Sep 22

Rev Gav

What does it mean to be wise?

James, drawing on ancient Hebrew metaphor, encourages us to stop looking towards earthly wisdom, but to the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.

An owl perched on a branch looking inquisitively at the camera.

James 3:13 – 4:8

Last Sunday I preached from this James passage and it struck me that in this section James is being pretty counter-cultural and subversive of the prevailing culture.

The book of James itself is believed to be a collection of the best ‘sayings’ of James (presumably the brother of Jesus) woven or stitched together to form a single narrative by a skilled editor (the Greek used is not colloquial Greek but very well written Greek).

The context of this ‘letter’ to the churches is that it is written to Jewish Christians (bearing in mind that at this point nearly all Christians were Jewish) living in a heavily Graeco-Roman culture. The hearers of the message were going to be of all genders, but the culture was still patriarchal where men were traditionally heads of house-holds and called to be stoic, dominant, and strong. However, the gospel itself is egalitarian and James, like Paul, understands that no matter what gender we are, we are one with Christ and all beneficiaries of the Holy Spirit.

So back to the text of James. In this passage he calls on his readers (and listeners) to turn to God for wisdom. Wisdom itself is knowing the right course of action to take in any given situation, and human wisdom comes from our own experiences and shared knowledge. Yet, the Christian, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, has direct access to divine wisdom, and this is where things get interesting.

Firstly, James’ use of the word wisdom comes from the Old Testament where wisdom is feminine. Not only is the word for wisdom feminine — ‘hokmah’ in Hebrew and ‘sophia’ in Greek — but wisdom is also personified as a woman. See Proverbs 8 for what scholars call ‘Lady Wisdom’ and this wisdom was ‘with God before the creation of the world’. In Jewish thought, this feminine wisdom was associated with the presence of God, and Christians came to identify this wisdom with both Jesus and the spirit of Jesus — the Holy Spirit.

James purposefully uses the feminine word ‘wisdom’ to talk about the Holy Spirit and when he describes wisdom he does so using, what would have been considered feminine qualities at the time — “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” (James 3:7)

Secondly, James calls those who choose to draw on earthly wisdom and not divine wisdom, ‘adulterers’. Interestingly, our Bible translators drop a word, for James actually calls them, ‘adulterous women’. He is not being sexist but drawing on the language of the Old Testament prophets, comparing those who choose to ignore the Holy Spirit with Israel who turned away from God. In the prophets (e.g. Jeremiah and Ezekiel), Israel is referred to as a ‘she’ and the prophets call Israel an ‘adulteress’ for turning away from God.

And thirdly, there is this beautiful poetic ending to the section where James writes, “Resist the Devil and he must flee, submit to God and he will draw close to you.” (James 4:7). The way to getting close to God is through submission, and this again would, in the context of first century Christianity, have been regarded as a feminine trait.

James is effectively saying that if you want to be filled with the feminine Holy Spirit of God, then you need to embrace your femininity and this, I suggest, is quite counter-cultural and subversive.

Of course, the whole point of James writing this is to encourage us to look to God and to the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, to help us be the people that God has called us to be. When we look to worldly wisdom and ‘do our own thing’ by drawing on our own experience and knowledge, it leads to ‘conflicts and disputes’ (James 4:1) and the solution is to ask God and be filled with the Spirit who leads us into harmony and peace.

All of us, at one time or another, have strained or difficult relationships. We often seek solutions based on our own experiences and knowledge, but we must first look to God, and draw on the wisdom that dwells in our hearts — God’s Holy Spirit. And the wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit is that to receive God’s wisdom, all we have to do is ask. James, echoing the words of Jesus (Luke 11:9-13), writes, “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” (James 1:5).

The wonderful good news of the Gospel is that everyone can receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit — the Spirit of Jesus and the Wisdom or Sophia of God — is freely available to all of us, no matter who we are; no matter our gender, sexuality, race, social status, or age; with no bar to reach, no criteria to fulfil, and no qualifications to attain. All we need to do is ask.

Amen.

Note: There are many other connections between James and Old Testament scripture, including another reference to the Holy Spirit as ‘the implanted word’ which alludes to the prophet Jeremiah who writes, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).