Reflection with readings below
It is with Wisdom that God created world. Wisdom is following God’s commandments. It is with Wisdom that people gain understanding. But Wisdom is still about choice. We are not automatically filled with Wisdom, we are not programmed to unvaryingly follow Wisdom. There is always the opposite figure, that of Folly which we may pursue. Indeed later in chapter 9 of Proverbs, we come across Golly inviting people to step aside into her house!
Throughout the Bible there is alway choice. The choice to follow God or ignore God. To do what is right or to do what is wrong. To choose what is life giving or what is life-defeating. Adam and Eve make choices. Noah makes a choice. Abraham makes a choice. The people of Israel make a choice. Those who hear the cry of John the Baptist make a choice. Those who believe in Jesus make a choice. Yet the choices we make are not unalterable. If we find we have made a bad choice, we can repent, turn round and make a better choice – as the parable of the prodigal son so colourfully explains.
In today’s first reading we have a dinner invitation. The description of Wisdom preparing the meal, and sending out her invitation to would-be guests sounds very similar to a couple of Jesus’s parables about people preparing sumptuous feasts and then sending out the invitations to the guests. How one receives the invitation becomes the process of judgement. Those who seek a good life, who seek peace and happiness – who seek God’s kingdom – are the ones who accept the invitation positively. Those who turn aside to enter Wisdom’s house have made the right choice; by eating and drinking the meal she has prepared, they internalise Wisdom.
The psalmist also reminds us to make the right choice: “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” And suggests that our approach to God should be one of fear – or as we might phrase it – one of awe. Both awe and fear can sharpen our senses, prompting us to seek out and make the right choices – and not to be lackadaisical. The writer to the Ephesians suggests ways in which we can live our lives wisely and fully – singing songs and praises, giving thanks for everything in the name of Jesus. In other words responding positively to all that God offers us – and thus we will be filled with the Holy Spirit.
It all sounds so very simple and yet we can find it such a hard discipline to stick to. Is being wise simple or complicated? Is shaping our lives according to God’s will straightforward or difficult? Is becoming one with Jesus easy or ever so tricky?
If we look back over John’s Gospel we see that for some people the decision to follow Jesus was so simple. Andrew realises straight away that Jesus is the Messiah. Philip too follows him without any hesitation, and when Nathaniel meets him, he straightway recognises him as the Son of God. But then we have people like Nicodemus, teacher and leader of the Jews. He cannot get his intellectual mind around who Jesus is and how one might enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus cannot understand how things can be both earthly and heavenly, how there might be such a fluid interconnection between heaven and earth.
Spiritual food cannot be separated from physical food. Physical food cannot be set aside from spiritual food. We cannot just be satisfied by eating physical bread – we need to understand it spiritually. There is nothing we eat that does not ultimately come from God who is the creator of all things. We need to acknowledge that in giving thanks to God. But neither will we be satisfied with just an intangible spirituality. When we seek the spiritual we need the groundedness of things physical. Baptism comes in the medium of water and the spirit. The Eucharist comes in the medium of bread and wine as well the medium of Christ’s flesh and blood.
And we can chose to accept Jesus’s invitation to share the bread that is his body and the wine that is his blood, as a simple gift – or we can choose to convert it into a complicated conundrum, one which then allows us to create barriers and exclude others.
As we prepare to eat and drink the gift of Jesus, we will remember that all that we have – both physical and spiritual – is a gift from God and that is is only with what God gives us, that we can return our thanks. And this perhaps brings is back to where we began – with Wisdom. Through choosing that invitation, by entering that house and following that way of life, we can live the way God wishes – Wisdom that calls us to care for the earth, for all that God has created, to use and share it wisely with one another, to live simply so that all may simply live.
Let us take that wisdom into every aspect of our lives this week and see how it changes the way we treat others, the way we buy and sell, make and take, give and share, teach and listen, sing and give thanks – to the glory of God the Father and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house,
she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,
she has also set her table.
She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls
from the highest places in the town,
“You that are simple, turn in here!”
To those without sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
Psalm 34:9-14
9 Fear the Lord, you that are his saints, *
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger, *
but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good.
11 Come, children, and listen to me; *
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Who among you loves life *
and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?
13 Keep your tongue from evil-speaking *
and your lips from lying words.
14 Turn from evil and do good; *
seek peace and pursue it.
Ephesians 5:15-20
Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 6:51-58
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
The Green Tau 