Year C. The Holy Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8: 22-31 June 10th, 2001
Title: “Wisdom is the intermediary.”
If Genesis 1-4 contains two “creation narratives, Proverbs 8: 22-31 contains a pre-creation narrative. It sings the praises of Wisdom by answering two questions: what is Wisdom’s origin, that is, where did Wisdom come from? And what is Wisdom’s role in creation, that is, what does Wisdom do? The answers come in the form of poetry, not philosophy or theology, with Wisdom speaking for herself?
Herself? Yes, Wisdom is depicted as a woman. Wisdom is, then, personified. Personification is a literary device which represents abstract ideas, inanimate objects, and even animals as if they were human beings. This is done to enliven an otherwise dull presentation, to create an atmosphere, to get the reader’s attention, or to bring an otherwise distant topic close to home. Thus, Wisdom is pictured as a woman, a teacher, a prophetess, a hostess, a bride, and a faithful lover.
In verses twenty-two to twenty-six, Wisdom describes her origin as lying in remotest antiquity, even before the creation of the world. In verses twenty-seven to thirty-one, she moves on to describe the part she played and continues to play at God’s side when he created the world and continues to create it. She is an ambivalent figure who is at home with God, coming from him and ever at his side, delighting him and delighting in him. She is also at home with humans, taking delight to be their playmate and delighting them with her gifts, teaching them a better way to live, a way she learned from the Creator. Wisdom, as a result of her bi-polar experience is the meeting place between God and humans, the way by which these two realms can understand each other and communicate with each other.
It is easy to see the development of the notion of Wisdom and especially its “personification” being the forerunner of Christ, especially in John’s way of putting it: “the Word, read Wisdom, became flesh and dwelt among us,” according to John 1: 14. What is said here and read here of Wisdom certainly describes Christ’s origins and role.
In verse twenty-two the Lord begot me: The Hebrew verb, qanah, can mean “create,” “acquire,” “beget,” or even “procreate.” Here it means either “beget” or “create,’ indicating that Wisdom is distinct from God, though his own “issue” in some mysterious way. The ambiguity of this word, qanah, has given rise to great controversy regarding the Trinity and the natures of Christ. Was Wisdom created or begotten? We must remember that this is poetry and should not press for too precise a meaning. We are dealing with metaphorical language here. In fact the ideas of creation and birth are not so diametrically opposed in the Old Testament as one might suppose, given their dissection by later Western non-poetical thinkers. In the Old Testament birth can be described as an act of creation Psalm 139:13; Deuteronomy 32:6, and an act of creation can easily be described as birth Psalm 90:2. The language is, in any case, metaphorical and poetical, and the choice between “created” and “begot” is not of great importance.
The firstborn of his ways: Wisdom, as firstborn, looks like God the most and closest and acts more like God than the rest of his creation put together. Wisdom would be. in our terms, the “spitting image” of God. Thus, through her, God’s act of creation also becomes an act of communication, a revelation of himself in terms that creatures can relate to. God is not so transcendent and aloof that he cannot communicate or does not communicate with creation in understandable terms.
In verse twenty-three, from of old I was poured forth,’ “From of old” translates the Hebrew, me`olam, “from eternity,” “from forever.” Wisdom existed before creation, regardless of how one pictures her coming into being. In other contemporary cultures creation came into being as a result of a battle with chaos and evil, a victory of order and good over chaos and evil. Other gods and human heroes came into being as a result of sexual intercourse between two gods or a god and a human. All this is avoided in Scriptures depiction of similar events.
In verses twenty-four to twenty-nine, using a format similar to that of Gensis 1-2:4a the sacred author mentions various creative acts- the depths, fountains, springs, mountains, hills, earth, field, heavens ,sea. In Genesis they are mentioned to declare their existence, being created by God. Here they are mentioned to declare Wisdom’s pre-existence. Wisdom was there when these were created and so existed before creation and assisted in their creation.
In verse thirty, “his craftsman.” The word used here is Hebrew `amon. It can mean either a master workman or foreman or artisan or a favorite child. Here it means both. The craftsman both takes delight in his work and gives delight to those who benefit from it. A child both is delighted at play and delights his or her admiring parent.
Playing before him: Wisdom is pictured here as a favorite child both being delighted and delighting, finding pleasure in God’s creation, especially humans, while at the same time participating in molding and fashioning and designing creation. While the type of play is not specified we might picture something like building things, like sandcastles, or, as verse thity-one, puts it, “playing on the surface of the earth.”
Verse thirty-one, “I found delight in the sons of men,” Wisdom played with and communicated with less-than-divine creatures, that is, humans. The same delight she gave her parent, the Creator, she gave to and received from her playmates, “the sons of men,” the created, creatures. This would make Wisdom the intermediary between God, her parent and creator, and humans, her companions. She could “explain” and “defend” both to either. Wisdom is God’s “go-between” with humans, and, indeed, all creation. Wisdom is the level on which God meets humanity and vice versa.
When the author and editor of John writes that the “Word” was in the beginning, was with God, all things came to be through the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he could just as easily have said “Wisdom” instead of “Word.” He was coming out of that tradition. In Jewish culture “Wisdom” is the art and skill of living well. It is not esoteric or arcane knowledge. It is a gift from God open to all who will listen to him, listen especially through his creation. What God has created is a pretty good clue as to what he is like, what he likes and what he would like us to be and become. Wisdom is the means, the way, the path, the door, the gate, the light, the seasoning, by which we communicate with the divine mind as well as the power by which we do what God wants done.
