Wisdom of Ants

From Proverbs 30 vs 24

“Four things on earth are small,

yet they are extremely wise:

Ants are creatures of little strength,

yet they store up their food in the summer

hyraxes are creatures of little power,

yet they make their home in the crags;

locusts have no king,

yet they advance together in ranks;

a lizard can be caught with the hand,

yet it is found in kings’ palaces.”

How ants cooperate

Atta ants, who live in the tropics, can have gigantic nest, growing as large as 8 yards deep in an area of 50 square yards. These nests are a huge network of tunnels and chambers. The queen atta ant can live up to 15 years, while her 3 million subjects are split into many different roles to keep the colony alive. Some cut leaves, some transport them, some dice them in an assembly line. The leaves are then turned into compost consisting of ant fecal matter and an antibiotic producing bacteria, that end up growing into a fungus that is fed to larvae – disease free! As Martin Nowak writes in his book, “Super cooperators,” these ants are “peaceful mushroom farmers” that are dependent on the relationship between ants, fungus and bacteria.

This fungus is only found in the ant colonies.It cannot be harvested in the rainforest, but must be nurtured in the nests. Without the fungus and bacteria, the ants would not be able to digest the leaves they cut.

This type of social cooperation is called Eusociality. Ants and bees, and other cooperating superorganisms have slowly evolved over time into caste systems where they are able to survive because of their cooperation. The ability to cooperate is a mechanism in evolution that Nowak argues is stronger than individualized survival of the fittest, which is the most common understanding of evolution. Survival of the fittest is where if one animal can out-survive another, then those “tougher” genes get passed on to the next generation, making the species more resilient. In the case of bees and ants, it is whichever hive, nest, or colony that can cooperate the best, that survives.

Wisdom in Creation

There is wisdom in creation. Ants have cooperated so well as a species, that their species has survived a 100 million years. Meanwhile our species which has been around for about 200,000 years “is in danger of overwhelming our planet while the ants have lived in harmony with it for 100 million years.” Atta ants learned the secrets of cooperation and advanced social behavior, farming, and architecture millions of years before our species existed. They have learned to cooperate with other species and the planet and have successfully done so since the age of the dinosaurs.

It seems there is wisdom for us to learn from creation.

Wisdom as Feminine in Proverbs

Like in our passage from today, in the book of proverbs, wisdom is gendered. It is feminine. In this tradition, it is given the name Sophia. So when you hear a proverb say “her” or “she” it is referring to wisdom. The author of Proverbs writes.

“Does not wisdom call

and understanding raise her voice?

On the heights, beside the way,

at the crossroads she takes her stand;

beside the gates in front of the town,

at the entrance of the portals she cries out:

‘To you, O people, I call,

and my cry is to all who live.’”

Sophia, wisdom, a feminine image of God right here in the bible, calling out to all who live to seek wisdom. In our tradition, wisdom and creation are deeply connected. We can see these connections throughout the book of proverbs. In chapter 8 vs 22 Sophia says,

“The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of long ago.

Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth.”

In the beginning, wisdom was there, at the heart of the world.

Centuries later, when the author of the Gospel of John wrote the gospel, they too wanted to make a connection between this wisdom that was at the beginning of creation, Sophia, and Jesus. He writes about Jesus as “the word.” The “word”, which in its original Greek can mean speech or wisdom, or reason. Many of us are familiar with the beginning of the gospel John,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

If you substitute wisdom for word, you get that “through wisdom all things were made. In wisdom was life.”

Mary [colo] Coloe, who wrote the Wisdom Bible Commentary on John 1-10, writes that the author of John is showing how Wisdom, or Sophia, who is talked about throughout the Hebrew bible in sometimes vague ways, is “finding her home,” in this gospel, through being incarnated by Jesus.

In the beginning was wisdom. In the beginning was the word. And this wisdom, this word, Sophia, is being incarnated through Jesus.

Some feminist scholars have taken issue with how the feminine aspects of God, such as Sophia, have been usurped by men through Jesus. Perhaps this is true. Or perhaps Jesus is showing men new ways to be men. Or perhaps Sophia, being embodied by a man, is demonstrating the blurry lines of gender.

There are more similarities between Sophia, as written about in proverbs and Jesus from the gospel of John.

In proverbs 1 the author writes,

“Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,

she raises her voice in the public square;

on top of the wall she cries out,

at the city gate she makes her speech:

And then Sophia cries out in verse 22,

“How long will you, who are simple, love your simple ways?

How long will mockers delight in mockery

and fools hate knowledge?”

In proverbs, it is clear that wisdom, which was there at the beginning of creation, is not listened to by humanity.

Similarly in John, the author writes in chapter 1 vs 10,

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

Like wisdom in proverbs, the author of John writes that while wisdom was at the beginning of creation, while in wisdom all things were created -humans are not recognizing it. They are not seeking this wisdom in which all things were made.

In our faith tradition Wisdom and creation are intricately connected. Wisdom is in creation, all around us. But, unfortunately, both authors of proverbs and John note that humanity does not always want to seek it.

