12th Sunday after
Pentecost
August 16, 2015
Cowenton UMC only
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Ephesians
5:15-20
(You can also watch me preach it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBMJQOUKAww)
There are a few pieces of wisdom I
am slowly picking up over the past five years that I have been a pastor. For example, I know I should always make sure
I have fire in the pulpit, so I can light the candles if I need to. Another thing I’ve learned is to discern if
it’s a hill worth dyin’ on, or, in other words, to pick my battles. Finally, I learned that I shouldn’t preach
the Sunday morning following a weekend youth event. The lesson I learned this week is to not
preach the Sunday following a week of Vacation Bible School when you’ve been
heavily involved in it, as I have this past week at Piney Grove, the other
church I serve over in Middle River. If
I seem a little tired this morning, it’s because they’ve had three great nights
of sharing God’s love with children and will be celebrating at their worship
service this morning. However, and maybe
I’m wrong, I felt like I needed to preach here this morning. Part of it, I’ll admit, is the text. I’ve always been drawn to this story of
Solomon asking for wisdom, and to the story that follows in 1 Kings 3 where
Solomon has to use that wisdom to judge which mother the baby belongs to. Wisdom was the theme one night at Vacation
Bible School, too, and we read about Deborah in the book of Judges. God gave Deborah wisdom to judge his people,
similar to God giving Solomon wisdom to rule his people.
However, the background story is a
little different. It doesn’t say that
Deborah asked for wisdom, just that she used God’s wisdom to judge his people
and to free them from the evil king who ruled them at the time. In contrast, Solomon is the king, and he specifically asks for
wisdom. Solomon has just been crowned
king, after his father, King David, dies, and he goes up to a high holy place,
Gibeon. Gibeon is an interesting choice
because the main holy place for Israel was Jerusalem, where the ark of the
covenant was. Anyway, he goes to Gibeon
and gave a thousand burnt offerings to God on the altar there.[1] And then God comes to him in a dream and
says, “Ask whatever you wish, and I’ll give it to you.”[2] Talk about how you know you’re dreaming
right?! God’s presenting himself almost
like a genie in a lamp, except a genie will grant you three wishes! Can you imagine God saying, “Ask for whatever
you want, and I’ll give it to you”? And
then you start think, and wonder, what would you ask for? If God were to say this to you, what would you
ask God to give you?
One popular answer, I’m sure, would
be to ask for riches and wealth. God,
let me win the lottery! Or, I’ll just
take an unlimited supply of money.
Having money makes everything better, right? I could easily pay all my bills, move to a
nicer neighborhood, buy a newer car, and never have to work again! Well, Solomon’s king. He knows he’s going to have to do some work
to stay king and do work as king, ruling his people. He can’t forget about his subjects, or he
wouldn’t be a good king. Asking for
riches solves some problems, but not others.
So, perhaps instead you’d ask God
for good health and a long life. Lord,
take away all these chronic diseases, the chronic pain, take away the need for
medicine and surgery, let me be germ-free so I don’t even need to get the flu
shot each year. And let me live a long
time, at least to my life expectancy, or maybe longer. 100 sounds good. God, let me live til I’m 100 years old and be
in great health the whole time. Well,
some people do stay in good health and live well into their nineties. The world’s oldest living person whose age
can be documented is 116! And some of us
do have better immune systems than others.
But to have perfect health… it’s just unrealistic. Even baseball’s Iron Man, Cal Ripken, Jr.,
didn’t have perfect health during his streak.
He just kept playing and persevered.
So, Solomon doesn’t ask for long life, which would ensure he’d be king
for the better part of a century, given that he was only 20 years old when he
became king.
A third popular answer to God’s
offer to give you anything might be for all your problems to go away. Victory over your enemies as a king, victory
over the turmoil in your life for those of us who aren’t rulers. And that sounds really nice, too, doesn’t
it? No more drama, no more conflict, no
more problems, just easy-peasy life, like when you’re on vacation. Except, just like perfect health, that’s not
realistic, either. And, just like germs,
a little conflict is okay and even healthy.
Germs and bacteria, to an extent, help improve our immune system. We naturally have bacteria in our bodies,
it’s normal. And some conflict is
normal. Those rough edges are where we
grow and how we learn. No problems would
mean no change and no change means we stay stagnant, and eventually things that
stay stagnant actually wither and die.
