Let us pray.
Dear Mama God,
thank you for all the ways that you have creatively nurtured and loved us as we have found
ourselves in this place together today. May your love comfort us and guide us so that we can lean
on your wisdom in our world. Amen.
So I don't remember which theologian it was, but some popular guy says the most important,
the first thing that comes to mind when you think about God, is the most important thing about you,
or at least about your theology. And so there's so many different things that can come to mind when
it comes to God. And I think very often all of them are metaphors and they tend to not be the
feminine side. We tend to avoid that.
I got a lovely hate comment that clearly I couldn't be right about anything online because I've
used feminine language to describe God. And I was like, you might want to read Proverbs 8. Like,
it's in our Bible. Because the reality is that this talks about lady wisdom,
where lady is not supposed to be like a way of denouncing her hierarchy,
but naming her hierarchy, like a lord and lady. Pretty important figure.
And so Sally Douglas uses the language woman wisdom so that it doesn't come with the negative
connotations that our modern society uses when we think about lady. Because a lot of times when you
think of lady, you think of people saying, well, that's not very ladylike. Right. And so in Hebrew,
the word for wisdom is chokmah. But in Greek, the word is Sophia. So literally a feminine name.
It is probably not surprising to most people in the room that God's wisdom is feminine,
right? Of course, because if anyone's been around strong women in their lives,
they're very rarely wrong, right? So leaning into an aspect of God's wisdom that maybe those that
are more masculine don't necessarily get to tap into as often.
So woman wisdom in Proverbs 8. It's a really interesting story.
I love how the Common English Bible gives you the heading title of Wisdom's Autobiography,
because this is when she kind of starts talking for herself. So Wisdom stands along the way and
points along the heights at crossroads and by the city gate entrance.
These are all prominent and important places. She cries out to all of humanity,
speaking truth and leading people towards the way of life.
In verse 22 in our reading today was translated, the Lord created me at the beginning of his way.
But the Hebrew could also be translated as the Lord acquired me or possessed me.
Kind of similar language to the idea of like Jesus Christ being the only son of God,
the begotten son of the father, begotten, not made. That sounds kind of familiar. Where begotten is
just because of their relationship is why they exist, not necessarily that one created the other.
So we've got some interesting similar language there that wisdom's been around since the beginning,
since way before anything that we've even thought about God or even we existed to think about God.
So regardless of how we translate that, we see that woman wisdom is present with God when the earth
was created. And I love... The intricate details she gives,
it kind of complements Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 is just like, these things happened on
these days and it kept going. But she looks at the fine-tuned details a bit.
And then gives us, in verses 30 through 31, she says, I was beside him as a master of crafts.
I was having fun, smiling before him all the time,
frolicking with his inhabited earth and delighting in the human race.
Reminds me of the fact that in our Genesis 1 translation, we find that God created man and woman in
God's image. And so if both are made in God's image, there must have been some sort of feminine
nature to God that was there from the beginning.
Later in verse 35, she says, those who find me find life. They gain favor from the Lord.
So we have that listening to a woman wisdom leads you to the path of life. She's bold,
authoritative, the source of insight that seeks the ways of God's justice.
And it's interesting because in the next chapter, because like if really if we did all of the woman
wisdom stuff, it would be... The entire sermon is just reading all the passages.
But in the next chapter, she prepares a feast and invites all to join her.
Verses 4 through 6 says, Whoever is naive, turn aside here, she says,
to those who lack sense. Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.
Abandon your simplistic ways and live. Walk in the way of understanding.
Some of this might start to sound a little familiar.
And it's interesting because there's a lot more about wisdom in the Greek text that we call the
Apocrypha. But when Jesus was around, he just, like all of them just called it the text.
Because... prominent during Jesus and the disciples' era was the Septuagint translation.
So they translated the entire Hebrew Bible into Greek. And then there was a bunch of other Greek
texts that also came with it. And you can actually hear a bunch of these texts being quoted in the
letters written by Paul and Peter and the other apostles. And then there's even references to them
throughout the gospel. So you can tell that these texts were influential for at least the New
Testament authors, but somehow... just kind of started to ignore them. And so woman wisdom shows up
a lot in Sirach, the wisdom of Solomon and Baruch. So just to give you a speed run through some of
these other characteristics of woman wisdom. Woman wisdom is poured out on those who love her.
She's the one who fashions all things.
She delivers and saves.
There's even a passage in Sirach where... talking about her yoke and verses.
So it's just as chapter 6, 28 through 31 says, when you put on her yoke in the end,
you will find rest in her and she will turn to you and make you happy. Her shackles will be a
strong shelter for you and her collar will be a glorious robe. She bears a gold ornament and her
bonds will be like blue embroidery. You will wear her like a glorious robe and you will put.