This text concentrates on two points. The first makes clear that Wisdom preceded creation. It does not precisely make the point that Wisdom always existed as uncreated. That is a theological fine-tuning of the point. For our reflection it is good that Wisdom is depicted as created, for it is clear that what is true of Wisdom in the Old Testament is true of Christ in the New Testament. While the Son as Christ always existed or pre-existed- there never was a time when Christ was not- Jesus of Nazareth did not always exist. He came into being and so was created at a certain point in time. In this sense, we can say Jesus was created just as Wisdom was, mysteriously, not exactly created like other creatures are, virginal conception, but created nonetheless. This does not contradict the creed, which reads “begotten not made created” for that refers to Christ as divine not Jesus as human.
The second point is that Wisdom, though created, is co-creator with God. Wisdom is at God’s side, an imaginary and imaginative picture, to be sure, helping him, advising him, working with him in creating the world and human beings. She has the blueprint, knows the plans, the details, the ins and outs and so can advise humans about their own inner workings and help fix anything that is wrong. However, as co-creator Wisdom is not all serious. She has a playful role as well. She is both an adult “right-hand man” and a child-like “left-brainer.” She talks and sings, walks and dances, is serious and laughs, spends time well and wastes it. Wisdom encompasses the full range of possible “creative” activities. She does not confine herself to just work.
So, humans can knock on the door of her house and ask, “Can Wisdom come out and play?” She is best learned through play, through leisure, contemplation and reflection. She is best expressed through a well-rounded schema of activities, both labor and leisure, doing and being. She will “play” or “work with” not only the Sons of Israel but also “the sons of men,” all humans. She is at home with God in his grand design of the world, his master plan, and she is at home with humans who live in that world, at home on the streets. She is both book-smart and street-smart.
Yet she is mysterious in the best sense of the word. When she speaks she conceals as much as reveals, always leaving the hearer wanting more, never fully sated. In the Old Tstament Israel’s sages identified the divine Wisdom with the Law or the Spirit of God. The New Testament identifies her with a person; “Christ is the power and the Wisdom of God…whom God made our Wisdom, our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” according to 1Cor 1: 24,30. We never can get enough of him, his counsel, and his power to carry it out. We must never be more serious than he in our living, never take ourselves more seriously than his playmate and fellow companion. Christ as Wisdom is the intermediary between the two worlds in which he is so much at home- the created and uncreated. Without him we would be disconnected from God. We would know nothing of God, of creativity, of delight. We would know nothing of design, master plan, direction. We would know nothing- the opposite of creation. Christ, the second person or aspect or movement of the blessed Trinity, is our lifeline and link to life itself, divine life, eternal life. He, of course, is much more, but this link is absolutely vital to all the rest of it, which flows from him, much as an umbilical cord functions between a mother and her unborn baby.
God can speak of himself as though he were the wisdom of God or the love of God or the Spirit of God.
Multiple titles for God do not make God multiple, but reveal to humans the many ways God reveals himself to earthlings.
God, experienced as wisdom, reveals both his serious side and his playful side.
The “work” of creation, especially the creation of human beings, was also like delightful play to God.
Creation has a serious purpose, but it also has a playful purpose, really no “purpose” at all, except “delight.”
When it comes to the Trinity, the multiple ways God reveals himself and relates to us, we are used to hearing rather technical language, that is, three persons in one God. Such language has been fine-tuned over centuries, fine-tuned by theologians, technical thinkers. However, Scripture does not use such language. Theologians use “concept” language, attempting to define the limits of the meanings of things, isolate them from other things, and look at them in their essential nature. Actually, theological language, in its pure form, is two steps removed from the real experience of the Theos, of God. In between the experience of God and the explanation of that experience, that is, theological language, there is, let us call it for lack of a better term, “religious” language. The purpose of religious language is to express the experience “Hey, I am having this experience and I am using ordinary words in a more-than-ordinary way, like a poet would, in order to express what I am experiencing.”. Religious language uses images, to express, in contrast to theological language, which uses concepts, to explain. Religious language connotes, that is, relates the unusual experience to usual experiences. Religious language would say, “Jesus is Lord.” “Lord” is an image. Kings, emperors, slave owners were “lords.” Religious language wants to say that Jesus is like that image, not that he has a country, has conquered an earthly realm or owns slaves. Theological language would say, “Jesus is God.” “God” is a philosophical concept, isolating everything else from it. Both are correct and true. However, religious language is only one step removed from the actual experience. In fact, it is more often than not made in the experience, while having the experience. Theological statements are made about the experience or about the expression of the experience. A person making a religious statement without having had the experience is being hypocritical. A person making a theological statement disconnected from the religious expression of the experience is being heretical.
Now Trinity language are concepts that seek to explain the Trinity. One, two, and three are mathematical concepts, rather cold, matter-of-fact. “Person,” in the third century, when the doctrine was formulated, does not mean what it means to us, not a “people person.” It means “aspect” or “mode.” This is also rather cold and matter-of-fact. The formula seeks to explain the Trinity in the context and using the concepts of Hellenistic philosophy. There are also images that seek to express the Trinity. “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit,” are relational images, rather warm and fluid. Scripture uses these to express the experience of God as always relational “isolational,” only when sin is involved, and dynamic. We look in vain in Scripture for an explanation of God based on any philosophical system. In the Old Testament God as Wisdom, personified, was an intimation, not an explanation, of the Trinity. The inspired author had the same experience of the triune God as we have, but he did not have the concepts to explain it. So, he used words or images or metaphors or analogies to express that experience and he found “Wisdom” to fit the bill. Later, the gospel according to John would replace that word with “Word” itself, for he found that to be even more expansive than “wisdom” to express his experience of God as he revealed himself down through the ages.
God as Wisdom planned and designed the “work” of creation and helped carry it out but did not take it so seriously that there was no playroom to forgive humans when they damaged or destroyed the plans. Forgiveness is the playful side of a nonetheless serious God. Amen.
