Today’s readings blows us out of the water.  We might awaken to the shock in both of today’s readings.

Holy Wisdom herself And Jesus of Nazareth equated with the Creator of the Universe. Are we not wide-eyed in disbelief?

How is it that Jesus is executed by the Roman Empire — killed on a Roman instrument of torture and death — and then, within 50 years of this disgraceful ending, his followers are placing him at the beginning of time as the Creator of the Universe?  “In the beginning was the word…In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

And what do we make of the re-discovery of the Feminine Divine, highlighted in today’s reading from Sirach??

Rev. Dr. Sally Douglas says, in her book Jesus Sophia, “Even more shocking, I was to discover that again and again in the New Testament Jesus is imagined as her [Woman Wisdom].  More than that, it became increasingly clear that Wisdom Christology – understanding Jesus in relation to Woman Wisdom – was PIVOTAL in the imagination of earliest proclamations of Christian Faith.”  She goes on to say “To spell this out, the evidence indicates that church communities did celibate Jesus as her, the female divine, the ONE from the beginning, now enfleshed in person in Jesus.”  Sally’s PhD reveals this proclamation of the earliest Christian Communities is there at very start of the faith.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1: 15-19

This song, this jump from Jesus the human person to the idea of the Cosmic Christ: the Holy Wisdom Christ: the Sophia Christ: is there long before the Gospel writers: and when the writer of John’s Gospel begins in song: it begins with a song about the Jesus who was there at the beginning: before the beginning: mirroring the Woman Wisdom texts in this Song prologue of John’s Gospel.

For Progressive Christians like ourselves, it challenges some of the assumptions of Progressive theology: for example, that the idea of Jesus as Christ, is not something that developed as the faithful were eventually kicked out of the synagogues: as the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as State religion.  Jesus as Cosmic Christ: even Jesus Sophia: the Woman Wisdom of God, it turns, out was there at the start of it all.  

Today’s readings should blow us out of the water. They should shock us.  And demand more of us: so that we might deepen our fellowship and learning together.  Holy Wisdom herself and Jesus of Nazareth equated with the Creator of the Universe at the very beginning.  Are we not wide-eyed in disbelief?

That…“In the beginning was the word…In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”