Is anyone listening?

Proverbs 1:20-33 (The Message)

20-21 Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
At the town center she makes her speech.
In the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
At the busiest corner she calls out:

22-24 "Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?
Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?
Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?
About face! I can revise your life.
Look, I'm ready to pour out my spirit on you;
I'm ready to tell you all I know.
As it is, I've called, but you've turned a deaf ear;
I've reached out to you, but you've ignored me.

25-28 "Since you laugh at my counsel
and make a joke of my advice,
How can I take you seriously?
I'll turn the tables and joke about your troubles!
What if the roof falls in,
and your whole life goes to pieces?
What if catastrophe strikes and there's nothing
to show for your life but rubble and ashes?
You'll need me then. You'll call for me, but don't expect
an answer.
No matter how hard you look, you won't find me.

29-33 "Because you hated Knowledge
and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-God,
Because you wouldn't take my advice
and brushed aside all my offers to train you,
Well, you've made your bed—now lie in it;
you wanted your own way—now, how do you like it?
Don't you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots?
Carelessness kills; complacency is murder.
First pay attention to me, and then relax.
Now you can take it easy—you're in good hands."


A few weeks ago I sat down with a colleague to plan our worship services and select the scriptures I would preach on from now through Christmas. As I read the lectionary selections for this part of the year I realized that the Old Testament readings all came from my favorite books – Proverbs, Ruth, Esther, and Job. These are stories that Jesus would have learned, that informed his knowledge of how we are to live, that shaped the way he told the stories that have come down to us. They are stories that we very often do not hear or study. So I have chosen to preach on the passages from these books over the next few months, beginning with proverbs.

The Book of Proverbs is a collection of sayings and poetry. It is the collective wisdom of the people of Israel, put together and written down during or possibly right after the exile in Babylon and attributed to Solomon because of his fabled wisdom. The first few lines describe what will be found within, proverbs for learning about wisdom and instruction, and states clearly that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs begins with the words of Lady Wisdom and ends with a celebration of the capable woman, who has taken the words of Lady Wisdom and lived them perfectly, an example to all who read this book.

Wisdom is a difficult thing to attain. We know about education and we know about intelligence. We even know how to measure those things with grades and degrees and IQ tests. But Wisdom is none of those things. We have all heard way too many stories about ivory tower professors who don’t know the first thing about life outside the university, geniuses who don’t pay attention to the real world enough to wear matching socks. We’ve probably had experiences with folks, like a fresh out of seminary pastor or a very young doctor, who has a brand new degree and knows everything that they were given to learn from books, but who still have much to learn when it comes to serving the people they have been given to serve. With time and a willingness to learn, wisdom can come.

According to the dictionary Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment. It is the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge and good judgment. Wisdom comes after thinking, considering, using common sense and knowledge of the community instead of leaping to conclusions or making decisions without sufficient evidence. I heard a lot about evidence at jury duty. Wisdom comes after prayer,. Wisdom is what we receive from reading and hearing the word of God here and in the teachings of the Christ.

You may wonder why Wisdom is represented as a woman. You are in good company. Scholars have been asking that question for literally thousands of years. One of the more popular theories is that Lady Wisdom may be modeled after the real roles of teacher, counselor and household planner played by women in their homes and communities. Women were not generally educated as men were but did possess wisdom on dealing with life as it was taught to them by their mothers and learned through experience. Many of us learned how to deal with other people and the kinds of situations that come up daily from wisdom we received from our own mothers. In novels I’m reading about life on the Arapaho reservation, wisdom comes from the grandmothers.

Wisdom is not restricted to women, of course. I was on jury duty this week. At the beginning of the selection process the judge told all the prospective jurors that it was important to have a variety of people on every jury, each one bringing their own brand of wisdom, their own life experience and understanding.

20-21 Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
At the town center she makes her speech.
In the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
At the busiest corner she calls out:

22-24 "Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?
Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?
Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?

