"Discernment" Sunday, August 19, 2018 - 9 AM

Discernment – 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 Bascomb UMC / August 19, 2018 / 9AM Focus: Solomon realized that God is our source everything, including wisdom. Function: To encourage the church to work as a body of Christ and stay close to our source in God for all wisdom. 5 Purpose Outcomes of the Church: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Service 1 Kings 2: 10-12, 3:3-14 (CEB) Chapter 2 10 Then David lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s City. 11 He ruled over Israel forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Solomon secures his throne Chapter 3 12 Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his royal power was well established 3 Now Solomon loved the LORD by walking in the laws of his father David with the exception that he also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines. 4 The king went to the great shrine at Gibeon in order to sacrifice there. He used to offer a thousand entirely burned offerings on that altar. 5 The LORD appeared to Solomon at Gibeon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask whatever you wish, and I’ll give it to you.” 6 Solomon responded, “You showed so much kindness to your servant my father David when he walked before you in truth, righteousness, and with a heart true to you. You’ve kept this great loyalty and kindness for him and have now given him a son to sit on his throne. 7 And now, LORD my God, you have made me, your servant, Page 1 of 7 king in my father David’s place. But I’m young and inexperienced. I know next to nothing. 8 But I’m here, your servant, in the middle of the people you have chosen, a large population that can’t be numbered or counted due to its vast size. 9 Please give your servant a discerning mind in order to govern your people and to distinguish good from evil, because no one is able to govern this important people of yours without your help.” 10 It pleased the LORD that Solomon had made this request. 11 God said to him, “Because you have asked for this instead of requesting long life, wealth, or victory over your enemies—asking for discernment so as to acquire good judgment—12 I will now do just what you said. Look, I hereby give you a wise and understanding mind. There has been no one like you before now, nor will there be anyone like you afterward. 13 I now also give you what you didn’t ask for: wealth and fame. There won’t be a king like you as long as you live. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my laws and commands, just as your father David did, then I will give you a very long life.” The Body of the Sermon: There is an old story that goes something like this: A man calls a plumber to his home to solve a problem with one of his pipes. The plumber looks around and listens for about 10 minutes, and then he grabs a pipe wrench and hits a pipe three or four times in the same place. The problem is quickly solved. The plumber then charges the man $200. The man objects, “How on earth can you charge $200 for simply banging on a pipe three or four times with a pipe wrench? Show me the bill!” The plumber hands him the invoice: (3 slides)-An Honest Plummer #1: Hitting the pipe with a wrench–$2.00 #2: Knowing how to hit the pipe with the wrench–$99 #3: Knowing where to hit it–$99. Page 2 of 7 One of my favorite podcasts is NPR’s Marketplace and the sidepodcast “Make Me Smart.” Their mission statement is “None of Us Is As Smart As All of Us,” and that truth has never been more true – human knowledge grows minute by minute – changes in what we know multiplies – no one human can know it all. They used to declare this person or that person a “Renaissance scholar” who knows everything, but that can no longer be the case. Game of Thrones has a medieval time frame and “maesters” are the educated, well-read professors, doctors, and scribes of their day. Yet it is little Tyrion who is famous for knowing things:(video clip–“I know things” from Game of Thrones). Yes Tyrion, but we now teach that there are different ways of knowing. Humans specialize into a variety of intelligences – linguistic, logical, visual, kinesthetic (or athletic) abilities, so it’s really hard to speak in generalities about wisdom. Your daddy (or grandpa – grandma) said that some people had “book learn ‘in” and some people had “common sense,” but most of us are just plain “thick.” Now, as we consider the Biblical kings of Israel ask yourself, is it more important that they be wise or that they be faithful servants of God, or maybe, obedient servants of God? The school of scribes called Deuteronomists – believed in obedience and they compiled this history of kings and compiled the book of Proverbs. A lot of the Old Testament was actually organized and codified during the peaceful reign of King Solomon. Until this period of Jewish history, the people were too divided and too combatant to spend time thinking about their identity and history. But now the sages and priests and other court officials had the energy and focus to pull together history and the great narratives about God mighty acts in human history with Moses, the judges and the kings. God chooses to work through these flawed creatures. Page 3 of 7 So we should say thank you to Solomon for building the temple, organizing the universities of his day and giving us many, if not most, of the Old Testament Scrolls with the great stories of Adam & Eve, Moses, the Psalms and Proverbs, and the historical records (warts and all) of God’s people and kings. Think about it, when was the last time you read the annals of the pharaohs? How about the Babylonian