What is Wisdom?
Our readings on Sunday leave this question hanging in the air: from the simple directive of the Ten Commandments, through the confusion of the Jews as Jesus turns over the tables of the money lenders, all the way to Paul's letter to the Church in Corinth where he displaces strength with weakness and wisdom with folly.
What is wisdom?
If it is simply doing what we're told, then there's no excuse for any of us to be anything but wise. If it's accepting the strength that comes from weakness, the wisdom that arises out of folly, then many will struggle with the purpose of attaining wisdom.
Most of us, I suspect, are somewhere in between: knowing that rule-following isn't enough, yet not quite ready to forego the human strength (or power or influence) we have to allow the divine wisdom within us to flourish.
We are in a similar position to those who found themselves in the Temple when Jesus arrived with his whip of cords and that zeal for his father's house: highly uncomfortable, yet knowing instinctively that what was going on around them was, at some deep level, good and right and true. Even then they demanded proof, a sign, wisdom beyond what their eyes could see.
I wonder what is going on in the world at the moment that leaves you feeling highly uncomfortable and yet knowing instinctively that it is, at some deep level, good and right and true. And I'm curious to know whether, in that moment, we demand a sign or allow the divine wisdom within us to flourish.
