<The Tootsie roll owl commercial launches the message>
Did you know that that commercial is almost 50 years old? It’s memorable. It points to a question, provides a practical experiment and even an answer. However, the wise old owl is only validating his own personal knowledge and experience so is that wisdom?
Dictionary.com defines wisdom as: the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.
I would love to probe those who wrote the dictionary.com definition because the more I ponder it, the more I wonder if the final word insight is a humanist nod to the Divine without referencing the Christian view of wisdom which is simply defined as a “fear of the Lord.”
It reminds me of a story...
There once was a king whose greatest desire was to gain absolute power over every square inch of his kingdom. He had succeeded in removing all obstacles to his complete control except one: the people still put their ancient God above the king. The king summoned his three wisest advisors to find a way to put an end to such worship. “Where,” asked the king, “where might the people’s God be hidden and so be made to vanish from their lives and cease to challenge my rule?”
The first advisor suggested hiding God at the summit of the highest mountain. “No,” said the king: “The people would abandon their homes and climb the highest mountain to search for their God.”
The second advisor proposed hiding the people’s God at the bottom of the sea. But the king rejected the idea as well: “The people would probe the ocean’s depth to find their God,” he said.
Finally, the third wisest advisor, a wrinkled and bent old man, spoke his advice in a hoarse whisper. “O mighty king,” he said, “hide the people’s God somewhere in their everyday lives. They will never find it!”
This story might be true but is it wisdom? Or a truism - a statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting.
Three weeks ago, we began unpacking four verses of one proverb to help us all come to see the depth of God’s truth. The scripture we will unpack is the one you heard at the beginning of service - Proverbs 30. In the last two week, we learned God uses small movements to make big changes as a way to ensure we recognize his role in our lives and the power he possesses because we could never have dreamed those 12 original knuckle heads would help the movement grow to over 2.3 billion today. This week we move to verse 26 but let me give you a little background.
The full name of Proverbs in Hebrew is the Proverbs of Solomon. However, this fact is debated. Some say Solomon wrote under pen names and others believe there are few written by later scribes. Whatever the truth is, today’s scripture is written by Agur. They are more than just “wisdom sayings” but an oracle. An oracle is a word from God - a direct revelation versus an observation like the other proverbs. The first verses point to the never ending knowledge, power and everlasting nature of God. As it reaches our verses, the reminders of the Son of man bringing God’s kingdom to humankind in the last days and the future hope when the messiah returns. It focuses on directing the reader’s attention beyond the everyday consequences of one’s action to the future when God holds everyone accountable for their deeds. Let's begin today with a single verse from Proverbs 30:26
hyraxes are creatures of little power,
yet they make their home in the crags;
Hyraxes are called rock rabbits or dassies. They are small like rabbits and eat plant life to survive. Like the rabbits that eat your spring flowers, they’re hunted by all kinds of predators and burrow in between rocks for safety.
A good friend says language matters. Words are important. The words we chose help paint the picture of what we are trying to convey. They also help others “see” our point. A friend labels his rebel outposts - micro churches. A word that highlights size and function for references sake. These are NOT small groups, life groups, bible studies or home groups. They differ from these groups because they have a vision and mission to expand the kingdom of God in very unique ways.
For example, did you know there is a collection of women who, inspired by the love of Christ, have started a ministry using the hula hoop. It’s a ministry whereby the leader and few in her collective have traveled the world sharing the love of Jesus with a hula hoop. A simple toy developed years ago has brought thousands to Jesus through their intersection with these women and their personal stories.
Would you consider what they are doing a “church?”
The apostle Paul writes to a small church plant in the city of Corinth:
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
The word church comes with so many connotations and expectations. When we say church, we think of buildings, stained glass, incense, organs and pews. However, church was never to reference a building but a people and a movement who like the rock rabbit is nimble and able to move safely among the predators of this world.
To be nimble, requires the authority to be flexible and creative. Hence, the reason we use the word “coracle” to describe those activities that allow the “church” to exist in new ways. It doesn’t mean we have given up on the traditional western form but have expanded it to include following God’s lead, Jesus' redemption of the broken, as the Holy Spirit guides us to those He is directing us too.
A term coracle is a nod to the past and the people who helped Europe find faith after years of decline. History tells us of the Gaelic monks from Ireland and the western coast of modern-day Scotland, who re-Christianized Britain and Western Europe after the fall of Rome. They were wild people from a wild land, who harnessed their considerable passions and energies into Christian devotion. They were deeply shaped by their faith and saw the Trinity as a framework for all human interactions, highly valuing community, reconciliation and partnership. As a result, their monasteries weren’t the cold stone castles of the later Medieval period, but Christian villages of agriculture, study, safety and meaningful relationships.
But above all they were missionaries - ‘sent ones.’ When the head of the monastery considered certain monks to be ready for missionary service – after years of learning and habit-forming – they would be sent out to take the Good News to those who had never heard it. This was done in a most bizarre fashion. The Gaelic monks were commissioned by their village and placed in a coracle – a small, circular boat made of wickerwork, covered with a watertight material – and pushed out from shore with the prayer that the Lord of the wind and the waves would take them to the very people He wanted them to save. Coracles were used by fishermen at the time and were propelled with a paddle, but the missionary monks were given no such implement. They were entirely at the mercy of the wind and the tides. Wherever they ran aground, that was where they were to commence their missionary work of brokering peace, preaching the Good News and founding new missional villages like the ones from which they’d come.
Like the monks, we consider our coracles vital to the expansion of the kingdom. We see the coracle as dynamic in the sense of place and mission. Each coracle can be as different as the people involved in them. Like all missionaries, they are hyper flexible in adapting to the context they have been sent for bringing about maximum impact. How and why a coracle will gather and engage in their neighborhoods will vary widely and The Center accepts this as an operating norm.
As Paul said in another letter to the church plant in Corinth,
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Cor 4:7)
When we understand, the church is not the building. The mission is to reach those He has directed us to. The only authority is Christ. We are free to redeem in His name all sorts of language and people groups by sending scouts willing to take on the giants within our culture while acknowledging the only sin in resist.
To emphasize this final point, I only need to point to God’s words to Moses in Numbers 14 when they fail to listen to two of the men sent to scout the promised land. God said,
26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with an uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
Now you may be quick to point out that this was said in the old Testament before Jesus, to which I would reply Jesus' words to all of us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10:2)
Hence, the reason I challenge all of us to listen to the Spirit who is declaring to who you are sent. If you are not feeling sent at this time, it's okay. Join one of the other coracles or get on board with another non profit close to your heart and continue to be aware of God’s declaration of the land you are to enter.
To learn more about the author, please go to https://www.communiycenter.life/rev-robert-butler-info
