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. What I'd like to begin with tonight is just a short two-verse section of Proverbs 8, and I'm going to use that for my takeoff and then gather a whole lot of texts to go with it. The two verses are verses 30 and 31 in Proverbs 8. Wisdom says, then I was beside God as his designer, and I was God's delight, day by day, playing before God all the while, playing on the surface of the earth, and I found delight in the children of earth.

[01:13]

Now, the four lines, I was God's delight, playing before God, playing on the surface of the earth, and I found delight in human beings. You know, you've got delight on the outside and playing. on the inside of this. God's delight playing before God, playing on the earth, and her delight is in us. So, in a sense, what's happening is she is the bridge. She is God's delight and we are her delight. She plays before God. She plays on the surface of the earth. So she's the one who links God and human beings. She's the one who links heaven and earth. She really is the bridge between heaven and earth. And I think that just as in the covenant story, the initial covenant story with Abraham, the first tangible gift of the covenant, the first tangible promise that's fulfilled is named laughter.

[02:29]

Now, I think I said the other night, I've wondered sometimes whether that's good or bad. But I think it's significant that this sign of the bond between human beings and God really has that name of joy, of laughter. And here we have the signs of wisdom, and the real bridge is in delight and in play. And actually, the verb for play is a cognate of Isaac. So you even have a little echo of the covenant there. So what are the signs of wisdom? Delight and play. And what are the signs of wisdom's bridge between us and God? It's delight and play. It's that energy for life that has delight in it. We started out talking about fear of the Lord. a month ago when we started this, and we talked about wonder and surprise.

[03:31]

Now, there it is in the delight and in the play. Now, what does that say about wisdom's gifts to us, about wisdom as this bridge between us and God? In the book of wisdom, in the wisdom of Solomon, In chapter 7, the author says, to us, she is an unfailing treasure. Those who gain this treasure win the friendship of God. And so, it's those who gain wisdom who win God's friendship. There's your bridge again. This author goes on to say, passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets. For there is not God loves, be it not one who dwells with wisdom.

[04:34]

And so, wisdom is the one who makes us friends of God. She's the bridge who joins us to God, and not only joins us, but makes us friends with God. bridge, that joining to God, that being friends with God, that wisdom does for us, that is the source in the end of our immortality. That is the source of life for us. It's in the unity, it's in the relationship with God. And also in the Book of Wisdom, the sage says, And this is in the voice of Solomon, you know, that this sage is writing. And he says, for her sake, I should have immortality. And that gets said several times. That's 8.13 and 8.17. He says, thinking thus within myself and reflecting in my heart that there is immortality

[05:42]

in kinship with wisdom, good pleasure in her friendship, and unfailing riches in the works of her hands, I went about seeking to take her for my own." So relationship with wisdom gives us immortality. The goal of wisdom is life, and she is the source of life, and the source of life comes because she is the bridge between us and God. Now, in the wisdom books, this whole problem, we talked about this yesterday, but this whole problem of death. is a real puzzle through all the wisdom books until you get to the wisdom of Solomon. Because it's until you get to that point, there isn't another wisdom book that has a real belief in life after death of the five, Proverbs, Job, Sirach, Koheleth. None of those four have a real belief in life after death. It's only when you get to the wisdom of Solomon

[06:43]

And we mentioned this last night too, but the wisdom of Solomon says that that immortality, that eternal life, really is in righteousness. Now, the text that says that is in chapter 1, and I'm going to back up to verse 12. The sage says, "...court not death by your erring way of life, nor draw to yourselves destruction by the works of your hands." Now, he's saying that we're the ones that bring death to ourselves. You either can court death or you can court life. It's back to Deuteronomy 30. I set before you life and death. Choose. But the older texts say it's the Lord who raises up and the Lord who casts down. It's God who brings life and it's God who brings death. You can find that in 1 Samuel.

[07:48]

You find it all the way up to the book of Tobit. It's in the Psalms, that kind of raising and lowering and life and death. But this sage says, "...God did not make death, nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living. For God fashioned all things that they might have being, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them, nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for righteousness is undying." We're going to have to unpack what this righteousness is, but before we do, there's one other thing I want to add to this. He goes on to say, it was the wicked who, with hands and words, invited death, considered it a friend, and pined for it, and made a covenant with it. So you either make a covenant with life, or you make a covenant with death. And he ends this little section

[08:49]

with a truth that we all hold, God formed human beings to be imperishable. The image of the divine nature God made them, but by the envy of the devil, death entered the world. and those who are in his possession experience it. Now that's where the interpretation of Genesis 3, the serpent, as Satan comes in. It's in this book of wisdom, which is about 50 BCE. So what the wisdom author is saying is We have a choice between life and death. Now, we had that before, but he's saying that there is an undying nature that's possible to human beings, that God made us to be imperishable. God did not make death, but we have a choice where we're going to make a covenant. And the key word that he uses is the word righteousness.

