Wisdom Builds Her House. If Only Our Leaders Would Follow!

This coming Sunday will mark my first chapel service at Bucknell University, where I began serving just two weeks ago. As it so happens, the lectionary gives us a choice of Hebrew Bible readings for that day, and I have chosen the Proverbs 9:1-6 passage. Since I will be addressing mostly first-year students on that day, I think it is appropriate to talk about what it means to be wise. According to the biblical understanding of the term, wisdom is knowledge coupled with insight. One cannot be thought of as wise unless one possesses both of these elements. I suppose that is what a philosophy professor from my first year in college meant when he used to remark that "there is no one more stupid than a young PhD!" Many times we mistake the accumulation of intellectual prowess for being wise. But wisdom can only come through life experiences. I don't claim to know much about most things, but I know so much more than I did when I was a young man, just out of divinity school. I am glad that I did not keep my sermons from those days, because I would probably accuse myself of malpractice! When I think about wisdom,I tend to think of people I have known who were, and are, what I consider to be wise. My neighbor when I was a little boy was an older woman who had little formal education, but who knew much about farming, canning vegetables and treating people as she herself wished to be treated. She created a safe space for me in her home, where I was always welcome, even when it may have been inconvenient for her. She had a tremendous impact on my spiritual development, even though we seldom discussed faith, even though she was a devout Christian. There have been others, but all of us can tell stories about people who have influenced our lives for the better. So why is it, then, that our political leaders cannot seem to figure out what wisdom is all about? I support one of the presidential candidates, but not the other. But I get angry when both of them behave badly and in an uncivil manner when they talk about the opposing candidate. Then again, they are giving the electorate exactly what it wants. We have no debates anymore, we have shouting matches. The presidential and vice-presidential televised debates will be nothing more than carefully scripted and pre-approved recitations of the party line. There is no wisdom in the political process, because wisdom builds up, it does not tear down. So that is why I am anxious to address the first-year students, so that I can ask them to pay attention to what they see and hear, and to seek out the wise, not merely the loudest. What if our political candidates took the spotlight off themselves and paid tribute to individuals who taught them well, even if they disagreed with them? Who were their mentors, and who provided them with safe places to grow and learn? And how would those mentors view the rancor with which they talk about one another? 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.” Proverbs 9:1-6