Sermon Seeds: For Wisdom

Sunday, August 18, 2024
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost | Year B
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 and Psalm 111 • Proverbs 9:1-6 and Psalm 34:9-14 • Ephesians 5:15-20 • John 6:51-58
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=69&y=382

Focus Scripture: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 in conversation with Psalm 111 | “For Wisdom”
Focus Theme: For Wisdom
Series: Here I Am…Praying (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

If the Sovereign One invited you to ask for anything, what would it be? Perhaps, it would be a struggle to limit the request to a singular one. Would your unmet needs or those of others take priority or would your desires override those concerns? Would you ask for an individual blessing with a beneficiary of one or would you seek something for the common good? What would it be if you could only ask for one thing…but had a fair and justifiable certainty that your request would be realized?

Some may struggle to ask God for something for themselves because they have internalized the falsehood that praying for oneself is selfish. Others struggle to ask God to bless others because they have internalized a self-centeredness idealized by an individualistic society and culture. Still others struggle trying to navigate between these two extremes because they have internalized the simplistic and diminishing idea that all choices are binary. Everything is true or false rather than multiple choice options, including none or all of the above.

Solomon seems to find the better way. He asks something for himself that will benefit those subject to his leadership and influence. Solomon requests an understanding mind to govern and discernment to recognize good from evil. Interestingly, he recognizes they are not necessarily the same thing. In response, the Holy One promises a “wise and discerning mind.” Understanding is important; wisdom is something more as is discernment. Understanding illuminates the choices; wisdom provides better evaluation and judgment. Discernment helps to make the right choice beyond superficial considerations.

Even the way that Solomon frames his request seems to reflect an already present wisdom. He begins with words of praise and thanksgiving for God’s guidance and love of his father David. Then Solomon describes his own situation as leader of a “great people.” He asks for what surely God already wants to give. This is confirmed as the text notes that the request pleased the Holy One. God’s pleasure leads to abundant generosity. The Holy One will give what Solomon did not ask for–the usual rewards of a king–”riches and honor.” Beyond that, if Solomon remains faithful, God will extend his life.

It sounds good…almost like a fairy-tale.

YHWH appears to him in a dream, saying: “Ask what I should give you” (3:5). Because he is only “a little child,” faced with the task of governing “a great people,” Solomon requests “an understanding mind” and the ability to “discern between good and evil” (3:9). Solomon’s dream and the self-deprecating allusion to his youth parallel that of Tuthmoses IV of Egypt (ANET 449) and other propagandistic accounts that supply divine legitimation of a king’s rule. Because Solomon asks for “understanding to discern what is right” (3:10) and does not ask for riches or honor, God will also give Solomon riches and honor all his life (3:13). Nevertheless, this promise to Solomon of wisdom, riches, and honor is conditional. Solomon must walk in the ways of YHWH, keeping God’s statutes and commandments (3:14), a condition that Solomon will not always keep.
Gale A. Yee

This aspect of Solomon’s story proves more challenging. He asks for understanding and discernment. God grants the request and gives the young king even more. Yet, in his own life, he seems to detach his desire for wisdom in his dealings with romantic and sexual partners. He becomes aggressive against his adversaries and despite receiving God’s promise of wealth and honor beyond any other king, Solomon pursues a monumentally excessive accumulation of riches. Our Sunday readings like to avoid telling the full truth of Solomon, which only repeats a problem that might have helped shape him–for good and for ill–into the king that he becomes.

Of the Solomon traditions, the common lectionaries only contain selections of his dream at Gibeon (3:5–15) and of his prayer at the temple’s dedication (8:22–30, 41–43). These readings highlight Solomon’s wisdom and piety, while omitting his ruthless elimination of his rivals (1 Kings 2) and his adoption of the oppressive trappings of empire. For the people in the pews, they thus present a one-sided picture of Solomon that supports the idealized traditional reputation as a wise and discerning leader, a reputation that should be counterbalanced with a more critical assessment of his rule.
Gale A. Yee

(Warning: sexual violence and miscarriage content in the following paragraph)

When Solomon describes his father, David, in his praise of God, he only uplifts the positive attributes of the person and king. While that is typical of praise, he certainly could have also noted the grace and mercy that the Holy One extended toward his predecessor. Of all his failings, the most egregious led to David taking Bathsheba as his wife. Solomon was the child to live from their union, but their story is a nightmare not a fairy tale. David, having lived much of his life steeped in violence, manipulates circumstances so that Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah is killed after David has impregnated her through assault. (The biblical narrative expresses their encounter more vaguely, but the power differential made consent unlikely if not impossible for the woman who would grieve her husband’s death.) Bathsheba miscarries that child. Their next child is Solomon.

