Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
This text is used for the Lectionary Year C on May 22, 2016.
There are two ways to travel through life. Either we travel as though we are riding in “bumper cars” at the state fair, or we travel as though we are driving on a freeway. To borrow a phrase from Robert Frost, which one we choose will make “all the difference.” Bumper cars travel on a round or oval platform, and where the drivers go depends on how they respond to whatever bumps up against them. Now to the right. Oops! Now to the left. Watch out! Now spinning in circles. There is no set course, no beginning point, no ending point. There are just random movements responding to stimuli. On the other hand, drivers on a freeway get on the road at a certain point and do not get off the road until they arrive at their chosen exit. Sadly, most people select the bumper-car method of living and somehow are terribly surprised when the ride is over because they realize they have gone nowhere and accomplished nothing.
The wisdom writer of Proverbs had a more poetic way of expressing that same truth. Proverbs 7 and Proverbs 8 stand in stark contrast to one another as they describe two different ways to go through life. After writing twenty-seven verses in Proverbs 7 to paint a dark and terrifying picture of the false attractions and costly consequences of sin (personified by the female adulteress), the author then contrasts such a life with thirty-six verses in Proverbs 8 that are as bright and fulfilling as the former ones are dull and tragic. Rather than a life of sin, the writer proclaims the virtuous and healthy attributes of a life of righteousness (personified by Wisdom).
