Spiritual Wisdom

July 24, 2005 (Tenth Sunday after Epiphany)

by The Rev. Victor Sarrazin

- 1 Kings 3:5-12
- Psalm 119:121-136 or 119:129-136
- Romans 8:26-34
- Matthew 13:31-33,44-49a

(From The Lectionary Page)

My sisters and brothers, today our lessons revolve around the theme of Wisdom. In that vain I want to share with you my favorite literary quote. The expression is used by a character who is arguably the greatest of divine-fools in literary history, Don Quixote de la Mancha. Cervantes uses poor old Quixote to get to a true jewel of a message: “Time ripens all things. No man [no woman] is born wise.” We can only ripen with time!

In our lessons today we have various examples of what wisdom and wise actions are about. From 1 Kings we peek in on Solomon, who has just taken the throne of David his Father. God asks in a dream what Solomon wants of him, Solomon asks for: "an understanding mind . . . to discern good and evil; for whom can govern this your great people?'' God responds, ''I give you a wise mind; no one has ever been like you . . . " I believe that Solomon must have been a really smart kid to begin with, since he realized that discernment would make all the difference in his time as king. According to the legends we read in the Old Testament he truly was blessed with wisdom.

In the famous 8th chapter of Romans we hear Paul reminding us that The Spirit moves us to prayer too deep for words! That all things work together for the good, for those who love God. And, that if God is for us, who can be against us? After all, God sacrificed his own Son for our sakes. These are important reminders for us when we are going through stressful and troubling times. We need to keep our focus on deepening our relationship with God, deepening our ability to discern the movement of the Holy Spirit who is already dwelling within us. For, God is not against us . . .

In our Gospel lesson we get a collection of short parables about the kingdom of heaven. It starts out tiny and seemingly insignificant, but it grows gigantic and enriches all it touches. It gathers all without discrimination; God’s servants will not sort the good and bad until the very end. Finally, we see the example of some shrewd merchants who made enormous investments to gain truly great prizes, i.e., God’s Kingdom.

Overall we really can draw three characteristics about holy wisdom from our lessons:

1. It can help us discern the difference between good and ill, which in our world is not so easy to do. Considering the way people hide their true intentions and plans.
2. It can help us recognize and trust God’s presence and action in our lives, like being tuned into the right radio station just in time to hear God’s broadcast.
3. It recognized the things of true value and motivates us to move toward them.

My brother and sisters, we still have to wonder what spiritual wisdom really means when it comes to our practical lives. It's more than knowledge of God and the Bible (though knowledge is part of it). It’s more than insight (although insight is also a part) and it’s more than experience of the Christian life (though experience is crucial). I believe it is all of these, blended in the mixing bowl of our souls by the hand of the Holy Spirit who dwells inside us. It is truly the gift of the Holy Spirit!

It is not simply a gift, however.  We can’t use it today and put it away for another time, like any other tool in our personal kit. Holy wisdom must be nourished and exercised on a daily basis. The story of Solomon goes on to tell of how he gets too full of himself and falls into sins that truly do come back to haunt him. Holy wisdom cannot be taken for granted or abused.

To open ourselves to that gift we must invest ourselves in cooperating with the Holy Spirit. This requires that we keep a three-way balance going in our lives:

1. STUDY, of the Bible and other good Christian writings on theology, spirituality, etc. It’s about regularly expanding our knowledge of God and the things of God.

2. PRAYER, Spending time with God. One cannot grow in the gifts of God without deepening their friendship with God. This means communal worship, receiving the Eucharist weekly and individual prayer on a daily basis, even if it’s just a few minutes a day.

3. LIVING the Christian lifestyle. Experience does matter and we cannot grow in our experience of the Christian life if we don’t put it into practice every day of our lives. It means investing Time, Talent and Treasure in seeing that justice is done and promoting the Kingdom of God.

In these ways we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in Its work within us to transform us. In this way we slowly become, as Jesus once said, “as simple as doves and as wise as serpents.”