[09:55]

Now, that of course takes us back to the law, but righteousness in biblical terms is always dependent on relationship. Righteousness in the Bible cannot be measured by a code of law, but only by the demands of the relationship. And if you take the Hebrew word tzedakah and you go through, you will discover that again and again and again, it is the demands of the relationship that make one either righteous or not. So, what is being said here is that it's the relationship with God that's undying. And if our relationship with God is undying, we can't die. Now, if you go back and think about what we said about Jesus this morning, that putting nothing in the way of God, death couldn't cling. It just went right through. And he is the firstborn.

[11:00]

That's true of us. If we put nothing in the way of God, it's the relationship that makes us undying. Now, if righteousness is dependent upon the demands of the relationship, there are a lot of implications. First of all, that makes us, that demands of us, a tolerance of ambiguity. because every relationship is different. Now, it doesn't mean there are no norms, but it means that we cannot judge one another. It removes the possibility of judging each other if we don't just have a standard ruler here and you either are 5'2 or 6'3. It takes away the possibility of judging one another. You have a right in the relationship between you all and me to expect some things of me.

[12:03]

And to be righteous, I have to honor the demands of the relationship we have. My sisters have a right to expect something else from me. And so they have a right to expect something different. And to be righteous, I have to be faithful in that relationship also. My family has another set of demands because of the relationship. Righteousness is dependent upon the demands of the relationship. Now, we're back to covenant again, of course, because what is covenant but the relationship? The virtue demanded in the covenant is what's in Psalm 117, that little tiny psalm, strong the love embracing us, faithful our God forever. Faithful love is the demand in the covenant of both God and us. We have the right to demand faithful love from God because of the covenant, and God has the right to demand faithful love from us.

[13:08]

It calls for discernment, for knowing what is good and for knowing what is bad, because the demands of each relationship then call for judgment. Now, I'll tell you my favorite story about righteousness, my favorite example of this. And I like it because of the ambiguity. It's the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. Now, I think you may know this story. Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, gets a wife for his son Ur, and the wife's name is Tamar. But Ur is wicked, Genesis says, and so he dies. Well, according to that law of leverate marriage, then the brother-in-law is required to marry the widow in order to raise up children for the dead man. Now, this is partly because there's no belief in life after death, and if you don't have a belief in life after death, the only way you continue is through your children, and it's partly a social security for the widow.

[14:17]

Now, nobody asks the widow if she wants to do this, but that's the way it is. She probably prefers that to some of the other options. So, the next brother, Onan, marries Tamar. Now, a couple of underlying things. There seemed to be a reluctance to this lever at marriage, not because of taking a second wife, but because of diminishing the inheritance. There was an economic resistance to this, because if you raised up children to your for your dead brother, then your own children, of course these children are going to be yours too, but your own children are going to get less share of the inheritance. So Onan doesn't want to do it. So he prevents conception, God is angry, and he dies. So now Judah is not really anxious for Tamar to marry the third son. It's not healthy for Judah's sons to marry Tamar, apparently.

[15:20]

And so Judah says, well, you go home to your father's house and wait, because the third son's too young. So she waits, and she waits, and she waits, and the third son grows up, and she waits, and she waits, and she's committed to the third son. She can't do anything else. She can't marry anyone else. But she can't do anything unless Judah does this. So she disguises herself. as a prostitute. And she goes out and she sits by the road where she knows that Judah is going to pass by. And Judah thinks she is a prostitute. And you have the shortest deal on record. He goes up to her and says, let me have intercourse with you. And she says, what will you pay me? And he says, a kid from the flock. And she says, fine, give me your MasterCard. That's basically the interchange. I mean, what she asks for is something to identify him by. You know, it's the cord and the seal and the staff. And then in this story where you have barren women from Genesis 12 all the way to the end, you get in about four Hebrew words, he has intercourse with her, she conceives and he leaves.

