I used to think men's communities had it more together, but I've discovered we're all in the same boat. God of our ancestors, Lord of mercy, you who have made all things by your word, With you is wisdom who knows your works and was present when you made the world. Send her forth from your holy heavens and from your glorious throne dispatch her, that she may be with us and work with us, that we may know what is your pleasure. This morning I'm going to go back to Proverbs 8 first and use that for jumping off point and then move to the creation texts and particularly the image of wisdom as the tree of life.

[01:05]

In Proverbs 8, particularly the poem that begins in verse 22, we find all manner of things that suggest the creation stories to us. In fact, it's pretty direct. In verse 22, it begins that the Lord fathered me or begot me, kana, which ends up being the same verb that shows up in the Cain and Abel stories. That's why Cain gets his name. The firstborn of God's ways And then, from of old I was poured forth at the first before the earth. And that's a verb that's sometimes used of the spirit of God. And of course, in Genesis 1, we have the spirit hovering over the waters or the mighty wind. In verses 24 and 25, when there were no depths, I was brought forth, given birth.

[02:09]

That's the God-mothering wisdom. So we have God-fathering wisdom in verse 22 and God-mothering wisdom in verses 24 and 25. She's before the depths, before the fountains or springs of water, before the mountains, before the hills, before the earth, before everything. In verse 30, she is beside God as the designer or as a child. That word can be translated either way. But when the author of the Wisdom of Solomon talks about wisdom, he uses technitis, which is an interpretation of this as the designer of creation. So we start out with this image of wisdom as the firstborn of God, the designer of creation, poured forth before everything else that exists. So that takes us to the creation stories.

[03:11]

that set of stories that happens every day with God's creation. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind, or the Spirit of God, was above the waters. And so we see in that Spirit an image of wisdom. And in the beginning, suggests firstborn, b'reishith, and then the firstborn is b'reishith. So, we kind of have that beginning in both stories. We know that creation story in Chapter 1, that wonderful ordering then of creation by God's Word or by God's wisdom. In Sirach 24, Wisdom says she comes forth from the mouth of God, so she is God's word or God's spirit coming forth from God's mouth.

[04:17]

And then she says, mist-like, I covered the earth. So that mist is going to show up then in the next creation story. She's ordering, designing creation in Genesis 1. She is the agent of creation as God's Word. In Genesis 2, that story that begins in verse 4, We read that there's no vegetation because there's no human being to take care of the vegetation and there's no rain, but a stream or a mist is over the earth. So, again, you get the suggestion of what Sirach tells us in 24 about wisdom being that mist or that stream that makes the clay of the ground pliable enough that the Lord God can then create humanity out of it.

[05:18]

It's, again, wisdom being the kind of the initiator of life or the one who makes life possible because of watering the earth. Now again, we know this story practically by heart. The Lord God creates the human being, blows into its nostrils the breath of life, and then plants a garden for this human being to take care of. And in the garden, in the center, is a tree. Now, It's confusing in this story. Is there one tree in the middle of the garden or are there two trees in the middle of the garden? Verse 9 says, the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Kind of sounds like the tree of the knowledge of good and bad is an afterthought, but we need it for the rest of the story. The tree of life is not going to show up till the end of chapter 3.

[06:21]

I went on a search one year for this tree, and the early Christian writers, many of them look at the tree as one tree. They talk about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad as the same tree. Now, obviously the text is trying to tell us it's two trees. But it's, you know in video how you get those images that you're looking at one thing and then it just kind of gradually fades and all of a sudden you realize you're looking at something else. And then pretty soon it fades into something. Commercials do this more than anything else. And then it fades into something else. We're looking at the tree of life in the middle of the garden and then it kind of fades into being the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. And then by the end of the story, it's kind of faded back into the tree of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and bad. To know in Hebrew is to experience.

[07:28]

It's what you were talking about this morning. It's the call to experience life. To know is to experience. Now, we know that also from places like the beginning of Genesis 4, where it says Adam knew his wife, and that's intimate experience. It isn't just that he recognized her when he saw her in the garden. He had intimate knowledge of her, intimate experience of her. So the tree of the knowledge of good and bad implies that if we eat from that tree, we will have intimate experience of good and bad. Now, that's why God says in the middle of that chapter, if you eat from this tree, you're gonna experience both good and bad. And the worst thing a human being can experience is death. Now, as Christians, we all say, well, no, it's not. Remember, this was written when there wasn't a real belief, a real understanding of life after death.

