Searching for Wisdom

Last Friday I was priviledged to be invited to a lecture given by Norman Habel editor/writer of the Earth Bible series. By highlighting the Biblical creation story Habel helped us recognise that the voice of Earth is suppressed. My understanding is that by applying the concept of voice to earth the reader of the Bible views Earth as a human subject. Yet I suspect that this is not the intention of the term "voice" rather it is the sounds, images or signs that Earth communicates to other members of the earth community. Signs like climate changes, deforestation, disappearing rainforests etc...Images that remind us constantly of earth's fragility.

Often we speak of earth as "mother earth" and this is how the biblical creation story shows it. We are made out of the body of earth so we risk disaster when we forget the profound relationship between us and mother earth. We come from earth and return to it.

It seems to be then, that we are responsible for nurturing the earth, serving it so that it can be the beautiful place God intended it to be. Yes the earth is beautiful and we share the love of God and all that grows from it. Moreover we share the wisdom of God to care for God's precious earth. I believe the symbolic stories in the Genesis creation are not about something that happened long ago rather they are stories about now. Every season, and every day God is looking at creation and seeing how good it is. How can we look at the sunset, the sunrise, the waterfalls, the coastlines, the whole of creation, human and non-human and not feel God's profound presence.

We can pick up on this concept of God's presence in the world in the Gospel of John (1:1-14). Here it is clear that there is no theology of creation that is independent of a theology of incarnation. John's prologue presents Jesus as the divine Word that was with God in the beginning and was God. It moves to reveal the Word as creator amd sustainer of the universe, the source of life and knowledge of all creatures.

Insofar as I understand, Jesus is identified with Wisdom the "pre-existence" agency in creation; the revelation of the knowledge of God and the giving of life; incarnation and divinity itself. So who is wisdom? The Lord by wisdom founded the earth (Prov 3:19); she is the giver of life (Prov 4:13), the Lord created me, the first of his acts (Prov 8:22), whoever finds me finds life (Prov:8:35), come and eat my bread (Prov 9:5).

Wow! this insight illuminates some aspects of Wisdom that allows us to appreciate the inter-relationship between the interconnected universe, all its creatures and the saving work of Christ.

Te atapo (the dawn)

Begins with Wisdom

Geographically I am a New Zealander living at the South of the Pacific. Expanding on that I live in Aotearoa, New Zealand. My position is that of an indigenous Maori woman who is shaped by my genealogical, political and spiritual set of experiences. Through my parents I belong to two main tribal groups and have close links to my English ancestry. My father is of the Te Aupouri and Te Rarawa tribes and it is through him that my sense of place and spirituality became so firmly grounded, He nurtured me with myths, legends and wisdom, developing in me a spiritual relationship to the land, our tribal mountain and its river.

My mother on the other hand, strongly influenced by her white Anglican heritage provided nourishment from the Bible developing in me a love for God and the Holy Scriptures. Annie believed the Bible was a fundamental pathway to not only knowing God but a way of gaining wisdom, education, and affluence in an environment surrounded by cow paddocks, bushland and poverty.

Today the New Zealand society, like many others, has become an environment unlike yesterdays. It is a place shaped by technology in which God is not apparently absent but is functionally no longer necessary. With technology paving the future there appears no recognised higher power other than the human-made system that people in charge now worship. Moreover. there is no imitation of God, no vsion of something greater to strive of.

According to some Biblical wisdom scholars the creation of the Wisdom figure was a response to the events of the sixth century exile; the destruction of the Jerusalem temple; the exilic crisis; loss of autonomy over land; and the impassivity of of YHWH. Perhaps the time has come to create another kind of wisdom to respond to the world of Information Technology. We realise the world of IT does confront many people of faith because the our culture's world view is increasingly tied to the spirit of capitalism with its commitment to pragmatism and to technology rather than human values.

In response to this world of consumerism, war, poverty, relationship brekadowns, etc...perhaps it is time to create a new wisdom, share your thoughts with me
Te atapo (the dawn)