[16:29]

Bam. Okay. She goes home, takes off her disguise and waits. Well, in a few months it becomes evident that she is pregnant. And so they bring her out to be executed for adultery because she is committed to this third brother. And she says, on her way to be executed, it is the man to whom these things belong who is the father of my child. And, of course, Judah recognizes that they are his. He, meanwhile, has tried to send somebody off to pay her and can't find her. And the people say, there has never been a prostitute here. And they're right, there never has. But anyway, Judah recognizes his master card and he says, this is the key line, she is more righteous than I am. And then she gives birth to twins and they show up in the genealogy of Jesus as we know in Matthew, she's one of the great grandmothers of Jesus.

[17:37]

Now, she is more righteous than I am. She is more righteous than Judah because she honored the demands of the relationship with her dead husband, whereas Judah did not. It was not even her responsibility, but she honored the demands of the relationship. Now ordinarily, seducing your father-in-law is not considered a righteous act, and it is certainly not something to be imitated. But it's a wonderful illustration that biblical righteousness is not measured by a law code, but by the demands of the relationship. You can ponder that. It's one of my favorite stories. This is an aside, but... Once when I was teaching undergraduates, there was a kind of fairly good-sized guy sitting in the back who had said nothing through the whole class until I told this story one day.

[18:45]

He kind of perked up, and he said, is that in the Bible? I said, mm-hmm. He said, where? I thought, you know, whatever catches their interest, OK. Okay, so righteousness is based on the demands of the relationship. That's why the call in the law, actually, is to be like God. To honor the demands of relationships as God honors them. To take care of the poor and needy, to love one another as God loves us, and so on. Now, wisdom is the bridge. Wisdom really is the one who links us in this relationship with God. She is God's delight. We are her delight. It's this delight that bridges the way between us and God. Now, if we think about... I'm going to do a little leap here to the New Testament, so come with me.

[19:55]

If we think then about Christ as the wisdom of God, and then Christ as the bridge between us and God, Paul says in 1 Corinthians, What you said this morning, Bruno, Paul says, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the learning of the learned I will set aside. Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolish? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith."

[20:59]

This is vintage Paul. If there's anybody who can line up opposites, it's Paul. And Paul is saying wisdom, human wisdom based on human experience can only go so far and then it collapses. It can never get all the way to God. Human wisdom based on common human experience is not enough. Now we started there the first night. We talked about wisdom based on common human experience and wisdom as a gift of God. We've gotten as far as we can get with human wisdom, and it's not enough. God has made the wisdom of this world foolish. So now we need the gift of God's wisdom to be the bridge. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified. Now that doesn't look like wisdom at all.

[22:00]

A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." That is an absolutely wonderful sentence. The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. Our wisdom can only go so far, and it's God's folly that's wiser than that. And the weakness of God, in a sense the weakness of God for us, is stronger than human strength. Christ Jesus became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that as it is written, whoever boasts should boast in the Lord.

[23:06]

Wisdom is based on common human experience, but in the end, it is the gift of God that is the bridge. It is the gift of God that makes our human wisdom wise. And Paul goes on and says, you know, I wasn't very eloquent. And then he says, but we do speak of wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away, but rather God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory. And that wisdom is, what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him. We're back to what we said again. I don't remember when we said it, but the thing about the one thing we know is that we're going to be surprised.

[24:10]

You know, that what God has prepared for us in the wisdom of God is greater than our human wisdom can even imagine. Our imaginations can go only so far, and then it's not enough. Now, this folly of the cross, the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. God will do anything to maintain the relationship. If there is anything that we learn from the incarnation, from the whole life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, it is that there is nothing that God will not do, in a sense, to maintain the relationship. We had the story of Abraham in Genesis 22, where Abraham was willing to let go of anything in order to keep the relationship.

[25:15]

Now what we have here is testimony that God is willing to let go of anything in order to keep the relationship. It is the relationship that is undying. Now, if there's anything that again says that Augustine's sentence is true, it's this, that when we think we have understood, what we have understood is not God. At this point, human wisdom just kind of collapses, and faith has to move in. The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. God is willing to enter into the complete experience, the complete human experience, including suffering and death, in order to be the bridge. And if Christ is who we say he is, if he is truly God and truly human, he is indeed the bridge, as wisdom is the bridge.

