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Proper 15

1 Kings 3:3-14

3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt-offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ 6And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 13I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.’
Summer brings frequent sightings of that most unusual creature: the casual politician. You can see them donning Stetsons at the Stampede, visiting northern places that would otherwise trouble even those who live in chili Ottawa, and even as close as my neighbourhood.

I’m not actually certain that Taste of the Danforth is the best possible place to show off party leaders, but Jack was doing his level best to engage the multitude who just wanted to be left alone with their souvlaki and baklava. Even the emergence of roasted quail, a new and disturbing trend at the festival, was more popular that the leader of the NDP.

A very cynical member of the Prime Minister’s Office calls these HOAG moments (Heck of a guy). Politician drops the dark suit and the sour look and heads out to do something fun and public: the more commonplace the better. If you can form a mental picture of a certain former president on horseback in Crawford, Texas, then you are another hapless victim of the HOAG moment in image management.

As clever as the latest crop of image consultants think they may be, they are far behind the author 1 Kings 3. Looking back on the reign of King Solomon it is hard to find something good to say, but they managed, and the passage becomes an exercise in historical image management, an important subset of the image business. More on Solomon in a moment.

For as long as there have been rulers and people to surround rulers, there has been a tendency to dress up the past. It is no coincidence that after James I and his Danish queen took the throne that Shakespeare wrote two new plays, one about a Scottish King and another about the Danish court. Fictional lead characters interact with historical ones, distant relatives of the royal patrons in the audience.

Beyond the arts, there is the work of generations of historians, assessing and reassessing each leader depending on their point-of-view and current popular thought. Some will point to important conquest, or sustained peace and prosperity. Others point to reform, or innovation, and failing all these, they will look for something else. It is unusual for any leader or king to be considered an utter failure—every one seems to have a champion eventually—and it is this fact that saves Solomon.

The tools to assess the success of a biblical king are found in the bible itself. Deuteronomy 17 is very clear: a good king must avoid a surplus of horses, a surplus of gold and a surplus of wives. Solomon failed on all three. He has a particular weakness for Egyptian horses (and chariots), enough that people wondered if he yearned for the old country. He had wealth in gold, but this was pale in comparison to his wealth in wives, numbering in the neighbourhood of 700. And many were foreign born, and brought with them foreign gods, and so you see the seeds of a disaster that would certainly come in time. At the end of his reign the kingdom breaks in two and the legacy of old Solomon is looking very bleak indeed.

Most of all, he seems saved by a baby. Do you remember the story of the baby? (Solomon adjudicated a dispute between two women, each claiming to be the mother. When he proposed simply cutting the child in half, the real mother revealed herself by renouncing her claim to spare the child).

So Solomon is wise, and his reputation spreads, so much so that foreign queens and kings seek him out as his fame grows. All his failings as king are overcome by his wisdom (the record makes clear), and ancient near-eastern image consultants can count a major victory in the person of Solomon.

That might be the last word on Solomon were it not for a small exchange in 1 Kings 3 on the real source of Solomon’s wisdom. It seems that Solomon was the most wise because he was wise enough to ask God for more:

9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’

Like a three-wish person asking for more wishes, Solomon prays (in his wisdom) for even greater wisdom to rule God’s people. He recognizes that he is not fully up to the task, and turns to God in prayer and asks to be wiser than before.

And here we have a revolution in prayer. 1 Kings 3 continues:

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.

God has no doubt tired of the usual prayers of kings and rulers: ‘make me more powerful, increase my kingdom, lead me in battle, give me more sons, frustrate those who stand in my way.’ God has heard the selfish litany of too many, and this makes Solomon stand out even more: ‘give me understanding and discernment, nothing more.’

It seems that most of us resemble the other kings and rulers are less like Solomon in our prayer life: we tend to ask for the more direct and tangible things. There are the obvious ones, what Carmen calls the “Santa list” prayers of our childhood. Maybe a red bike, or a BB gun, or mutt under the tree. Later we seem to pray more for relief, ‘help me out of this tight spot, Lord.’ Later still we pray our worries—and while it never hurts to pray our worries—it makes more sense to find a way to worry less.

Solomon, wise king Solomon, has found a high form of prayer that God can commend to each of us: pray for understanding and pray for discernment. Pray that you can comprehend what you must do to live well, and pray that you have the capacity to make the choices that confront you each day. Pray for the understanding to see the world as it truly is: the sources of injustice and the places of pain. Pray for discernment to make the choices that will strengthen the fabric of our community and enhance our fellowship, and pray that we continue to seek understanding and discernment and never begin to trust only in ourselves.

And then, having prayed all this, pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, who set out his own prayer model recorded by John. I don’t usually give homework in sermons, but if you are flipping through your bible in the next while, read John 17, and the threefold movement of prayer that Jesus makes as he ponders his passion. He prays that in all that follows, he may glorify God. He prays for his disciples, soon to be on their own, and asks that God continue to bless them with the power of the truth. And he prays for us: he prays that we may know his presence and he prays that we ‘all may be one,’ the very words that appear on the crest of the United Church.

May God bless our thoughts and prayers, and fill us with hope. Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 5:29 PM