A number of years ago I visited Turkey with a group of students from Luther Seminary in St. Paul.  Much of our stay included time in Istanbul--the only city in the world that is on two continents.  The city used to be the Christian capital of the eastern Christian Roman empire (which lasted quite a bit longer than the western half, with its capital in Rome).  In those days it was called Constantinople after the first Christian emperor Constantine (who built the city from the ground up and dedicated it on the 11th of May in the year 330).  One of the most amazing churches in the world (later turned into a mosque, now a museum) is the church called "Hagia Sophia" which means "divine Wisdom"--this was the third church built on this site, dedicated on December 27, 537.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/HagiaSophia_DomeVerticalPano_%28pixinn.net%29.jpg

December 17th is one week before Christmas and every year it is the beginning of the "countdown" to that feast day, marked by the daily singing of the "O Antiphons"--which serve as the basis for the hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  These "O Antiphons" indicate various Old Testament names for the Messiah.  The first day is "Wisdom"--see Proverbs 8 and Jeremiah 12 (and other places in the Old Testament).  The antiphon runs as follows:

"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."

Here Wisdom is a name for the Second Person of the Trinity, who is called the Word of God at the beginning of John's Gospel and there said to be the One "without Whom nothing was made that has been made" (see also Genesis 1 and 2).  God's divine Wisdom creates and orders life, even in (especially in) a fallen world and disorderd lives.  We ask in the petitionary closing to the antiphon that Wisdom would come (adventus) and teach us the way of wisdom/prudence.  Wisdom is how life is to be lived before God in the world He made, ordered, and redeemed (through the Incarnate Son).

Yesterday was also, interestingly, the commemoration of "minor saints"--Daniel, and the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego).  These four were all exiled with their people to Babylon but while there were trained for civil service to King Nebuchadnezzar.  They maintained their faithfulness to the God of Israel despite threats and intimidation.  Daniel was granted visions of the coming Messiah and the end of the world.  It is no accident that these faithful believers who withstood intense pressure and persecution, and who served in civil government (seeking to order life in a fallen world and benefitting the church thereby), are remembered precisely on the day in which we petition Christ who is the "wisdom of God" Himself, who sets in order all things mightily, whom we need to come and teach us today the way of prudence.