[26:27]

He is the wisdom of God. Last Sunday's second reading is almost a stronger expression of that. You talked about the new creation a little bit in your homily, which was tops. Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. Now, keep all these images together, because we've got wisdom, remember, back at creation. Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old things have passed away, and behold, new things have come. Christ is the Word of God, the wisdom of God, who was present at creation, the designer, the orderer of creation, and now Christ is the firstborn of the new creation, the designer, the orderer, the one who brings it to life. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, now there's the bridge, and given us

[27:31]

the ministry of reconciliation. There's the demand of the relationship. The demand is to be like God. God has reconciled himself to us through Christ and now has given us the ministry of reconciliation. There's a gospel that gets read on the second Sunday of Easter and then it's also read on Pentecost. It's the one where Christ appears to the disciples in the upper room and says, you know, whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven and whose sins you shall keep they are kept. And one year I was kind of in my ordinary little stupor listening to that gospel, and all of a sudden I thought, you know, wouldn't that be something? If Christ showed up and said, you know, whoever you forgive is forgiven, wouldn't you just run out and forgive everybody? And then I thought, that's the point, honey, that's what you're hearing.

[28:32]

That is exactly what Christ is saying to us. You know, we have the ministry of reconciliation. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ. Now, if wisdom is the bridge and Christ is the wisdom of God who is the bridge, then we're the ambassadors that say, Here is the bridge. As if God were appealing through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, God made him to be sin, which is alienation, back in Genesis 3, made him to be sin, who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Now if there ever was a reversal, if there ever was a conversion, it's there.

[29:40]

God made him to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. Righteousness, it's the relationship that is undying and it is through Christ that we are reconciled. It is through Christ that the bridge is open. And we become the righteousness of God and so then we have the ministry to carry on the reconciliation. That takes me, well it takes me several places. One of the things that it says to me is the humility of God. The great humility of God who for our sakes is willing to do anything.

[30:46]

who is willing, as Paul says, to make him to be sin who did not know sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. I think there is no greater humility than that. It takes me back again to Psalm 130, which we had tonight, I was really glad, to the awe at God's forgiveness. If this doesn't lead us to fear of the Lord, I don't know what does. And back to the fact that real fear of the Lord, that real awe at the overwhelming love of God, to experience God, to know God is to love God, which leads us back to more deeper fear of the Lord. That's as deep as I can go in that. I get the bends going that far.

[31:51]

And so, do you want to sit with that for a minute and then see if there's anything you want to say about that? I was struck by what you said, how you were moved listening to that gospel, you know?

[32:57]

God's looking at us, don't you want to run out? I was thinking, when you're in love, you want everybody to have the same love. That's right. You love the whole world, everything. That's right, everything's wonderful. Everything is mysteriously miraculous. Which is part of what you were saying on Sunday, that that experience somehow opens us so much and turns everything into a new creation, transforms us. And sometimes I think it's because we can't bear it. I think it's because it's too much for us. But I think that a lot of the time we really don't believe how much God loves us. You know, I think it's just, it's just too much for us. Well, the Old Testament, what does it really set us up for the incarnation of God?

[33:59]

Oh, I think so, yeah. Humanity, by the way. I think so. Right. And I think that it does it in a kind of wonderful way, that because wisdom really does have that basis and that high respect for common human experience, that it sets us up for the fact that God can be revealed in human experience. And then, of course, what is Jesus besides the revelation of God in human experience? To be sin is what Paul says. I wouldn't have the nerve to say it if Paul didn't say it too.

[35:02]

Yeah. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I can sympathize if you lost your train of thought. I lose mine in the middle of that too. Were you going to go somewhere with that? It is. I agree. Oh, the reversal. Yeah. And there's a conversion in it. I said, I used the word conversion, that might be. And the humility of God. Did you end up with a statement saying, God makes Christ be same, reconciling us?

[36:03]

Something I like out there, I would like you to read it. So that we might be reconciled with one another. Oh, I know how I got there. Yeah, that God makes him to be sinned so that we might become the righteousness of God. That's what this last sentence says. And that righteousness then is that relationship. And so that's the reconciliation. And then earlier Paul has said that we are the ministers of reconciliation. And so it's that it's also that we might carry that reconciliation to the rest of you know, I mean, starting right here. And that's, I think that's where I went. When I was thinking, it was overwhelming for me, as you said earlier, the righteousness is the demand. The relationship. Relationship. Then, logically, you know, I didn't have, how do we, what would come across to me is that, well, am I willing to

[37:07]

take on sin and be sin. Yeah. Yeah, for the reconciliation. Yeah. You know, and as you're saying that, I wonder if that connects to the willingness to be human. You know, the willingness to be The willingness to be like God without grasping at being God. I wonder, when you were saying that, it connected for me, in a sense, the willingness. We are sinners, and so the willingness to really acknowledge the reality of that for the sake of... I wonder. Well, it's very much, at some point, directly connected to your willingness to be human. And you said, you started this thing this morning with talking with God.

