Wisdom and the Holy Spirit

Young at Heart Message

You all won’t believe this, but guess what?

I magically received $10,000 yesterday! I can’t tell you how, because it’s top secret, highly classified information.

But, I wanted to share this news with all of you because I need help figuring out what do with all that money!

Will you help me?
 
OK, I thought of 8 different ways I could handle this new influx of cash:
 
1. Get an awesome new tattoo
2. Use it for a down payment on a new car
3. Donate it to charity
4. Save it all
5. Shopping spree
6. Take a vacation to Hawaii
7. Invest it
8. Throw a huge party
 
I can’t decide, so I thought maybe we could narrow it down together.
 
I have three different ways I thought we could try to answer this question together.

1.   Fortune Teller
2.   Magic 8 Ball
3.   Panel of wise people
 
Do you think these are reasonable ways to decide how to spend $10,000?
 
Let’s test it out.
 
Let’s start by asking the fortune teller. I’ve made this paper fortune teller, and inside of it is each of the 8 options.
 
I just need a volunteer to help me choose.
 
Once we have the option the fortune teller chooses, we’ll ask the Magic 8 Ball and see if it agrees with the decision. 
 
I don’t have an actual Magic 8 Ball, so we’ll have to use an app on my phone. Sound OK? Let’s try it.
 
All right, we narrowed down our answer.
 
But, it seems like it would be wise to verify the answer with a panel of wise people from the congregation.
 
I need three wise volunteers to say yes or no to our choice. Can three people raise their hands?
 
All right, we have our final decision!
 
What do you all think? Was this a good way to make a big decision?
 
Of course not. It’s a highly unusual decision-making process, for starters.
 
It also doesn’t leave any room for other ideas, other options, doing more than one of those things, or for the movement of the Spirit in a decision of this magnitude.
 
When we think about wisdom, we don’t usually think that making a decision using these methods would be wise, at least not in the long-term.
 
I once heard a story about a bank president who was retiring. He and his successor met one day for lunch.
 
The new guy said, “Sir, I have been watching you for years as this bank has grown. I hope to follow in your footsteps. Can you give me some advice? What are the keys to your success?”
 
The retiring president simply said, “Make wise decisions.”
 
His replacement replied, “How do I make wise decisions.”

The president said, “In one word, ‘experience’”

“And how do you get experience?”

The president said, “In three words, ‘make unwise decisions.’”

And so we encounter the limitation of human wisdom: we become wise by making unwise mistakes.
 
Experience thus far has taught me that choosing how to use $10,000 wisely should not be left to a paper fortune teller or a Magic 8 Ball.
 
In fact, it might not even be wise to leave that decision entirely up to the 3 wise people we asked in our process.
 
Why? Well, while they may have significant life experience, they aren’t necessarily well informed about my own life circumstances.
 
The advice they might offer may not be helpful or relevant to my own decision-making process.
 
So, I’d like to try one more thing.
 
I would like to take a moment to invite God into this decision-making process with me.
 
What might happen if I ask what God might want for me in this situation? How might God suggest I use this money?
 
Let’s all take a moment to see if there is any movement of the Spirit around this question.
 
Now, I don’t have time to ask each one of you how God might have responded to this question.
 
But, I can tell you that when I took time to invite God in, the answer wasn’t any one of these things.
 
I certainly don’t think God would care if I got a new tattoo, a new car, went on a shopping spree, took a vacation to Hawaii, threw a party, or even saved, invested, or donated it.
 
What I think God would want is for me to try to make the wisest decision based on the information I have available.
 
Maybe it’s the case that I’m feeling extremely burnt out, and the best thing for me would be to actually take a vacation. Then perhaps I should go to Hawaii. This money would be a blessing.
 
Or, maybe I’ve postponed buying new clothes and shoes because I haven’t been able to afford them, and my clothes are so worn out that it’s questionable as to whether or not I should even wear them anymore. If that’s the case, perhaps I should go on a shopping spree. Once again, the money would be a huge blessing.
 
Or, perhaps I’ve been feeling lonely since moving to Calgary.
 