[08:35]

And if by death, we think of simply ceasing to exist. If you wipe out life after death, too, that's the worst thing human beings can experience, is to cease to exist altogether. So, if you eat from this tree, you will have intimate experience of both good and bad. Now, the experience of good and bad is defined in the rest of the Old Testament as wisdom. In Deuteronomy, remember when the folks in the desert are being told by God that they're not going to come into the land of promise, it's only the children, only those who as yet don't have any experience of good or bad. who will come into the garden, or into the promised land.

[09:36]

There's a place in 1 Samuel where it seems to have to do with the capability of experiencing life and all of life's delights where David invites Barzillai to his court and he says, you know, what good is that going to do me now? I'm too old to really know good and evil. So that sense of knowing good and evil has to do with the capability of experiencing the fullness of life. And to know good and evil, to be able to discern the difference between good and evil, has to do with wisdom. So somehow this tree is a wisdom tree. Now, we've got a real problem, of course, when we get to Genesis 3, because it seems like having wisdom is a good thing. And so, of course we want to eat from that tree. And what the serpent says, you will be like God, knowing what is good and what is bad, that says this is a good tree.

[10:48]

And by the way, this is an aside, but in that story, I always thought the man was off asleep under some tree. I've seen pictures of that man off asleep under some tree. He's really standing there too. The woman does all the talking, which you can do whatever you want to with that, but the man is standing there too. He hears this whole conversation. So whatever happened there, she didn't deceive him. But they make the decision. that they want to be like God, they want wisdom, they want to know good and bad, they want to experience everything, and so they eat. Now again, sometimes we think that the situation in the garden was perfect, but it's the tree of the knowledge of good as well as the tree of the knowledge of bad. So, we should feel a little bit ambiguous about this tree. What we should not feel ambiguous about is disobedience.

[11:54]

So, the tree should be tempting, but God said, don't do this. That sets up the question for us, then, how do we acquire wisdom? How do we become like God? Obviously it doesn't seem to work in this situation where human beings say, oh, I'm going to do it myself. What they want is right. It's the way they go about it that's the problem. I've discovered in the last several years that I can't do anything without doing Genesis 1 to 3. I'm kind of stuck in those first three chapters. But I think that what's happening is that the whole rest of the story, all the rest of Scripture, is trying to tell us how to be like God.

[13:01]

how to gain wisdom. It's as if the beginning says, it's all set up right, but then we went at it the wrong way, and so the rest of it is God saying, let me show you how to be like God and how to gain wisdom. St. Irenaeus says the problem, I have to quote my patron saint when I get a chance, he says the problem with these two folks in the garden is that they want to be like God without being willing to be human. They want to have God's power. They want to take over God's function without being willing to be human. They want to take for themselves what was intended to be gift. It's kind of like the kids who discover the Christmas presents at Thanksgiving and steal them out of the closet. You know, it ruins the whole thing.

[14:02]

So they steal what was intended to be gift. Now, we have to keep thinking about this tree. Obviously, eating from this tree in this situation does not bring life. It brings death. So, if it brings death, it's not wisdom. If the goal of wisdom is life, eating from the tree should be wisdom, should bring life. This is back to, is this the same tree? But it doesn't bring life. It brings death. So, what went askew? Now, let me just suggest a question, even at this point, to think about. It's a good rule of thumb that if it brings life, it's wisdom, and if it brings death,

[15:09]

It's not wisdom. Back in Proverbs 9, we had to be careful about eating from the wrong table. Today, we're talking about taste and see the goodness of the Lord. What table do we eat from? To eat together is to share life, and if we eat from the table of death, we will die. And if we eat from the table of life, which is wisdom, we will live. So, somehow, we've got to find the tree of life. We've got to find how to eat from the tree of life. And, of course, at the end of Genesis 3, you know, the weight of the tree of life is barred. So, we're in big trouble at the end of Genesis 3. But Proverbs tells us, happy, this is in chapter 3, verses 13 to 18. Happy the one who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding, for her profit is better than profit in silver, and better than gold is her revenue.

[16:24]

She is more precious than corals, and none of your choice possessions can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to all who grasp her, and the one is happy who holds her fast." Now, how do we find this tree of life? The way is barred. But somehow we've got to be able to find wisdom, to have access to wisdom, who is the tree of life. She's the way to the good life, which is the goal of wisdom. Somehow we need to know how to be like God. If we back up a little bit in chapter 3, the teacher is saying, forget not my teaching, keep in mind my commands that should suggest obedience.

