The Wisdom of Proverbs: Proverbs 1:1-7

What follows is my first sermon from my summer sermon series on Proverbs.

“The Wisdom of Proverbs”

Proverbs 1: 1-7

Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott

May 30^th, 2010

I eat Dove chocolate.  I eat a lot of Dove chocolate, in fact, because the chocolate is so irresistibly smooth and because the packaging is ingenious.  You see, inside the foil of each carefully wrapped, irresistibly smooth chocolate is a little saying, a little proverb if you will, that you must savor while you savor the chocolate.  Why, just this past week, I opened a chocolate to read, “Compromise is a sign of strength not weakness.”  And another chocolate that read, “Let your light shine, the world is watching.”  And another chocolate that read, “Live well, laugh often, and love much.” And another chocolate that read, “Happiness is an inside job.”

So, you see of course what is happening here, you see that by eating this wonderful chocolate you are actually learning something, gaining in wisdom and instruction, growing from the teachings that have been laid before you by the god of marketing that is Dove.  I find that I learn so much from these little Dovisms that I need to eat lots of chocolate, every day, so as to take full advantage of this opportunity to learn and grow….both in mind and in girth.

There is something about a proverb that we love.  It’s short, that’s good, because we have short attention spans.  But it also makes us pause and ponder.  Not much in this busy world of ours can make us pause and ponder, but a proverb does just that.  Even the simplest (some may say stupid) of proverbs such as those found in a Dove chocolate or a fortune cookie make us pause for a moment and ponder the insight that has been given to us, like a tiny little gift, on a foil or a sliver of paper that fits in the palm of our hand.  Yes, there is something about a proverb that we just love. Which is interesting, because we don’t spend much time with the proverbs gifted to us within our scriptures.

As a source of spiritual inspiration and guidance, the book of Proverbs is almost lost to us. It is not high on our reading list as Christians. We rarely hear it read in church or preached about in sermons.  Not many of us could identify a verse from Proverbs, let alone recite one.[1] And even if we were to try reading this book of thirty chapters, we’d more than likely get bogged down in the tedious nature of a book that has no plot and that quickly becomes forgettable as you read one short little saying after another, and another, and another for thirty chapters.

Yet Proverbs contains a certain beauty, a certain wisdom that is unlike other books of the bible.  This beauty is often lost to us because we can’t read Proverbs like other books of the bible.  We can’t just sit down and read chapter one through chapter thirty and expect Proverbs to hold much meaning for us.  Instead, Proverbs need to be read one at time, slowly and meditatively, like you were reading a really great poem that didn’t open up to you until you have read it two, or three, or four times.  Medieval monks compared reading Proverbs to the methodical and delightful task of chewing on a grain of spice until it yielded its full flavor.[2] We need to take our time with Proverbs.  We need to chew on them, one by one, to experience their full flavor.  We need to sit with them and ponder them as if each was a tiny, foil-wrapped piece of chocolate that will melt in your mouth, and your mind, and your heart, as you consider its teaching.

So I thought we could spend some time with Proverbs this summer, open them up, sit with them for a while, and see what they have to teach us.  The book of Proverbs is known for its practical guidance.  As Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis puts it, “Proverbs are spiritual guides for ordinary people, on an ordinary day, when water does not pour forth from rocks and angels do not come to lunch.”[3] Now I don’t know about you, but this sounds really appealing to me.  Faith can get so abstract.  But I want (and need) to know how I can apply my faith to my life.  I want and need some practical teachings.  And that’s what the book of Proverbs promises us.

Today’s text serves as an introduction to Proverbs.  It states that the purpose of Proverbs is learning about wisdom and instruction, understanding words of insight, gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity. Knowledge and wisdom and instruction are all to be found within the pages of Proverbs.  We will learn as we read and meditate on these verses.  And we will learn with these goals in mind: the goals of righteousness, justice and equity.

The goal of learning in order to be more righteous, more just, and more equitable, is unique to these biblical proverbs and the rest of our Bible’s wisdom literature.  They are unique because we typically pursue education as a means to power, and success, and better opportunities for ourselves.  We tell ourselves that knowledge is power.  And “the idea that my power depends on what I know and someone else does not is fundamental to our increasingly information-oriented and professionally structured society.”[4]

For example, when Dan goes in to teach a new class of freshman undergrads at St. Andrews he typically asks them, “Why are you here?”  And the answer he gets is that they are there to get a degree, so they can get a good job, and so they can be competitive in this increasingly difficult job market of ours.  The goal of their education, then, is their own power and success.  They must know more than the next guy in order to succeed and get what they want out of life.

But the goal of knowledge in the book of Proverbs is much different than this.  The Israelite sages who composed these proverbs echo the biblical prophets as they encourage their people to gain wisdom so they can live righteously, do justice, and promote equity amongst their friends, their neighbors, and their world.  Knowledge may still be power, in this sense, but here our power lies in our ability to build and maintain strong relationships and create healthy communities…because righteousness, justice, and equity are all relational virtues.

