God eternal, as you sent upon the disciples the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, we ask now that you look upon your church and open our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit. Grant unto now us deeper intimacy with your Word that we might be a people filled with divine wisdom, able to discern your call in our lives. Amen.
We have been well conditioned by our society into believing that if one wants to make a difference in this world, then one must first attain wealth and power. It says that we can't be somebody without money or power. I mean look around us in the world today. Examples abound. If one wants to overcome mighty obstacles in life, one must first become mightier than those obstacles. Hence, no money + no power = a nobody. And nobodies are only capable only of doing nothing. That's just one of the lessons that we can draw from life. It's one of those lessons that we can put under the umbrella of "common sense."
But wisdom, on the other hand, says something different, something subversive, for wisdom says "even the mightiest of forests can be leveled by but a small coal kissed by the wind." That's not common sense; that's wisdom.
Too often we confuse common sense with wisdom. Now it is not that there isn't any crossover. For example, "don't run your sled off the cliff." That's pretty basic. It makes sense. And because of this crossover between common sense and wisdom it can get really difficult to tell the two apart at times.
Both common sense and wisdom are derived from life experience. What we call "common sense" is primarily informed by the reality of life experience, and it is driven by the practicalities of everyday life. It's very pragmatic approach to life. "Wisdom," on the other hand, is also informed by the reality of life experience, but it is not driven by practicality. Rather, it is driven by the reality of God and God's call in our lives, even when that call is very impractical.
You see, wisdom views the story of life-whether it be individual life, communal, or global-it views the story of life through the lens of the story of God. Because of its focus, it leads to different dreams, hopes, and aspirations than that of common sense.
Whereas common sense would have us look around us at the practicalities of life and say that it is obvious that you need to have power and wealth to make a difference in the world, wisdom refutes that by recalling us to the story of God. Wisdom reminds us that "even the mightiest of forests can be leveled by but a small coal kissed by the wind." Wisdom reminds us of the power of Pentecost.
Pentecost is the story of what happens when a bunch of nobodies is kissed by the winds of God. The passion in their hearts is kindled in such a way that they just burst into flame. As the passion wells up it just cannot be contained, but it must find release. And so these nobodies who cannot contain their passion proclaim boldly their joyful love that has just consumed them
And as they proclaim boldly their love and the extent to which they have received love, this naturally gets some attention. It's the type of attention that makes others turn their heads and say, "What's up with that? What are they so excited about?"
Too often we think of Pentecost as "that" day way 2000 years ago for "those" people who started off our faith journey as a unique people. But the story of Pentecost is not something that can be boxed into a single time and a single place. Rather, it is the continuing story of how God works with the least of peoples on this earth to bring about something great.
Since I've been here, I've been preaching through the Exodus story. In a sense, the Exodus story is part of the Pentecost story. When we look at what God is doing in Egypt, we see that God is taking the least of all peoples on the face of the earth, drawing them out of bondage and slavery, and establishing them as kings and queens in their own right. So while we've been running through the story of the Exodus, we've also been studying the story of Pentecost.
Pentecost is a recurring theme in the Bible. But it's not just a story that's to be found only in the biblical stories of God's people. We can also find it recurring in history as well.
Perhaps my favorite example is St. Patrick. When we look at the story of his life and what he accomplished and set into motion, it is just amazing. Patrick was a British priest who later became a bishop in the 400s. During a time in which mission was something that was done within the confines of Christian lands, Patrick had a vision. Much like the Macedonian call that we covered a couple of weeks ago, his vision revealed a Celt calling to him for help. And so Patrick did something different, he took the gospel into unknown lands, into the lands of the Irish.
As a result of his endeavors, many converted to Christianity and monasteries were founded. These monasteries became major learning centers with lots of resources. WHile this was happening in the British Isles, Europe was being overrun by nomadic barbarians and centers of learning were being destroyed left and right. While Christian Europe was falling under barbarian invasion, Irish Christianity was thriving. It became an unassailed center of Christianity.
Eventually, after Europe had fallen into dark times, missionaries were sent out from Ireland and began to reconvert Europe. With them, they brought the knowledge of the monasteries and European civilizations were reborn.
Of course, by this time, Patrick had already died. But it all started with him. A single man, with a sense of vision, going into nowhere--into the land of the nobodies. And the fruit of his work: the Irish ended up changing the entire course of history. Patrick: a small coal kissed by the wind.
The reality of our situation is that we are a small church in a small town. How much can we do, really? Well, common sense tells us "Not much. That's just the way it is." But it is wisdom that asks, "Does it have to be that way, really?" Isn't it the nature of God to use the smallest of peoples to show the greatest how it's done? Doesn't the continuing story of God and God's people tell us that we should expect God to use nobodies to in the middle of nowhere, small people in small places, in order to change the course of history?
If so, doesn't that mean something for us and what we're all about? Isn't that what Pentecost is all about, God proclaiming to the entire world through our very lives that, yes!, "even the mightiest of forests can be leveled by but a small coal kissed by the wind."