Sirach 24.1-6 (NRSV)
Wisdom praises herself and tells of her glory in the midst of her people. In the assembly of the Most High she opens her mouth, and in the presence of his hosts she tells of her glory: “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist. I dwelt in the highest heavens, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud. Alone I compassed the vault of heaven and traversed the depths of the abyss. Over waves of the sea, over all the earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.
Sirach 24.19-22
“Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my fruits. For the memory of me is sweeter than honey, and the possession of me sweeter than the honeycomb. Those who eat of me will hunger for more, and those who drink of me will thirst for more. Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame, and those who work with me will not sin.”
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Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Sirach are known as “Wisdom literature” and are very different from anything else in the Bible. Their closest parallels are extra-biblical (and even more ancient) texts from Egyptian and Mesopotamian literature associated with education or instruction. Much of Sirach parallels an Egyptian code of conduct for a young prince.
I am particularly enamored of Sirach, especially the idea of a mist engulfing the entire planet in wisdom. It is a wonderful description of the mystical becoming physical. The planet is “mist”ified, and in that “mistification” comes wisdom’s clarity.
Wisdom literature addresses fundamental questions about universal truths, particularly about well-being, which in that era was a holistic idea about a person’s spiritual and physical wellness.
The idea of Wisdom as more than an intellectual pursuit is foundational to every religion that traces its roots to the Ancient Near East. Contemporary humans, especially Americans, tend to think of Wisdom as an intellectual pursuit, or even an intellectual gift. But in scripture, Wisdom is a theology, an idea about the creative mechanism of God.
In particular, Wisdom is a creation theology that says God is involved in the world by being in everything in the world. God’s breath, the mist we read about in scripture, is the creative force within every physical object and sustains everything we can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. Wisdom helps us comprehend God as something more than a superman in the sky. Wisdom guides us through the revelation of the universes quantum mechanics and helps us understand the mechanism of God’s touch.
Wisdom is about seeing the mundane in a spectacularly new way—as part of God, as part of us. Wisdom is God’s interconnecting breath of life. Paul might say, wisdom is what brings all things from, through, and to God.
Wisdom is what makes our life energies phenomenally exuberant, calling us to experience, perhaps even to create mystical moments.
The creative power of wisdom freely flowing through us enhances our awareness of God in everything. We more easily, readily, and naturally respect the planet and every creature on it because we know, not just mentally, but emotionally, spiritually, in our lifeblood, that God is right there, looking back at me through the eyes of a stranger, through the taste of wet air, in knowing the unknown, and seeing the unseen.
Wisdom comes when we start to understand each other as mystical beings. That recognition changes attitudes and systems. Transaction-based economics changes through the wisdom of God-beings respecting one another. We don’t seek to eliminate rivals. We cooperate and encourage good-natured competition. Wisdom literature tells us that life (and business) are not zero-sum games, even though that has been the traditional human approach. Life as a winner-take-all competition threatens the survival of the species. The year 2020 is proof of that.
Our human task—the reason we exist for more than the material trappings of our fabricated reality—is to find those moments when we not only know God intellectually but also when we feel God compelling us to act as agents of Wisdom. These moments happen everywhere, from the grocery store parking lot to the highest mountain top.
When I lived in Salt Lake City, I would regularly go up into the mountains to read. One wintry day, I was sitting on a rock when I noticed a soft light gently outlining everything. Then, long, wispy, cotton-candy like fibers were flowing as if underwater, connecting it all together. I sat in awe watching the physical breath of God do what God does: unite.
Later, when I was telling my friends about the experience, they chuckled. Because Salt Lake sits in a valley, there is a weather phenomenon that often causes these wispy strands to appear in the mountain forests surrounding the city, especially in the winter. I think my friends thought that realizing the Wisdom Wisps were natural would bring me back to earth (because nobody ever believes you’ve had a mystical experience), but knowing the wisps were a natural phenomenon just encouraged me and, in my mind, proved my point: We are connected, and sometimes, you can see it.
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Our ancestors valued the inventive work of wisdom so highly that it became part and parcel of the nature of God, the creative force through which God accomplishes all God’s work.
As explorers made in God’s image, specifically as explorers of Earth in this particular spacetime, we need to once again embrace God’s wisdom, recognize it all around us, and awaken people to Wisdom’s presence. Because right now, more than anything else, the world needs to be mistified.
Amen.
Question: What does wisdom mean to you?
