A sermon by Associate Minister Elsa A. Peters, May 30, 2010
Proverbs 8:1-4
Proverbs 8:22-31
We speak about God as if we know exactly what God is – and where God will show up. It’s not true. Most often, it seems, God appears in our questions. Questions like… “Where am I?”
It’s a common question asked by dementia patients. They wander off. They end up in supermarkets. They end up on buses. They become very hard to find. It doesn’t matter what assurances the caretakers offer. These patients insist that they must be somewhere else – this place, in this care facility is not where they belong. The only solution seems to be to lock these patients up. Of course, that’s not ideal. On the contrary, it’s horrible. And so, in Dusseldorf, Germany at the Benrath Senior Center, a man whose name I don’t dare pronounce decided that the only possible solution was to build a bus stop. Yes, a bus stop. His peers were equally puzzled. But, no matter how curious it seemed, a bus stop was erected.
And then, one day, there was a lady at the Senior Center that was having an episode. She thought she was a little girl and she needed to go home. Her mom needed her. She needed to get there as fast as she could. No matter how the nurses tried to calm her, she was insistent–so the nurses let her go outside and wait at the bus stop. So there she sat and waited. And waited. And waited. A nurse came to sit beside her until this woman forgot why she was there so they went inside to have some tea.
Wisdom’s call seems to be just as calm and just as assuring. Come inside. Now that you’ve had time to stop and think, let’s go have some tea. I’ve been here since the beginning, Wisdom assures. God created me before anything else. I know the depths. I know the peaks. I’ve been there, Wisdom says. I was there even before those highs and lows were formed. I know, Wisdom comforts. I was there when God established the heavens. I was there when God gave limits to the seas. I was there when order was created from chaos. I was right there beside God watching it all happen. I was there. Daily in God’s delight. I was there to rejoice in every moment of this inhabited world, Wisdom instructs. I was there in the very beginning to delight in the human race. And, I will be…
But, she’s not that clear on this point. She doesn’t say that she’ll always be there. Wisdom simply offers us the comforting assurance that she was there when it all came to be. She was there waiting with God like a nurse waiting on a bench at a bus stop with a woman that no longer knows where she is. But, it’s not a bus stop. Wisdom calls instead from a busy intersection at the crossroads. She’s standing in the middle of everything where chaos intersects. That’s where she stands. “She takes her stand beside the gates in front of the town.” There’s probably a bus stop there – but there’s no comforting assurance that a cup of tea awaits when we finally figure out the answers to our questions.
Instead, Wisdom is a tad callous. She’s not gentle or even polite. She’s loud. She’s assertive. This isn’t a woman that shows up after soaking up years of experience upon this earth. She intersects at this moment demanding us to learn. That’s all she wants. Wisdom calls for our understanding. It’s that understanding that raises her voice. She comes when we ask ourselves questions. She knows how important the answers are. She knows how badly we need to know. But, this is tough love. Wisdom doesn’t offer us a cup of tea or even a place to sit. There is no place for that in the crossroads. There is too much chaos. Too much confusion. Too much unknown. Instead, she waits for us to notice. Wisdom stands at the intersection, raising her voice, calling out. She knows that she can’t distract us. She knows that we’re more stubborn than she is – and so she waits for us to make the choice to actually listen.
It’s then when we choose to finally pay attention – no matter how many times we’ve asked the same frustrating questions – that we find God. Of course, she was there all along. We just weren’t paying any attention. But when we are in the crossroads, where we know that something is going to happen, when we are flooded with questions, it’s then that we can invite God to raise her voice. If we really want to hear her, we can try to understand, to learn, and even to grow. In those moments, in those questions that we’re brave enough to ask, God comes beside us like a master worker.
That masterful work appeared in the question asked on the hard floor of a school gymnasium. Wisdom was there. There was no question mark lingering at the end of this little girl’s words. She repeated what she had heard and what she was trying so hard to understand when she asked Michelle Obama, “My mom … she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t have papers.” This little girl was quick to add that her mother doesn’t have papers. Certainly, chaos surrounds this little girl. The fears of the world are real as she stands in the midst of her own crossroads. Still, this little girl sitting on the floor of a gymnasium tried to understand.
She made the choice to listen. In her simple question, she decided she wanted to learn. No one invited her to tea. No one assured this little girl that everything would be OK, but just like the woman at the bus stop, she wanted to understand the chaos around her. She wanted to know where she fits in. She made the choice to listen to Wisdom raising her voice above all the other noise.
And, my friends, it’s that voice that calls to all that live –young and old, male and female, immigrant and native, slave and free. It’s that voice that was there since the beginning. She was the very first thing that God made. God needed her. God created Wisdom to be a divine companion so that in all that God made, from the depths to the hills, Wisdom was always by God’s side. She held God’s hand. She delighted in God’s understanding of this world that we now inhabit. She was daily God’s delight – and so it seems she should be our delight. No matter where we stand in the crossroads or when we dare to ask questions, Wisdom could be our delight. It won’t be easy. It won’t be entirely comfortable as growth rarely is. Still, Wisdom calls to us. She raises her voice. She waits for us to hear so that she may be our companion too.