Wisdom

Sermon Notes 9th July 2023
Desiree Snyman

Please may I borrow your imagination? Picture the most beautiful woman you have ever seen, no not with blonde hair and blue eyes, a woman with long, dark hair, olive skin and of middle eastern descent. She is tall, stunning, and magnetic with an inner luminescence that draws people to her presence (Wisdom 7.22). She is powerfully intelligent but also artistic and practical (Wisdom 7.22-24). For example, she has built her own home (Proverbs 9.1-6). The wooden beams holding up her roof were crafted by her (Proverbs 9.1). The stained-glass windows were designed and made by her. If you step out of the house, her garden flourishes with the best and most abundant crops (Wisdom 6.16). On a regular basis she opens up her home to the most vulnerable. She walks through the markets handing out party invitations calling people to feast at her home (Proverbs 1.20). She prepares a banquet for them with bread she has made herself and roast lamb from her small farm (Proverbs 9.1-6). People eat the best food at a table that she herself has made (Proverbs 9.2). After the meal she invites everyone to dance and even the most reluctant dancers with two left feet cannot help themselves and join in the ecstasy and joy of dancing the night away. She is warm and funny and sometimes plays tricks on people. She is also boldly outspoken; she points to the corruption of greedy businessmen and con artists exploiting the most vulnerable. Her home is a safe haven for those who need to recover from life’s worst stresses (Wisdom 4.11). She is a counsellor, a spiritual director, a community leader, a wealthy business leader, mentoring and advising politicians who serve the common good (Proverbs 8.14). Can you picture her? She has a name. In Hebrew she is Chokmah. In Greek her name is Sophia. In English we call her Lady Wisdom, or Wild Woman Wisdom. 

For the writers of our sacred texts, wisdom was such a powerful energy in the universe that one could almost speak about wisdom as if wisdom was a person. You can read about Wild Woman Wisdom in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus better known as Sirach or the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, Tobit, Judith, Song of Songs, the book of Job and the Wisdom of Solomon. 

So who is Sophia, or Wild Woman Wisdom? She is a master craftswoman and according to Job, “we have heard reports of her but “God alone has traced her path and found out where she lives.”  

In Wisdom 7.22 Woman Wisdom is a people loving, intelligent, holy, has unrestricted moving, free from anxiety. She collaborates with God and is responsible for creation: 

26 For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
27 Although she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
28 for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.
29 She is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
30 for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail. 

Wild Woman Wisdom visits the markets and invites people to come and play, to tell jokes and to laugh at their mistakes. Proverbs 8.1 asks: “Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand.” 

Almost every feature of Matthew 11 can be traced back to the Jewish wisdom literature found in the Hebrew Scriptures and Deuterocanonical books. The development we see in Matthew is that Jesus is now characterised as Wisdom. Just as Wild Woman Wisdom received everything from God so Jesus receives everything from God. Just as Woman Wisdom gives understanding as a gift so too does Jesus reveal wisdom to those around him. Woman Wisdom is people loving (Wisd. 1.6) so too is Jesus. Just as Woman Wisdom calls people to play so too does Jesus. In the same way that Woman Wisdom condemns corruption, so too does Jesus in the ”Woe to you” statements. 

“Come to me and rest” is a beautiful invitation from Jesus. Matthew 11.28 is based on Ecclesiasticus, or Sirach 51.59, written by a scribe in about 125 BCE:

”Draw near to me, you who are uneducated, and lodge in the house of instruction. Why do you say you are lacking in these things, and why do you endure such great thirst? I opened my mouth and said, Acquire wisdom for yourselves without money. Put your neck under her yoke, and let your souls receive instruction; it is to be found close by. See with your own eyes that I have laboured but little and found for myself much serenity. Hear but a little of my instruction, and through me you will acquire silver and gold.” 

As Woman Wisdom’s prophet and messenger Jesus calls out to all who are tired and weary and promises them rest and restoration. Jesus condemns how scribes and pharisees use the law as a weapon to abuse people with burdens hard to bear. Instead of being a sacred and beautiful gift that sets people free to live a full and happy life, the rabbis had twisted the meaning of the law such that it was a heavy burden especially on those who were already weary. For example, there were more than 600 laws regarding what one could not do on a Sabbath. Jesus was not crucified by atheism and anarchy but by law and religion. 

While our postmodern Christianity does not have a heavy attention to the detail of the law, we are not that much better. The model of Christianity we have adopted suggests we have only done enough when we are running on empty. I grew up as a Methodist. John Wesley was the quintessential model of a good Christian. John Wesley was famous for instructing: “Spend and be spent in spreading the Good News. I took that to heart. Being spent is not much fun, nor do I really think it is Gods will that we should be burnt out.  

I agree with Barbara Brown Taylor who writes that some of us “have made an idol of exhaustion.” Somewhere along the way, “sold out for Jesus” had become “worn out for Jesus.” For example, the familiar prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola captures a tendency to overwork:

“Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will. Amen.”  

We in the church sometimes equate busyness with our worth; yet busyness is the single greatest obstacle to holiness. Some measure love of God with how many extracurricular activities are squashed in - small groups, ministry teams, mission trips, retreats, service projects, committees. I am deeply concerned at the ways in which church ministry tires people, leaving them running on empty. In contrast Matthew 11.28 invites us to count the cost, and to give up toil in favour of rest.  

Excessive busyness, even in the name of religion unfolds from a deep soul wound. Resting in Jesus provides a promised respite for the tiredness of our souls. A closing image may illustrate how. The movie “The Mission” describes how two Christian leaders respond differently to the threat of violence when a place of sanctuary for the Guarani tribe is attacked by Portuguese military, following the 1750 Treaty of Madrid. The start of the film depicts a group of missionary monks enduring an arduous hike through dense rain forest before scaling a high mountain to reach the mission station. Included in the group of missionary monks is an abbot father, the leader of the group, and a new convert Rodrigo Mendoza. The new convert is a former mercenary and slave trader who has been convicted of murder. As he endures what is really a tough hike through the South American wilderness of Argentina, he drags behind the symbols of his previous life wrapped in a bagged net. The heavy burden includes swords and armour. Some may identify with the symbol of Rodrigo dragging a heavy burden in that the expectations we place on ourselves wear us down. At some point a well-meaning monk tries to free the new convert from his burden but he merely reattaches himself to his burden and continues the long walk. 

When Rodrigo reaches the top of the mountain with his burden catching  on roots and tree branches and almost pulling him down, it is a local tribe member who cuts his burden loose. 

The weight falling away from a weeping Rodrigo is a very powerful moment in the film; it is this image that comes to mind when I read these powerful and memorable words from Matthew 28.11: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls.”