Sermon Exerpts for August 16, 2015

A Healed Heart  

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Searching for Wisdom after Pain

Most people, if asked about Israel's famous king, Solomon, will remember him for his wisdom, a gift God gave him after he asked not for riches or wealth or long life but for help with governing the people wisely and well. (Of course, God was so pleased with his request that Solomon received all the other things, too, a happy turn of events for the new king.)

As a young man ("I am only a child" – probably about 20 years old, according to The Oxford Annotated Bible), Solomon must have felt overwhelmed by both his sudden power and his weighty responsibilities. His success gave him pause rather than moving him to exultation. His father David, the greatest of Israel's kings (there's a lot to live up to!), had placed him on the throne rather than his brother Adonijah, the "rightful" heir…

The path to the throne wasn't pretty for Solomon, and it was far from Israel's finest moment.

Perhaps Solomon showed that he already had a degree of wisdom even before he asked for it. He notes the subtle but important distinction between intelligence (which we value highly in a technologically advanced world) and wisdom (which has often been in short supply despite our scientific progress).

In the book, Healing the Heart of Democracy (a timely read in this election season), the writer speaks of the "heart" as holding something more than just our feelings. It seems to me that he's saying that the heart is where wisdom resides, although wisdom needs intelligence and brings it together with feeling, intuition, sensory input, and experience…

." Unfortunately, Solomon's wisdom was great in many ways except when it came to women or his loyalty to God. This is another intriguing question we might ask about Solomon: How could the great king who had spoken with God go on to worship false gods? Solomon's weakness for foreign women seduced him…

Very few of us have read carefully about Solomon's other worship practices, that worship of false gods and his failure to remain loyal to the one true God. Could there be a greater irony than this, that the builder of God's Temple then sought after other gods?

In the end, scholars seem to agree that the books of 1 and 2 Kings (once united then split because of length) not only tell a story but provide a lesson in failure.

Today we live in a society that, unlike ancient Israel, claims to be built upon the separation of church and state but often brings religious beliefs and claims of authority into the political arena, if not our shared public life. For example, we may argue vehemently about putting the Ten Commandments on a courthouse wall….

Yet so many of us fail to make sure that all of God's children have the basic goods of life – in other words, we neglect "the widow, the poor, and the foreigner in our midst" – those most vulnerable and in need. Wasn't this exactly what God expected in both the Old and New Testaments?

Would Jesus have much to say about engraving Commandments in stone when the heart of God's law is broken all around us?

It's no wonder God said kings were a bad idea. Our lectionary passage is preceded by David's deathbed scene, in which he instructs Solomon to do away with his (David's) enemies. In between our two lectionary segments is another passage in which Solomon takes a convenient opportunity to have his older brother Adonijah (who, it might be argued, was the rightful heir to the throne) killed.

This is another dimension of the story of Solomon's succession to his father's throne that is missed in the lectionary editing: the role of several women in the affairs of the kingdom. As usual, women such as Abishag and the famous Bathsheba are behind the scenes (and in the omitted verses), but their influence is significant in spite of their marginalization.

The only voice they have is the quiet one, whispering in the ear of the powerful man to whom they're attached. Karoline M. Lewis suggests that we might consider the role these women played, and finding God "at work in the unexpected, and perhaps unaccepted, dimensions of human relationships"

Tradition says that Solomon is famous for building the greatest worship center in ancient times, but his heart strayed to false gods. What lessons might we learn from that story?

When we think about our leaders, do we, truly, hope for and expect integrity of heart and uprightness, or have we turned over "secular" issues to a kind of amoral consideration of "national interests"?

What would the world look like if we, as a people, exhibited integrity of heart and uprightness? Do we as a culture seek knowledge and education that leave out the wisdom dimension? Where, can we find wisdom?