[17:33]

For many days and years of life and peace will they bring you. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not. In all your ways remember God and God will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes, but fear the Lord and turn away from evil." Now, isn't that the problem in the garden, is being wise in their own eyes? Somehow, we have to find the gift. It's not only through our own experience. It's a gift. And so, if we go back to chapter 2, The teacher says, if you receive my words and treasure my commands, turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding. If you call to intelligence and to understanding, raise your voice.

[18:35]

If you seek her like silver and like hidden treasures, search her out. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord. The knowledge of God you will find, for the Lord gives wisdom." It's a gift. The tree of life is a gift. The fruit of the tree of life is a gift given to us by God. The way to the good life is a gift. The problem in the garden is trying to steal the gift. The problem in the garden, what the serpent sets up, is a question of whether or not we're going to trust God. You know, the serpent says, did God really tell you you can't eat from any of those trees? Well, that sets you up for, isn't that a mean God? He said you can't eat from any of those trees. Now, it's not true, but it sets up the little suspicion that God can't be trusted.

[19:37]

So how do we find the way to the good life? It's through obedience. How do we eat from the tree of life? It's through trusting God and accepting it as gift from God. These two chapters in Proverbs are like a correction to what happened in the creation story. It's like a change of direction. You know, let's try this one more time. And if we look at what Benedict says at the beginning of the prologue, he starts out just like the wisdom teacher, and he is a wisdom teacher. Listen carefully to the master's instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart." Again, we know this text. This is advice from a father who loves you.

[20:42]

Welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obedience will bring you back to the one from whom you had drifted through the slope of disobedience. So, there you have the correction to the story in the garden. This message is for you if you're willing to take up those strong and bright arms. First of all, every time you begin a good work, pray to God most earnestly to bring it to perfection. Again, this is the problem in the garden. It's not trusting God. Every time you begin a good work, pray to God. God has already counted us as his children, and therefore we should never grieve him by our evil actions. With God's good gifts, which are in us, we must obey him at all times that he may never become the angry father who disinherits us.

[21:44]

So, Benedict calls us to get up, to arise from sleep, to open our eyes to the light that comes from God, that beginning of creation, and our ears to the voice from heaven. There's our seeing and hearing as well as tasting. Today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts. And what does God say? Come and listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Now the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Run while you have the light of life that the darkness of death may not overtake you. Obedience is the correction to the disobedience. Obedience really is the gift of the tree of life. Obedience really is the way to the knowledge of good and bad, to the discernment of good and bad. Now, God knows we keep needing help.

[22:48]

And so we have another image, and again, you can look at early Christian writers about this with the tree. Is the cross the tree of the knowledge of good and bad? Is that the ultimate human experience? of both good and bad. And then Christ is the fruit, is Christ the wisdom who brings us life. Now the experience of good and bad, it's the experience of death. And through death, life. What does it mean that Christ is the fruit of the tree of life, that Christ is wisdom? Christ is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Can we do that? I want to sit with that for a couple of minutes, that was a lot, and then I'd be happy if you had anything you'd like to say after you've

[23:59]

sat a little bit. What does that image of the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, how do those, do they work for you, those images?

[25:35]

Does it connect to the cross? Does it connect to taste and see? Or is there another direction you'd like to take me? Martin Quincey has proved that trees are very strong and they all bite indirectly. No meat didn't miss it. Off on the death throat, by a couple of questions I've asked you, which later is whether or not it's a fallacy or a true story. There's a couple of pseudos, too, I think. One is this pseudo-abdication of responsibility, which isn't this kind of obedience to God. We've seen that in the secular world. I think we've got to be masters of it in religious life.

[26:41]

There's a way of manipulating the superior and the inferior. What you want to do, you call it obedience. We got more skills like that. And part of that is the failure to choose. I do what I'm told. I just do it. If I don't choose it, this isn't any more than obedience to me. Right. Just put it on someone who's got nothing to do with it. But then it becomes the God. And I think part of that is not being willing to accept the gift and take the responsibility of being in the image of God. I had a student one time who proposed that the serpent in the garden, now the serpent is a wisdom image also, And of course the serpent doesn't get interpreted as Satan until the very end of the Old Testament period. But this student said, well, maybe the serpent is God.

