Sermon: The Nature of Wisdom

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The Nature of Wisdom

By Charles Rush

June 25, 2006

the bible, the figure of Solomon is most often held up for us as the model of wisdom. He was born into the royal household in Israel, presumably given the best education that could be had at that time. He was vested with power at a very young age and became seasoned in the art of political diplomacy in his early 20's. He also commanded a substantial army and was very good at warfare. Reportedly, he was a very handsome man, and had, it is said, one thousand wives. Tradition credits him with the erotic poem on the sensuality and love that is the Song of Solomon. Presumably, he was successful in the art of love. Reportedly, he traded in rare and beautiful gifts to his neighbors, so we can presume that he was able to develop good taste and had the means to surround himself with things precious and aesthetic.

He also built the First Great Temple in Jerusalem, expanded the City Walls so that they encompassed, more or less, the area of the city walls today, and put up a huge Royal complex that defined Jerusalem as a leading capital city in the Ancient world

The story is told about him that in mid-life, two women came to him with a dispute over a baby, both claiming that the baby was theirs. After hearing the impassioned pleas of both of the women, Solomon called for the baby to be cut in half, with half of the child to be given to each woman. At that moment, the real mother renounced her claim to the child and offered to give the child whole to the other woman. It was a story that was remembered about Solomon to illustrate his moral and psychological insight. He was a very accomplished man. He was a model of success.

And yet, in his mature years, in the book of Ecclesiastes, which is also traditionally associated with him, the writer says over and over, after surveying the delight of sensuality, the headiness of exercising power, the contentment of moral integrity, and the beauty of precious gold, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” It is an arresting observation, coming from someone that has experienced so much success in life, someone that has drunk so deeply from all the good things that life has to offer.

That observation of the vanity of all things precious need not end in cynicism or despair, let me hasten to add. Last summer I had a short moment that was packed densely with what Solomon was trying to describe poetically. It was the end of the day, standing on the edge of a sheer cliff that fell several hundred feet to the North sea in the northern most part of Scotland. The wind was blowing probably twenty miles an hour, cold wind. The waves crashing at the base of the cliff were twenty, thirty feet high. I'd hiked a couple miles to get to that point and there was no one around. It felt like staring out over the end of the earth. I just stood there absorbing the energy of the wind, the sea. The sun was going down in the west and the moon was coming up in the east. It was a concentrated encounter with nature and I was so far away from home and alone.

In the space of literally just a long minute, I reflected on the age of our universe, 15 billion years, the changes that had gone on around me to create these seas and the cliffs. At the same time, I reflected on the civilizations that had risen to power and ceased to exist in the past 5000 years, almost the sum total of what we know about our own history. I thought about how even great writers like Geoffery Chaucer only live on through their work a few centuries, how even the greatest buildings only last a millennia, how the vast majority of us have just a few short decades here.

I was filled with what Jean Paul Sartre used to call ‘the existential lonliness' of human existence. I could suddenly feel in my soul the fact that we are born alone, that we all make the journey from life to death alone, even if we are surrounded in support, that even great relationships come to an end and that nothing lasts forever. I could feel the evanescence and transitory character of my life. Those moments drove Sartre to despair because, he said, he had no faith in God. It is a moment of sadness but it doesn't have to be despairing.

And in that moment, I just wanted to really know, why we are here? what is the purpose of our life really? And I asked myself, “Are you really living? It is a short ride, are you doing what you are supposed to be doing?” It is so easy to get side tracked by our anxieties or our desires. But it is a good question to raise internally. Are we fulfilling our purpose? Are we authentic?

I tried to share that with my wife later in the day. I think she was chopping carrots, never looked up, after I finished the story. She said, ‘honey you didn't eat any of the mushrooms in the field going up to that point?' And she said, ‘honey, you are just getting older and you feel the passing of time differently. It's normal.'

That is right. Aristotle said that you have to be a certain age before you can begin the process of reflection on the world that leads to wisdom. He said, you have to have been a good citizen and been involved in the life of community, building up programs for the next generation. You have to have lived through war. You have to have engaged yourself honestly in personal failure. You have to have developed certain disciplines in your life so that you have some strength of character in some areas. You have to understand the possibilities and the limits of human character. And then, he said, there comes a time in your life. He thought it was around 50, when you could retire, because a good life in ancient Athens only lived to be 60. But at that age, he said, we ought to retire from running everything and begin to think on things eternal. The culmination of that process of putting the bigger picture together by thinking on things eternal is that we become wise and can pass on that wisdom to the younger generation.

The journey to wisdom, quite obviously, begins much earlier. Socrates used to say that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living.' He meant that we should reflect periodically on what we are doing and why we are here throughout our life.

