Sadly there are very few courses you can take to become qualified in Wisdom. There is no Module 1.1 Wisdom for the 21st Century, there are no degrees or doctorates which will automatically make you ‘wise’. You cannot buy a degree in wisdom, even online! You have to earn it, or rather learn it, or rather be schooled in it. Anyone who has spent any time at all in any great university city knows that a superior intellect does not necessarily equate to great wisdom!
To get this kind of wisdom and insight requires a different kind of learning – a life lesson, if you will, which is found in the rough and tumble of living in the world with other human beings and facing the challenges that life throws at us.
For most of us, this wisdom comes through the experience of making mistakes and trying again and discerning the complexities of any given situation. This kind of wisdom is sometimes hard-won and may often leave scars which we carry around with us.
Sadly, in the world today, in this moment, wisdom seems to be hiding. Hiding from many political leaders, quietly whispering in corners, unheard as decisions are made which affect each one of us in profound ways. Wisdom, if she is shouting at all, is shouting into a deafening silence as pride, pomp and politicking overwhelm our public discourse.
From Proverbs 1
20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you turn at my reproof,[a]
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
We need wisdom to raise her voice again.
The pursuit of wisdom was a pastime of the ancients- they called this kind of wisdom, phronesis-That word phronesis, according to Wikipedia at least, is the kind of wisdom which relates to practical things. The kind of wisdom to whom you go for advice. It is sometimes translated as the word ‘prudence’, a word which is far from fashionable – but more positively, is a word which alludes to carefulness, mindfulness, attentiveness and common sense, a kind of right acting in the world with due thought –a kind of daily ethics.
If you can bear to think forward to advent, these two ideas come together in the first of the great O Antiphons, in which Christ is heralded as the personification of divine wisdom:
O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.
For Christians, our schooling in wisdom, comes from following the example of Christ, who we believe is the foundation of all wisdom, and knowledge, and understanding. Throughout the gospels Christ is known by many as a good teacher- he teaches in community, he teaches through parable and story, and also by example, very often people go to him for advice but his teaching isn’t about intellectual knowledge, it’s a means of communicating that fullness of life which can be found by walking in the way of his commandments.We follow those commandments, not just by what we think or what we say, but by what we do and how we act. Jesus teaching always seems to suggest a possible course of action to those who have ears to listen.
To the rich ruler, Jesus says, ten out ten, you know the law in your head-you are very clever, but what are you going to do about it? You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? No wonder the rich man looked sad- he perhaps hadn’t bargained that his faith would have a negative impact on his material wealth. If this isn’t a warning against prosperity gospels, we cannot be reading it properly.
The rich man first asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answer seems to suggest that all that we do in this life, is a simply a prelude to what is to come. We are witnesses to provisionality, and with eternities perspective, the trappings of this life and the riches and accolades and degrees we accumulate are simply straw when compared to the treasures of heaven.
If you follow Christ it will certainly affect everything that you are, everything that you do, your thoughts, your loves, your possessions, your family, your friends, your work, your whole life. It is all consuming, it is a whole way of life where the intellectual and practical and spiritual come together, where the holy and domestic are intertwined, where the liturgical and the secular begin to bleed into each other, and it is for that reason that the rich ruler becomes rather sad. Such a way of life is a big ask. A big commitment.
There is someone, in the history of Christianity, who has captured this challenge in a most remarkable way. He has entwined the intensely spiritual, with the deeply practical. He has left us with a textbook of daily ethics, and the means of learning how to live-out this life to which Christ calls us, a life where everything can be offered to God and everything can be inhabited by Christ.
St Benedict, with incredible skill, offers in his Rule a handbook to make the very radical demands of the gospel a practical reality in daily life. There is instruction on prayer and worship, on humility and obedience, but equally, he gives advice on the most ordinary everyday situations: how much ale a monk should consume, how lazy monks should be reprimanded, and even a number of directions on behaviour in the kitchen including the measure of food and drink to prevent a monk being overcome by indigestion.
Some of his points may seem utterly trivial at first sight, but What is so encouraging, is that the rule is realistic and attentive to the tensions that being in community can create. He understands the human condition with all of it’s faults and all of it’s potential. Benedict offers sensible practical advice grounded in spiritual wisdom.
