it's what I want, hurry and buy
all has been tried, follow reason and buy
After last week’s morbid lesson about Absalom’s death, it’s nice to get a little reprieve. Hearing about Solomon’s faithful request for wisdom, is the just the balm we need after what we had to sit through last week.
This is some real “family values” kind of stuff today…
Only, and maybe it’s just me, but this story rings a little hollow, doesn’t it?
I mean; yes, Solomon is known for his wisdom, sure; but that isn’t all he is known for, is it?
…Yeah; Solomon is also known for his many wives, and his worship of those wive’s foreign gods.
While there may be a little foreshadowing about Solomon’s unfaithfulness in our reading today; this story of humble Solomon asking for wisdom, it just comes across as pretty saccharine, when you take the whole gamut of Solomon’s life into account…
And that isn’t even all that rings hollow about this story today!
There’s also the obvious editing. We start off reading a couple of verses from the second chapter of First Kings; and then, suddenly, we just skip to the third verse of the third chapter! Now maybe I’m just being suspicious, unrepentant sinner I am, but I couldn’t help but wonder what parts of the story may have been cut out to get this pious little moment between Solomon and God.
Heaven forbid we actually open our Bibles and read it for ourselves!
Why, if you did that; you’d have to read about all the court intrigue! Your spotless mind would be subjected to the story of Nathan and Bathsheba fooling the aging King David to get Solomon on the throne; your untainted tongues would have to read aloud of Solomon sending out the muscle to kill his handsome older brother after his brother’s attempt to become king failed -his older brother who happens to be, by the way, at the altar alter seeking sanctuary…
No; let’s just cut all that out, stay here with modest Solomon asking for wisdom, and God being utterly taken aback by Solomon’s humility.
That’s the kind of story we want today. A story full of piety and morality.
…Only that just rings too hollow to actually listen to for very long, doesn’t it?
Of course, much of our religious talk does ring hollow. Our piety is so shallow, any modern skeptic can see through it. Our devotion is about as meaningful as a bumper sticker.
Now listen, I don’t want to be the one to sit up here and attack our reverence; but I’ve got to preach something. And those cliches, they only get a guy so far!
This story about Solomon, it’s just too sweet and sappy to really bother listening to, isn’t it? Why if I were to preach on it, you would all be day-dreaming before I got to the punchline; when I wagged my finger at you, and asked when the last time you prayed for wisdom instead of winning the Powerball.
Today we get humble Solomon asking for wisdom. And to believe this story, I mean really believe it, like put your trust in it; you’d have to ignore all that came before and everything that will come after it, too!
Sure, we might be able to pull off the ignorance for the length of a sermon. And hey, that might make us feel good for the hour we spend inside our familiar and comfortable little congregation. Afterward, though, when we’d leave this place for the real world, it all would just melt away.
Faced with the stuff this life throws at you, this cutesy little story about Solomon isn’t going to get you very far. You can’t place your trust in this.
That’s how it always goes with something like scripture, though. Anytime you turn a book about God, into some sweet little morality play, the whole thing dissolves; it breaks apart!
Our syrupy sentimentality, for as often as it passes for faith; frankly, doesn’t come close to being true to the witness of scripture. Any why that surprises us, I’ll never know, as that mushy morality doesn’t even ring true to life!
Tragically, this marshmallow piety passes for much of what we call religion, these days…
*This story about Solomon, sisters and brothers, it is saying something far more interesting than, seek after the wisdom of God.
Presumably because folks like us, who can’t find anything better to do on a beautiful Sunday morning, could never dream up with anything better to chase after…
Even if I were to lose my nerve, though, and give you some pap lecture about being more pious like Solomon; the holy book we read from would never treat you with such contempt, as if you were some one-dimensional creatures.
No, this story we just read is one in a litany of many about the kind of folks God will get involved with, show up to.
This story, to actually be interesting, to have it’s real power, won’t come from some drivel like, “wow, look how godly Solomon is; be like that.” No, this story will have it’s power when you take everything that came before and after; tawdry though it is, into account . When you actually listen to the story on its own terms.
This story, it tells of God showing up to someone who just authorized a guard to kill his brother. This story tells about God coming to a man who has just ascended to the throne by very dubious means, and asking a very risky question, “what can I do for you.”
That’s a pretty darn shocking thing to day, I know. Here’s the thing, though, that’s exactly what our story is telling us!
This story isn’t reprimanding you for praying to God to get you out of whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself in, instead wisdom. This story is showing a man who’s in such a mess he doesn’t even know it, that is blessed to have a God who will show up to him anyway and asking how to be of help!
Now I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of God I need.
That’s a kind of God you can’t help but believe in, I mean, really believe in; like put your trust in; like expect to actually show up!
Because that’s the thing.
We’re not all that different from Solomon, are we?
Yeah, we’ve got some pretty impressive rhetoric. Catch us walking out of church, in our Sunday best, and we can lie with the best politicians out there. “I’m just trying to be faithful,” we manage to say, with about as much forced humility as Solomon himself.
When you take a look at the rest of our lives, though; to believe what’s coming out of our mouths, you have to ignore much of what came before and what will come after.
A lot like our little section from First Kings today…
Deep down we’re far more likely to go after our own gods, than serve the True and Living God, aren’t we?
Despite all those silly religious slogans we repeat; not because we believe them, but because we think we’re supposed to; our lives to don’t live up to our religious rhetoric, our piety…
Here’s the Good News, the God scripture witnesses to, isn’t like that at all!
The God scripture witnesses to, may be a little too impious for religious folks to speak about, especially among cherubs like yourself (and give me a break). The God scripture witnesses to is the kind of God you actually get, the king of God that can actually save us, that kind of God that can deal with actual sinners.
The kind of God our story tells about, is precisely the kind of God religion would never speak of; and precisely the kind of God we need!
The God you worship, the God our Holy Bible tells of, is the kind of God that is far more shocking than anything atheists can come up with!
One of my favorite theologians quips that modern atheists don’t have anything good to say, because modern Christianity doesn’t say anything worthwhile.
Thankfully the Bible has something worthwhile to say.
The scripture we read today, in all it’s context, is saying something much more provocative than, ‘seek after God’s wisdom.’ This story is proclaiming that God isn’t half as interested in our piety as we pretend to be.
Today’s scripture is telling a much more outrageous thing, that God is so interested in actually, really being God for you; that God will get dirty; that God will show up in the muck and mess of this life; that God will show up to you in those moments when it takes everything you have just to drag yourself here.
This story about Solomon is promising you that the God you worship will show up in the places you least expect; not to lecture you for being there in the first place, but to come to you, asking what you something as risky as ‘what do you need.”
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