Wisdom is truth as it is lived — it is indeed what enhances life – Frank Wilson
The Pursuit of Wisdom, 9/13/09, Proverbs 1:20-33
What is wisdom? And why should we be mindful of such a concept? Wisdom has been defined as illusive, relative, and situational. Wisdom is something all people want and few have the patience to achieve. Wisdom has the ability to grant happinesss and contentment. Wisdom is not the peace that passes all understanding, but rather wisdom is the understanding that leads to that peace.
Wisdom is not genetic. No one is born with it. There is not a wise child in all the world. Yet children ask questions that even the wisest cannot answer. As far as we know, real wisdom comes with age and experience.
Wisdom is seldom found by accident but even very wise people are hard pressed to tell you where to find it. Elbert Hubbard writes that Every man is a d___ fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. Wisdom is learned. Wisdom is mined. Wisdom is the tempering of the sword. Wisdom is almost never found as a mother lode but only in little bits at a time. And wisdom is usually found in failure, not in success. Herb Caen writes that “A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.” And of course we have all heard the saying that if you only learn from your mistakes, well then that makes me a well qualified as a genius.
There is a significant paradox in wisdom. The wise man is one who in the discovery of his wisdom, discovers the depth of his ignorance. As the reaches of his knowledge grows, so does the wise man’s ability to discern the unsearchable depths of that which he does not know. In other words, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. With wisdom comes humility.
The book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon. He is often referred to as the standard by whom all wise people are measured. In first kings chapter 3, we can read the story of how Solomon came by his great wisdom. God offered him whatever he wanted and he asked for discernment to administer justice to his people. God granted his prayer and gave him as scripture says, “a wise and discerning heart”.
An angel appears at a priests meeting and tells their leader that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom, or beauty.
Without hesitating, the leader selects infinite wisdom.
"Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning.
Now, all heads turn toward the leader, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light but he has a somewhat troubled look on his face.
One of the priests whispers to him, "Say something."
The leader looks off into space, shakes his head a little bit, sighs, and says, "I should have taken the money."
Sometime during his forty years as king of Israel, Solomon would write the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is a book filled with one or two liners of measured advice, sort of a bumper sticker wisdom except instead of putting them on cars, they put them on chariots. I don’t know about you but I like clever bumper stickers. They’re short, easy to understand and they make driving a bit more interesting. More dangerous but a bit more interesting. Here’s a few good ones:
The gene pool could use a little chlorine."
"When you do a good deed, get a receipt, in case heaven is like the IRS."
"Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear."
"There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't."
In the portion of scripture that was read today, Solomon portrays wisdom as saving knowledge. He describes the terror and despair of someone who does not have wisdom. Someone who refuses to listen to the inviting call of wisdom, will lack understanding when the time is needed. What Solomon makes clear, is that wisdom must be responded to in order to be attained. Wisdom calls, wisdom is available but if wisdom is not listened to, if wisdom is not pursued, wisdom will not automatically happen. Wisdom is personified in Solomon’s writings and calls to us at every turn, encouraging us to seek her. Wisdom must be pursued to be had but wisdom can be ignored and we can remain unwise if that is what we desire. The warning is clear in this scripture though: choose that way and when calamity strikes, you will be in terror, you will be lost, you will be in distress and anguish. That is the roll that wisdom is to play in our lives. It gives us understanding of hard things and difficult circumstances. It aids us with discernment and good judgement. Wisdom helps us deal with those hard questions that arise as we encounter circumstances of life that threaten our faith in God. Look how hard life is when things happen to us that we have a hard time explaining or when things happen to us before we are ready. I was 24 when my father died of pancreatic cancer and I can tell you, I was not ready for that. My sister died from cancer when I was 36 and she was only 39. I was a little more ready for that but still her life ended way too soon. For me there had been more life under the bridge, more experience of the hard things that we must endure as a part of that life.
Just recently, we memorialized the 9/11 attacks that destroyed the world trade center in new York city and killed more than 3000 people. For a while after that tragic day, the whole country was angry but only a few were asking the question why. One could ask if we have gotten any wiser at the cost of so many lives. One could ask what we have learned that has helped us to not just deal with the pain and anguish of terrorism but what have we learned that will help us to make this world a better, safer, more peaceful place?
So how do we find wisdom. In the 1950’s, just as the cold war was ramping up, General Omar Bradley wrote this:
“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescence.” Bradley obviously became wise through his experiences with war and he recognized a world that badly needed wisdom. That world has not significantly changed. That world has not moved from its moral adolescence. Think about it. We live in a world where we argue about how much torture is alright. We live in a world where 24,000 people die from hunger every day. A child dies from hunger every 7 seconds while I probably throw out enough food in a week to feed a family of four.
We live in a world where 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Roughly half the people in the world live in extreme poverty while we have executives who make $90 million a year in stock options. It is estimated that 8 million people die each year because they are simply too poor to stay alive. I do not give you these statistics to make you feel guilty. As I read them, I wonder where wisdom has gone. I think Bradley would be disappointed in us because we are still serious moral adolescents. We have covered our ears to the calls of wisdom and we have refused to respond to her call. When will we as a people find the wisdom we need to respond with the compassion that wisdom demands?
Fortunately, Solomon does not abandon us. He points us in the direction we need to go. In Proverbs 9:10, he writes that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” Now most of the time, we interpret fear as being scared and maybe we should be, but that is not exactly what Solomon means here. Fear of the Lord means having some understanding of who our God is and having a healthy fear of that. When you look at the stars and you are overwhelmed by their beauty and by the vastness of space and you can’t believe the height and depth of God’s creation: That is fear of the Lord. When you see the waves caused by a hurricane and you feel God in the power and beauty of the storm: that is fear of the Lord. When you look at a baby, and your heart feels so full that you think it’s going to burst: that is fear of the Lord. It is more like awe. When you encounter the suffering of our fellow human beings, your fellow brothers and sisters and your heart breaks for them, that is a fear of the Lord. It is a humble understanding of who we are in the midst of creation. Rabbi Noah Weinberg writes that “Awe is the awareness of small insignificant me -- and the overwhelming greatness of God.”
When we understand that we are forgiven by the loving act of Jesus Christ on the cross and that all we can do is accept it, that is the beginning of wisdom. We cannot earn it, we cannot deserve it, all we can do is be thankful for it: that is fear of the Lord. When we understand God’s love for us. . for all of us. . . and we respond to it with care and concern for our brothers and sisters, that is wisdom. When we look at the blessings we have and we reach out to our suffering friends and neighbors, then we will have found the fear of the Lord and we will have begun our journey towards wisdom.
God is a personal God. He is aware of us. We are in His presence. He is paying attention. God is communicating to us through His world of beauty and design. He is here and available. The Almighty Creator of this whole universe is saying: My child, I love you. I created you to give you pleasure. Come, let's explore the world together.” (Noah Weinberg) That is fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
