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When I submitted the bulletin draft for our weekly staff meeting last Tuesday, Nae confessed that he had wondered, “She’s not serious is she?! The Beatles? In worship?” He quickly answered himself, “Yes, she is serious.”

It was only a draft, open to change and conversation. That’s part of what we do at staff meetings. The Lennon/McCartney tune, Let It Be, came quickly to mind as I opened today’s texts. Today we hear about young King Solomon, successor to popular but not without a dark side, David. Solomon asks God for wisdom. God not only says “Sure thing!” but rewards Solomon with more. Because Solomon valued having a mature and wise heart over wealth and glory, God gave him those things too. Ah, to be as wise as Solomon…   Seeking words of wisdom…

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is filled with advice. Some of it is a little problematic but today’s content is something that most of us would sign on easily. “Be careful how you live. Don’t live like ignorant people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have, because these are evil days. Don’t be fools then, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do.”   Seeking words of wisdom…

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Okay. Part of me is Catholic. There’s something to be said for having positive female role models with status. Catholics don’t worship Mary, as many Protestants fear or complain. She’s a great intermediary, if you feel you need one. Mother Mary, come to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Been listening to the news lately? I think the DC area generates and absorbs more than its share of news. Our local news feels very much like national news. I’ve long been an NPR fan. Not one to keep up with newspapers, I’ve discovered reading The Post and a few other sources online addictive. News is everywhere around here. Living next door to the District makes it highly possible to know someone who is making the news – or at least to know someone who knows someone in the news! National and international news feels especially heavy this summer. I’ve been processing what I experience as humanity’s downward spiral of conscience through my sermons and prayers. This morning is no different.

Bill Neal stopped me in the hallway last Sunday with a question that has pitched a tent inside me all week. “Why isn’t the Church coming together and taking a stand in this war? How can Christians be silent when people are murdering one another in God’s name? Women, children, innocent civilians are dying while the fighters proclaim they are doing the will of God?! That God will reward them?! How can we let them get away with that? No matter where you are politically, massacres are not the will of God.”

Bill’s was an impassioned question that deserved a response. I didn’t have a good one.  I was heading into the sanctuary to begin our service celebrating the past week’s Vacation Bible School message and activities. Peace Explorers. We can be peacemakers, not peace breakers. “Clickity Clack. Clickity Clack. Here comes the Peace Train down the track. Clickity Clack. Clickity Clack. Everybody get on board!”

The following day I happened upon an article on the UCC webpage. It’s heading? “Where are the churches? We’re right here” by Daniel J. Webster.

A seminary professor this week (Aug. 9) issued a challenge to U.S. Christian churches. He called for our churches to speak out against the current Mideast war in a way that was more than a lament.

“Where are the U.S. churches?” wrote the Rev. Mark Lewis Taylor, a professor of theology and culture at Princeton Seminary, in a Religion News Service guest commentary. He added, “They are often silent. Too many churches are in lockstep with growing Christian Zionist movements, exchanging faith in the God of Jesus Christ for a nationalist loyalty to an imperial Pax Americana/Israelica, thus giving a blank check to U.S. and Israeli governments’ attack policies.”

The article responds that mainstream Protestant and Orthodox churches have issued vigorous statements in opposition to this war. I would add that several denominations have people on the ground experiencing the horrific devastation. The problem, Webster writes, is that mainstream media expects the churches to say such things. It’s not news. “But let one outrageous, fire and brimstone heretical Christian leader rally his Christian Zionist followers into a right-wing frenzy and the media just swarm the story. Editors and producers love outrageous. I know. I used to be one.”  The National Council of Churches gets buried in an article while the outrageous gets 3 columns.

So, media is the problem. I agree to a degree. But the larger issue is why can’t the church, you, me and a whole bunch of other citizens, rise up and scream STOP!? Sure it is a complicated and extremely nuanced dilemma. There are no easy solutions. But isn’t there a threshold of inhumanity? Why can’t mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches do something outrageous? Another Beatle song comes to mind. “You say we need a revolution …” Who’s going to lead the revolution? Jesus has done those kinds of things before. Follow me, he says. Too dangerous we say. If we all did it together, it would be less dangerous.

And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be, let it be.     Stop. Close your eyes. Breathe. Breathe deeply. Breathe slowly.
Listen. Whispered words of wisdom saying … Saying what?

Wisdom illuminates the way to live; it shines a light on what life is about. Our Bible has numerous sayings and stories that speak to us of wisdom. Did you know that there is feminine language for God that is deeply rooted in our Judeo-Christian tradition? Sophia.
In Jewish wisdom literature, wisdom is often personified in female form as “the Wisdom Woman.” Wisdom is a female noun in both Greek and Hebrew. Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom. Proverbs introduces us to Sophia, Hokmah in Hebrew. Sophia is calling out in the streets and marketplace, “Listen! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn?”  [1:21-22] Several chapters follow with instruction and insight. In chapter 8, Sophia is linked with God at creation. “Yahweh created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago.” She co-created our earth with God.

In the Wisdom of Solomon, a book written near the time of Jesus, the divine qualities of Sophia are most developed. She is described much as God is described. “She pervades and penetrates all things.” “Sophia is a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty” and a “reflection of eternal light.”  [7:22-27] Sophia is named, not Yahweh, as the one who delivers the Israelites from slavery. [10:15, 18-19]

Marcus Borg in his book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, makes an excellent case that our Sophia tradition is not just an interesting literary device of personification. That is, a metaphor for wisdom in female form. Sophia is a personification of GOD in female form.

Praying to Sophia is not goddess worship as we might understand gods and goddesses. Had certain paths not been taken in the evolving Jewish Christian community, we could very well be familiar and comfortable with Sophia God.

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me. Shine until tomorrow, let it be. Let it be.

Perhaps Lennon and McCartney misidentified the visitor speaking wisdom.

I wake up to the sound of music; Mother Sophia comes to me,
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Let it be.

Come Holy One. Come. Incite us to revolution.
Amen.

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