In 1986, January 28, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its mission, in the witness of millions across America and the world. For those who remember that day, the image and shock are unforgettable. For those who were not of age to remember the tragedy, no doubt they have heard about it. It was one of those events in my life where I specifically remember where I was and the feelings of that moment in time, akin to the memories I have of November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated.
Months after the Shuttle disaster, it was discovered and revealed that the Shuttle was launched against the recommendations of several of the people who were responsible for its operation. In recounting the events leading to the decision to launch or not to launch, one of those people, Brian Russell* explains it like this: “We were in the exact opposite philosophical position, where, if you had a problem, you had to show to prove, by data, by testing, by analysis, by whatever means, to make a logical argument of why it was okay to fly. So, if it wasn’t safe to fly, you didn’t fly. The default position was, don’t fly unless you can show it safe. … We had to prove it was unsafe, the exact opposite.”
The default position was, Russell says, if it wasn’t safe to fly, you didn’t fly! The default position was the most logical and simple response, but we often push ourselves to override the default positions, and this is where we get into trouble. The default position is not always the safest position, and so we pray for wisdom.
Divine Light, God, and Wisdom of the Father, open my heart to Your will. Help me to discover the paths of life that need to be conquered and overcome, as well as the paths that are laid before me, waiting to be followed. May I walk in the Christ Light so I may never fall. Amen.
Yesterday, in our message about wisdom, we spoke of processing knowledge. I gave two examples of how Jesus was confronted on issues of knowledge and instead opted to answer with wisdom. Looking deeper into the two examples, we find wisdom presents alternatives that are overlooked when only knowledge is applied to the decision-making process.
In John chapter 8, a woman is caught in the act of adultery and the evangelist tells us that they brought her to Jesus “To test him.” (vs 6) The law given by Moses to the Jews, commands that such a person should be stoned to death. The “test,” then, was to see if Jesus would say yes or no to stoning. If he refuted it and gave her a “pass” they would hold him in contempt of the law. If he agreed to stoning, they’d question the sincerity of his message of love and forgiveness.
Jesus agrees to the stoning on the condition that whoever is without sin throw the first stone! One by one her accusers backed away until she was left alone. Jesus asks her, “Where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” Neither does he condemn her, and says, “Go, and sin no more.”
It is important to mention that of all the people huddled around the woman, only Jesus, being sinless, was qualified to throw a stone, but he doesn’t. Given two options based on the knowledge of the law, Jesus, in his wisdom, overrode the law by presenting an alternate solution.
The second incident was also a test with a seemingly binary solution. We read in Matthew 22:12-21, they ask if it is “Lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (vs 17) The Jews were subjects in the Roman Empire and the question of paying taxes might explain where Jesus’ loyalties lied. Saying yes to taxes would make him a friend of the Roman Empire, saying no would set him up a troublemaker among the people. Again, having the knowledge as background, Jesus gives an alternative within the parameters of the circumstances. Asking for a coin, he asks, whose face is on the coin? The answer, “Ceasar’s.” Accordingly, he directs them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Some people acquire wisdom based on life experiences and inner conviction. But Jesus is wisdom, says the theologian and saint of the Church, Nersess Shnorhali.
Throughout the Gospel Jesus is put to the “test” to select one or another way? “Should we forgive a person who sins against us seven times?” he answers, “Not seven times, but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18) “Send the people home so they can eat,” the disciples warn Jesus and instead he feeds the crowd of 20,000. (Matthew 16) They bring a quadriplegic for him to heal, and he says, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9) And the list goes on.
Jesus, the “wisdom of the Father,” presents an alternative to the yes/no answers we assume are the only options. Looking at a world plagued by war, hatred, greed, and pollution of body, nature and soul, often we reduce issues to factors based on knowledge and miss the options granted by wisdom.
St. Nersess Shnorhali offers this prayer request which we read today, Jesus, Wisdom of the Father, grant me your wisdom that I may speak, think, and do that which is good in your sight. Save me from evil thoughts, words and deeds. Amen.
There is an old adage that says with age comes wisdom. It’s based on the supposition that through life experiences we acquire knowledge, and we process that knowledge into wisdom. But the process of processing that knowledge is not consistent across the vast variety of people, that is not every one’s processing of knowledge leads to wisdom.
The Book of Proverbs, found in the Old Testament, is about wisdom. The first few lines of the Book of Proverbs explain why the book is written:
To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity;
To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion—
A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
When the Armenian Church monk Mesrob Mashdots invented the Armenian alphabet at the beginning of the 5th century, the first bit of text that he translated were these words of preface of the Book of Proverbs. It is said that he did so to test the discovered letters before embarking on the translation of the entirety of Holy Scripture.
It is worth re-reading this passage with the knowledge that for the Armenian Church, this quest for wisdom was a priority of mission. Armodoxy attests to this. Most religious traditions share a quest for wisdom. Today, in an age where knowledge is a google-search away from anyone with a keyboard and processor – desktop, laptop or phone – the mechanism for processing that knowledge into wisdom is lost.
An anecdote which illustrates that process of knowledge to wisdom, is a beautiful story which has a counter part in many different traditions. In Buddhism it is told of a master and a student, in Armodoxy we tell it of an elderly priest and the young seminarian. In an effort to trick the master, the young student comes up with a scheme that will certainly prove that the wisdom of the elderly priest was not processed knowledge. The student placed a small bird in his hand and hid it behind his back. He turned to his teacher and said, “I am holding a bird in my hand, can you tell me if it is dead or alive?”
The scheme was rather clever. If the master said the bird was alive, then the student would crush it in his hand and reveal a dead bird. If the master said the bird was dead, then the student would merely open his hand and the bird would fly away. In both instances, the master would be wrong.
With bird in hand tucked behind his back, the young man approaches the elderly priest and asks, “Tell me master, is the bird I am holding in my hand, dead or alive?”
The priest, with a smile on his face, responds, “The answer is in your hand.”
The wisdom from this short story is profound, as most wisdom is. We are living in a time and space where we are quick to spew out bits and pieces of knowledge, and we now even have computer assisted means by which we can gather more and more knowledge. Wisdom is the necessary processing of knowledge. Jesus, processed knowledge into wisdom when he allowed for the stoning of the adulterer, but only by those who had no sin (John 8), or answered the question of taxation by saying “Render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and unto God what is God’s.” (Matthew 22) In fact, on closer look we find that Jesus is wisdom. St. Nersess Shnorhali refers to him as “Wisdom of the Father.” Our survival as a people and species depends on finding wisdom. That wisdom is within our reach.
We pray, from St. Nersess Shnorhali’s 11th hour, Jesus, Wisdom of the Father, grant me your wisdom that I may speak, think, and do that which is good in your sight. Save me from evil thoughts, words and deeds. Amen.
