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Sirach 24:1-12 • Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21 • Ephesians 1:3-14 • John 1:10-18

Here we are in a brand-new year – looking ahead with much hope; and looking back with much relief that last year is done, and we made it through. Recent Covid years seem to have made it harder than ever to discern God’s wisdom for our times. Some theologians and a few scriptures have enjoyed depicting God as a never-changing rock type figure. And yet how can that be, since everything else that the Creator made is subject to change? I see God as responding with compassionate love and journeying with us through these challenges – not sitting still, hard as a rock. It’s perhaps more our desire for a solid anchor in uncertain times, than an actual quality of God – to depict God as an unchanging rock. Have you ever had someone in your life who refused to grow and mature, regardless of changing circumstances? That’s not fun, is it? More so infuriating than fun. Everything God made grows and changes and eventually dies and makes room for new things. As this new year begins, may we be ever more open to hearing Divine Wisdom as she offers us guidance for the journey ahead.

Our readings today say a lot about wisdom, including from a source we rarely hear from – the apocryphal Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus – not Ecclesiastes, the book after Psalms and Proverbs – from which we hear such beloved treasures as: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted …” (Eccl 3:1-8). Both books, however, deal with wisdom – both as a virtue and as an important aspect of the Spirit of God. “Wisdom praises herself” were the first biblical words we heard today … but it’s not “praises” as in some kind of conceit. Rather Wisdom explains how she was there from the beginning: “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist.” Clearly then She is God’s Word when in Genesis we hear over and over that God SAID – let there be light and let there be skies and seas and everything else – Creation comes forth through what God says. In verse 6 of today’s Sirach reading, Wisdom tells us “Over the waves of the sea, over all the earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.” Or at least She tried to … but in every time and culture strong dominant forces have resisted Divine Wisdom, often preferring to follow their own paths of ego and self-interest. Most of our Sirach reading speaks of how Wisdom was present and a partner in the Creation of Earth and all its creatures – a story also detailed in the 8th chapter of the Book of Proverbs and hinted at elsewhere.

Then in our Canticle 11 (BAS 81) ‘psalm’ reading we hear of how Wisdom was the main force in the Exodus story – She entered the soul of Moses, she guided the people along marvelous ways and brought them over the Red Sea. In last week’s Bible Study when we looked at that troublesome line at verse 19 “but she drowned their enemies” someone said that She, Wisdom, is like a mother tiger – powerfully resisting those who threaten the safety and wellbeing of her children.

Our epistle from Ephesians also mentions wisdom and insight as accompanying God’s plan for the fullness of time – for the Kairos in which the Universal Christ continues to call people towards redemption – hopefully into a reign of justice and peace. And then we’re given again part of the prologue of John’s gospel, and we hear again how “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” That ‘Word’ with upper case W is Logos in Greek – meaning human reason or WISDOM. Staring us in the face for 2000 years … but do we see what that suggests – that Jesus came to earth as an Incarnation of the fullness of God – both Creator and Holy Spirit Wisdom Woman.

Interesting sidenote that the Greek term in verse 14 for ‘lived among us’ is literally – pitched his tent among us (Working Preacher) … which takes us back to the Sirach reading where Wisdom says that “my Creator chose the place for my tent” (v.8); and from her “holy tent” (v.10) Wisdom ministers to God’s people. Reminds us of so many people in our world today living in tents, or even wishing to live in tents – all of the migrants and refugees – especially all of the children involved. As our bishop said in her last two-minute sermon https://bc.anglican.ca/.../2021-12-30-from-advent-to...: there are over 80 million displaced people in our world today – living desperately as migrants and refugees; and sadly about 35 million of them are children! How can we as the church live into better ways of being able to help bring all God’s children into lives of greater safety and security? Can we work smarter, not harder -- moving forward by reducing our current cares & burdens, so as to be better able to focus on these bigger issues -- over which God the Creator might well be weeping.

It’s a new year and a new beginning. It’s not a calling to do more, but perhaps to do things differently. With God anything is possible, right? And like so many other situations in life – letting go of the old status quo can feel painful, but then once we are free of those constraints, the sky’s the proverbial limit of what we can do to make 2022 a better year for all the world. May we and all of humanity, together with all of God’s Creation, thrive and flourish in 2022. May it be so, Amen!