Seeking Wisdom

Old Testament Reading: 1 Kings: 2 10-12 & 3: 3-14
The Gospel: John 6: 51-58               

If you found Aladin’s Lamp and rubbed it and the newly freed Genie offered you three wishes, what might they be? If you are like the average person, the first would likely be a wish for more wishes but, when that was denied, you might wish for things like: beauty, riches, immortality, power, love or happiness. If you were a candidate for Miss America, you would likely include “World Peace” in there somewhere. You might even be so bold as to ask for intelligence. 
 
But I bet the average 24-year old would not ask for Wisdom as Solomon did of God. 
 
First let’s consider Solomon’s situation. He is not David’s only son nor is he the oldest. His brother Adonijah had claimed the throne even before his father died and David, on his deathbed, had to declare Solomon, his son by Bathsheba, king in order to stop that from happening. Solomon would end up having that brother killed for later trickery. David was the first king to unite the Kingdoms of Israel and there was a lot to rule, 24-year old Solomon likely felt completely overwhelmed by his new position. 
 
Despite his age and lack of experience, what Solomon, like David, did have was faith. He began his rule by going to all of the high places to worship God. And it is while camping out at one of these places that he has a vision of God coming to him and saying, “Ask what I should give you”. While Solomon was worshiping God, he had not come to God with a specific request, instead God is inviting it. Unlike the traditional wishes of wealth, power, beauty or immortality, Solomon asks for help in doing his job. “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.” In other words, he asks for wisdom. 
 
A quick Google search shares the difference between intelligence and wisdom, “Intelligence can be defined as the ability to think logically, to conceptualize and abstract from reality. Wisdom can be defined as the ability to grasp human nature, which is paradoxical, contradictory, and subject to continual change.”
 
Solomon does not want knowledge for knowledge’s sake, he wants to know how to understand people, in all their wild complexities and changing attitudes, in order to be a fair and good king. Have you ever heard a political candidate tout his or her ability to grasp and work with human nature? It seems more often that they side with a particular group of humans against other humans rather than supporting humanity in general. Wisdom works to understand and support all people, since in the end those who govern are to be leaders to all of the people in their community.
 
God, like any proud parent, is thrilled with Solomon’s request for wisdom and, therefore, rewards him with that and even more than he asked for. He will also get: riches, honor, and a long life if he continues to follow God’s path. Without asking for it, Solomon got his extra wishes. 
 
And Solomon would go on to be considered a wise man. He would arbitrate cases like the one of the two prostitutes who had given birth around the same time where the child of one died in the night and she switched it for the other’s living child. When they argued their case before the king, he ordered that a sword be brought and said that he would split the child with each of them getting half. Of course, the real mother begged for the child to be spared, offering to give him up and thus Solomon gave the child to its true mother. 
 
Solomon is said to be the author of the book of Proverbs where much wisdom is shared. While we know that cannot be fully true as they were written over hundreds of years, he likely wrote some of them. A proverb is a statement of an apparent truth that is based on human experience and endures over time. The first nine proverbs and some of the others, are seen as advice from a father to a son or children. Formal education was rare so most education was passed down in families. In most of the Proverbs, Wisdom or Sophia is personified as a woman with her negative counterpart being Folly. Thus the Proverbs become moral tales much like Aesop’s Fables to illustrate the wise versus the foolish paths to take in life. 
 
The Proverb we read earlier today shows Wisdom inviting youth, those who are still simple, into her home so she can feed them the wine and bread of maturity so that they can put their immaturity aside. 
 
I like this translation of it from The Message as well:
 
1-6 Lady Wisdom has built and furnished her home;
    it’s supported by seven hewn timbers.
The banquet meal is ready to be served: lamb roasted,
    wine poured out, table set with silver and flowers.
Having dismissed her serving maids,
    Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place,
    and invites everyone within sound of her voice:
“Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on?
    Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me!
I’ve prepared a wonderful spread—fresh-baked bread,
    roast lamb, carefully selected wines.
Leave your impoverished confusion and live!
    Walk up the street to a life with meaning.”
This is essentially what Solomon has asked God for and wouldn’t it be great if we could send all of our children to Lady Wisdom at a certain age so that they could put aside their immaturity and become wise?
 
We pray for many things, but do we remember to pray for wisdom? It seems to me that for most of us, probably even Solomon as he does get into some trouble later, praying for and receiving wisdom is not a one time deal. We don’t pray for wisdom and have it magically wash over us never to be removed. If wisdom is understanding human nature in all of the ways we humans change, wisdom would need to be continually growing, continually flexible, to keep up with that. That means that praying for wisdom in different situations should probably be a continual prayer for us.
 
And like any skill, wisdom needs to be practiced in order to be nimble enough to adapt to all of the circumstances, all of the decisions in which it will be needed. It also needs another ingredient in order to sustain it: Faith. There is a reason that Solomon asked God for wisdom rather than seeking it in the human world alone, wisdom takes work and it takes faith to sustain it. 
 
So how do we seek and practice the wisdom of faith?
 
I think we need to follow the models that God has set out for us: Creation and Christ. 
 
Consider spiders. They weave these beautifully intricate webs that are at once fragile and strong. They serve as a resting place and a fishing net of sorts to capture their food. They can be woven between fence posts or reeds, on branches or across the top of blades of grass. They are easily destroyed by the wind and lawnmowers or even our feet as we walk but this does not stop the spiders. They scamper off when danger comes and they begin anew, undaunted by these changes. They understand that things will change and they keep going. Might this be an example for us?
 
When a storm comes in uprooting trees and plants leaving a barren landscape, it does not stay barren for long. The wind and birds bring new seeds and the land begins to grow again. It is not the same, because nothing stays the same forever, but it is also not barren. It does not remain a scene of destruction, it rebounds. 
 
Jesus welcomed where others judged; he healed where others attacked, and he loved when others hated. When he told the people in our John scripture today, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh” he is speaking of the wisdom of faith. Believing in Christ, we receive the living bread and the wisdom to follow his model. At the time, the people questioned Jesus because they were thinking of this very literally - what, are we supposed to be cannibals eating this man? Instead, they needed to think metaphorically. Eating the bread of life is accepting Jesus and following his model. By doing this we are spiritually fed by him. As simplistic as it may sound, we teach Sunday School children to consider, “What would Jesus do?” when making decisions and we can follow that model as well. What would Jesus do if someone was hurt or in need? He would help them. What would Jesus do if people were angrily addressing him? He would listen and respond calmly, persuasively. What would Jesus do towards his enemies, love them despite their feelings. What would Jesus do with those people who have been somehow “othered” by society because of who they are or what they do? He would invite them in and dine with them. 
 
Jesus provides the model of how humans should treat one another and God’s creation has millions of models of adaptability, resilience and balance. If we practice the wisdom of faith, we seek understanding before anger, we know that the present circumstance will change, and we know that we have the ability to survive, even to thrive, despite these changes. Wisdom teaches us to pause and consider before we act. Faith reminds us that we are loved unconditionally by our Creator who is with us through all our challenges and suffering. Our life’s work is finding the ability to accept and practice that liberating, wise love. Amen.
 
Pastor Michelle Fountain

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