Maybe inviting everyone I know here in Calgary to be in community with me would help alleviate my feelings of loneliness?
 
If that’s the case, then perhaps throwing a huge party would be the wisest use of that money.
 
Once again, if that were the scenario I find myself in, the money would be a blessing that would allow me to feel less lonely.
 
I could make a similar argument for each thing on my list.
 
So, while we initially may have thought some of these things would be unnecessary or unwise ways to spend the money, when we invite God into the decision and we look closer at the situation, some of those things don’t seem so silly anymore.
 
And here is where we might invite God, or Spirit, or Wisdom to walk with us on our journey.
 
The Message
 
Wisdom, as portrayed in Proverbs, is presented in the feminine.
 
This is important only insofar as we aren’t accustomed to thinking about anything related to the divine in terms of the feminine.
 
Proverbs begins by saying “with great understanding, Wisdom is calling out as she stands at the crossroads and on every hill.”
 
Wisdom is calling out to us at every crossroads.
 
She is not calling out to place judgement, shame, or uncertainty on us as we face a crossroads.
 
She is calling out to each and every one of us to guide us on our own paths. The path that is right for me may not be the path that is right for you.
 
In John 16, Jesus promises us that the Spirit “will come and guide us into the full truth.”
 
Wisdom speaks as though she was there when the world was created.
 
So, too, was the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.
 
Each of these was given to us to walk with us on our path.
 
Wisdom journeys with us, woven through God, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit.
 
God created us as individuals – uniquely loved and adored by our Creator, and placed here with purpose and intention. We may not know what that purpose or intention is, but God’s infinite Wisdom does.
 
Jesus Christ came to offer guidance and love, and to model Wisdom for us. Jesus incorporated Wisdom into everything he did and said such that we could use him as an example even still today.
 
And then, Jesus offered us the gift of the Holy Spirit when he could no longer be here with us.
 
Known as comforter, advocate, guide, counsellor, and Wisdom herself, the Holy Spirit surrounds us with the love and adoration of God the Father,  Christ the Son, and Mother Spirit.
 
When we invite Spirit to help us respond to the questions we encounter in our lives, we put our trust fully in God.
 
Wisdom is a creation of God that God then used to create and order the world.
 
As we dance with Wisdom we learn to love God, to turn from evil and embrace what is good.
 
We seek out and learn from our counsellors.
 
We desire knowledge and experience that lead us to better lives.
 
We learn to think before we speak and always use gracious words.
 
With Wisdom dancing at our side we can help the poor, and build up the church.
 
Today is Trinity Sunday, during which we tend to focus on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
But we cannot forget about Lady Wisdom.
 
We must learn to invite her, along with Spirit, to guide and lead us, and we must begin to ponder how to do that in practice.
 
Because if we do not invite them to help us, we are left with Fortune Tellers and Magic 8 Balls.
 
In other words, we leave our lives to chance. And that may work for a little while, but God desires more for and from us.
 
God created us with intention and purpose, filling us with light and love to share.
 
As such, we are called to bring God alongside us in everything we do, as much as possible.
 
And that includes making big decisions in our lives.
 
It is not always easy to bring God along or invite God to help us make decisions. It is much easier to rely on the Fortune Tellers and Magic 8 Balls.
 
It also gives us a scapegoat if we make a mistake!
 
On the other hand, the mistakes we have made and – hopefully – learned from, have brought us to this point here today.
 
So, the reality is that we don’t need a scapegoat when we make a mistake in our decision-making.
 
We simply need to invite God to help us and, if things end up going sideways, we need to trust in the learning and experience that goes along with that “mistake.”
 
In the end, there is often something new and, perhaps something better, that comes from our mistakes.
 
So, may we walk boldly and bravely into a new way of seeing the world.
 
May we work to invite God, through Wisdom and the Holy Spirit, to help us discover our intention and purpose, and to help us use the light within us for good in a world in which good can sometimes be hard to find.
 
And, like Jesus Christ, may we live out the words of our offertory response: “a world in need now summons us to labor, love, and give; to make our life an offering that others too may live.” Amen.

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