In her beautifully written book, “In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith and the Stories We Inherit” Yolanda Pearce, narrates her journey from growing up in a storefront black holiness pentecostal church in New York City to becoming the Dean of the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, guided along the way by “Grandmother Theology”.  Pierce shares “Theological work cannot simply take place in academic spaces; it is not a dry set of questions to be posed by those who are “qualified,” those who have a set of particular educational credentials. You do theology in community, and the best theology reflects the cares and concerns of that community.”  (pg 83) We Methodists name “experience” as one of the tools we use to interpret Scripture and form theology. Pierce reminds us that the Bible is a collection of people’s stories and experiences and as a womanist theologian values real human needs over abstract doctrines.  “My Christology begins at the foot of my bed, with a grandmother teaching me to sing words I have hidden in my heart and to which I return even when my prayers sometimes fail…. She did not introduce me to religion. She gave me Jesus.”  (Pg 14 & 9)  

Our passage comes from the collection of sayings and poems we call Proverbs.  

Wisdom cries out in the street;

    in the squares she raises her voice.

At the busiest corner she shouts out;

    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks…

Wisdom does not find or lift her voice in the sacredness of the Jerusalem Temple. She was not allowed into the inner chambers. Wisdom does not shout from inside the ancient seminary lecture halls. We Methodists did not grant women full clergy rights until 1956.  No Wisdom shouts out from the marketplace, the city plaza, and the city gates. She calls out from the city gates, where the “city fathers” held court. She shouts out wherever crowds gather. She will not be silenced. She will not be boxed in.  She is looking around and She is fed up.

As I laid out my sermons a few weeks ago, the next three weeks lectionary passages offer a kind of female perspective. Sadly, that is rare. As a member of the patriarchy, I feel a bit of trepidation and inadequacy in sharing stories whose emotional range I may never fully grasp.  But how dare  I skip over these stories?  This week I was privileged to help onboard our new  Bishop. Bishop Graves came across as circumspect, beginning each day by meditating on “the Fruits of the Spirit” so as to lead with self-control. Bishop Graves did not readily answer our question about what pushed his buttons, but as he moved through our 144 questions and insights, our new Bishop confessed he grows frustrated with white male colleagues just like himself, who after experiencing so much white privilege somehow can’t understand or acknowledge their own white privilege. We may not be able to understand someone else’s  story, but how can we love our neighbors if we do not listen and seek to understand?        

Bible scholars debate who Wisdom is- who is She?  Some hear Wisdom as the very voice of God.  Some believe this female prophetic voice is rooted in abandoned Sumerian, Egyptian or Canaanite household goddess or guardian worship. Others understand Wisdom as the collective stories of mothers, sisters, aunts. Dean Yolanda Pierce calls her own womanist journey: “Grandmother Theology”.  Kathleen M. O’Connor comments in  “Feasting on the Word” that “whether or not Wisdom is God in this text, She reveals herself like God, makes demands like God and promises freedom and life to her followers like God. Whoever She is, her appearance destabilizes complacency, closed heartedness, and death dealing behavior that comes from ignorance, hatred of knowledge and refusal to commit to the way of wisdom. She invites us into a harmonious balance in the midst of daily life.”  Wisdom raises her voice.  She shouts out and disrupts markets, princes, preachers and the status quo. 

Jesus learned Wisdom’s song from his prophetic mother and named “Wisdom” in her female form.  In Luke 7, Jesus is fed up with his critics: “To what will I compare this generation?” Jesus asked. “What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace calling out to each other, ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t cry.’ John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ Yet the Human One came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But Wisdom is proved to be right by all her descendants. (Luke 7) Will we ignore Wisdom’s warning or embrace Her lessons?

Wisdom raises her voice. She has looked at our markets, walked down Broadway, stood outside our courthouse shouting, heard our politicians spinning, checked out our Tic-Toc and Twitter feeds, and SHE IS FED UP!

Wisdom cries out in the street;

She raises her voice.

At the busiest corner She shouts out;

    “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?”

 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

Why do you hate knowledge?

Why will you ignore wisdom? 

Why do you refuse to fear the Lord?

We are going to eat this meal we are making. 

Please know that “the fear of the Lord” is not groveling before the image of an angry judge, but a deep sense of awe and reverence for God, for the creation and for people made in the image of God. What the Bible calls “the fear of the Lord” is a deep humility and understanding that you do not have all the answers. It is knowing there is a God, and you are not that God.(Feasting on the Word)  It is acknowledging that Paul says, “we know in part” and that we speak, even from the pulpit, with partial knowledge. ( 1 Corinthians 13).  Wisdom shouts out a warning, like a lifeguard warning us to get out of the ocean, raising her voice against the crashing waves. She shouts not to belittle or scold us, but to keep us safe.  She is fed up with us for ignoring history and complexity, while embracing simple theology, soundbite solutions, and divisive rhetoric. 

She is calling out:  “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?  Why do you hate knowledge? Why will you ignore wisdom?” I am fed up with your simplistic notions.  Think!  She is challenging us to do some hard thinking about white privilege, corporate profit taking, patriarchy, gun violence, tax laws, access to physical and mental healthcare, global needs, climate change and more.      

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

Why do you hate knowledge?

Why will you ignore wisdom and 

Why do you refuse to fear the Lord?

You are going to eat this foolish table you have set for yourself and others. 

At times we forget that Jesus’ greatest commandment demands that we think:  “‘You shall love the Lord in your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  (Matt 22)  Why do we love simple answers about the Bible or life? Why do we neglect God’s good gift of hard thinking?  How can some teach “women to be silent in church” when Jesus ordains Mary, Joana, and Magdalene on the first Easter and Paul sends Phoebe to teach in the church in Rome? ( 1 Timothy 2, Matthew 28, Romans 16)  How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?”   Let us stop tolerating sound-bite theology and embrace the complexities of  forgiveness, reconciliation, peace-making, justice, unity, faith, hope and love. Let us embrace our own Grandmother Theology, affirming that the Holy Spirit is still speaking in our midst! 

In Matthew 17, Jesus asks Peter a  complex question about economic, government policies, and systemic injustice!  “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?” She looks around and She is fed up with endless distractions and easy answers.  “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

Well before Tic-Toc, Twitter, and Truth Social Media, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King wrote: “Our minds are constantly being invaded by legions of half-truths, prejudices, and false facts. One of the great needs of humankind is to be lifted above the morass of false propaganda….. The tough-minded person always examines the facts before they reach conclusions; in short, they postjudge. The tender-minded person reaches a conclusion before they examine the first fact. … There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of soft-mindedness. A nation or a civilization that continues to produce soft-minded people purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.” 

I pray our communities will pay attention to the candidates’ words, deeds and character. Listen,  Wisdom is whispering and shouting. “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?” We need to lovingly row out into the deeper waters beyond the soundbites and slurs and explore complexities like our global economy, hundreds of thousands current tax laws, long broken immigration realties, foreign relationships, unjust gerrymandering, political divisiveness, and unreasoned faith? We who follow Christ must stop voting merely for our own self-interests but with Christ’s compassion consider the needs of our neighbors, strangers, the unsheltered,  hungry people, the imprisoned, and even our political enemies.   

To walk the path of wisdom is not easy- for most of us here today, it challenges our privilege and calls us to sacrifice some comforts for the common good. Compassion always calls us from complacency to action, risk and sacrifice for others. Wisdom, She is raising her voice, will we  answer her call?  

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

Why do you refuse to remember the Lord?

Think! Love God with all your mind!

Repent: Change your hearts and lives. (Matthew 4:17)

Build a better system, market, community- 

build the Kingdom of God. Amen