The unlearn Knowledge of Kudzu

Instead of seeking wisdom, we have become like the plant Kudzu – as Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in her book ”Braiding Sweetgrass.”

What is Kudzu? Kudzu is a plant from Asia that was brought to the United States in the 1870s where it was touted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet-smelling blooms and sturdy vines. All good things, right? I mean, Kudzu is harmless in its native habitat in Asia.

Currently, it is estimated that kudzu is growing throughout the US at a rate of 150,000 acres annually, and is especially decimating the south, where it takes over whole forests, overshadowing plant life and killing all that it suffocates. The way of kudzu does not consider who it is around, and prefers to take and take without giving back. It goes to foreign lands and dominates its inhabitants. It does not learn to live in cooperation, or at the very least at peace, with its fellow neighbors.

Kimmerer compares Kudzu to another plant, the broadleaf Plantain, not to be confused with the banana like fruit. Plantain is also a plant not from the United States, but is native to Eurasia. It has stretched across the United States, however, it is not killing off woods or fields. It has learned to work with the plants around it. It’s leaves are edible, and the juices in the leaves make a good salve for cuts or burns.

Kimmerer writes that every part of the plantain is useful. Unlike kudzu, plantain fit into small places, coexists with others around it, and it can even heal wounds. She writes that plantain is so prevalent and well integrated, many think of it as native, but it has been in fact naturalized.

To be naturalized is to live in harmony with the ecosystem around you. To care about the streams you drink from. To care about the land and place that future generations will live on, because our future generations depend on it. To be naturalized is to cooperate with what is around you.

The wisdom of Plantain can teach us to be in deeper harmony with the places we live in. Even though we evolved in Ethiopia, we can work together and live in harmony with the life that is around us, even here in North America.

Kimmerer believes we must unlearn the invasive ways of Kudzu and follow the wisdom of plantain. Cooperative Wisdom.

Learning to become ants again

Humans, as a species have historically cooperated with the creation around them, but it is also clear that we have become more like kudzu, then like plantain or ants. We have ignored the wisdom of the plants and animals that are around us.

We evolved with cooperation

As humans, we too have evolved cooperatively. Humans did not and cannot survive on their own, they need their community of other humans to work together in order to survive. It is through attachment and love, that we care for one another, our children, and our families. With love, we were able to become stronger together, and assure our survival together.

It is a part of our DNA to be working together to survive. It has only been with the gluttony of resources in the last few hundred years that we have become an individualized species, and this level of individualization has led to increased resource extraction. The increase in resource extraction has led to ecological collapse and injustices towards marginalized groups who live in the spaces where resource extraction takes place. We are in a mess relying on mass consumption, instead of relying on each other. Consuming the earth like Kudzu.

Our way out of this mess is the way of the ants and plantains. The wisdom of ants which rely on cooperation instead of individualization. The wisdom in plantains, who naturalized into our ecosystem, instead of taking over it.

This is not unfamiliar wisdom that is coming from creation.

Jesus, the intersection of Sophia, wisdom, the word, and creation, is inviting us to remember the wisdom that is in creation. Jesus, who incarnated, became a part of creation, who’s story, life and words, are calling us back to love and care for one another. Jesus speaks of a way of life that is more like the wisdom in ants and plantains, than kudzu. .

In whatever issues we face in the future, working together is going to be key. Stepping toward one another, instead of backing away. We are the body of Christ. In seeking to follow the way of Christ together, we too are wisdom incarnated. But to be this wisdom in the world, takes shifting from kudzu logic, towards intentional cooperative wisdom.

Cooperative Wisdom

In the 2016 book, Cooperative Wisdom, authors Donald Scherer and Carolyn Jabs write about the cooperative wisdom and its virtues that are needed for wise communities. They outline 5 virtues of cooperative wisdom:

The first is Compassion, which attunes us to the vulnerability of people in our community. By being compassionate to one another, we are learning which issues we face and what we are struggling with as a community. By being compassionate with one another, we can trust that there is good faith in our disagreements, and that we are working towards a goal together.

The second is Discernment– Discernment deepens our grasp on what matters to us as a community. What are our priorities? Knowing what we value as a community will guide our decisions as we work together.

The third is imagination – Where are the spaces where we imagine the future together? To cooperate, we need to dream together, to hope together, to have faith together.

The fourth is inclusivity, working towards a community of mutual respect, and where each voice is valued. To cooperate, we need to value each other.

And the last is courage – the ability to take risks as a community. Risk that creates change and at the same time increases conflict. To have courage together makes our cooperation towards a goal possible.

Compassion, discernment, imagining, inclusion and courage, give us the opportunity to step towards each other, even amidst hard conversations, conflicts, disagreements. Cooperative wisdom brings together the body of Christ. And to do so will look more like ants and plantain. It will look more like stepping towards each other and learning to cooperate with each other. It is nature’s way. It is wisdom’s way. It is the way of Jesus.

May we follow the wisdom of creation, which was made from wisdom. May we seek the wisdom of ants, and plantains. May God bless us with wisdom as we work cooperatively, together.