Eucharistic meditation

Proverbs 9:1-5: Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars; s he has slaughtered her meat, she has mixed her wine, she has also furnished her table. She has sent out her maidens, she cries out from the highest places of the city, “w hoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. ”

In our readings today, we considered the issue of wisdom. Wisdom is skill, social, artistic, verbal; and wisdom is skill to rule. Wisdom is the virtue of kings, and we are all called to pursue wisdom because we are all called to be kings.

Job is also a book of wisdom, but it seems to go in a completely different direction.

Proverbial wisdom is about acquiring the skill to prosper in the land, to be blessed in life. The book of Job seems to say, Maybe. While Proverbs says that the wise triumph and prosper, Job shows that we might be wise, blameless, and upright, and it won’t make a bit of difference. Proverbs is about acquiring wisdom; Job tells us that we have the deepest wisdom when we know how little wisdom we’ve got.

There’s something to that. Job and Ecclesiastes are, in a sense, qualifications to the book of Proverbs. But centrally they are all teaching the same wisdom. They are teaching the wisdom of God, the wisdom that IS the eternal Son of the Father, the same Wisdom that Paul speaks of when He says that he purposed to know nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and Him crucified.

Job, in other words, is all about ruling well, about acquiring the skill necessary for successful and prosperous and blessed life, just as much as Proverbs. Job is about how to rule in the midst of adversity, how to rule when surrounded by “friends” who betray and accuse you, how to flourish when the great wind of God has broken down the four corner of your house and then four windy friends come along. Job is a king at the beginning, and throughout the book remains a king, doing kingly things, speaking kingly words, acting and speaking with the wisdom that comes from Yahweh.

All these threads are neatly woven together here, at the Lord’s Table. This is the table of Wisdom, the table that wisdom prepares and calls us to. This is the table that celebrates the overthrow of Satan and all little satans. This is the table where we commemorate and share in the sacrificial death of the Son of God. This is the table where the Wisdom of God who became incarnate offers Himself now as food and drink. Is it the table of wisdom because it celebrates the cross.

For all these reasons, this is a table for kings and queens, princes and princesses, who come here to receive the wisdom of God through the Spirit, that we may have the mind of Christ.