God's Playful Wisdom
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series III, Cycle C
If I mentioned Sophia to you, what memories would it evoke? Would you think of a movie called Sophie's Choice? Or perhaps you know of someone whose name is Sophia. Some of you might think of a controversy stirred up several years ago at a women's conference that was exploring feminine images for God. Some who objected to their ideas accused them of pagan worship when they used Sophia to refer to the feminine side of God.
If you are from the Eastern Orthodox branch of the church or even have good friends who are, you are aware of churches named Sophia. The Eastern Orthodox church has always been more familiar with the role of Sophia in the faith than the Western branch of the church.
For Christians, our understanding of the role of Sophia in the faith can be traced back to this passage from Proverbs 8. Here Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, is personified as a woman who was with God before creation. It's sort of a pre-creation story. "The Lord created me," says Sophia, "at the beginning of his work ... before the beginning of the earth" (vv. 22-23).
This personified wisdom then goes on to describe how she was an intimate part of every aspect of the creation. Some manuscripts describe how she was "beside (God) like a little child ... daily (God's) delight, rejoicing before him always" (v. 30).
If you allow your imagination its freedom, you can almost see this little girl, Sophia, skipping around delighting God as God proceeds with creation. For those of you who have little children, you may be able to fill out that image.
When we get to the New Testament, the gospel of John develops this understanding of Sophia as the spirit of truth. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, [she] will guide you into all the truth ..." (John 16:12-13). This spirit will reveal to us things Jesus chose not to reveal to us during his time on earth.
What we learn is that God accommodates God's message according to our level of understanding. It should not be a surprise that there are areas of truth that God knows but humanity, at any particular stage of life, could not understand. Jesus could not, for example, have explained the truth of space travel or computers to his disciples. John is not talking about scientific knowledge but a greater knowledge in the area of faith. Jesus did not speak directly to many of the issues that we face in today's church, so as the body of Christ we have to seek that truth together. Sophia nurtures us in our journey of faith as we mature and our culture advances.
The image of Sophia as a child also reminds us of the gospel admonition that unless we become like little children, we will not enter the kingdom of God. What is it about a child that is instructive to us in the faith? One of the great characteristics about children is that they know how to play.
Consider the last time you allowed yourself to play with your faith. When children play, they are not afraid to fantasize different possibilities. They can imagine radical possibilities because after all, they would explain, it is just playing. Children might be unafraid to ask: What if God doesn't exist and Jesus was just a made up story? What they are exploring is how such a truth would affect their lives. Or they might ask: What if God does exist and Jesus' commandments that you must love your enemy and forgive those who offend you are truths by which you will be judged? How would that alter life? In adult language, they are asking which truth would bring about a more radical change in their life. Sometimes play clarifies reality.
How often have churches failed in their reflection of the good news of Christ because they took themselves too seriously and forgot how to play? Imagine a church -- let's call it First Community Church. First Community has been having a very serious struggle within the leadership. All factions are sincere and serious in believing that their way is the way of truth and righteousness.
Then one Sunday two of the elders from different factions find themselves assigned to watch the first-and-second-grade room. They suggest to the children that they play a game together.
One of the children says, "Let's play church."
Another child says, "I want to play the good preacher."
"That's no fair," said another, "you played the good preacher last time. Why don't you play the preacher who gets told to go away?"
"I don't want to go away," said the first child. "I'll be the preacher to one group. You can be preacher to the other group, and we will tell each other what is wrong with the other."
A third child speaks up and says, "Our group wants to have a party."
"You can't have a party in the church," says another. "Church is for God, and God doesn't like parties."
"Uh uh," says another, "I have a storybook that says Jesus liked to go to parties with tax collectors and spenders."
"But if Jesus liked parties, how come our church never has parties?" asked another.
As the two stunned elders watched, they saw mirrored before them the child's perception of what it was like to be a church. Suddenly one of them began to laugh.
Immediately one of the children turned toward him and stuck out her finger and said, "Stop that laughing, you are in church. We don't allow laughing here."
"I think," said the elder, "that our church needs to learn from you to laugh and play more so that God can delight in us."
Is the elder right? Do we need to play with our faith and our church more so that we might be a delight to God? Think of what might happen if we were more open to playfulness as we face issues in the church.
It is no accident that science advanced in those parts of the world where either Jewish or Christian thought predominated. By the nature of our faith, the physical world is not something to be worshiped. We can probe and explore it, and we believe that God wants us to grow in our understanding. That developed because we weren't afraid to play with possibilities.
My concern is that we have shown an inability to "play with" the possibilities in other areas of life. When we have faced issues like abortion, race, war and peace, homosexuality, and more, we have quickly chosen up sides and refused to play with possible solutions the same way we did with issues of science.
We refused to allow Sophia to play with possibilities and trust that God would continue to delight in us as we probed for the truth. Churches have chosen to split over many such issues. We choose to violate God's commandment that we love one another rather than risk that we might not see the truth clearly.
I understand we live in a world that is experiencing a flood of change and would like to have some solid truths to hang onto. And there are such truths.
* God is the holy, sovereign Lord of history.
* God seeks to create a world of justice, mercy, and love and bids us to seek to bring that about in our world as well.
* God does provide for us that which we truly need to both sustain and grow in our lives.
