Crying Out in the Streets - September 19, 2021
Proverbs 1:20-33
Deborah Laforet
Crying Out in the Streets
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by the Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Wisdom. Some of you may know my personal email address contains the words sophia and wisdom. For this reason, many have thought my name is Sophia; and when they find out it isn’t, they wonder why I chose this for my email address.
For a long time, I thought of God as male. I thought God was kind of like Charlton Heston when he played Moses, with the white hair and white beard, standing before the dark ominous storm clouds. God was a figure that was always watching, always judging. This correlated with the apocryphal passages in the bible that spoke of rewards for those who worshipped God and followed God’s commandments and the horrible consequences and even punishments for those who didn’t.
It took me a long time to dismantle this God from my imagination. Part of that process was learning about Sophia. The word ‘wisdom’ is sprinkled throughout the bible. In the Hebrew language, the words for wisdom is chokmah. In the greek language, in which most of the Christians Bible was written, the word for wisdom is sophia. Sophia is the only female personification of God in our bible. Wisdom is a gendered word in both the Hebrew and Greek languages and it is female. It’s interesting to re-read scripture passages and replace the word wisdom with sophia. For example:
Does not Sophia call, and does not understanding raise her voice? (Pro. 8:1)
For Sophia is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. (Pro. 8:11)
I, Sophia, live with prudence, and I attain knowledge and discretion. (Pro. 8:12)
Those are all from the eighth chapter of Proverbs. We heard Carol Anne read from the first chapter.
“Sophia cries out in the streets; she raises her voice in the malls; she cries out from the top of walls, on the roads leading in the city.” (Pro. 1:20-21)
There are lots of examples of Sophia God in the book of Proverbs. In the gospels, in both the gospel of Matthew and Luke, we hear a similar reference:
the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet Sophia is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:19) or in Luke’s gospel, “…Sophia is vindicated by all her children.” (Luke 7:35)
Specifically in Luke’s gospel, we hear the phrase Wisdom of God, which an also be translated as Sophia God. There are books written about Sophia if you want to look further.
It took me a long time to move away from a male god or a god with any gender. I still connect strongly with Sophia God, but I also am drawn towards the Cosmic Christ, Creator God, God in our breath, God as love or as an energy. I can now see God as mystery, unlimited in space and time, all that is and all that was and all that will be.
Passages like the one Carol Anne read for us today though bring me back to that God that punishes and rewards, and, in fact, this passage is one from Sophia God.
Sophia God cries:
“How much longer, you ignorant people, will you love being ignorant?
How much longer, you mockers, will you keep mocking?
How much longer will fools sneer at understanding?
She continues,
"I called and you chose not to listen,
I beckoned and you ignored me,”
Therefore,
“I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock you when fear swallows you up -
when panic falls down upon you like a snowstorm,
when terror engulfs you like a tornado,
when distress and anguish knock you down.”
Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? It doesn’t sound like the loving, forgiving God that we hear so much about in church. This is a god that is angry and fed up and has had enough of people’s foolishness.
Is there a time and place for this god in our lives? Do we shy away from these passages in our bible, avoid them because we don’t feel they’re helpful when we’re trying to teach people about a loving and non-judgemental god? Do we avoid them because they make us feel uncomfortable, because they might make us question why God might be angry and with whom?
Maybe there are times when we need to hear this message. Sometimes we need to hear that we’re wrong or that we need to change or there will be consequences to our actions. At times, we hesitate to hold people responsible, wanting to hear their perspective and knowing that they don’t always mean to be hurtful. There is a phrase going around right now in anti-racism circles - Intent versus impact. Most of us try to be good people and do what’s right, but sometimes we mess up. When we mess up, we apologize and say it was just an accident. We didn’t mean it that way. It wasn’t intended to hurt anyone.
It’s about the impact of our actions. We may not have meant to hurt anyone by telling that joke, but people were hurt. We may not have meant to overlook and dismiss people because of the colour of their skin but people were still passed over and neglected. Our actions have consequences, whether they were done with intent or not.
And friends, the impact we’ve had on this earth over the past hundreds of years has been immense. Did we mean to fill up our oceans with plastic? No. Did we mean to cause droughts and famines with the greenhouse gases that we are emitting? Of course not. Don’t get me wrong. We’ve known for a long time what effect we humans have had on this earth. We have ignored the warnings. We have made decisions to let things slide for a while. Consumerism and capitalism have been our driving forces. But did we mean for people to die from too much heat or have their homes destroyed by forest fires? Or for tornados to be so strong and so frequent, for creatures and plant life to go extinct, for habitats to be erased? We meant none of this, but it’s still happening. Whether we like it or not, we need to hear God’s anger over what has been done to this beautiful world.
27 when panic falls down upon you like a snowstorm,
when terror engulfs you like a tornado,
when distress and anguish knock you down.
28 At that time you will call upon me, but I won’t answer;
when you search for me, I’ll be in hiding.
29 Because you despised knowledge,
did not fear Almighty God,
30 ignored all my advice
and turned up your nose at my cautions,
31 now you must eat the fruit of going your own way
and choke on your own choices.
It sounds harsh, but it also sounds appropriate.
I believe in a God of forgiveness, a God of love and compassion. Like loving parents, God gets angry and frustrated at our foolishness and for our irresponsibility but never stops loving us.
I believe in a God of love but I also believe in a God who holds us responsible for our choices. I believe in a God who forgives, but is also a God of justice and righteousness, with a preferential option for the poor, the marginalized, the hungry, the dispossessed…those most affected by the harmful actions of others.
Now, I’m not saying that we need to hold sacred those passages in our bible that promise rewards for “good” people and punishments for “bad” people, especially those passages that promise harsh punishments from God. I don’t believe in a God that doles out rewards and punishments, but I do believe in a God of love; and sometimes, love is about truth telling, responsibility and accountability.
May the God you imagine be a God of love and justice, compassion and peace, wisdom and accountability. May Christ be your guide as you maneuver this world and learn the impact of your actions. May the Spirit always help us to know we are loved and that we have love to share. May it be so. Amen.