As many of you know, I am a baseball fan. And though I am too young to have seen him play, I have always loved the wisdom of Yogi Berra. Here are just of few of his famous statements:

“Never answer an anonymous letter.”

“You can observe a lot by watching.”

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

“We made too many wrong mistakes.”

And perhaps my favorite:

“I didn’t really say everything I said.”

Now, the title of my sermon “Wherever you god, there you are,” is not a Yogi Berra quote, though it sounds sort of like something he would have said. This phrase actually became popular in the 1980s with the movie the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, though it was worded just slightly differently. Buckaroo Banzai says, “Just remember, no matter where you go, there you are.” On face value, most of these statements, both from Yogi Berra and from Buckaroo Banzai, seem so obvious that they are hardly worth saying. Yet sometimes wisdom resides in the simplest of things.

This summer, we’ve been taking a road trip through the Scriptures and stopping at various scenic outlooks along the way. And as I contemplated the Scriptures for this week and the connection between wisdom and a road trip, I thought about driving a car. When I first learned to drive in drivers ed, they taught us all the rules first. We had to read the drivers ed manual and memorize all the dos and don’ts of road safety and whatnot. By the time we got behind the wheel for the first time, we had all the knowledge about driving we needed. But until we actually put the car in gear and began going down the road, we didn’t really know how to drive a car. And it would be months or even years later before I felt like I had sufficient wisdom to drive a car reliably and well. Wisdom is something attained through experience and practice.

Both of the passages we read this morning talk about wisdom. In 1 Kings, we see Solomon told by God to ask for whatever he wants God to give him. And Solomon chooses to ask for wisdom. And it seems clear that God was pleased with the choice because God tells Solomon that he will be given what he asked for AND all the other things that he hadn’t asked for like riches and honor all of his life. And in our passage from Ephesians, the section we read begins, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise.” And the rest of the section seems to extrapolate upon how we do that. And the three things it talks about are simple to understand, yet challenging to live out.

First, Paul tells the Ephesians and us to make “the most of the time.” I find this translation to be an interesting choice because the phrase “make the most of something” has multiple meanings. It can mean that you take ingredients and make the greatest amount of stuff out of them as possible. Or it can mean taking a bad situation and making something positive out of it. So, which of these options would you suspect is meant in Ephesians 5? Perhaps the context of Paul’s words give us some indication. Paul says, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” So, if the the days are evil, that sounds to me like Paul is encouraging us to take a bad situation and make things better. And if we look at the original Greek, I think we see some confirmation of that. The phrase translated in the NRSV as “making the most of” is just one verb meaning “to redeem” or “to ransom.” So, it seems to me that a part of living wisely is finding ways to bring something good out of a bad situation. That doesn’t mean ignoring the bad things in life or being falsely optimistic. It’s not even simply about trying to point out potential positives in a bad situation. What I think this means is actually investing ourselves in making bad situations into something better. That might mean engaging in a long process of seeking justice for people who’ve been wronged. It may mean walking with someone who is grieving. Perhaps it is simply giving a hug to someone feeling lonely. Wisdom rests in being willing to step in or step up when needed to redeem the time.

The Apostle Paul adds to this, “So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” This has a very strong correlation to the first part that Paul talked about. In order for us to step up or step in where needed, we need to be alert and open to the prodding of the Spirit in our lives. That way we know what is truly needed and where we can best serve. This is something we often call discernment. The word Paul uses that the NRSV translates as “understand” is a verb meaning “to set together” or “to synthesize.” I like that second option. We are called to synthesize what the will of the Lord is. What would that look like for us? When it comes to God’s will, especially on big decisions in your life, there will often be many voices competing for your attention. And many of them may even seem to be from God, even if they are contradictory at times. So, how do we take all that information and determine from it what truly is God’s will for our lives. This is the step of wisdom. It’s the step of synthesizing all of that competing information into an answer that feels right to us and that fits with who God is.

I remember when I decided I wanted to attend seminary and get training to be a pastor. I requested information from about 30 different learning institutions across the United States. And then I had to sit down and look through what they’d sent me in order to determine which of those places the Spirit was leading me to attend. I had numerous pastors that I knew who were trying to lead me in a certain direction, but I had other reasons to weigh into the decision as well, not least of which was the opinion of the woman I’d just started dating at that time and would eventually marry. I began looking through the information and was able to quickly dismiss many of the possibilities due to factors such as cost, theological concerns, or degree options. Then I narrowed it down further when I considered location and class options. At that point, I had whittled the field down to three schools. And when April and I watched the promotional video for Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, we were convinced. It took time. It took prayer. It took synthesizing my own will and the will of my closest friends and family with the push of the Spirit of God to finally determine the right course of action. There’s no magic formula for it. It just takes effort, patience, and listening.

Finally, Paul tells the Ephesians, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the part of Paul’s words here in Ephesians 5 that feel the most ambiguous to me. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What does that really look like? How do we know when it is happening? Dawn Hill, in an article she wrote for Christianity Today about being filled with the Spirit, talks about what that process looks like from the perspective of Ephesians 5. And she writes, “This [being filled with the Spirit] is a continual process of growth and maturity, and this type of maturity comes from being molded by the Word of God.” I think often we think of being filled with the Spirit as like a spiritual high that we experience from a really moving moment in life or from an awesome concert or conference we attend. It’s a sort of euphoric experience that we get only every so often. But here in Ephesians, I don’t believe that is what Paul is talking about. I think he is more in line with Dawn Hill and talking about a process that leads to growth and maturity in our faith. And we receive that through discipleship. As we learn more about God and ourselves, we grow in maturity and are filled more and more with the Spirit of God. And that is, I believe, the true end of wisdom, to be filled with the Spirit to fullness…something that we will only ever truly reach in eternity.

So perhaps today’s stop on our summer road trip is not really a stop at all, but rather the wisdom to know when to keep going. Life is full of challenges and we won’t always make the right decisions, but perhaps Paul’s words from Ephesians will encourage us in the right direction. Let us be careful how we live, not as unwise people but as wise people. May we work to make the most of the time we have left, turning bad situations toward the good. And may each day bring us closer to God as we discern God’s will for us and grow toward a deeper maturity of faith as the Spirit fills us more and more. Wherever we go, there we are and there God is with us, helping us to grow in faith and wisdom. Thanks be to God!