Sermon for August 18, 2024: Building based upon Proverbs 9:1-6

Proverbs 9:1-6  Wisdom’s Feast

Wisdom has built her house,
   she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,
   she has also set her table.
She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls
   from the highest places in the town,
‘You that are simple, turn in here!’
   To those without sense she says,
‘Come, eat of my bread
   and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live,
   and walk in the way of insight.’

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     In his introduction to the book of Proverbs, Harold Washington describes the purpose as “transmit[ting] insights whereby one might learn to cope with life.” This is a book of wisdom collected from elders and from life experience to pass along to younger people, particularly young men who are approaching the age of adult responsibilities. Washington notes that while this collection of knowledge is attributed to Solomon, it was likely collected from many sources over many years before it became what has been passed down to us. A key instruction in Proverbs is to seek God’s Wisdom above all things. And, Wisdom is quite appealing.
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     Wisdom is a woman at work. In just six verses, she builds an entire house. It sounds like it’s not a very small house either. She needs a big space to host all the people she has invited. You see, Wisdom’s invitation is open to everyone. She will always make more room at her table. To make sure she can host everyone, she directs her staff and works alongside them. Her home will be both practical and beautiful.

     I learned a while ago that the seven pillars mentioned here are more like monuments than simple structural elements in the home. They would have been hewn from trees or carved from stone with the intention of honoring God and marking this home as a site of something holy and good. This is skilled work, work done with years of training and practice. They were crafted, beauty drawn out of raw material to give glory to God and show hospitality to her guests. Her work didn’t stop with construction though. Next, she started cooking.

     Close your eyes and imagine a good host at work in a busy kitchen. How many of you are imagining a woman? Who are some of the women you are imagining? That is how I picture Wisdom in this story. She asks for help if she needs it and will give you a job if you walk in the door.  Wisdom brings out the good wine and the sparkling grape juice for the guests in recovery. The table is set. I know the whole house smells good.

     There is a home. There is a space to honor God. There is food and drink. All that is left is the guests. She sent the girls from her household out to bring the neighbors. Then Wisdom herself went out with the girls, and started shouting an invitation from the highest places in town. I have often wondered if this reference to “the highest places in town” is supposed to remind us of the places in the Bible that are called high places, that is, places where altars have been built to honor the various gods of the region. People also worshiped this God in those places. In 1st Samuel 9:12-24, Samuel makes a sacrifice to Yahweh at Ramah. So, in this introduction to Wisdom, she starts at the place of worship and then invites people to her home. There is an increased measure of intimacy in going from a public place of worship to a cozy place for a meal.

     She is not just inviting the wealthy or the powerful or even people she knew particularly well. This is not a dinner party for the well-connected and important. She invites strangers, people she’d never met before, especially the people with the greatest need... this translation calls them “the simple” or “those without sense.” They are issued a special invitation to this dinner. The great thing about Wisdom is that she always has enough to share. The kind of Abundance Wisdom offers is used to help the ones who need it most first. And, Wisdom will make sure there’s enough insight ready so that anybody can have some if they ask. 

     Several years ago, I read a commentary on this text by Dr. Wil Gafney who offered what I think is a useful explanation about what this Bible usually means when it’s talking about “wisdom.” She says that wisdom is not simply intellect. It is also skill, expertise honed by experience and practice. A person who is wise does not come to wisdom immediately. Wisdom is cultivated in the same way that an apprentice learns a skill from a master. Wisdom is your grandmother showing you how to add enough flour to dough to keep it from sticking as you roll it out. Wisdom is the one who makes sure to teach you to point the knife away from your thumb, not towards, when you whittle, so you don’t slip and cut yourself. Dr. Gafney calls this kind of knowledge “heart-and-head knowledge.” So, when we read about wisdom, we’re reading about teaching, practicing, listening, and knowing all wrapped up together.

     Dr. Gafney also made a list of some people who are called wise in the Hebrew Bible: the people who build a resting place and home base for God in the book of Exodus; in Deuteronomy, the people of Israel who keep the Torah, God’s commandments, are called wise; the shrewd woman who leads her people and saves them from death in 2 Samuel 20:22; and King Solomon, in 1 Kings 4, who was able to build a country because he uses his wisdom to build up his people. With their lives as examples, Dr. Gafney crafts a definition of wisdom that is what she calls “craft: statecraft, Torah-craft, craftwomanship, craftsmanship and craftiness.” Wisdom is using all your wit, all your training, all your intuition honed by experience, to honor God and to save your people. Your wisdom is not just for you, it is for your community. But, you have to want it. You have to seek it out.  The portion of Proverbs that we read today is about teaching people to crave insight and understanding the same way they crave a good meal in a lovely home crafted by a strong and smart woman. When Wisdom invites you over, you would do well to accept that invitation.

     From the earliest days of our faith, well before there was anything called Winthrop Congregational Church United Church of Christ, well before there was even anything called Christianity, there was Wisdom and there was an invitation. Our faith began with hospitality and practice and people working together to build something beautiful and useful. We who read these words in this day are returning, yet again, to Wisdom’s table when we hear her call. May we ever learn to build with her... to craft a table of welcome, to offer a meal of compassion and care, to construct monuments in our hearts to God’s love and justice. May we be inspired by the girls of the household, servants who take to the streets to invite others to the feast. We can always add another leaf to the table and pull up another folding chair. Let us not forget that the model of our faith is a full table and a full house where there is always enough to eat if you but ask for it. May we share Wisdom’s invitation, God’s invitation, with others who need some space at the table and a little food to eat. Wisdom is building her house. May we pick up our tools and work along with her.