* God offers us forgiveness for our sins and bids us do the same for others.
* God understands that we face temptations and seeks to deliver us from evil.
We can put those same truths in a form that is easier to remember: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
If you are from the Eastern Orthodox branch of the church or even have good friends who are, you are aware of churches named Sophia. The Eastern Orthodox church has always been more familiar with the role of Sophia in the faith than the Western branch of the church.
For Christians, our understanding of the role of Sophia in the faith can be traced back to this passage from Proverbs 8. Here Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, is personified as a woman who was with God before creation. It's sort of a pre-creation story. "The Lord created me," says Sophia, "at the beginning of his work ... before the beginning of the earth" (vv. 22-23).
This personified wisdom then goes on to describe how she was an intimate part of every aspect of the creation. Some manuscripts describe how she was "beside (God) like a little child ... daily (God's) delight, rejoicing before him always" (v. 30).
If you allow your imagination its freedom, you can almost see this little girl, Sophia, skipping around delighting God as God proceeds with creation. For those of you who have little children, you may be able to fill out that image.
When we get to the New Testament, the gospel of John develops this understanding of Sophia as the spirit of truth. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, [she] will guide you into all the truth ..." (John 16:12-13). This spirit will reveal to us things Jesus chose not to reveal to us during his time on earth.
What we learn is that God accommodates God's message according to our level of understanding. It should not be a surprise that there are areas of truth that God knows but humanity, at any particular stage of life, could not understand. Jesus could not, for example, have explained the truth of space travel or computers to his disciples. John is not talking about scientific knowledge but a greater knowledge in the area of faith. Jesus did not speak directly to many of the issues that we face in today's church, so as the body of Christ we have to seek that truth together. Sophia nurtures us in our journey of faith as we mature and our culture advances.
The image of Sophia as a child also reminds us of the gospel admonition that unless we become like little children, we will not enter the kingdom of God. What is it about a child that is instructive to us in the faith? One of the great characteristics about children is that they know how to play.
Consider the last time you allowed yourself to play with your faith. When children play, they are not afraid to fantasize different possibilities. They can imagine radical possibilities because after all, they would explain, it is just playing. Children might be unafraid to ask: What if God doesn't exist and Jesus was just a made up story? What they are exploring is how such a truth would affect their lives. Or they might ask: What if God does exist and Jesus' commandments that you must love your enemy and forgive those who offend you are truths by which you will be judged? How would that alter life? In adult language, they are asking which truth would bring about a more radical change in their life. Sometimes play clarifies reality.
How often have churches failed in their reflection of the good news of Christ because they took themselves too seriously and forgot how to play? Imagine a church -- let's call it First Community Church. First Community has been having a very serious struggle within the leadership. All factions are sincere and serious in believing that their way is the way of truth and righteousness.
Then one Sunday two of the elders from different factions find themselves assigned to watch the first-and-second-grade room. They suggest to the children that they play a game together.
One of the children says, "Let's play church."
Another child says, "I want to play the good preacher."
"That's no fair," said another, "you played the good preacher last time. Why don't you play the preacher who gets told to go away?"
"I don't want to go away," said the first child. "I'll be the preacher to one group. You can be preacher to the other group, and we will tell each other what is wrong with the other."
A third child speaks up and says, "Our group wants to have a party."
"You can't have a party in the church," says another. "Church is for God, and God doesn't like parties."
"Uh uh," says another, "I have a storybook that says Jesus liked to go to parties with tax collectors and spenders."
"But if Jesus liked parties, how come our church never has parties?" asked another.
As the two stunned elders watched, they saw mirrored before them the child's perception of what it was like to be a church. Suddenly one of them began to laugh.
Immediately one of the children turned toward him and stuck out her finger and said, "Stop that laughing, you are in church. We don't allow laughing here."
"I think," said the elder, "that our church needs to learn from you to laugh and play more so that God can delight in us."
Is the elder right? Do we need to play with our faith and our church more so that we might be a delight to God? Think of what might happen if we were more open to playfulness as we face issues in the church.
It is no accident that science advanced in those parts of the world where either Jewish or Christian thought predominated. By the nature of our faith, the physical world is not something to be worshiped. We can probe and explore it, and we believe that God wants us to grow in our understanding. That developed because we weren't afraid to play with possibilities.
My concern is that we have shown an inability to "play with" the possibilities in other areas of life. When we have faced issues like abortion, race, war and peace, homosexuality, and more, we have quickly chosen up sides and refused to play with possible solutions the same way we did with issues of science.
We refused to allow Sophia to play with possibilities and trust that God would continue to delight in us as we probed for the truth. Churches have chosen to split over many such issues. We choose to violate God's commandment that we love one another rather than risk that we might not see the truth clearly.
I understand we live in a world that is experiencing a flood of change and would like to have some solid truths to hang onto. And there are such truths.
* God is the holy, sovereign Lord of history.
* God seeks to create a world of justice, mercy, and love and bids us to seek to bring that about in our world as well.
* God does provide for us that which we truly need to both sustain and grow in our lives.
* God offers us forgiveness for our sins and bids us do the same for others.
* God understands that we face temptations and seeks to deliver us from evil.
We can put those same truths in a form that is easier to remember: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