flood story of Gilgamesh or the chronicles of the Caesars? NO, we never read any of that stuff. But all across the western world, Christians still read the Bible – including the story of Solomon and his encounter with God. I believe God intended us to engage these stories and learn from it! It’s the beginning of wisdom. In today’s text, Solomon went on retreat at Gibeon, the nation’s “most important high place” because there was no temple yet. People say there are “thin places” – places where human reality and spiritual reality pass back and forth effortlessly. Maybe so, but Solomon went on retreat to seek after God’s will. I like to go on retreat, to the mountains, the high places, the “thin” places. But really, most of our encounters with God are not about where we are, but where our heart is. Seek first the kingdom of God and ALL these other things follow after that! And when we encounter God, then what? In Mark’s gospel Jesus askes blind Bartimaeus THE question: “What do you want me to do for you?” And God asks the same question of Solomon. It is the most challenging question a person can be asked. Now remember, we don’t think Solomon himself wrote this account into a scroll. There was a court scribe who was tasked with the chore of writing all this down into something we still read today – God chooses to work through humans and these human scribes had their human viewpoint. Their eyes didn’t roll back in their heads, they didn’t go into a trance and just notate what God dictated. That’s not how God Page 4 of 7 works! God chooses to work through humans and to even become a human to get the point across. Some scholars say that the voices speaking to us here in the Bible might have been part of the Deuteronomist school – they have a particular viewpoint. We say this because the language here is using the same vocabulary and style as the Book of Deuteronomy. It will continue to have its say at intervals throughout the Book of Kings. This voice evaluates using the law of Deuteronomy to judge the kings and the people. So faithfulness and obedience to the Law of Moses is the KEY to national prosperity and success. The eternal dynasty of David is vital and many of the promises of God are conditional on obedience. You prosper IF you are obedient or you suffer if you sin. Now the scribes of Job and Ecclesiastes have another voice: “I did right God and I still suffer!” And Solomon’s voice in Ecclesiastes says “vanity (or vapor), all of life is vanity.” But here in Kings, Solomon provides a model, obedient answer - the right answer given the situation. The right answer for other people in other situations (Bartimaeusm, or Job for instance) might be different. This account of God’s appearing to Solomon and Solomon’s request comes in a compromised context of scheming and power politics. So there’s some real Deuteronomist irony here. Solomon has already made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh - King of Egypt. Marriage serves politics – rather than our romantic view of marriage. Political alliances are a means of national security rather than trust in God – I can tell you the Prophets do NOT like that. The main problem becomes worshiping other gods. Foreign wives lead Solomon to the worship of their gods only a few feet away from Yahweh’s own temple. We just nibble our way into disobedience – prone to wander Lord, I feel it. We do not admire this culture of Solomon’s day – we just try and understand it and learn from it. Page 5 of 7 I believe in the ultimate will of God – a fixed, determined path that time will march down until there is a new heaven and a new earth. But there is also the temporal or conditional will of God – that all people would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and that each of us would live in the center of God’s will for our life – to BE holy and whole, happy and fulfilled. But STUFF happens and we have freewill and God allows us to live in the mess that is made of that. Solomon does not ask for the trappings of glory and worldly success. It was just this pattern for kingship that Deuteronomy warned against (Deut. 17:16–17). Solomon chooses the pattern of kingship under the law. According to this pattern, the king is God’s servant, a loyal vassal in a covenant relationship and the goal of this kingship is the welfare of God’s people, not the glory of the king. In order to govern (literally the Bible says to “judge”) this people, the servant king needs the talent for which Solomon asks. This talent is expressed four different ways: (4 slides) a “hearing heart” that can discern between good and evil discern what is right using a wise and discerning mind. Solomon wanted an instinct for the truth! Best defined as discernment. “The king asks” is used eight times and “God gives” is used five times. Solomon and David, his father before him, definitely play a huge part in the ultimate will of God which is Jesus Christ. God was FOR SURE going to do this! And Bascomb has its part to play in God’s ultimate will – only the scribes will know for sure where we fit in the ultimate scheme of things. But I preach this text today as a plea for the leadership of this church as we meet this afternoon and many times this fall to make decisions for the ministry and mission of Page 6 of 7 this church. “None of Us Is As Smart As All of Us” and we, working together just the way God chooses to work in this world, we need discernment - an instinct for the true path. I believe God would do that for us……if we ask. Let us pray………. BENEDICTION: “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.” “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Page 7 of 7