A Sermon preached on
Sunday, August 19, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14, Ephesians 5:15-20; John
6:51-58
Bill Gates is walking along a beach when he
discovers a bottle, he opens it and a Genie appears. The Genie says, "I
have been trapped for 1000 years. As a reward you can make a wish." Gates
thinks about it as he carries the bottle back to his beach cottage. Once there,
he goes to a bookshelf, pulls out an atlas and turns to a map of the Middle
East, an area that sadly, as we know, has seen conflict and suffering for
hundreds of years. What I wish for is peace in the Middle East. The Genie
replies, "I don't know, I can do a lot, but I think that’s pushing it?
Don't you have another wish?" Bill Gates thinks and finally says, OK. The
whole world hates Microsoft because we conquered the software market and
because Windows still crashes. I wish you would make everybody love us. The
Genie says, "Let me see that map again."
I know the joke is a little dated, at least as
far as Mr Gates and Microsoft is concerned, but doesn’t the story of Solomon’s
dream sound a little like a genie joke? And without wanting to compare Bill
Gates with King Solomon, it’s interesting that in the joke, just as in the
Bible passage, both already powerful men do not ask for the expected.
But I think telling Solomon to “ask what I
should give you,” (1 Kings 3:5) was a sort of test on God’s part to see if
Solomon fully understood his responsibility as a king under God. And Solomon
does. First, he acknowledges that he would not be on the throne without God’s “great
and steadfast love to your servant my father David.” (3:6) It is God who “made
your servant king in place of my father David.” (3:7) And only God can supply
what Solomon needs to rule justly and wisely: “an understanding mind to govern
your people, able to discern between good and evil.” (3:9) At least in theory,
and the rest of the two Books of Kings in Old Testament is the story of how
difficult it proved to put that theory into practice, the role of a king in
Israel was to rule on God’s behalf, taking care of the people, all of them
equally, rich and poor, resident and alien. The king was to be a good
example, in keeping God’s statutes and commandments, and ensuring that the
people do so also. To be wise, in this context, is to be able to discern God’s
will and then to implement it.
Later in the Book of Kings we are given an
example of how Solomon uses his God-given wisdom to reach a just decision. The
famous story of the judgement of Solomon (1 Kings 3:16–28) recounts that two
mothers living in the same house, each the mother of an infant son, came to
Solomon. One of the babies had died and now each claimed the remaining boy as
her own. Calling for a sword, Solomon declared his judgment: the baby would be
cut in two, each woman to receive half. One mother did not contest the ruling,
declaring that if she could not have the baby then neither of them could, but
the other begged Solomon, "Give the baby to her, just don't kill
him!" The king declared the second woman the true mother, as a mother
would even give up her baby if that was necessary to save its life. The method
seems cruel, but the result was to reward selflessness and the willingness to
sacrifice, rather than selfishness and a desire to win at all costs.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul also
addresses the issue of wisdom: “be careful then how you live, not as unwise
people but as wise” (5:15) What does it mean to be wise? It turns out that the
definition is not that different to Solomon’s. As Paul goes on to say, “do not
be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (5:17) So, to be wise
is to be able to discern God’s will and then to implement it “making the most
of the time,” (5:16) so using all and every day as an opportunity for serving
the Lord, for understanding what his will is, and getting on and doing it. That
can sound a bit obsessive or compulsive, but that is not how it was meant. For one
thing Paul and his contemporaries thought that their time was short, they
interpreted the evil they saw around them as sign of the end times. They were
in a hurry. They had, and we have, the mission described earlier in Ephesians (3:10)
“that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be
made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” And God’s
wisdom is so often a challenge to the rulers and authorities because of the
core message of love, justice, equality and righteousness for all.
This is the other reason why we should be making
the most of the time: God’s wisdom as Paul saw it, and as Solomon experienced it,
is a very good thing. Understanding God’s will for the world and for us as
individual Christians is a matter of joy.
At the very beginning of the letter to the Ephesians (1:17-19), Paul
prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you
a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that … you
may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of
his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power for us who believe.”
This is the definition of wisdom that we need
to refer back to when interpreting the later passage. We see again that wisdom
is about knowing God and knowing God’s purposes. We see also that in doing so,
we grow to know the hope to which we have been called, the hope for which Jesus’
life, death, and resurrection stand. The hope for a world transformed by God and
for lives renewed by the Spirit. Knowing God in God’s Son means knowing the “immeasurable
greatness of his power for us who believe.” This power is not something
abstract or theoretical, but a power we can feel and know when it works in and through
us for good.
In the Gospel passage we heard this morning,
the third in succession from that part of John’s Gospel where Jesus talks about
himself as the bread of life or bread from heaven, Jesus is promising this renewed
life and this power to all those who are willing to become part of him and his
community - eating his flesh and drinking his blood as we do week for week here
at the Table. We will not know full and abundant and truly hopeful loves
without Jesus. His body and blood offered once on the cross, and then shared with
us all in the Eucharist is true food and true drink as it satisfies our true
needs for a life and lives greater than this one, a life in Christ.
When we discussed this passage on Wednesday,
one of the Bible study group responded with a very appropriate quote from Henry
David Thoreau: “The mass of men (and women) lead lives of quiet desperation.”[1]
Wisdom as described by Paul, and our Communion with Christ in the Eucharist and
in the Church are the sources of the hope that counters such quiet desperation.
Those who grumbled and did not understand Jesus’ message because they took it
far too literally: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) are
like those who Paul calls foolish in the First Letter to the Corinthians (2:14):
“Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they
are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they
are discerned spiritually.” Being able to discern what is right – right meaning,
right behavior, right choices – was one of God’s gifts to Solomon and is also one
of the gifts of God to those who follow God’s Son and share in his mission.
And this, it turns out, is a reason for joy
and gratitude. Solomon was promised not only a wise and discerning mind, but also
riches and honor, and even a long life, if he continued to walk in God’s ways,
that is to discern and to implement God’s will. We too are promised riches, but
not material ones. Ours are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the
saints. We also receive great honor, the honor of being citizens of God’s
kingdom and recipients of God’s Spirit and power. And we have the promise of
not only a life that is lengthened – to about 61 years in Solomon’s case – but to
an eternal life in Christ that continues even when this one has ended.
It is no wonder therefore that Paul recommends
a celebration or a feast, not a drunken one, but as people filled with the Spirit
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord, giving thanks to God
the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In his view, and in mine too, that is very wise behavior!What a good thing we do it every week.
Amen.
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