten Commandments) and once in Year C, the 3rd Sunday in
Epiphany. This psalm is often associated
with the Torah, and it is on its way to equating God’s law with God’s
wisdom.
The psalm opens as a hymn, exulting in God’s glory
in the heavens, especially the march of the sun that rules over the daylight
world (verses 1-6). It ends by
meditating on the mystery and threat of errors and faults over which humans
have no control, errors that may lurk in the vicissitudes of life, even for the
righteous (verses 12-14).
It is the middle section that relates this psalm to Wisdom.
This part is a hymn in praise of
God’s “law” / “decrees” / “precepts,” etc.
Six synonyms are used for the guidance God has given, and six benefits from
that guidance are cited.
The law of the Lord … revives the soul;
This psalm is clear that God’s torah, God’s
guidance given in historical times and available in specific forms, is the
source of the wisdom needed by those who would follow God’s way and benefit
from its blessings. That Torah is the only
trustworthy guide through the secret errors and hidden faults that could so
easily destroy the simple and uninstructed.
James 3:1-12 .
Since much of Wisdom is about speech – language and
words – it is very fitting that the Epistle reading should give us a diatribe
on the organ of speech: the
Taming of the Tongue. (Title courtesy of the HarperCollins Study
Bible.) The wit, wisdom, and sarcasm
of this passage is delightful. It
doesn’t need commenting upon as much as it needs re-reading.
Still, a few high points to enjoy.
The speaker admits to being a “teacher” (all
of whom tend to talk too much), but – horrors – he also admits that teachers
make mistakes! He says “Anyone who makes
no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a
bridle” (verse 2,
And of
these forest fires that the tongue can set (verses 5b-6) – when he has warmed
to this subject he insists that only hell can extinguish the evils sparked by
the tongue!
This reading from James links well with the Gospel
reading of two Sundays ago when Mark has Jesus speak of the things that defile
people. It is the things that come OUT
of people that defile, and that means things that come out of the mouth
by means of the tongue: “… wickedness,
deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and
they defile a person” (Mark
Mark 8:27-38.
At first sight the Gospel reading is not about wisdom, at least not about the kind of wisdom that
produces success in the world.
This passage is the Great Turning Point in the
Gospel According to Mark.
Here it is finally openly declared by the disciples
– with Peter as their spokesman – who Jesus really is: the Anointed One (Messiah). We can probably understand that by this title
Peter meant a powerful leader who would rule in power to restore
And in the same moment of this triumphant
declaration, Jesus states clearly that he “must” go up to
To the Peter who has just hit a
And the very next section of teaching – not just to
the disciples but to all the crowds who come around him – is that world-turned-upside-down aspect of the gospel. “For those who want to save their life will
lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the
gospel, will save it” (verse 35).
And as if speaking to the many generations of wisdom
teachers, as well as aspiring wisdom pupils of the present, he says, “For what
will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”
Wisdom seeks what is truly profitable -- profitable to humans as the value and goal of their lives. And when the gospel of Jesus is placed in
that curriculum, values tend to get overturned.
Final blessedness lies in trudging to
The Wisdom
presented in the gospel could not be better said than by Paul’s words.
For Judeans
demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to Judeans and foolishness to the Nations, but to those who are
the called, both Judeans and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than
human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (I
Corinthians
The wisdom
of the gospel is to remake the world in the image of God’s love through Jesus
the Anointed One.