To illustrate this kind of knowledge, I will pick on another of Dan’s students…Joanna Hipp.  Joanna, you may not know, is hoping to take a year or two off after she graduates from college in order to participate in our church’s YAV program (Young Adult Volunteer).  YAV’s are sent all over the world in order to serve and Joanna is really hoping she can go to Africa. On Wednesday night Joanna shared with the Session her love for liberation theology.  She has a passion for working on behalf of the poor and the oppressed.  And Joanna is already wise in knowing that the best way to work on behalf of the poor and the oppressed is to know them by going and living among them.

I know that Joanna is very aware of the fact that if she is able to go and serve in Africa that this experience will not make her rich.  Nor will this experience make her a success, by the world’s definition of success.  Nor will this experience gain Joanna any credits towards a future graduate degree.  But she will gain in wisdom from this experience, wisdom in the proverbs sense of wisdom, wisdom about the relational and Godly virtues of righteousness, justice, and equity.  And so in this sense, Joanna going to Africa will be a very valuable experience.

Wisdom, in the proverbs sense, is not for our own personal gain.  Wisdom, in the proverbs sense, is not going to make us better computer programmers, or better business entrepreneurs, or better salespersons.  Instead, wisdom, in the proverbs sense, is going to make us better people.

So where do we start?  Now that we understand the goal of such wisdom, where does the path begin that will lead us to such an end?  Well, the path begins here, in verse seven. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”  Fear of the Lord…if you’re familiar with the scriptures then you’re familiar with this phrase.  Oftentimes we translate this fear as “reverence” or “awe” or even “respect” to distinguish fear of the Lord from the fear we feel when we stand at the edge of cliff, or when we get up in front of a large group of people to speak, or when we wake up in the middle of the night because we thought we heard something in the house.  We want to distinguish fear of the Lord from all these common, human fears because we don’t feel like we should be afraid of God like we are afraid of heights, or of public speaking, or of a burglar in our home.  And this is true, we shouldn’t fear God like we fear these things, but the line between ordinary fright and fear of the Lord should not be drawn too sharply.[5]

Lately, I’ve been having some very irrational fears about our children.  I will wake up in the middle of the night at the slightest sound in the house and then go prowling around in the dark until I make sure my babies are okay.  From what I’ve heard, this is not a unique experience for mothers.  Apparently, once you have children you never sleep well again for all the worrying you do.

A couple of weeks ago I was startled out of a sound sleep by a noise in the house that literally took my breath away it made me so afraid.  I’d been waking Dan up so often, though, that I decided to go and check it out on my own.  So I tiptoed through the dark, over to our children’s bedrooms and stood outside of Ella’s door.  I know this may sound crazy, but at this point my imagination had created such a horrible scenario in my mind that I was convinced there was something, or someone behind my baby’s door.  I was so afraid I was frozen, paralyzed by fear although dying to protect my baby.  The hairs on my neck and arms were standing on end.  My scalp was tingling from all the adrenalin rushing through my body.  And I just stood there, outside my daughter’s door, unable to move.  Finally, I convinced myself that no matter what I would see, or what might happen, I had to open that door.  So I took a deep breath, threw open the door, and listened to the deep, heavy breathing of a baby peacefully at sleep.

Fear invokes a physical, and emotional response within us.  It makes our knees knock.  It makes us tremble with adrenalin.  It shortens our breath and makes us feel completely out of control…..which we are when we are in the presence of God.  To stand in the presence of our God is like standing before a closed door.  Behind that door is the God whom we love…..the father who welcomes the prodigal home…the mother hen who gathers all her babies under wings….but behind that door is also all the power this universe can hold and then some….behind that door is your redeemer and your judge….behind that door is a God whom we know and a God whom we will never fully know…..behind that door is the abyss of distance that lies between us fallible, limited human beings, and an infallible, unlimited God.  So to stand there before that door and not know fear is to be, as the bible puts it, “hardhearted.”  When the Pharaoh of Egypt doggedly endures ten plagues because he is too “hardhearted” to respond to clear evidence that he is living in opposition to the real Power in the universe, Moses diagnoses his condition by proclaiming, “But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.”[6]

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because it reminds us of who we are and who we are not in our relationship with God.  More simply, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because it reminds us that we are not God.  So here, in this knee-knocking, adrenalin-inducing place of fear, wisdom begins because in this place of fear we realize that nothing else matters more than pleasing our God, that nothing else matters more than doing right by our God, that nothing else matters more than living in pursuit of God’s ideals of righteousness, justice, and equity.

Such valuable wisdom one could only dream of obtaining.  Yet, Proverbs promises to take us there.  Proverbs promises to teach us such wisdom.  May God bless the hearing and receiving of this Word as we study Proverbs this summer.

Now to the God of all grace, be all honor, and power, glory and praise, now and forevermore.  Amen.

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[1] Ellen F. Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, Westminster Bible Companion, (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 2000), pg. 11.

[2] Ibid, pg. 11-12.

[3] Ibid, pg. 12.

[4] Ibid, pg. 26.

[5] Ibid, pg. 28.

[6] Exodus 9:30, Ibid, pg. 28.