[38:15]

Those who want to be equal to God but don't want to be human. It's a great fact. Right. Cannot reach God. And this really pushes that, yeah. The thing this morning when we started off by talking about We're condeemed reputationally to be female or male. I don't know what else to say about it. We're always a feminine person. Only when we can... Well, I don't know what else I can say about it. We can't be seen, because somehow we are humble about it. But the more, the closer we get to seeing, the closer we are to that entitlement and social movement of those we love.

[39:23]

And somehow that's all tied in with that whole mystery of humility. Are you trailing this? Yeah, it's the truth. The truth, yeah. Right, right. Which, in the end, turns out to be a gift. I said that. I stole it. That's right. Right. 100% human. Totally. Totally. Yeah, but... Then it's, yeah. It's almost, it's also divine in the acceptance, total acceptance of humanity.

[40:49]

No, I think it's not. I think there's a, and now of course I'm not a systematic theologian, it's because I tell stories, I don't, but I think it, there is, it is in that genuine willingness to live and be who we are. And I think that is where redemption comes. You know, something else you said triggered this, but about the demands of the relationship and the ministry of reconciliation. The command Christ gives us, the one command really of the New Testament, you know, I give you a new commandment in the Gospel of John, is love one another. It's not only love one another, it's love one another as I have loved you now you know again it's back to what the law really is is to be like is teaching us how to be like God but love one another as I have loved you that there is not a stronger demand in terms of the demands of the relationship that's that's pretty

[42:03]

We can spend the rest of our lives working on that. Normally we have no problem with that. But accepting the other one to be human is the problem. Because we want to be an angel or something. And if it was an angel, then it wouldn't slam the door, it wouldn't keep the floor dirty, keep the lights on. And do it every day. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. True. That's really true. And that's, you know, the big demands of community. You know, if there's a major crisis, we're all there. But it's those little things, those little daily things that you can just

[43:10]

You cannot, if you ever talk to people in my house, you can't repeat this. But I live in this little small group. It's the first time I've lived in a group where I'm the eldest. It's kind of a jarring reality, but we have a little kitchenette and so on. No one else in my group ever washes dishes. The little are little, you know, cups and saucers. It's hardly ever anything else. And I know perfectly well that when I get home tomorrow, there's going to be a whole stack of cups and saucers, and here and there may be a plate. Now, that's not the dishes I'm really going home to do. But if I went home two weeks from now, they'd still be there. Now, I've finally made up my mind that either I'm going to wash them and be peaceful about it, because obviously I'm the only one who cares if they're washed, or I'm going to be cranky because they shouldn't be. But it's like, oh, well, you know, they do wonderful things for me.

[44:16]

I can wash coats. But I don't feel that way every day. Sister, it is wisdom which seeks wisdom. It does make sense to me. What does it tell you? What it tells me is that even the beginnings of the search in us the seeking for wisdom is already a manifestation of wisdom, that real folly would never seek wisdom. And so it's already the wisdom within us that seeks wisdom, which supports the fact that wisdom is a gift, for one thing. And it also, I think, supports the fact that there is a

[45:17]

It's the way God has made us that we have the search, unless we really turn it off. There's a line in, I think it's Proverbs 4, it's someplace in the first nine chapters where it says, instead of saying, the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord, it says, the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom. Get wisdom. And it's like, well, how can this be, you know? If I don't have wisdom already, how can I get wisdom if that's the beginning of wisdom? But I think that's what that means. Does that say anything to you? Yeah. It brings it, the remark, it feels to me that it brings it. closer, that wisdom is something that has to depend on us to exist, as opposed to something outside of us, out there to be searched. well and again it's the you know it it again brings up that kind of mystery of the bridge that that wisdom does depend on us to do the search I mean there's the thing about common human wisdom but that we couldn't do it by ourselves without the gift so it's wisdom really requires both the gift of God and and the human

[46:39]

reflection and experience. Search. which, in the end, redemption does. One of the things about wisdom is also knowing when to quit, and I can smell popcorn. I have a few things I would just like to say, though, as I quit. One is a very great thank you. You are great on Benedictine hospitality. I have come to expect that in Benedictine houses, and you have exceeded my expectations. You've all welcomed me. You've been kind to me. You've done everything that I could have hoped for. I'm really grateful for being able to share with you in choir. I appreciated that, and I appreciated your prayer very much. It was a really joy for me. I would ask you to pray for me and to pray for my community. If I know anything, it's because they taught me.

[47:42]

And my prayer for us is that may Christ, who is the wisdom of God, lead us all together to everlasting life. Thank you.

[47:52]

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