[27:45]

Facing human beings with the need to choose. That there is no obedience if there is no choice. There is no love if there is no choice. If there is no freedom, there is no love. And so, until human beings accept the responsibility of choosing and deal with the consequences, that's why, in a sense, it's the tree, both of the knowledge of good and bad, that until there is the freedom to choose, then there is no relationship. I think that Christ learned obedience through what he suffered. He had no other choice. That's right. That's a good connection. And we all learned obedience through what we suffer.

[28:53]

Did those first folks in the garden learn obedience really through what they suffered? There's kind of no way around suffering. Which takes us right back to the cross as the tree again. It's not how true it ties in with the quote from St. Irenaeus. He thought the wilderness to be totally beautiful. He got short of where that goes. I'm thinking, if I'm choosing to be totally and completely... If I'm choosing my life, but at the same time to know that the same consequence can still come. Yeah, that what does it mean to be fully human is really a piece of that.

[29:55]

And how does, you know, Irenaeus says someplace else, the glory of God is the human being fully alive. It's back again to God trusting us with life, too. Sometimes it's said about, this is kind of a tangent, but I have a feeling that it's gonna meet in the front, that the choice in this text, you know, you have to choose, you get good and bad together, you either eat from the tree of the knowledge, you don't get, you know, a tree of good and a tree of bad, it kind of comes all in a package. And that in human life, they come together. That even, and if we take it to the cross, that it's life But life comes through suffering and through death. That for us, ultimately, life comes through death.

[31:00]

And never letting go of that relationship with God and never letting go of the trust. It's been said that part of the choice in the garden is a choice of either immortality for themselves or fruitfulness. That if they never died, then there would be no need for children. And so you don't start getting stories of children until after the tree. And parents of children tell me that there really is the knowledge of good and bad in having children. The choice of a full human life and the willingness to take all of what it brings, too. I'm not sure where it goes either. Maybe it means that we have to change our concept of what we think of as evil. If that's the case, maybe it means something. Well, and maybe Plan B, you know, at the Easter Vigil, we're going to sing, Oh Happy Fault that merited such a Redeemer.

[32:11]

Maybe Plan B really is better than whatever Plan A was, which we don't know. But also, the full acceptance of ourselves, I think, is extremely rare. That's part of where the problem lies. we're unable to accept ourselves fully. And then so we've got all kinds of problems out there, but the problem is children. We're fully accepting. So our, what the great gift is our responsibility. And that's what we don't want in all kinds of things. Right. We're not guaranteed through insurance or plans. we'd rather guarantee anything than take the risk. And the willingness to be human is really a willingness to be fallible. I mean, that takes you right to Benedict's chapter on humility, the willingness to really be what we are.

[33:21]

Yeah, that's rare. We'd much rather... We'd rather be perfect. We'd rather be God. Wouldn't we all? But that's not what we are. And to accept the ambiguity of being image of God and finding life through wisdom and yet knowing that every day we've got to get up and look at this question of good and bad and that we just keep wending our way through is not easy. Not easy. We're the only people who are making a living out of something we don't know what the original is. Oh, I like that. I like that. Yeah, right. Right. Sometimes I wonder, too, if... I read an article a long time ago by Lewis Thomas.

[34:35]

I don't know if you've read it. He's a scientist, but he does a lot of... I don't know if he's still writing. He used to write for Saturday Review, and he did a lot of kind of essays on science. But he's got an essay in one of his books about DNA. And he says, DNA is how you can tell the difference between God and human beings. If we were creating the world, we would have gotten this DNA and kept it in the lab until it operated the same way every time. God, on the other hand, starts the whole thing and then turns it loose with all this freedom. And in a sense, it says something about human creation too. God creates us all with all our quirks and quivers and turns us all loose. There's something about the wonderful humility of God and God's, Brueggemann's really right, God's trust in us to let us be free, which must say something about what God is like.

[35:44]

about what it means to be image of God. Well, it's what you said last night about surprise. The one thing I know about whatever's going to happen after I die is that I'm going to be surprised. Whatever else it is, I don't know. But given all the other stories about God, I'm sure I'm going to be surprised. Does that give us enough to think about? Where we're going from this is to the question of how do we be like God? What does this obedience mean? How do we know what to obey? How do we know how to live? How do we know what it means to really eat from the tree of life to really taste wisdom.

[36:48]

So that's where we'll go this evening. And we'll end with our call to wisdom. O wisdom proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, announced by the prophets, come teach us the way of salvation. Come, Lord, come to save us.

[37:18]

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