O Sapientia
O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18–31
How foolish it seems that the Creator of all things would need His mother’s milk for nourishment. How foolish it seems that the God who is without blemish would eat with tax collectors and sinners. How foolish it seems that the Lord of armies would liberate us from sin and death by dying powerlessly on a cross. But this foolishness, Christ crucified, is the power and wisdom of God for us. Jesus, the wisdom of God, reorders what we consider wise: in suffering we see meaning, in serving others we exercise freedom, and in death we have life.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, whose ways are not our ways, we give thanks that You have made foolish the wise and raised up Your lowly servants. Grant that we receive suffering in this life as fatherly chastisement, that our faith may be strengthened in knowing that You desire only our salvation; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hymn LSB 358:12
And so it pleases You to see
This simple truth revealed to me:
That worldly honor, wealth, and might
Are weak and worthless in Your sight.
(Blake Martzowka, Sem IV)
