Over the last couple weeks I ended up spending some time on my other job, working with congregations in the United Church of Christ as they look for pastors. A congregation I’m trying to help imploded unexpectedly this month (that qualifies as emergency circumstances) and I ended up helping them try to figure out next steps. One evening, after a two-hour Zoom meeting of mostly good communication, I offered to close the meeting with prayer. In the course of that prayer I asked that the congregation’s speaking to one another be guided by wisdom. At that point, someone on the Zoom laughed. I guess the thought that the presence of wisdom might emerge among the congregation felt unlikely to that person. To me, that laugh was not an encouraging sign for the work ahead.
Because, after all, the presence of Wisdom among us is crucial. And long-desired. Christianity springs from Jewish and Greek traditions that value wisdom highly, though we may forget that.
Some time between 100 BC and 50 AD (probably) a Jewish writer steeped in Greek philosophy used the name of the ancient King Solomon and attached it to his own work. King Solomon was revered and renowned for having asked God for wisdom above all else when he claimed his father David’s throne. A thousand or so years later, the author of today’s scripture offers a similar prayer: for understanding, for a spirit of wisdom, for intimate knowledge of Sophia (the Greek name for wisdom).
In other places in scripture we learn that:
- Sophia/wisdom cries in the city streets, urging people to pay heed to her (Proverbs 1: 20-22)
- Sophia/wisdom plays at creation and cooperates with God to bring order to the cosmos (Proverbs 8: 27-31)
- Sophia/wisdom is a tree of life and abundance (Ecclesiasticus 24: 12-19)
- Sophia/wisdom is closely associated with the Word present at creation and coming into the world described in John 1 (see Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault)
- Sophia/wisdom closely resembles the description of Jesus present in creation offered by Colossians 1: 15-17 (or Jesus closely resembles Sophia/wisdom)
In addition to Jewish texts, some authors of the New Testament were familiar with the traditions and scriptures of the Wisdom tradition. An extensive list of other appearances by Sophia/wisdom in scripture would take a while. That doesn’t even touch upon descriptions of the Holy Spirit that nearly match today’s scripture about Sophia/wisdom from writers such as Hildegard of Bingen and Meister Eckhart. Some modern commentators continue to link Sophia/wisdom with the coming of Spirit.
Even so, conversation about Sophia/wisdom doesn’t make its way into theological conversation (or preaching) very often. In most Jewish theology, care must be taken to maintain strict monotheism. In Christian theology Sophia/wisdom muddles the mental gymnastics that bequeathed us the doctrine of the Trinity. And most Jewish and Christian thought experiences discomfort (still) with the notion of a female figure of the Divine who co-creates with God.
It would be easy to wander off on a whole bunch of different paths with Sophia/wisdom. It could even be fun (at least for me).
But what strikes me today is the act of praying for Wisdom, the prayer to have intimate knowledge of Sophia/wisdom in life. To be passionate, enthralled, smitten by Sophia/wisdom. To be fully transformed, even, by knowing Sophia/wisdom. Of all the things to pray for in our lives and in the world, why that? A couple things come to mind.
To know Sophia/wisdom is to know, to be immersed within, many qualities of the Divine listed in today’s scripture and other places. It’s worth noting that those qualities of the Divine don’t include violence and condemnation.
Rather, those who know Sophia/wisdom fully in life recognize her presence, the presence of the Divine in all things that live. Divine wisdom “pervades and penetrates all things” and “renews them.” All things. No exception. As the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning declared, “Earth is cramm’d with heaven.” Living with that awareness deep in our bones would surely change the way we treat other created beings.
And finally, there is the assurance that “in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets” (7: 27). Those who pray for Sophia/wisdom become friends of God.
I love that idea and image.
For a couple years I attended a church where the pastor began each worship service by welcoming us all as friends of God. That was her way of reminding us that we live in relationship with the Divine in a mutually committed, vulnerable, kind, and trusting way. Wisdom brings us up close and personal to the presence of the Holy in ourselves and everywhere else in the cosmos. Through Sophia/wisdom we experience a world where the Divine moves though us and in us and accompanies us always. We all can play with our Friend. Learn. Create. Weep and cry and rage and laugh. Sophia/wisdom brings us the Friend who will not abandon or betray. No wonder the pastor I once knew wanted to remind us, always, that we are friends of God. Intimately related.
No wonder that Solomon, and the writer of today’s scripture, and many who have come since, prayed for wisdom.
Being friends of God stands as a clear gift of knowing and embracing, and being embraced by, Sophia/wisdom. Then comes the part about being a prophet: discerning how the world is out of alignment with Divine ways, and seeking to bring a word of clarity, hope, mercy, and realignment into the world. Everybody, I suppose, wants to be a friend of God. Nobody wants to be a prophet. But the two come together. Intimate relationship with the Divine asks that we care for, love, advocate for, pray for, listen to, all beings (as they are permeated with Sophia/wisdom) and honor the sacred within them. Queer people. Racial minorities. Children. And the earth that sustains us all. In life and love with Sophia/wisdom, we find the guidance (and Friendship) to make us prophets, to help us know when to speak. And where. And how to focus and sustain ourselves.
And that, kinfolk and neighbors, is why we must pray for Sophia/wisdom, if we dare. The world is in desperate need of Sophia/wisdom among us, in our speech…our actions…our hearts. She transforms us and makes us transformers of the world.
Wisdom of Solomon 7: 7; 22-28