Sermon Preached at Northbrae Community Church, July 24, 2005, by Ron Sebring

The Source of Wisdom

What is Wisdom?  Perhaps the first place to search is the Dictionary.  It is always good to have a dictionary sitting on your desk.  Now days, it’s just a mouse click away.  Move the curser. Click the button. Type in the word.  And you have it, the dictionary definition of "Wisdom."

From Microsoft Encarta Reference Library Dictionary, 2004:  "Good sense. The knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions." "Accumulated learning. Accumulated knowledge of life." "Opinion widely held, like, what is the "wisdom" of a certain group."

All these dictionary "usage" definitions do not quite reflect the Biblical understanding.  "Wisdom" is like the Buddhist word, "dharma." Look up "dharma" and dictionaries say it’s the "teachings of the Buddha."

But if all the teachers were gone, would the "dharma" no longer exist?  Certainly it exists. "Dharma" refers to basic "Truth," "Underlying," "Reality."

Buddhists discover this Truth, and then they teach it.  The "Truth" or "Dharma" has a Reality of its own, beyond the many human heads that try to expound upon it.  The Dictionary defines "wisdom" as "good sense" or "accumulated learning."  But if people do not have "good sense" or forgot their "accumulated learning," would "Wisdom" cease to exist? No!

"Wisdom" in Jewish scriptures … "Truth" or "Logos" or "Way" in Christian scriptures … is Divine, Eternal, and has an Abundant Life of its own.  We either get it. Or not. Wisdom is not in us. We chose whether to be in it.

"Wisdom," "Chokhmah," is a Divine Emanation, the Energy laden Universal Ideals that shape the way the world works. The Eternal and Moral Laws of the Universe.  It flows out of "Kether," the Divine Light that is the "Crowning" source of creation.  Wisdom exists, regardless of whether people grasp it.

"Understanding," "Binah," from a Divine perspective, is this enfolded Energy taking Form.  It, too, flows out of the "Crown" and evolves out of Wisdom.  From our human perspective, "Understanding," is how accurately our minds grasp "Truth" or "Wisdom" as Information (in-form-ation, images in our minds).

It’s like if I drew up a blueprint for building a house.  There are the rooms, halls, etc.  The wisdom, or pattern, for the house is on the paper.  But if I ignore some of the law of physics or principle of engineering, my human "understanding" for house-building will not quite match the hidden "wisdom" by which a house can stand.

The Wisdom for living life abundantly works in the same way. There are Eternal and Moral Laws by which things operate. These Laws have karma. Consequences.

I have my ideas and understandings for how things should work.  But these ideas may or may not match how God runs the universe. The wiser a person becomes, the more they match.  Thus the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer becomes a very powerful one - NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE BE DONE.

This phrase means we are perpetually in learning mode, open to the mysteries that trail a little bit ahead of what we understand.

The ark made a long and treacherous journey to Jerusalem.  This is the one thread upon which the stories of the Bible hang: the journey of the ark to Jerusalem.                                                                                                         TOP

The Patriarchs honed the idea of a "covenant" to give it a context.  Moses created the ark and set it in the tabernacle in the wilderness.  Joshua carried it across the Jordon.  It went from place to place with the Judges.  King Saul almost lost it to the Philistines.  King David brought it into Jerusalem.

Now: to build a temple. Now: to build a house and establish a home for the ark.

That task fell to King Solomon.  An innocent little boy suddenly given a whole people to rule, and this supreme challenge: building the center of worship for the Jewish nation.

It’s the kind of thing that drives one to his or her knees.  Solomon knelt and prayed.  God said, ask what you will, and it will be granted.  Of all the things Solomon could have had … he wanted WISDOM.  King Solomon became known as the wisest person who ever lived.  A whole portion of the Hebrew Bible is attributed to his legacy. Called the "Wisdom Literature" -- Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

Consider the Proverbs … mostly a collection of wise sayings. Simple little things. Guides for practical living.  Proverbs 15:1 … A soft answer turns away wrath. Ponder that: When someone yells, our tendency is to yell back, but that only escalates the hostility.  How so easy: a soft answer turns away wrath. How so wise! 

