Proverbs 9:1-6
It’s one thing to watch a petite blonde woman bounce up and down with enthusiasm. It’s entirely another thing to admire a tall lanky middle-aged man behave in such a manner. But this is how I experienced the Hebrew Scriptures. In seminary, my Old Testament professor would get so excited about these Hebrew Scriptures (which we were encouraged to remember were anything but old for our Jewish sisters and brothers) that he would jump up and down in the sheer hope that we might remember one thing about these books of history and poetry. Write them on the tablet of your heart, he would say before we had any idea that this line came from the same text as Woman Wisdom herself. Write these words on the tablet of your heart.
This is where he would start jumping up and down as he reminded us the number of times the Israelites are given this same wisdom. Over and over again, they are told to write these words not on stone tablets, papyrus or paper — but on their hearts. This is where wisdom lives. But, you can’t learn this in a classroom (not even with a professor bouncing up and down) because you can’t learn about love. It’s something that you have to experience. It’s something you have to feel. It’s something that can come to live within your heart. Write that on the tablet of your heart, the Israelites were instructed. Whenever they dared to imagine that they might get to the Promised Land, God reminded them that it’s not out there but within. It can be in all your heart and in your all being and in all your strength. It can be part of you. You can choose to write that love onto your heart.
As it says two chapters earlier in the Book of Proverbs,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister”;
call understanding “friend,”
so she might guard you
against the mysterious woman,
from the foreign woman
who flatters you.
It’s not until later in this chapter that we share today that we discover who this other woman is, but you probably recognize her. We don’t need to read about her because you probably know her very well. She’s the one that embodies what felt like love — but when push came to shove, it didn’t last. It wasn’t God. It was the foreign woman who behaves just as Woman Wisdom does. She prepares a feast and welcomes guests to eat, drink and be merry (as the people of God are encouraged to do) but there’s something a little off about her. The text don’t mince words, but tells us,
Woman Folly is noisy;
she’s stupid and doesn’t even know it.
Now, I was not allowed to use that word as a child. My brother and I were told that it wasn’t a nice word. Stupid wasn’t a word that should be used to describe anyone, least of all ourselves. But, this isn’t the schoolyard word that I was forbidden to speak. This isn’t about intelligence or keenness or quickness or any other sort of mental ability. This goes back to the Latin root of the word meaning numb.
But you know that if you’ve met her before. You know that feeling of disconnectedness that she brings. You have felt that detachment before. But that doesn’t mean that you instantly reject her. Let’s be honest about that, shall we? Because it’s the same feeling we get when God doesn’t show up in the way we might like. But we don’t call out to wisdom to be our sister. We don’t ask understanding to be our friend. More than likely, we just get pissed at God.
God is not actually to blame. She has busied herself with building a seven pillared house, slaughtering animals for a feast and mixing wine. She asks her female servants (whoever they may be) to invite the usual suspects. But God goes out into the street calling upon stupid people like you and me to come to the feast. Remember this isn’t schoolyard slang. Stupid simply points to the fact that we’re numb. Somehow we’ve become so disconnected and detached that we are having trouble accepting this invitation. The question is: why?
Why are we so detached? Why can’t we make that connection that we so badly want? Why do we feel so numb? Is it because we have relied on simplistic ways? Is it because we would remain in the comfort of what we know? Or is it just simpler to satisfy ourselves with easy answers even if those answers don’t actually answer our many questions? Should we make more room for ambiguity in our lives?
Oh boy, do we have ambiguity! So much so that it overwhelms us. Here, in this church family, there is enough that is unknown where as only a few months ago things seemed steady and familiar. But, things have changed. A pastor has resigned and so this church family has new questions — questions that admittedly no one expected to be asking right now.
But, isn’t that what wisdom is? Woman Wisdom doesn’t erect her seven pillars in the familiar places where we know what to expect. No, she slaughters the animals and mixes the wine at those times and places where we have no earthly idea what will happen next. Woman Wisdom calls to us when we have forgotten to remember (if only for a moment) the love that we were told to write on our hearts.
That’s when Woman Wisdom hands you a plate heaping with food. That’s when she puts a goblet in your hand waiting for you to remember. Waiting for you to feel it. Waiting for you recognize the abundance of that love that has always been there for you. You just have to choose it. You have to remember, as the Israelites did, that this love has been promised to you. No matter what else might change, God has always said:
Listen, my child! Our God is the LORD! Only the LORD!
Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength.
Write these words on the tablet your heart. Make this love of God part of your very being so that you may teach it to your children. So that you may know this love in your very being. So that it may be part of you. Abandon whatever other simple explanations you might value. This is the one that matters. In this knowledge, there is life. So, don’t hesitate to have seconds or thirds. Have as many helpings as you need. Drink in this wisdom as you walk in the way of understanding and live.