Sermon at St Martin's

Sermon for July 2009 (1 Kings 2 10-12, 3 3-14 and John 6 51-58)

A great professor was doing a tour of the country. His driver enjoyed listening to each lecture he gave. After a while he knew not ony the lectures by heart but even the answers to the questions that would arise after wards. So as a joke they chose to swap places, the driver giving the lecture. Came question time the driver answered easily enough until one person asked a new question that neither had heard before. For a moment the driver panicked. Then a broad smile spread across his lips: ‘Why, that’s so simple I’ll ask my driver to explain’
If God granted you one wish for yourself - not for anyone else, your family, the England Cricket Team, or world but just for yourself, what would that wish be?

Solomon was in that enviable position. He had come to the throne of Israel after his father, David, had died. David, who had weathered a very complicated life, had chosen Solomon over his oldest, extremely ambitious, and cunning son, Adonijah, and other possible pretenders who might try to usurp power after his death. David had ruled the nation for forty years and been, mainly, a much loved and respected figure with most of the people. The people were anxious that this new and very young king and what the future would bring. Solomon began by offering sacrifices showing his love for God. So, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream - a good lesson to always pay attention to your dreams - and asked him what he desired most. Solomon could choose. He did not ask for a long life or riches or for the death of his enemies. He asked instead for the one quality he needed to rule with justice and to know the difference between good and evil. He asked God for wisdom. Solomon chose wisely. In response God promised him more wisdom and understanding than anyone ever had before or will ever have again AND the blessings he had not asked for - long life, wealth, and honour. Right after this dream Solomon issued his wise judgment in the famous case of the two women arguing about who was the true mother of a baby. Through much of Solomon's reign, included the building of the Jerusalem temple and peace in the region, Israel experienced a true golden age.

Wisdom is one of God's gifts. It is to know and choose to work for justice and to know the difference between good and evil. It was so important to the Hebrews and the early Christians that the word and its derivatives are used 216 times throughout the Bible. It is a recurring theme amonst the prophets, and in all of Jesus' teachings. The word Wisdom implies intellectual knowledge, the discernment of the extraordinary in the ordinary, empathy for the experiences of others, and good, old-fashioned common sense behind such sayings as that of Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac: "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." But wisdom must also be exemplified by acting justly and knowing the difference between good and evil. I am certain that most of us seek wisdom in all sorts of ways self-help books, like myself reading a book on healthy diets in Borders in Birmingham on my day off, from advice columnists, perhaps from different kinds of therapists, in social conversation, from Oprah Winfrey, perhaps the internet. We look to sources we can trust. I suggest that the best source is God.

That is why it is vital to pray and ask for God's help before making any major decision. That is why we open church meetings with prayer. Faith and wisdom act as partners, and we cannot easily have one without the other. The Book of Proverbs, that King Solomon and his scribes wrote and collated, begins with this relationship.
In verse seven of the first chapter we read, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction." In fact it goes further than that, for many read into the Wisdom described in the first few chapters of Proverbs a manifestation of God; interestingly it’s a female noun, and many feminists argue from this for a more balanced view of God, the Logos, the word of God, in the Hebrew Testament, the Bread of life to sustain us in our everyday decisions.

In asking for wisdom, implicitly we are asking to be shown us how to act compassionately and justly toward others, discerning right from wrong in everyday situations, seeking to make godly decisions and to follow them through. That can be at home in our families, in our streets with those we live near, in our town, our work, who we vote for, what we lobby for. Our world needs to embrace wisdom instead of seeking fame and fortune, physical beauty, and military might. It is, amongst other things choosing sensible banking systems and filling in claims forms honestly.

To seek wisdom is to have the faith to rely on God and to let go of our own personal desires, to act justly toward others and not worry too much about our of our needs, to know the difference between good and evil and realize the consequences our actions ahead of the actions. Our lifestyle choices today will affect our children and grandchildren which is why I bought a smaller car to drive around in and recycle all I can. We seek wisdom through prayer, by reading and really understanding the work of Jesus Christ on earth; his continual challenging of oppressive powers, of siding witrh the marginalised, lifting up the lowly. We seek wisdom directly also through that incredibly subtle guidance, the nudges, the quiet inspiration, of the Holy Spirit.

Often we find wisdom by learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. And we always find wisdom through seeking the God who created us and loves us, always with us, and God’s rule on earth. That is what Solomon chose as more important than anything, fame, power, wealth. But there is a warning in the story of Solomon. Later in his life, his wealth and power seemed to go to his head and he lost his focus on God; he began to worship other gods, developed a colossal harem in his vanity and oppressed his people. Perhaps the greatest wisdom of all is the humility to keep on asking for wisdom throughout our lives, including today.