Over a thousand years before George Herbert, Benedict also understood that even sweeping the floor, and pure drudgery could be divine, he understood that Christ the teacher, was the source of wisdom, and could be found in all things.
Teach me, my God and King,
in all things Thee to see,
and what I do in anything,
to do it as for Thee.
To scorn the senses’ sway,
while still to Thee I tend;
in all I do be Thou the Way,
in all be Thou the End.
All may of Thee partake;
nothing so small can be,
but draws, when acted for Thy sake,
greatness and worth from Thee.
If done t’obey Thy laws,
e’en servile labors shine;
hallowed is toil, if this the cause,
the meanest work divine.
George Herbert (1633)
In the prologue to his rule, Benedict seeks to establish a school, a place of learning for the Lord’s service where wisdom can be learnt. Those who begin their education and follow his rule are called to persevere in community, so that they may share in the sufferings of Christ and in his glorious kingdom. The school of which he writes is Christian community, and his rule is something which can still speak into our Christian communities today with very little adaptation. It’s a priceless treasure, worth much more than silver or gold.
Those of us who are part of Christian Communities understand that we hold together, sometimes in tension, the practical and the spiritual, the detail and the big picture: the basilicas and the bingo nights, the plainsong and the parish lunches, the sursum corda and the synods, the prayer meetings and the PCC. That the Community of the Church of England has been arguing over where holiness can be found in recent weeks is telling. Is the kitchen really less able to speak of the divine than the temple? Why are we pitching the domestic against the ecclesial? Why are we causing division amongst ourselves when God is all in all? Perhaps we have been duped into this argument about the right place for worship to happen, whether at home, or on screen or in church, and miss the more important point about who it is we are called to worship.
Being a Christian in the world means we exercise our faith, not only through designated acts of worship but also in the queue at the checkout- at the board meeting, in the lecture room, the pub, in the ballot box, at home with our family and friends, and in how we make and spend our money. Benedict understood that the wisdom of God is found in the detail of day to day living as much as it is found in the grand theological narratives. His rule for living is permeated with worship throughout each and every day, the psalms run through every week, praise and prayer are so closely aligned to daily life that they are indistinguishable.
Like the rich man, we may sometimes feel daunted by the demands of the gospel, but though it may be impossible for us alone to progress, nothing is impossible for God. Benedict called his rule, ‘a rule for beginners’, it seems there is always more to learn, another possibility, another question. A prudent and wise Christian knows that they do not have all the answers- and there is always the possibility of being changed by what they learn.
This kind of practical wisdom is never achieved by passing an exam, it is evolving and growing and emerging as we journey in community and navigate the various storms of life. And in places where Christians meet one with another, we are like a raft of pebbles at the bottom of a stream, constantly moved, shaped, dragged, smoothed; chinking up against one another as living water bubbles over us. This is a place where lessons are learned, this is what life together means. This is a place where with an eye to heaven, and our feet firmly on the ground, we grow in wisdom and we practice our faith in the very best sense.
What Benedict does so well is offer a holistic vision of the Christian life which permeates everything that we do – eating, drinking, praying, reading, working, worshipping and how we should interact with our brothers and sisters. This way of living is not just for ‘Sunday best’ but for our whole lives, and this advice can be interpreted and re-interpreted for various situations in which we might find ourselves. And what a raft of situations we find ourselves in.
As the world seems to be spinning out of control, the call to community is ever more urgent, the call to obedience and humility is ever more critical. How do we respond to a global pandemic which is fragmenting society, challenging our ways of being and exposing our weaknesses? How do we work towards building up rather than pulling down? How do we bridge the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, strong and weak, the powerful and the disenfranchised? How do we counter a growing sense of division and prejudice in our own country? In all this, where is wisdom to be found?
There is of course our primary call to worship and prayer, ‘Love God with all your heart, mind and strength’ but equally we require a practical kind of wisdom which causes us to translate our belief into tangible effect and point to the Kingdom of God, through what we think, and speak and do ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.
Benedict is not afraid to start small with the little things. Perhaps, after Benedict, we might begin by learning that the smallest act of kindness, offered with Christ on our lips and in our hearts, may yet lead to a transformation of life and the transformation of the world.
On Voice 
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