Our first reading tells how Solomon asks God for wisdom. Our psalm mentions some of God’s great deeds, and mentions wisdom and praise of God. The epistle advises us to live as wise people, filled with the Spirit, ‘as we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves, singing and making melody to God in our hearts.’ (Church musicians often like this!) All this is well and good, but then we hear one of those mystifying, weird passages from John’s Gospel that seem likely to alienate inquirers…(unless one knows about Holy Communion, and in that setting none of his disciples did, and none of the other Jews did.) Having eternal life, being raised up on the last day, living forever—these are attractive promises intermingled with the strange stuff. How would the wise person deal with all this? Ask God for wisdom about how to share the Good News?
