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for All Saints-by-the-Sea, Proper 12, July 27, 2008 Is there anyone here who doesn’t recognize the Serenity Prayer? In its brief form, it reads, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” I suspect many people grasp the notion of acceptance, however difficult acceptance might be. And indeed, I suspect even more people understand courage. But what about wisdom? What does it mean for God to grant us wisdom? And if we have wisdom, what do we do with it? Trying to understand wisdom reminds me of one of those paradoxes offered by the ancient oracles. You may remember one from your own reading. What walks first on four legs, then on two and finally on three? The answer? A man as he ages. We might very well offer such a paradoxical description of wisdom. Wisdom’s difficult to comprehend. Apparently wisdom requires time and experience to gather and yet neither time nor experience guarantee someone will be wise. Moreover, while it may be nearly impossible to describe wisdom we almost always recognize it when we see it or when we don’t. Summing up wisdom is like catching streaming water in your hands, now you have it, now you don’t. Of all the human figures of scripture, as the book of Kings tells us today, no one has been as wise before Solomon and no one as wise after. Solomon, you may remember, didn’t have a particularly auspicious beginning. He was, after all, the product of adulterous liaison between the sultry Bathsheba and his envious royal father, David. Still when the time comes and Solomon takes office, he performs rightly. In a dream God reaches out to him, asking what gift God should give him for his reign. Now this is a puzzle. What one gift would you think might guarantee you that you might be the best ruler of your people? That question stands front and center as we gather into the final months before elections. Truthfully, the question applies for any leadership position--what one quality would guarantee you a goodly reign? There’s history behind God’s offer of help. Long before Solomon, there was David and before David there was the first king, Saul. And before that? There were the prophets like Moses, who walking with God, lead the people of God. But there were no kings! As far as the scriptures go, history went off its track when the people of God demanded a king. During the time of the prophets everyone Israel knew, the Canaanites and the Moabites and everyone had a king. Why didn’t they? God answered through Samuel the prophet saying, wasn’t having God enough? But no, the foolish people responded, we must have a king. And with a solemn warning that the people of God will now never be happy, God grants them a king, Saul. Right away life begins to unravel under King Saul. Governing and power became exclusively the work of Saul and his henchman. Taxes were raised and standing armies created. Gone was the time when God provided manna, enough to eat. And gone were the times when God protected God’s people. Now the time of power, centralized, oppressive, coercive power, had come. And now the people really didn’t like it. Is the book of Kings taking a political position? It most certainly is, a position that hearkens right back to the Garden of Eden. You remember Adam and Eve. Do you remember their downfall? Their downfall came when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the very same words we have in this morning’s story. Before the discernment of good and evil, the people of God lived in community with God, walking in pleasant company with one another. After eating the apple, after the knowledge of good and evil, the cork was out of the bottle. There was no putting it back. From now on, humanity had to make do with our freedom. We ended up navigating our own way through good and evil. If humanity chose to go it alone, it was up to us alone to figure out what we cannot change and what we can. Are we forever condemned to uncertainty and false starts? Not if Solomon has his way. When God asks Solomon what he desires to govern God’s unruly and numerous people, Solomon doesn’t ask for unalloyed authority or for a sole power. Solomon doesn’t ask for an iron fist or the power to tax as he sees fit. Solomon asks for another gift, the gift of wisdom. Make no mistake--scripture does take political positions and one of them is this--power without wisdom is destruction and self-destruction at that. So how do we get wisdom? We already know experience and time don’t guarantee wisdom. Some people are wise after one challenge. Others never get it. Some people grow wise through reflection, others only by crashing repeatedly into a wall. But here’s the answer his morning. God can give us what we cannot seize on our own. God can give us the wisdom that will only come hard earned if ever earned at all. God can give us what we need far more than power or wealth or influence or authority. God can give us wisdom. God can give us the real power that moves people like nothing else, the power of wisdom. God can give us the wisdom to find the way through the tortured poles of good and evil and guide us home. Shortly after this morning’s story in Kings, we’ll see wisdom go to work. Two women come to Solomon claiming the same child. When he offers to cut the child in half so each may get their share, the false claimant agrees and the real mother says no. Do you see how wisdom works? Solomon’s rule will be graced by the fact that he will not use raw power to have his way. Instead, he will trust in the greatest gift God can give any leader, wisdom. Wisdom steers away from coercion. Wisdom dodges deceit. Wisdom has no truck with cowardice or evasion. Wisdom does give us this, that once and for all, when we cannot find the way ourselves, God walks with us. Like men and women stumbling through a midnight meadow, God comes to us a guide with a lantern, leading us home by the generous light of wisdom. So what then should you ask of God? Solomon’s prayer is right and true in every generation. Seek wisdom and God will grant your every need. Amen. The Rev. Jeffrey Bullock
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