What Is Wisdom?

I always wonder what wisdom looks like. I wonder because of many reasons, we seem to be lacking wisdom in political and social discourse, we talk about wisdom in our Scriptures, wisdom seems to be connected to age, etc…

Wisdom can be defined as the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement. So to be wise we need not just experience but also good judgement. I suppose that means we need to put our experience to good use. After all, I do believe that if we cannot learn from our experiences then we have nothing. Even our so called failures should be lessons as to how to grow and change and live more fully into a wise person.

But what about Wisdom Literature?

This included the biblical books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, and Ecclesiastes.

Books that show and teach the wisdom of our faith and history. Sayings and teachings of wise men and women collected over the ages…

Wisdom comes from experiences of our own and those around us. The literature in the Hebrew Scripture helps us to experience what others have to say about God and faith. So for Lent we thought it be wise to hear how some of this wisdom was expressed by three popular characters - of whom I bet many of you have heard.

Esther, Ruth and Daniel.

One of the themes of wisdom in these three books is the Hebrew word Hesed (חסד). This is loving loyalty, faithfulness, and/or loving kindness. This is loving loyalty that goes beyond the expected and into a very deep and life-changing depth. Each of these three characters could have followed many paths, most of which would be easier than the ones they chose. But through their hesed they changed not just their lives...but the lives of those around them.

Please join us on Wednesdays throughout Lent to hear these courageous stories of characters that may (or may not) be familiar to you. We start with our conversation over dinner at 6:30 pm in the chapel and then by 7:15 pm we will make our way to the sanctuary’s prayer chapel for evening prayer where we can allow the music and silence to help us go deeper in our faith, spirituality and into the stories of these larger than life characters.

I hope to see you - together let us begin the Lenten journey to Easter with a little more wisdom.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jason