October 30, 2022 - Whose Wisdom?
Recorded Worship on YouTube
1 Kings 3 Selected Verses
Deborah Laforet
Whose Wisdom?
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Last week, we heard a story about King David and the vulnerable people in that story with no voice, like Bathsheba, Bathsheba’s child, and the wives of King David. We heard the consequences of David’s actions on these vulnerable people and how these horrific stories in our bible need to be shared and examined in a new light.
Today, Rachel read for us a story about David’s son, King Solomon, another shocking story of those in power and those who are vulnerable to that power. Who is vulnerable in this story and why has Solomon always been portrayed as the hero of this story?
First, let’s identify Solomon. Solomon is the son of David and Bathsheba. He was in line to the throne after a few of his brothers. The oldest son of David, Amnon, raped his half-sister,Tamar. They were both children of David’s, but with different mothers. David’s second son, Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, sought his revenge, and killed Amnon. Absalom then tried to take the kingdom from his father and was also killed. Another son, Adonijah, then tried to take the throne. He was older than Solomon but had been told that Solomon had been promised the throne. King David, before his death, then preemptively crowned Solomon. Adonijah admitted defeat, but then asked if he could marry Abishag, who had been close to David, and was possibly part of David’s harem. Solomon saw this as a grasp for the throne and had Adonijah executed. Solomon was now the oldest living son, and had a clear right to the throne, without competition. Already, Solomon’s story is quite the web of murder, deceit, sibling rivalry and abuse, and power grabs that marked the end of David’s reign and the beginning of Solomon’s.
Following his crowning and the execution of his brother, Solomon has a dream. In the dream, God asks Solomon what he wants. Solomon speaks of the favour God has shown his father, David, and calls himself a little child. At this time, Solomon is about 20, which is young but hardly a little child. He then asks God for, “an understanding mind to govern [the] people, able to discern between good and evil.” God, pleased with this request, grants it, as well as riches and a long life. Our text then tells us that Solomon awakes, and again tells us that, “it had been a dream.” A divine dream or just a dream?
We then hear a story that is perfect for the day before Halloween. Two women, who live together, and who are sex workers come before David with a dispute. One of their children had died. One woman was accusing the other of switching her dead baby with the live one. The other woman denied this and claimed the baby as her own. Which was which? Solomon then orders someone to bring a sword and then orders the living child to be cut in half!
Would he have done it? If one woman had not shouted, “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” would Solomon have gone through with this brutal act. Was this threat to the child’s life the best way to resolve this dispute? It was quite possibly the quickest but was it the wisest? And does it really prove the identity the mother. The bible tells us that people “stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.” I wonder if they also stood in fear at the way this justice was executed.
What is wisdom? How do we know it when we see it? Was Solomon a good example of wisdom? Maybe someone could dress up as King Solomon this year, with a crown, a sword, and a baby. See how many can guess your costume and tell you if King Solomon’s actions were wise.
Not many of us attribute wisdom to our political leaders. Too often they let us down. Most are doing what they can to get votes and be re-elected. Some enjoy the power of the position and will strive to keep it at all costs. Solomon was one who, throughout his reign, gained territory and wealth. He built military bases and established an Israeli military presence far and wide. He had many wives and worshipped whatever gods worked for him at the time. King Solomon enjoyed wealth and power, and most of his actions were to increase that wealth and power, sometimes at the expense of the nation and the people he governed, and certainly at the expense of his loyalty to Yahweh, the god of his father David.
When we look back at our own history here in Canada, so much is being uncovered about people who have been revered and held up as heroes. We are discovering our heroes aren’t so untarnished as we once thought, with histories of sexism and misogyny, racism and attempted genocide, deceit and corruption, prevalent in the halls of parliament, academic and religious institutions, and corporations. If we can’t find wisdom in the people we vote to lead us or in those who are given positions of authority, where do we find it?
I wonder if in order to recognize wisdom in others, we need to first be able to recognize it in ourselves. There are a few of us this fall reading through Richard Rohr’s book, “The Universal Christ.” In this book, he writes a lot about wholeness, about seeing all life as one life, and creating a knowing in oneself that we are also a part of this oneness, that Christ is us and we are Christ. In one chapter, called Sacred Wholeness, he writes about how we hear God speaking to us, what I would call our inner wisdom. He writes:
“Intuitive truth, that inner whole-making instinct, just feels too much like our own thoughts and feelings, and most of us are not willing to call this ‘God,’ even when the voice prompts us toward compassion instead of hatred, forgiveness instead of resentment, generosity instead of stinginess, bigness instead of pettiness…Joan of Arc is frequently credited with this brilliant reply when the judge accused her of being the victim of her own imagination: ‘How else would God speak to me?’”
Rohr also writes:
“…anything said with too much bravado, overassurance, or with any need to control or impress another, is never the voice of God within you…If any thought feels too harsh, shaming, or diminishing of yourself or others, it is not likely the voice of God…That is simply your voice…If something comes toward you with grace and can pass through you and through others with grace, you can trust is as the voice of God.”
And that is wisdom.
We can become confused though about whether we are truly hearing wisdom or not. It’s noisy, both inside and out. Our world does not sleep. We can be busy 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Our senses are overwhelmed. Then we have the distractions inside us, those critical and shaming and loud voices in our head, telling us to keep busy, to prove our worth, and that we’re not good enough. All of this makes it difficult to hear or discern the small voice inside us. Some call it intuition. Some call it our soul or spirit. Sometimes it’s called the voice of God. If we don’t take time to practice finding stillness around us and within us, it’ll be next to impossible to discover that voice.
King Solomon was rich, powerful, and extremely clever. This is not the same as wisdom. If we followed Richard Rohr’s parameters, we would need to see in Solomon compassion, forgiveness, and generosity. King David, Solomon’s father, made his mistakes, but we do read stories of David’s compassion, forgiveness, and generosity. I don’t see it his son, Solomon.
We all carry wisdom. Our actions determine whether we are listening and following that wisdom. With divine guidance, may we discern the wisdom of others, those who are Christ-like, whom we might follow because of their openness to the voice of God and their own inner wisdom. May we find the time to listen to our own small voice of wisdom within. May this wisdom lead us towards actions of compassion, forgiveness, and generosity. May it be so. Amen.