PROPER 9A St. Philip’s, Wrangell July 6, 2008

Cultures the world over, ancient or modern, hunter-gatherers or highly technical, based at the equator or the North Pole and everywhere in between, all have a body of teachings we call a “wisdom tradition.” Based in human experience and evolving over time, cultural wisdom is found in the way people do things. Wisdom is also found in the way people teach things, using practice and proverbs to pass on the knowledge and understanding of those who have gone before to those who are yet to come. Wisdom is more than information or methods or laws, though. Wisdom is what connects what works to what matters. Wisdom is what connects our heads to our hearts.

The religion of Israel has a strong wisdom tradition. We find an example of it operating in the story of Isaac and Rebecca. “Then I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way . . . .” Cultural wisdom, religious wisdom, is about the right way.

Jesus was well versed in the wisdom tradition of his people. So was John the Baptist. And both of them were afraid that a lot of people were forgetting wisdom and concentrating only on method and law. They had separated their heads from their hearts. John and Jesus wanted to show them how to put head and heart back together. They did that by showing what wisdom looks like when it is embodied and acted out. “Wisdom is vindicated by here deeds,’ means wisdom is proved right by wise behavior.

However, the behavior of John and Jesus scandalized people because it broke the rules. They decided John was a crazy person and Jesus was a drunk. But Jesus called them on their false and hasty judgments. “You are like children sitting in the marketplace,” he says. Children whining because neither John nor Jesus behaved the way people thought they should. “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance.”

“That’s right,” says Jesus. Neither Jesus nor Jon danced to anyone else’s tune but God’s. For example, because John announced the coming of God, he chose to eat and drink very sparingly. Because Jesus WAS God, he ate and drank with tax collectors ad sinners. And that broke the law. But it abided in wisdom.

For, how better to save sinners than to include them at God’s table? Jesus was very wise to know that, no matter how many laws it broke. Jesus paid attention to his head and his heart. Jesus, in wisdom, accepts even sinners at this table and, in fact, prefers sinners because we are the ones who have the greatest need.

Our need is great because, as Paul puts it so clearly, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” We have all been there, and the only hope, as Paul says, is to rely on the welcome we receive at God’s table where Jesus invites and feeds us.

What food does Jesus offer? The food of the sacraments, of course: the bread and wine of our eucharistic banquet which recalls to our presence the life, death ad resurrection of Christ. But there is more food than the sacrament of the eucharist. There is also the food of the sacrament of the word. Scripture and preaching and study and conversation. That is food for our heads and hearts, too. The food of the eucharist and the food of the gospel are what Jesus gives us.

This food is also the food of wisdom. It nourishes us and refreshes us and saves us. A North Coast native elder said, “That is our way, and if anyone disputes it, they must be suffering.” In other words, people without a way of wisdom are labouring under a heavy burden.

Not so the way of Jesus. A way of summing up the last lines of the gospel this morning is this: when one has learned the wisdom tradition well, practices it faithfully and is thankful to God for that, then one’s soul is at peace, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. Quite often this part of Matthew’s gospel is considered an invitation to discipleship, to follow Jesus. It is also about following wisdom. Following Jesus is following wisdom . . . because to be a disciple of Jesus is to be very wise indeed.