September 13, 2024 – Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

In today’s society—when progress for basic civil rights seems to be backwards and mis- and dis-information are rampant; when respect, collaboration, and cooperation in public seem to have gone out the window—Woman Wisdom’s exasperation in the reading from Proverbs (1:22) is felt even more deeply. The Common English Bible translation of verse 22 reads, “How long will you clueless people love your naiveté, mockers hold their mocking dear, and fools hate knowledge?”

What we hear today is not simply the advice from a mother to her child (see Prov 1:8b–9) or the picture of a collaborative partner for a prosperous life (see Prov 3:16–18). Wisdom is a woman with something to say. Her words reveal an urgency and a frustration that are often overlooked. Her voice is prophetic; her speech carries an insistence that should be hard to ignore. In her words, we can’t wait for wisdom any longer … we can’t wait any longer.

I think it’s important to set the scene of the Book of Proverbs and tell you what we know about its history and development. It reached its final form as an anthology of smaller collections of instructional material likely between the 6 and 5th centuries BCE. The middle sections of the book (chapters 10–30) are likely older and originate from various dates and settings, whereas chapters 1–9 and 31 were composed as frames for the whole book as it was compiled. At that time, the community’s temple had been destroyed and kings were wiped out and questions of identity and how to rebuild or reclaim that community were prominent.

There were divisions regarding the religious practices and theological convictions of God’s people. Some clung to the idea of rebuilding the temple and focused on exclusivity as a means of preserving the community. Others held to the idea of kingship and hoped for a new king who would rescue the people from their imperial overthrow. Still others sought to structure community around sets of instructions dependent on morality and obedience—this is the primary goal of wisdom literature like that we hear in Proverbs.

Much of wisdom literature is practical advice for living in community and is meant to cultivate respect, compassion, and mutual support. It was common in the ancient world, often framed as instructions from and for kings and noble officials, or as parental advice. Inherent in wisdom is a focus on human experience and reflection.

One notable aspect of biblical wisdom literature is the figure of Woman Wisdom. The personification of Wisdom is one of the ways in which writers sought to legitimize and promote wisdom as sacred, as a response to the questions of identity during the time, and as a means for faithful living as the people of God.

Chapters 3 and 8 of Proverbs give us more of the origins of Woman Wisdom, as a partner with God and present at creation. Importantly, though, she is not a goddess. She is human, a mediator between the human and divine, and she enhances the theological value of the human experience and of human wisdom. Here, she bursts on the scene, disrupting expectations of women’s behaviors in the ancient world. This woman does not fit the picture we see elsewhere in the biblical material of women who are reticent in public, yet assertive in private.

Woman Wisdom speaks assertively in the most public of spaces; her speech is sprinkled with theological notes that emphasize her authority. Her connections to divine speech and action further legitimize the theological value of wisdom. Considering the questions of identity and divine presence that were common during the period, Woman Wisdom’s speech in the middle of the streets makes an important implicit claim. Where is God? The answer: “God is [at] the heart of human activity.”

The message of the poem is transparent. Woman Wisdom is publicly accessible throughout the city. She calls from every corner and yet she is frustrated by the fact that the wisdom she offers finds no reception among those who hear her.

The leaders of the time believed that a rejection of wisdom was the same as the rejection of God’s ways. Those who refuse wisdom’s summons might anticipate that eventually, they would experience their punishment, for God had ordered the world. Woman Wisdom declares that when that inevitable disaster begins, she will laugh derisively and mock their panic.

Now, let’s be clear… Worthy people become ill or perish in accidents while people who are self-centered, greedy, and yes, fools, enjoy long and luxurious days with no sign of this poem’s promised storms on the horizon. We don’t believe that God has embedded some kind of justice in creation.

But wisdom is its own reward. Woman wisdom summons us all to a life of reverent awe of God so that we give up foolish behavior that may shorten our lives and lead us to suffer unduly. Once one has found wisdom, a comprehension of “righteousness and justice and equity, every good path” will follow “for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” (Prov 2:9-10). It is simply better and more satisfying for us to live wisely in awe of God than to live as though we were not creatures of a living God.

As people of faith, we live in the conviction that God’s reign will eventually come on earth as it is already in heaven. On the days when I don’t curse the stupid people who pester me and seem to make the world a worse place (and most days, I don’t!), then I am always hoping for a few more signs of God’s reign here on earth. Woman Wisdom suggests that those who listen to her will see such signs in as much as they “will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster” (Prov 1:33).

But will they really? At first, it might not seem like it. Mark writes today that Jesus declares, “[T]hose who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:35). That doesn’t sound like security, ease, or a life without dread of disaster.

But remember, Jesus was resurrected. We have been promised eternal life through Jesus. As Paul put it, in adversity, “… we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). On the strength of that resurrection promise, even in adversity we can truly live “without dread of disaster,” come what may. Those of us who are wise will remain more than conquerors. Amen.