Whence then cometh wisdom?

Psalm civ.1-25, Job xxviii.1-24, Acts xiv.8-17

Ever wonder if there's one master-plan behind it all, a wise and controlling purpose behind the apparent chaos and confusion of life?

If there were, for instance, Cambridge undergraduates would be more sensible. As it is, the country's finest young intellects seem to take perverse delight in adopting, wherever possible, the most unwise course of action. To the average Cambridge undergraduate, it makes perfect sense to race an ancient bicycle down King's Parade at 2 a.m., travelling at 30 m.p.h. without lights. It follows that it is completely reasonable to round off the evening's entertainment by jumping into the river, even though its mid-February, the temperature is well below zero, and they are wearing an expensive dinner jacket acquired only that morning.

If it were, wisdom teeth would be called something different. What's 'wise' about having four devices which exist simply to cause agony for weeks or months as they bite into your jaw? And then they are wrenched out of one's needle-filled mouth by a dentist who seems to insist, inexplicably, that it's hurting him more. Whoever called them 'wisdom teeth' - it must have been a Cambridge don - was either woefully ignorant or is, even now, laughing at our expense.

The question of whether there is wisdom behind it all, and if so, where it is to be found, connects the two passages we heard read earlier in the service. First, though, we must think a bit about what we mean by 'wisdom'. 'Wisdom', of course, is the noun, the thing. 'Wise' is the adjective which describes someone who possess wisdom or an action or saying which demonstrates wisdom. Wisdom, especially, is that ability which helps solves problems and make decisions. By wise, I think, we mean possessing three particular, related abilities:

· First, wisdom means the ability to perceive all the circumstances and issues in any given situation; to know everything there is to know about a situation or problem and the people involved in it.

· It also means, secondly, the ability to envisage all possible options in a given situation or all possible solutions to a given problem.

· Finally, wisdom is the ability to foresee all of the potential outcomes or consequences resulting from every given course of action.

It will be apparent, from this definition, that human beings are not 'wise' at all. Take, for instance, a recent plan to go from Cambridge to Oxford to visit some college friends.

· First, it was impossible for my small mind to perceive all the circumstances and issues around this situation: whether I can bunk off class and leave early, what time all the others will be arriving, where they'll be and how they're getting there, and so on.

· Secondly, I couldn't envisage all the possible options/solutions and weigh up their competing merits and demerits. The National Rail Enquiries website might have told me to catch a train to Hartlepool and then a bus, not thinking it might actually be quicker to go by unicycle. There might be some new and exciting transport method I haven't heard of, or indeed no-one has yet conceived. Or - perhaps more likely - there might be someone driving in roughly that direction who could drop me off, but I don't know they're going.

· Lastly, I certainly couldn't foresee all the potential outcomes of each choice. How do my travel plans relate to my dwindling bank balance? How does my arrival time impinge on where we might go? What if I catch the train - might it be delayed by signal failure and make me horrendously late? But if I go by coach, will I end up sitting next to some odious character who talks loudly and meaninglessly into a mobile phone?

Now, the example of my journey plans may seem a little facetious, and perhaps it is. However, it does demonstrate an important point: if there is wisdom to be found, it is not in human beings. This is evident from our second lesson from the book Acts. Here, Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra doing missionary work. They speak persuasively about the Christian faith and heal a crippled man. The townspeople, deeply impressed and hilariously over-enthusiastic, decide that Paul and Barnabas must be gods: 'The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius.' (Acts xiv.11-12). Not unpredictably, Paul and Barnabas are desperate to avoid this - partly, of course, because they know they are not gods! 'We are also men of the passions, with you' (xiv.15) - in other words, they won't claim divine wisdom or power which they don't possess. Although they weren't Christians, of course, the townspeople were onto the right idea: that the sort of powers Paul and Barnabas exhibited could not possibly be human. Likewise, wisdom, in its fullest sense, can only belong to the divine; it is not a human capability.

Our first lesson, too, spoke about wisdom. Job, you may recall, was 'perfect and upright, and one that feared God' (Job i.1). Despite suffering a series of calamitous setbacks Job refuses to curse God. But he does seek wisdom to answer his great question: how can a good God permit innocent people to suffer? So the book of Job asks the question directly, Where is wisdom to be found? In the beautifully evocative passage toward the end of the book, Job's soliloquy ponders this question: 'Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?' (xxviii.12). He looks not to humans but to the world. So, Job says, we know where silver and gold are found: from veins under the earth, molten from stone (xxviii.1-2). Wisdom, by contrast, is hidden; 'There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye has not seen.' (xxviii.9) Wisdom is precious and coveted: 'The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.' (xxviii.17). Death and destruction - the most powerful and subtle forces of nature - say 'We have heard of the fame thereof with our ears' (xxviii.22), meaning that they know of it but don't have it in their possession. Job looks to the created, cosmic order for wisdom; it answers that it knows about wisdom but does not have it. Wisdom is somehow beyond, unattainable, out of our reach.

The resolution of Job's questioning - the answer to the question 'Whence then cometh wisdom?' (v.19) - emerges at the end of our second lesson: 'God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof' (v.23). Wisdom, both Job and Paul would say, belongs properly to God. The created order in its beauty and harmony points to the wisdom which made it; the miracle wrought by Paul and Barnabas and Lystra is a signpost to the divine power which enabled it.

Now this understanding - that wisdom is a divine, not a human attribute - first of all sounds a note of caution. For no human is really wise. None of us, as we saw, can know all there is to know about a situation; none of us can perceive every possible solution; none of us can know how our choices will really pan out in the long run. I may sometimes have a degree of wisdom, sometimes think, say, or do things which are more wise than what others do. I may sometimes think, say, or do things which are wiser than some of the other things I have thought, said, or done. But the divine is not like the human; in other words, God is radically different. Where I am sometimes wise to a greater or lesser degree, God is wisdom and he is always wise. God is wisdom which can never know foolishness, understanding that can never know ignorance. God is wise to the fullest extent it is possible to be wise - wise in every thought, judgement, and action - in every respect, all of the time. He is wise to the full extent of his being, such that everything he does flows from his wisdom. As we heard in the Psalm, 'O Lord, how manifold are thy works: in wisdom hast thou made them all.' (Ps. civ.24)

However, there is also a note of hope here. For if wisdom is found in God then the control of the whole cosmic order - everything in time and space - rests on wisdom. It was brought into being and is held together by the ultimately Wise who is ultimate Wisdom. God knows everything about you: everything you are; everything you have been, said, and done; everything you will do and can become. There is reassurance here. The purpose of the world - and the purpose of your life within it - rests not with the fickle whims of Lady Luck, or the fallible, flawed choices of human beings, but with the God who is Wise, the God who is Wisdom. There is a great and overarching purpose to all things, and part of this is a role for each of us to play, a purpose for every life and each encounter. There is a plan, if you like, which God has made for everything that exists and happens; and, within it, for every human being, for you and for me.

Only God is absolutely wise, in every way and at all times; only he is wisdom. Only God can see things as they are, perceive and judge between all the different options, and understand all the consequences. This should remind us of our limitations, but also of the great hope we have. We do not inhabit some scientific or social construct. The fate of the cosmic order, the future of our lives, does not hang on chance or circumstance or the flawed decisions of fallible human beings. There is wisdom and order and purpose behind all things, which come to pass; the God whose wisdom is revealed in Christ and in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. There is divine purpose for all things and a divine plan for each life. It is difficult to see what better hands we could be in. And if anyone finds out the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way from Cambridge to Oxford - do let me know.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.