Scripture
Sirach 1:14-20
The beginning of wisdom is awe of the Holy One;
with the faithful in the womb she was created, together with them.
With humankind she built her roost, an eternal foundation,
and among their descendants, she will be trusted.
The fullness of wisdom is to reverence the Holy One;
she inebriates mortals with her fruits.
Every house of theirs she fills whole with desirable things,
and their storehouses with her produce.
A crown of wisdom is the awe of the Holy One,
sprouting peace and wholeness, healing.
Skill and knowledge, understanding she rained down,
and she exalted the reputation of those who hold her.
The root of wisdom is to reverence the Holy One,
and her branches are length of days.
Acts of the Apostles 1:3-5; 12-14
Jesus presented himself to them, living, after his suffering, through many convincing proofs, by appearing to them forty days and speaking about the reign of God. And staying with them, Jesus commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, rather to wait there for the promise of the Faithful One, “what you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from this one.”
… Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. And when they entered the city, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were persevering in prayer together with women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his sisters and brothers.
Translations: The Rev. Dr. Wilda Gafney, “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church,” Year A.
Sermon
This week I was catching up with “Unfolding Light.” I receive these daily emails from one of my favorite poets of faith, and I came upon his Easter Day offering. I’ll read you a bit of it:
Christ is risen!
This makes no sense. Only joy.
Christ is risen!
There is no explanation. Only wonder.
Christ is risen!
Don't try to understand.
Only be grateful.
This is where many of us are, I think, where the resurrection is concerned. I’ve told lots of you about my mother, growing up in church, attending a religious school, and asking a lot of questions. So many, that the teacher finally asked her, “Are you a convert, dear?” Asking questions was not necessarily a good thing in that context. The answer, my mother said, was almost always, “It’s a mystery.”
This is true. So much of our faith is a mystery. Surely resurrection, of all things, is the greatest of these. It makes no sense. There is no explanation. And trying to understand takes you down a long and frustrating road.
Still, it holds us. It captivates us. At least once a year, we ponder it at some length. We sit in the stillness of wonder.
Or, maybe we don’t. The next line of that poem is,
Christ is risen!
Some say it’s just a story…
And maybe that’s where many of us are. It’s a story. A metaphor. A word of hope in a world in which we are surrounded by death.
As for me, I always come back to a sermon I heard in my 20’s, when a priest whom I knew and loved and trusted said, on Easter Sunday, “The thing is: SOMETHING happened.”
I think we can agree on this. Almost two thousand years ago, a man died, was tortured and killed, with many witnesses. His body was placed in a tomb, which was then sealed.
And then, something happened. Something that convinced his inner circle of friends, family, and followers that God had raised him from the dead.
What was that something?
In our passage from the Acts of the Apostles, we meet Jesus and the disciples not too long after the resurrection. He “presents” himself to them. Another translation might be, he “stands beside” them. Jesus stood beside his followers. The gospel stories tell us, he showed them his wounds. He ate meals with them. And they were convinced: he was alive.
Here’s another thing he did: he talked about the reign of God.
Jesus speaks about the reign of God a lot in the gospels. Here are some things he tells us about it:
It is here, or it is coming very soon. It is almost, but not yet.
It is good news.
It belongs to the poor.
It will be seen by all.
It is like a mustard seed, which looks small, but grows in such a way that it offers a home, creates community.
It is like yeast, which, in Jesus’ day, was considered mysterious and unsettling, because no one knew why or how it worked. No one known how or why the reign of God works.
It goes hand in hand with healing the sick and casting out demons.
It looks an awful lot like an immensely large picnic, where there is no good explanation for how thousands of people are fed with five loaves of bread and two fishes.
Do you see how resurrection starts to make sense?
If Jesus talked about the reign of God after the resurrection, I imagine he revisited all these themes. He was with his friends for forty days—plenty of time for deep, meaningful conversation. For questions, and answers. Plenty of time for Jesus to share his resurrection wisdom, what he knew now, after all that.
Our passage from Sirach offers insight into God’s Wisdom. As in the book of Proverbs, Sirach describes Wisdom as a woman. Before I talk about our passage, I want to share some words about Wisdom from the Rev. Dr. Wilda Gafney. She writes,
She is identified with God, as an extension or expression of God, as God’s first creation, as God’s cocreator, as the Torah, as the Word, and with Jesus. She is the welcoming host of a table of riches. And she offers herself as the chief treasure and companion of humankind. In the psalm, reverence for God is the beginning of Wisdom.
This is a very fluid understanding of Wisdom. She is closely identified with God, even at times, identified as God. At the same time, she is considered a part of creation.
The writer of Sirach winds something that is almost like a mantra throughout our passage. I’ll read you the four verses I have in mind:
The beginning of wisdom is awe of the Holy One;
with the faithful in the womb she was created, together with them.
The fullness of wisdom is to reverence the Holy One;
she inebriates mortals with her fruits.
A crown of wisdom is the awe of the Holy One,
sprouting peace and wholeness, healing.
The root of wisdom is to reverence the Holy One,
and her branches are length of days.
Each of these verses is about something that is growing. Except for the first verse, a plant or tree is described. They speak of creation, bearing fruit, sprouting peace and wholeness, and branches that are eternal, everlasting.
Also, each verse speaks about some stage of Wisdom:
The beginning of Wisdom
The fullness of Wisdom
A crown of Wisdom
The root of Wisdom.
Each of these is connected to the awe or reverence of God. The beginning of Wisdom is awe of God, as is its fullness, crown, and root.
The entire passage tells us, Wisdom is being in awe of God.
Which returns us to our passage from the Acts of the Apostles. After we read about Jesus showing himself to the disciples, and talking with them about the reign of God, we have a break. Left out of the passage is the story of Jesus ascending into heaven. We move right to the disciples all gathered in the upper room, waiting for Jesus to send the Holy Spirit, as he has promised.
Everyone is there, all the disciples, male and female. The twelve apostles are named, and Jesus’s brothers are referenced, but only one woman is named: Mary, the mother of Jesus. Other women who were most likely present were the unnamed sisters of Jesus, “the women who proclaimed his resurrection, Mary Magdalene, the ‘other’ Mary (Matthew 28:1), Mary the mother of James… and Salome (Mark 16:1), Joanna, and the unnamed women in Luke 24:10, and perhaps women who followed and bankrolled Jesus like Susanna (Luke 8:3).”
All these people, women, men, and possibly their children, would have been present when the Holy Spirit arrived. However, I’m interested in the time while they were waiting for the Spirit. Our passage tells us, they “persevered in prayer.” That is all.
These people, who had been through the trauma Jesus’ death, followed by the whiplash of Jesus’ being raised, stood in awe of God. They had received resurrection Wisdom. To a person, women, men, all of them. They dedicated themselves to prayer because… what else could they do, in the face of death? In the face of the deep mystery of resurrection? In the face of a time spent waiting for the unknown, the baptism by Spirit that Jesus had promised? They could only fall into the arms of God, heart and soul, mind and strength, filled with awe.
Finally, for you, who may be wondering what resurrection wisdom for us, for this moment, right now, the full poem.
Christ is risen!
This makes no sense. Only joy.
Christ is risen!
There is no explanation. Only wonder.
Christ is risen!
Don't try to understand.
Only be grateful.
Christ is risen!
Some say it's just a story.
Let it be your story.
Thanks be to God. Amen.