And all around the ancient Near East, you can find similar injunctions. Frequently you see a carving on a pillar or a post in bas relief of a skull and cross bones. Underneath this inscription is written, “know thyself”. It meant know that you are only mortal. See your life in terms of your death and make sure that you are living a meaningful life even now. Make sure you are actualizing your mission statement and developing authenticity.

For those of us shaped by biblical faith, a large part of that is remembering who we are. Elie Wiesel says that you can sum up the Old Testament in one word, “Remember”. That is why we come together every week, to remember who we are and where we are headed.

What a powerful thing remembering can be. When I was in college, back packing around Europe, I met another student, my age, studying at Columbia university. We were in Germany at the time and both of us visited one of the concentration camps still open after World War II. He was very moved by the experience, though the both of us just took that afternoon in without speaking. Later that night, he was still pensive. I asked him what he was reflecting on. He was quiet for a long time and then he said, “I realized that I am a Jew.” His name was something like Weinstein, so I was thinking to myself, “you're just now figuring this out?” He was remembering.

We parted ways… but I saw him again later that summer. It was a Friday afternoon in Jerusalem, the beginning of Shabbat. There were hundreds of people that were dancing their way down to the Wailing Wall in the Old City to begin their prayers, remember the Covenant that God made with them, and worship together. I saw him in the midst of this throng of people and we spoke. He said to me, “I'm staying. This is where I belong. I'm transferring. I'm coming back to my home.” Again, I'm thinking, quit your future, move to this overcrowded, over-taxed, militaristic hassle… interesting place to visit but… Wow. But there was something beguiling about remembering who you are and really knowing it and being able live it. That has spiritual power to change our direction and set us off on a new path.

Of course, it doesn't stay fixed. Life is a lot more complicated than that. I haven't heard from him in fifteen years. I wonder what he is doing now. I wonder if a couple years ago, he didn't wake up again and remember that he is an American and he is getting the hell out of the nightmare that Israel has become.

Nothing stays fixed… Remembering is an active, ongoing, adventure that takes us to new places we have never been before. St. Augustine used to say that what we need to do is to ‘think after God.' In the bible, God has given us a direction to think after. God who delivered slaves from oppression and bondage, made a covenant with them, gave them the 10 commandments, established a structure for living with spouse, relatives, neighbors near and far.

The purpose that God has for our lives is not something simply abstract and unknowable. It is also personal and intimate and it has been revealed to us. The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the Messiah, said “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding… and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord… and he has judge with righteousness for the poor and decide for the meek of the earth.”

Think after God for Wisdom. Think after Jesus as well. The wonderful introduction to the Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” St. Augustine said, if you want to know what God wants for your life think after the Christ, in whom we can see God's will reflected for us in authentic humanity. Wisdom is not simply abstract speculation; it is also -- indeed primarily -- an intimate reflection on how to live well.

It is interesting that the bible when you do this, you attain Sophia, Wisdom, which is a feminine word. The word Sophia is sometimes used as a name for God introducing a gender polarity into the divine being, a kind of ying and yang, that balances somewhat the overwhelming male images for god in scripture. And there are other times that Sophia, Wisdom, is used as a synonym for the Spirit filled life that we can live through the Christ.

Speculation on the meaning of this is voluminous, I only here highlight the obvious, the very important leadership of mature, wise women in our lives. Most of our models for wisdom implicitly patterned after some mature, wise woman that we have known.

There is something about having not only lived through youth and young adulthood, birthing and raising the next generation, nurturing, cajoling, and pushing them out into independence, understanding the changes that take place in the different stages of our living, getting a handle on how to negotiate relationships, dealing with disappointment and tragedy, understanding the vulnerability of making a huge investment in other people when it is not clear that it will be worth it. There is something about starting to raise your children's children and understanding what actually lasts, what is important about living, what people need to flourish… All of these are spiritual issues and wise women know what makes for rich living. They have a special kind of knowledge. They know what they know in here. They have lived it. And wisdom, unlike simple knowledge has a lived quality to it, an intimate learning to it.

In graduate school, we had to translate letters from kids in college writing back home to Rome, young adults writing back home from their first big positions in Egypt to their parents in Rome. I was struck by the pattern all these letters had. Regularly, they would ask Dad about political life and what was going on in the Capital and then make a subtle or not so subtle request for investment from the Bank of Dad. And to Mom, they would pour out all the concerns of their heart- how to mend this relationship they had botched up, how to compromise with their spouse without giving in, all the daily issues, the concrete spiritual issues that give our lives meaning. I asked my Latin professor about it and he said, “then as now.”

We have always needed the leadership of mature women and one of the main reasons that the Church is vital today is that we have had it. It is such a vital time of life for growth and passing on to the next generation.

When my wife heard I was preaching on Wisdom, she commented, “Dear, this should be one of your shorter sermons…” And so it shall. Think and reflect on the big picture. Find your place within it. Return your focus to why you are here and what you are supposed to be about. Learn from the Elders. Pass it on. Amen.