Cultivating the Discipline of Wisdom

Paul, speaking to the Church at Ephesus, told the community that in order to be authentic followers of Christ, they needed to cultivate the discipline of wisdom.  This, Paul explains in his letters, is because the world's wisdom is actually foolishness, but will appear as wisdom.  Similarly, God's wisdom, which is greater than human wisdom, will appear as foolishness to the world.

The cultivation of God's wisdom and the recognition that human wisdom is actually foolishness, is needed because we remain part of the world, and the world's wisdom seems self evident to us.  In ancient Ephesus, this would have been reflected in the Temple of Artemis, considered one of the seven wonders of the world.  The Temple was within sight wherever you stood in Ephesus, just like the wisdom of the Greeks was so imbedded in everyday thought that it was second nature.

To put it very mildly, the importance of cultivating wisdom in the contemporary American Church has been largely forgotten.  The notion that God's wisdom is foolishness to the world is often considered a license in the Christian community to abandon the need to cultivate wisdom.  The opposite is the case: our wisdom must exceed and transcend the wisdom of the world.  This is the whole point of being the Church: gathering for collective worship, prayer, bible study, and good works.  Through being the Church, we see God's wisdom and the foolishness of the world's wisdom.

Israel in the Desert and the Nature of God's Grace

When Israel escaped slavery in Egypt, they traveled through the desert to the land God had promised to Abraham's ancestors.  Along the way, they were concerned about how to sustain themselves during the journey.

God responds to Israel's request by providing manna (bread) and quail for Israel's sustenance during their desert journey.  The biblical writer indicates that Israel literally found bread and quail on the ground when they awoke in the morning.

We normally assume that what is being described is a supernatural event that violates natural law, thereby revealing that it was God's grace towards Israel that brought manna and quail to Israel in the desert.  However, this reading is not supported by what has been experienced by those who have traveled in the same desert for thousands of years.

In the desert of the Sinai peninsula, there is a plant called the Tamarisk plant that emits a crystalline substance that falls to the ground.  It's texture is bread-like and it is edible.  It has been consumed by desert travelers through Sinai for thousands of years.  It is still a source of food today.  Additionally, those who travel through the Sinai peninsula typically find a large number of quail on the ground, exhausted from trying to fly across the desert.  The quail can be easily gathered up and consumed.

The information above is usually used to support the proposition that what the Israelites experienced was not actually God at work, but simply a "natural event" that has been experienced by travelers for thousands of years.  This reading misinterprets the nature of God's grace and God's activity in the world.  God's free and unmerited gifts in this world are given to everyone, just like all travelers through the desert were given these gifts of food to sustain them.  What made Israel God's covenant community was not that they received different gifts than those who were not part of the covenant community, but because they knew where the manna and quail really originated; through the gracious gifts of the God who is the creator of all people.

As the new Israel, the Church, we are not given special treatment, in the sense of being protected from harm or being given wealth or affluence.  We experience loss, suffering, and death, along with joy and love and beauty.  What makes us God's covenant community is our awareness of the source of all things, and a call to proclaim to the world that which is the source of all good things; the God who is the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all things.