Did Solomon only hear about the triumphant battles his father won over wild animals threatening the sheep, Goliath, and neighboring nation-states? Did he only know his father to be a revered king who loved to worship God and lead the people in praise? Did David not share the life lessons he learned, the remorse for the things he had done, and the reality that knowing good from evil does not necessarily keep human beings, especially privileged and powerful ones, from choosing evil when it serves their purposes?

Maybe wisdom isn’t enough. Maybe courage and fortitude are necessary companions to act on what is understood.

Psalm 111 ends with what seems to be an unrelated statement. After an exaltation to praise followed by eight verses extolling the greatness of God, the psalmist declares that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Psalm 111 is an alphabetic acrostic, with each line beginning with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The form provided a compositional structure for the poet; it also suggests something of the completeness of the poem – A to Z. The acrostic form and the psalm’s concluding verse associate the composition with wisdom, but the poem has several elements. Its beginning and ending suggest that the poem is a hymn of praise. The historical memory of God’s mighty acts and the covenant instruction are also important in the poem. It was likely used in congregational worship as a hymn of praise that includes didactic elements; perhaps that perspective offers the best starting point. The ten verses are of a piece. The first three verses begin with praise and emphasize the mighty acts of God. The recounting of these acts in ancient Israel’s historical memory continues through the remainder of the poem, which concludes with a wisdom comment. A number of commentators would date the psalm after the return from exile.
Walter Brueggemann and W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

If this psalm was written in the post-exilic period, long after the reign of Solomon and generations of kings of the divided kingdom, the psalmist would have known about the two great kings of the unified kingdom—David and Solomon. Both were called by God and appointed to their position by the Sovereign God. Both had the esteem of the people and enjoyed prosperity in their own way for their time. Both lived up to their position and both dishonored the privilege they obtained. David loved God and Solomon sought wisdom, but the psalmist cautions that wisdom begins with “fear of the Lord.”

Fear in this context suggests reverence, honor, and humility before God. The psalmist does not live in terror of a violent and vengeful God, nor does the psalmist give the impression that God seeks to hurt or harm those subject to the Holy One’s power and justice. The psalmist, like Solomon, reflects on the greatness of God in character and in demonstrated acts in human history. Yet, remembering God’s works or even God’s favor toward a predecessor king is meaningless if the memory is not anchored in recognition of God’s majestic power, wonderful works, redemptive mercy, and covenantal promise. Fear, in this instance, reflects respect for one more powerful and capable who does good things because they are good, not because humanity has any ability or authority to dictate otherwise. It is the Holy One’s kindom no matter what positions, privilege, or prestige we aspire to reach or are able to attain.

It is not incidental that the Holy One’s secondary yet superlative promise to Solomon comes conditionally. It’s not a blanket gift to be used and mis-used as the king will see fit. God gives it out of God’s pleasure and approval of Solomon’s request; if displeased, God can also retract the favor.

And what pleases God? Walking in God’s ways. That’s wisdom.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“My Dream About Time”
By Lucille Clifton
a woman unlike myself is running
down the long hall of a lifeless house
with too many windows which open on
a world she has no language for,
running and running until she reaches
at last the one and only door
which she pulls open to find each wall
is faced with clocks and as she watches
all of the clocks strike
NO

For Further Reflection
Angry people are not always wise.” ― Jane Austen
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” ― Paulo Coelho
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey

Works Cited
Brueggemann, Walter and W. H. Bellinger, Jr. Psalms. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Yee, Gale A. “Kings.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
This sermon series invites us to explore the call to Christian discipleship and to examine our response. Consider incorporating a time of prayer for understanding, wisdom, and discernment that includes time for listening and sharing in a corporate manner. (Ensure that the means for doing so translates for online worshippers using tools such as a shared online document or word cloud generator that may be projected for onsite worshippers.)

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/after-pentecost-13b-august-18/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.