God's Wisdom - September 16
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm [70], 71; PM Psalm 74; 1 Kings 22:29-45; 1 Cor. 2:14-3:15; Matt. 5:1-10
“Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
On Wednesday evenings, I lead two different Bible studies. At 5:30 p.m., there is a Men’s Bible Study and after Compline, around 7:00 p.m. I gather with the Young Adults of Saint Stephen’s in hybrid format with people joining in person and on zoom. I ask the same questions and we study the same scripture, but the conversation went in different directions. That is probably not surprising with people's different junctures in life. The Men’s Bible Study had an average age of closer to 50 while the young adults gathered on average were probably closer to 26 or 27.
This week, we explored the passage from James for this upcoming Sunday (James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a). James is focused on wisdom, the theme of our Corinthians reading from yesterday and today as well. And I asked both groups to define wisdom. Our young adults focused on what we learn from experience. Essentially, they ended up with the answer: “knowledge applied.” This is certainly true as a group that is rapidly gaining more experience in the world and looking back at how much more they know now than they did just a few years ago. The older group ended up defining wisdom a little differently - “knowing what we don’t know,” a view from a little farther back from experience. I was struck by just how different each group’s answers were.
And yet both Paul and James had a little different definition. In this excerpt, Paul differentiates between human wisdom and God’s wisdom or also known as God’s power. God’s wisdom “is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). God’s wisdom does not make sense to the ways of the world. It is different!
I’m finding it challenging to believe that some of the wisdom I have learned from the world isn’t helpful. I suspect it is profoundly helpful and yet Paul is critical. But God’s wisdom is different, emboldened by the Holy Spirit. I shared on Sunday, the prayer for St. Francis which to me has often seemed like the gift of counter wisdom. It is the antithesis of the way of the world: I wonder if this could be one way of entering into God’s wisdom.
“Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (BCP 877).”
God’s wisdom might be learned through experience. And it might be admitting what we don’t know. But it is also something that is given to us by God that stands contrary to what our ego is driving. Paul suggests there is a better way of living through the wisdom passed down through God, and I am betting it’s the key to find life through our faith.
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: What does wisdom mean to you? Who do you consider to be wise? How is God’s wisdom different than what you have learned yourself?
Daily Challenge: Make a list of five things that you do not know the answer to. Try more philosophical questions, not things you could quickly lookup with Google.