August 19, 2018 Eat my Flesh and Live Trinity Church, Boston, MA, Rita Powell 1 1. Wisdom in Creation When I was at seminary, many of the scholars there were working over our sacred texts and traditions to look for an authentic way out of the relentless patriarchy of the church. David Kelsey, my professor of systematic theology, was one who became a champion of Wisdom. He felt that if we pay attention to this character we meet in Proverbs today, we find a female form of the deity that is not reduced to fertility or beauty in any objective sense, but whose person is a way of understanding the cosmic order in creation. Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars is a reference to creation. Confirmed by Job and the psalms, the seven pillars are a nod to the structure of the world where wisdom is imagined as the organizing principle. Wisdom is she who was at the beginning for the very making of the world, indeed the one through whom all things were made. It s a vision that John picks up when he identifies Jesus as the Logos: Jesus, says John, was at the beginning of the world and is essentially the structure of the world because he is the Word, the Logos, the frame of reason or wisdom. But here in Proverbs, wisdom is a female character and she is a gracious host.
August 19, 2018 Eat my Flesh and Live Trinity Church, Boston, MA, Rita Powell 2 2. Wisdom invites us into life One of the most familiar Taizé songs, taken from the psalms sings, Bless the Lord, my soul who leads me into life. God is the Creator, and in that God is also the author of life. We say that we believe that God wishes for us to have life, and not only the gift of mere animate function, but a rich and shimmering life that is the light of all people. Here we see Wisdom identified as the character of that divine wish: She is inviting us in, leading us, so that we may live! Come in, she beckons, so that you may lay aside immaturity (or simple-ness) and live! Come in so that you may walk in the way of insight. Come in so that you may come of age, become mature, be transformed from blind to seeing- to insight, to that shimmering way of life that is rich and full and unbreakable and not defined only by the passing moment. Wisdom s call is to a life that is light, that is eternal. 3. Wisdom serves Bread and wine and meat The way we will be transformed is by eating what Wisdom serves. By eating together at her table, we will be nourished and strengthened and formed by her sustenance. Other biblical writers, like Isaiah, also imagine the kingdom of God as a glorious dinner party. But here, wisdom s dinner is not so much about reward as
August 19, 2018 Eat my Flesh and Live Trinity Church, Boston, MA, Rita Powell 3 it is about evolution or transformation. Is the kingdom of God a kind of enlightenment? That is what is offered here: You that are simple, you that are lost- (that s us, by the way) turn in here and eat and be changed. This is a holy meal indeed. And it is made up of bread, and wine she has mixed, and meat. The pillars of nourishment, the sine qua non of a good biblical-era feast. 4. Wisdom is in the world but not of the world But of course, we are imagining. There is not, alas, an actual dinner being served. Even though Wisdom is part of the architecture of the real, created order, she is not actually offering food that we can touch. This is because she is in the world, and the world was created through her, but the world knew her not. Echoes of John s prologue again. Much of her appearance in proverbs is about how we humans often as not ignore or refuse or can not recognize Wisdom. Wisdom, like the Christ, is in the world but not of the world. And so too her food is both real and not of the world. Wisdom is offering us a kind of food that is more important than our daily bread. Once we taste this food, we will wish for it always! This food will help us put in perspective the needs of our bodies. This food will give us more than the simple life of the grass that withers and dies. This food which is nourishment but not to be confused with lunch, this bread and wine that wisdom
August 19, 2018 Eat my Flesh and Live Trinity Church, Boston, MA, Rita Powell 4 prepares for us are the Word of God. Jesus again! Man does not live by bread alone but by the Word of God. Not sanctimonious piety, but assertion of the Order of the Universe: you live because God/ Wisdom/ the Word gave you life, and second to that truth, you also need food and clothing and shelter, etc. But brunch does not author the life in you and we are foolish to forget that. We work to eat, and we think our eating is our sustenance, but we forget that our real source is deeper than that. Better to work for that food, that word, that bread and wine and meat of Wisdom than simply strive to pay our grocery bill. 5. Jesus is the bread and the wine and the flesh Jesus is trying to get at this throughout the 6 th chapter of John. He wants us to see that He is this other divine food. Wisdom has set her table and the food she has prepared is the bread and wine and meat of divine life. Jesus is the Incarnation of that Divine Life and His whole mission is to make visible and tangible what had previously been invisible and formless. Jesus is, like Wisdom, offering food which is both real and visible and yet not to be confused with sandwiches. In fact he is getting frustrated here in chapter 6, because he has fed the crowd lunch, and they wish to follow him because of it. Don t worry about working for lunch, the bread which perishes, he says, work for the food which endures. Eat the food of divine
August 19, 2018 Eat my Flesh and Live Trinity Church, Boston, MA, Rita Powell 5 life! And the people think, oh, is this going to be like Moses who gave manna from heaven so that the people lived? And Jesus is aggravated- First of all, he says, Moses didn t give our ancestors bread, God the Creator did. And second of all, they lived for their life span but manna was not spiritual but earthly bread- it was miraculous in its appearing, but basically still just lunch every day. I m telling you about a different order of food altogether, one that gives you real, eternal, shimmering life! And the food I m talking about is ME. Well, people here at this point, absolutely start losing it with Jesus. This makes no sense. First, they say, we know your family- how can you say you came from heaven? And second, how are you food? This is crazy. And then Jesus gets very annoyed too because they re not getting it, and he knows where he is headed, so then he gets real scary with us today: I mean, bread of life might sound nice but eat my flesh and drink my blood? Eeek!!! Scary! Gory! Taboo! But Jesus knows where he is going. He knows he will die. He knows he will walk into violence and suffering and death. The way of insight promised by Wisdom is none other than the Way of the Cross. The redemption of this world, the discovery of the eternal in the midst of things passing away does not bypass death and blood but goes through it. That is why Jesus says I will give my flesh and
August 19, 2018 Eat my Flesh and Live Trinity Church, Boston, MA, Rita Powell 6 blood. And unless you can eat of that banquet, you will remain defined by simple appetites, immature living. 6. The Eucharist: in the world but not of the world We believe our Eucharist is that banquet. This house of the Lord can be understood as the House that Wisdom built, Hagia Sophia. I would love to think of myself as one of her serving girls, calling us in to the feast. And like the dinner party of wisdom, we must turn in here, and be hungry for nourishment deeper than and different from our daily bread. We must not confuse the loaves and fishes with the Body and the Blood. Yet Jesus the Word wishes to give us something tangible to touch and taste and remember him by: so we have this sacrament, this bread and this wine. And they are like our food, edible in this world, and yet they are not our regular bread or wine, and we must not confuse the one for the other. Behold! This is the dinner table of Wisdom, a meal to transform us from immature creatures ruled by simple appetites into mature beings whose life is the light of all people, shimmering with the knowledge and love of God. Let us come in, and eat, and live!