She then also praises herself from the heavenly court. And so chapter 24,
verses 3 through 6 of the same book, I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the
earth like a mist. I lived in the heights and my throne was in a... of cloud.
I alone encircled the vault of heaven and walked in the depths of abysses, in the waves of the sea,
and in every land, and among every people and nation, I led the way. So we can see,
we can hear hints of a couple different things going on here. What does that last quote remind you
of?
When do we hear about a pillar of cloud? You may remember.
In Exodus. And so if we're calling back to Exodus, woman wisdom is connecting herself to the
stories of the Torah. And so woman wisdom is also considered like an embodiment of the Torah.
But all the other stuff about the one who fashions all things, delivers and saves, and has a yoke
that makes things easy and helps you find rest. Who do you think the early Christians were thinking
about when they heard... about woman wisdom.
Who have we heard of who has a yoke that you can put on and the burdens will be easy and the yoke
is light?
Jesus. And so there's so much of woman wisdom language being used to describe Jesus.
And so this whole feminine nature of the divine was really, really important to early Christians.
And somehow we kind of pigeonhole it off to the side.
She also makes a camp and lives among the people. The same language,
same Greek words that happened in John chapter one, when the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
So another fun name for woman wisdom was the word.
So the gospel authors saw the person of Jesus as the embodiment of woman wisdom.
And then equally weird, you might remember when we were in John, there was the weird passage where
Jesus says, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, whatever, right? It's weird, right? Woman
wisdom says the same type of stuff.
She offers her flesh to eat to all people so that all people can have access to wisdom to step away
from the follies of the world.
And so in a way, by ignoring this tradition for thousands of years,
We've lost track of what does it mean for God's wisdom to be feminine.
A lot of times when we think of a more masculine God, we think of a God who shows up with an iron
fist ready to slaughter everyone and make things right. Sounds more like Zeus than the God of the
text. And in the same sense, if we start to lean more into the feminine aspect of God,
we... Hear of the one who is with us, who loves us, who guides us, who gives us the things to help
us be creative. That is down on the ground with us when we're playing with dogs that can jump
through hula hoops and teasing cats with ribbons and string.
So to ignore the feminine side of God is to ignore a large part of how God moves through our world.
And you might remember from the last series, we were constantly thinking about what are the
different ways that we see God moving. And if you've been keeping track of that, something that
might be interesting to go back to is see how often your observations were being steered by a
masculine understanding of God or a feminine understanding of God. Because a God who can contain
multitudes can hold all of that.
And then if
we lean into God's feminine wisdom, we see that woman wisdom delights in beauty,
in creation. truth, and justice, and invites us to do the same.
So just taking the time to find rest and do a little bit of painting or drawing is a way of tapping
into this feminine divine wisdom that sometimes we think we don't have enough time for.
I might have recently ordered a very small watercolor kit,
and the very first email they sent me after it shipped... You may not think you're a painter,
but as soon as you take your brush and put it in the paint and then put the paint on the paper,
you're a painter. And so I'll add, as soon as you do that and take the time to pause,
you're also entering into curiosity with the feminine divine.
With the... and the one who not just was there when we were fashioned,
but delighted in every aspect of our creation and the world that surrounds us.
And last week, we talked about how following the wisdom of God makes us have to think about how we
order ourselves in the world, what we give our attention to, and highlighted how we have this
devotion to the GDP as a way of measuring a country's success.
we might have a good example from a feminine aspect of wisdom of what we could use to measure
success instead. Some of you might have heard of a YouTuber that does children's videos,
Miss Rachel. Have you heard of Miss Rachel? Miss Rachel's pretty great. All of the stuff that she
does on her children's programming is great for children. And then Miss Rachel fully embodies woman
wisdom when you get on her threads or when she's talking to adults. Because the way that she
measures the success of a nation or a country or a group of people is how children are treated.
And she doesn't care about anyone's allegiance to a country or a nation state or anything like
that. If children are dying, it's a problem in her world, which we can see as a direct embodiment
of a divine wisdom who delights in all created things, delights in all of us, delights in the way
that children move through the world. Of course, that God mourns at the loss of every child.
And so leaning into the woman wisdom of God not only connects us with this long tradition of wisdom
being embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, but also connects us with a way of navigating the
world that feels so hard to sort through. To think about what would Jesus do?
And also... would a mother God do in this situation? How can we show up with love that endures all
things, knows all things, and restores all things?
So let us pray.
God, you
delight in us, in each of us.
And so often we pigeonhole you into a more masculine understanding of God because we see our world.
and see how power must look a particular way.
Help us to learn what power through love... really looks like as we reflect on the teachings and
delights and joys of woman wisdom and the way that wisdom was embodied in your son,
Jesus.
Guide us and hold us and nurture us as we continue in this world so that we can be your servants
who love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously.
Amen.