A Healed Heart
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Searching for Wisdom after Pain
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?
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