Staying the same isn’t an option, that’s not life. And we learn and grow through the
opportunities that come our way, opportunities that may often look like problems.
In our Epistle lesson this morning
Paul encourages us to “take advantage of every opportunity.”[3] How many of us take advantage of every
opportunity that comes our way? I know I try to. That’s why I spent a semester abroad in Spain
when I was in college. I didn’t go to
college planning to or expecting to, although I was interested in it. My college has a campus in Spain, and so I
spent a semester in Spain. I met other
students there who had always wanted to go to Spain or who had dreamt of it
their whole lives. Me? I was taking advantage of the opportunity my
school gave me. What opportunities have
you had and have you made the most of them?
What opportunities do you have now?
There’s often some risk involved, such as a trans-Atlantic trip where
you stay for four months (a semester) without coming home and you start off
only knowing one person. What
opportunities do you have now and what is the risk in taking advantage of
them? Paul’s advice is to take it.
Yet Paul is not one to live
recklessly, the first piece of wisdom he offers in today’s lesson is to “be
careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly.”[4] “Be careful how you live, not as unwise
people, but as wise people.”[5] Be careful how you live. Be intentional in how you live. Be purposeful in how you live. Pay attention. Take note.
You want to live your life well, and unless you’re James Bond, you only
get one. Be careful in how you
live. Make the most of what’s been given
to you. Don’t be that servant who buries
his talent in the ground, but the ones who take calculated, careful risks, who
invest in what’s been given to them, who make the most of it, who turn what
they’ve been given into something beautiful and pleasing to God. Don’t bury what he’s given you, and don’t
squander it, either. Be careful, be
intentional, make the most of what God has given you: your health, your life,
your family, your property, your wealth, your job, and the opportunities in
front of you. Don’t wish them away.
Instead, Paul writes, “Don’t be
foolish, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do.”[6] Try to understand what God’s
will is. God, you’ve given me this
inheritance; what would you have me do with it?
God, there’s this argument going on between two people I love; what
would you have me say? God, I’ve gotten
really sick; what is your will in this disease?
How will you use it to make me more like you? Respond to events and opportunities wisely,
not foolishly. Seek God in all things,
and most likely, he will show you what to do, whether through a friend’s voice,
or in journaling, or an answer during prayer, or some other nudge. It may be a pull at your heart, it may be an
actual, physical pain getting your attention, telling you, like God told the
prophet Isaiah, “This is the way; walk in it.”[7]
If God were to ask
you, “What
would you like me to give you?” would you really ask for long life or riches or
no problems? Or, do you know deep down,
that while some of those things might be nice, and might be a nice change of
pace from your current life, what you really need is God’s help with what’s
going on now? What you really need is a
sign telling you what you should do?
There is a comic strip that runs in Southern newspapers called
“Kudzu.” It’s about the Rev. Will B.
Dunn and the folks in his town. In one
strip, the first panel showed the good Reverend on his knees, praying, “God,
send me a sign!” The second panel shows Rev.
Dunn, still on his knees, next to a large flashing neon sign with the word
“sign” on it. God sent a sign! It wasn’t a very helpful sign, but God did
answer his prayer! I think a little more
helpful, usually, is that small, still voice, saying “This is
the way; walk in it.”
Just like Deborah and
Solomon, we need God’s wisdom, not to rule, but to live well. Solomon chose wisely, when he asked God for
wisdom. He essentially told God, “Look,
you made me king. Now help me be a good
king.” It sounds like a good prayer for
anyone trying to become what God is calling you to become. God made Solomon king, and so Solomon asked
God’s help to be the best at what God made him.
Whatever your calling, whatever your vocation, wherever you feel God
leading you or nudging you to do, you will need God’s help to do it and to do
it well. Because whatever we do, we do
for God and we want to do our best for him.
God goes first. God gets the
best. Putting anything else first,
before God, is idolatry, which means there’s something else that is more
important than God. And we want to do
our best for God. In order to do our
best, we need God’s help. We cannot be
the best we can be on our own. We need
help. And that’s part of where the
community of faith comes in, that’s part of why we belong to a church, so that
we can help each other be our best, so that we can help each other draw closer
to God, so that we can share with each other the wisdom we’ve learned along the
way. Perhaps I’m assuming too much in
assuming that you want to live well.
Maybe you’re okay with just getting by and surviving. But if you really would rather thrive, if you
really would rather learn and grow and not stagnate, wither, and die, then we
need God and we need each other.
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