16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
“‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
Read more on Bible Gateway This story is also told in Luke 7:31
Have you ever wondered about the way Jesus talks of Wisdom in these passages? Or compared the description of creating in Proverbs 8:22-31 with the introduction to the Gospel of John? Is Jesus claiming the title of “Wisdom/Sophia” who is described elsewhere as with God before creation and the mother of all good things?
Questions like that, and the process of exploring them, are not everyone’s favourite pastime! Those who wonder about such things when there is a roof to fix and people to feed are often dismissed as just queer – “Why can’t they just be normal”. But for some people they are the experience where they feel their hearts burn within them. Where they converse with others and mystery unfolds like the petals of a flower to receive the sunshine.
It is a delicate process however, and people find it much easier to speak dismissively about abnormal behaviour in ways which lead all but the extremes to clam up and become silent.
This article outlines the authors experience of changes in the use of language within the Church, and asks some salient questions.