The marketplace is filled with voices. From the telephone, tv, radio, and computer screen we hear voices and see images that grab for our attention. My days are filled with blogs and tweets and Facebook updates, with calls on my cell phone and house phone and office phone. All of those voices vying for my attention, many trying to convince me of one thing or another, trying to sell me a product or an idea. And amid all the voices, all the noise, all the distractions, Wisdom is trying to get my attention . No wonder she has to stand on the corner shouting. It’s the only way she can make herself heard over all things that go on every day keeping us from hearing.

And it seems that people simply are not hearing her. We’ve seen way too much of not-wisdom lately, the results of people just not thinking and listening to the voice of reason. The Health Care Reform argument, all the screaming and rudeness during town hall meetings, and then on Wednesday evening, a Congressman interrupting the President’s speech and calling him a liar in public. That California Assemblyman bragging about his sexual conduct in front of a microphone – and not knowing it was turned on is no excuse. The furor over whether an Olympic caliber runner may have been born with the sexual organs of both genders and whether that disqualifies her from competition as a woman. And on September 11th, CNN reporting, without any verification, that the Coast Guard had a terrorist boat in their sights and had fired on it when all that was happening was a routine training exercise in the Potomac. These are none them wise moves. None of these are decisions made with wisdom and understanding.

And so She calls out, like a street vender, trying to get our attention, to make us understand.
About face! I can revise your life.
Look, I'm ready to pour out my spirit on you;
I'm ready to tell you all I know.
As it is, I've called, but you've turned a deaf ear;
I've reached out to you, but you've ignored me.

Over and over again, God has tried to get our attention, like Lady Wisdom in the marketplace. Over and over God has sent prophets and judges, preachers and teachers. And yet, we don’t listen. Like children who refuse to believe their parents know anything, we run off on our own will, chasing our desires. Seeking power and wealth instead of serving God’s children. For way too many it seems like the driving force is “what’s in it for me?” , “what do I stand to gain or lose from this situation?” instead of “how will this serve God?” This was the attitude of the leaders of Judah, and their attitude and behavior sent the people into exile in Babylon. With belated understanding, they wrote down these words of Wisdom:

25-28 "Since you laugh at my counsel
and make a joke of my advice,
How can I take you seriously?
I'll turn the tables and joke about your troubles!
What if the roof falls in,
and your whole life goes to pieces?
What if catastrophe strikes and there's nothing
to show for your life but rubble and ashes?
You'll need me then. You'll call for me, but don't expect
an answer.
No matter how hard you look, you won't find me.

29-33 "Because you hated Knowledge
and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-God,
Because you wouldn't take my advice
and brushed aside all my offers to train you,
Well, you've made your bed—now lie in it;
you wanted your own way—now, how do you like it?
Don't you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots?
Carelessness kills; complacency is murder.

The threat here came true for Judah, as it did for Israel before that. Their countries were defeated, the people led away in chains to servitude under the enemy. They had refused to believe God’s word spoken by the prophets. They had stopped following God’s direction to care for the poor and downtrodden. They never did seem to get the point that God didn’t want sacrifices of gold and animals and incense. God didn’t care about regular attendance at the temple. The nation of Israel was torn apart and destroyed twice because the leaders didn’t get the point that Lady Wisdom makes here. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed twice because the leaders didn’t get the point that Lady Wisdom makes here. The sacrifice God wants from us is our love and obedience. God demands our presence not at church every Sunday, but in his kingdom every day. Making decisions of every kind with wisdom, following the directions we find here and in the Gospels. Reaching out without judgment or prejudice to care for those in need of our help.

The most important thing that we know is that God didn’t just turn away from Israel. When they repented, when they turned back to God, when they began praying and offering their lives to God again, God welcomed them back. God forgave all their transgressions, all the many years they had ignored the teachings, rejected God’s love. This is what Jesus grew up knowing, what he learned at his mother’s feet and from Proverbs and the prophets, and this is what he made sure to teach us. That no matter what we do, no matter how serious our sins, no matter how long we turned away from God, we are loved and we are forgiven. For hear the words of Lady Wisdom.

First pay attention to me, and then relax.
Now you can take it easy—you're in good hands."

Let our lives be made new each day through the Wisdom God has given to us in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, bringer of Holy Wisdom.