Wisdom's voice courses through these readings: revealing, challenging, and confounding. The invitation Wisdom offers consistently is to listen with the Spirit. Wisdom cries out to be heard above and beyond the din of conventional wisdom. Who will hear her call?

Street corners may seem unlikely places to proclaim God's glory. Yet in todays reading from Proverbs, that is exactly where God's Wisdom - personified as a woman - stands, offering her counsel to anyone who will listen. She tells them that a good name is more important than wealth. God is the maker of rich and poor, all are equal in God's eyes. Injustice bring calamity, and generosity brings blessings. The person who shares what they have with the poor will be blessed; those who "sow injustice" will find that they lose power. In a manner reminiscent of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:3, she is rejected and ignored. She responds with a righteous anger, calling the people to account for their unwillingness to hear and act on her words.

Wisdom is frequently referred to in Proverbs. She is linked with God's act of creation (3:19, 8:27), is the giver of life (4:22, 7:2), and is the champion of social justice (8:12-15). God's Wisdom was the agent of personal and social renewal, the one who brought about transformation. For Christians, many of Wisdom's activities parallel those of Christ, the One who "makes all things new." Like Jesus, Wisdom proclaims God's glory in the ordinary places where most people lived their lives, in the market places, the street corners, and at the city gates where legal cases were presented and judgments made.

We too, encounter Wisdom on the street and must choose how to respond. Wisdom speaks; Wisdom cries out; Wisdom seeks out; and yet Wisdom does not force her way upon us. That is why listening and hearing and heeding becomes so determinative, in this text and in our lives. As we open our lives to Wisdom, we open our lives to grace. Wisdom cries out in warning, but also in promise. To hear Wisdom's cry, as the final verse affirms, is to discover the path that leads to life without fear. Wisdom cries out, calls us to become God's friends and prophet. Who will listen? Who will follow?

For some people, popular opinion is a source of wisdom. On the way to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus challenges the disciples to come to their own conclusions about his identity, irrespective of what people "out there" are saying. Peter speaks the right words, but with a wrong understanding (wisdom is always more than facts).

When Jesus begins to unpack the meaning of "Christ", Peter takes exception to the unconventional wisdom of a suffering Messiah. The wisdom of Christ takes the form of foolishness to the world. Losing life by a willingness to lose it? Who in the world will listen to that? This is the first time that Jesus invites his followers to hear this unusual wisdom, but not the last. Who will listen? Who will follow?

What has been the voice of wisdom to you, to me? What made you and I think these people were wise? Teachers and preachers are often considered to be voices of wisdom. James 3:1 admonishes that not many should become teacher, because teachers will be judged with great strictness. How do you and I judge these people? When have we been judged with greater strictness because of our leadership rolls? When we as a people, a church, and a community are searching for Wisdom, whose words do we seek? I have a friend that you have heard me talk about, and when I go to her for an answer she always says, "Follow your heart". Is that God speaking to me through my heart in His infinite wisdom?

In Mark 8:32-33, Jesus rebukes Peter for not listening to the voice of God's wisdom, Jesus cries out, Get behind me, Satan!" as he challenges Peter, "You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." What can we do or say when the voices around us tempt us away from God's wisdom?

Wisdom proclaims God's glory in the ordinary places where most people live their lives. As we consider the image, think about what might cause God's Wisdom to laugh. What could make Wisdom cry? Let us think about the places in our daily lives that cry out for a voice of wisdom, places of injustice, discord, or damage to God's creation.

Not all wisdom comes written on paper or etched in stone or even spoken aloud. In Psalm 19 the psalmist speaks of creation's witness to the glory and handiwork of God. If God's wisdom tastes like honey, what does that mean? How can wisdom be a sweet part of our lives? What can we see or touch or hear or taste that helps us understand God's wisdom? Do things such as human touch, music, the Bible, water, bread or wind help us encounter the wisdom of God?

Wisdom often comes in the form of advice. Recognizing his need for wisdom, Solomon prayed for and received wisdom, valuing it above every other gift. With the gift of wisdom, he received all good things, friendship with God, and unerring knowledge of the world, the heavenly bodies, and plants and animal life. Solomon tells us, "Therefore I prayed, and understanding was given me; I called on God, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me."

Wisdom guides, teaches and saves her followers. Several historical illustrations of the saving power of wisdom are: Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses.

I think Sirach, an early "church book" used in the early Christian community and resembles the book of Proverbs has a wonderful explanation of wisdom: "All wisdom is from the Lord, and with him it remains forever. The sand of the sea, the drops of rain, and the days of eternity, who can count them? The height of heaven, the breath of the earth, the abyss, and wisdom, who can search them out? Wisdom was created before all other things, and prudent understanding from eternity. The root of wisdom, to whom has it been revealed? Her subtleties, who knows them? There is but one who is wise, greatly to be feared, seated upon his throne, the Lord. It is he who created her, he saw her and took her measure; he poured her out upon all his works, upon all the living according to his gift; he lavished her upon those who love him." Then in verse 26, "If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will lavish her upon him".

God's wisdom is not like ours.
God's thoughts are vaster than our thoughts.
His ways greater than our ways.
Blessed be the name of God. Amen

PRAYER
O Come, thou Wisdom from on high, and order all things far and nigh; to us the path of knowledge show and cause us in her ways to go." Tune our lives to hear and heed wisdom's calling.

Amen.