Proverbs 16:18 … Pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.  So easy it is to get puffed up with what we do, to see ourselves as the center of everyone’s concern.  And yet it is precisely this that is the drum roll for our disappointments.

The source of Wisdom is threefold.  Life’s consequences can teach us Wisdom, if we let them.  This means we must reflect honestly and be willing to change. Some people do not learn from consequences. They repeat the same mistakes over and over.  It’s like the movie "Ground Hog Day."  A man had to relive his last 24 hours until he got it right.

Rude, bored, grumpy, and selfish … caught in a cycle. How to get out of it? Try as he may, he couldn’t escape.  He could change the day anyway he wanted, but the people and the routines were always the same.  Only when he found out how to get beyond himself and genuinely love someone else was he able to move on to the next day.

Life is like that, and wisdom is gained in precisely this way.  We get stuck in the same patterns until we learn from them.

Asian religions say that lifetimes are this way, always reoccurring, recycled again and again, until we find unity.                                                                   TOP

There is a proverb in the Hebrew Bible that says "The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom."  I’ve heard Sunday School teachers minimize this. We’re not supposed to fear God. The word means "respect."  This, to me, dilutes the proverb too much.  The fear of God is a poetic way of saying, "Life has consequences." If we lie, there are consequences that will eventually play out.  If we steal, there are consequences that will eventually play out.  If we cheat. - consequences.  If we do everything right, but our words and deeds lack compassion - consequences.                                                                           

Consequences are not a matter of punishment. They are for discipline. For learning. Life is indicative, not imperative. It’s for learning how to live with the unified way the world is orchestrated.  If we know this, we are motivated toward good choices.  And by making good choices, we slowly become wise.

People can learn Wisdom from each other. Not everyone is willing to do this.  I had an industrial arts teacher in high school who gave us advice on our wood-working projects. He would call everyone’s attention to a mistake.  Then he would say, "Learn from other people’s mistakes, because we won’t live long enough to make them all ourselves." To learn wisdom from other people requires a measure of humility, and trust, and openness. These things do not come easy.

I feel the surest path to wisdom is our Inner intuition.  And this comes from developing our spiritual lives. This was Solomon’s source of wisdom.  This is our source, too, if we learn how to make a "Solomon Prayer."

In Jewish tradition, a wise person is one who judges a case, something like in a courtroom.  Both sides present their case.  The wise judge settles between them. And so it was when a husband and wife brought their firstborn son to a wise judge.

Paraphrased from A Treasury of Jewish Folklore, edited by Nathan Ausubel, pp. 81-82:  They had an intense argument between them.  "I want to name our son after my father," insisted the wife.  "I want to name our son after my father," insisted the husband.  "What is your father’s name?" the judge asked the wife. "Nahum," she replied.  "And what is your father’s name?" the judge asked the husband. "Nahum," he said.  "I don’t get it. If it’s the same name, why not call him ‘Nahum’?"  The wife explained the problem: "It’s more complicated than that."  "You see, my father is a wise man. A scholar of the Torah.  My husband’s father, he is a horse-thief.  If we name our son after him, that’s not good."  "I see," said the judge. "Let me think about it."                                                   TOP

After a while, the judge came before the couple and declared, "Call your son Nahum."  "Let him decide. If he turns out to be wise, then he is named after the wife’s father. If he turns out to be a horse-thief, then he carries the name of the husband’s father.

The grace of God is given to us. Free. It dwells within us, there for our acceptance. Like a parent’s embrace of a child, regardless of behavior.  The forgiveness of God is given to us. Free. The word means "fore-given;" it is something given to us before we ever need it. While forgiveness doesn’t exactly erase consequences, it always gives us another chance.  The love of God is given to us. Free. Good or bad. Rich or poor. Successful or a failure. God’s love is unconditional. Like the sun that shines on all.

A lot of free stuff, in the Bible!  But Wisdom, now that’s not free. It costs. It’s hard earned.  Wisdom. This, we must learn to choose.  Wisdom. This, we must learn to discern for  ourselves.