Steve Swayne
22 April 2012
1 Kings
3:3–15
Wisdom has long been
associated with age. Many believe, to shorten the oft-told joke, that it takes
lots of bad decisions to garner the experience that leads to good decisions,
which, in turn, ripens into wisdom.
Yet we also know that age is
not guarantor of wisdom. Each one of us can name people in our lives —
relatives, friends, perhaps ourselves — for whom age has not brought an
increase in wisdom. Evidence exists all around us that it is possible to be old
and foolish.
The evidence is less apparent
that it is possible to be young and wise, in part because of the association I
mentioned at the outset. We are inclined to believe that being young and being
wise is oxymoronic.
Thinking of things oxymoronic
makes me think of my own college years, not because they were oxymoronic but
because they took place at Occidental College, affectionately known as Oxy. I
majored in music, focusing on piano performance and composition. In my senior
year, I wrote a series of songs on poems from the 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman.
Some
of you have heard this poem before:
When I
was one-and-twenty, I heard a wise man say:
“Give crowns away and rubies but not
your heart away.
Give
pearls away and rubies, but keep your fancy free.”
But I was one-and-twenty; no use to
talk to me.
When I
was one-and-twenty, I heard him say again:
“The heart out of the bosom was
never given in vain.
’Tis
paid with sighs a-plenty and sold for endless rue.”
And I am two-and-twenty, and, oh,
’tis true, ’tis true.
It is
remarkable how Housman’s narrator goes from foolishness to wisdom in just one
year. Perhaps the path to wisdom is paved with broken hearts and shattered
dreams and, as a result, the young can travel farther along the path than any
old codger can.
Our Scripture lesson,
however, suggests that the path to wisdom can also be paved with overflowing
hearts and fulfilled dreams. The young king Solomon did not ask for long life
or riches or for the life of his enemies. He asked for the understanding to
discern what is right, which the chronicler of 1 Kings credited to him as
wisdom. And indeed, the next passage in this chapter provides evidence of
Solomon’s wisdom. Perhaps you recall it.
Two women came to Solomon. In
that day, parents and their infant children often shared the same bed,
sometimes with tragic results. One woman had accidentally suffocated her infant
during their sleep, and in her grief, she stole the infant of another woman.
Both women came to Solomon to claim the infant as their own, but no judge could
tell by sight which woman was the rightful mother. Solomon asked that a sword
be brought and dictated that the infant be rent in two, with a half-infant
given to each woman. One woman eagerly supported Solomon’s ruling; the other
insisted that the whole infant be given to her rival. Upon hearing these
disparate responses, Solomon commanded that the child be given to the woman who
wanted to spare the life of the child, for she had to be the rightful mother.
That passage ends by telling
us “all Israel … stood in awe of [Solomon], because they perceived that the
wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice.” Solomon, the relatively young
monarch, gives evidence that it is possible to be young and wise.
But note: He asked for the
ability to discern between good and evil, between right and wrong. In the words
of the hymn we sang earlier, we shall all encounter hardships. By themselves,
they are not curses. And in our lives, we shall all encounter blessings.
Indeed, our lives here at Dartmouth are teeming with blessings that most women
and men in the world cannot begin to imagine. Riches and blessings are not
signs in and of themselves of God’s favor, nor are hardships signs in and of
themselves of God’s displeasure. But if we fail to understand the reasons why
hardships and blessings come our way, we are not wise. More to our situation
here: if our blessings come as a result of injustice we have perpetrated, we
may be heralded as intelligent and cunning, but we are not wise, not as God
measures wisdom.
In our passage, the
chronicler tells us that Solomon’s request and God’s answer was all a dream.
Let me close by saying: Wisdom is not something we dream about, nor is it
something we wrest from God or use at will to impress others. It is a mindset,
an orientation. One must seek to master the ability to discern between good and
evil, between right and wrong. One must find the path that finds us doing
justice and loving kindness and walking humbly with our God.
One need not be old to walk
down that path. Indeed, it is better to start walking down that path before one
reaches two-and-twenty.
1 Kings 3: 3-15 (NRSV) Solomon loved the Lord,
walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered
incense at the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that
was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings
on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and
God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great
and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before
you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you;
and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a
son to sit on his throne today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your
servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I
do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the
people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be
numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to
govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern
this your great people?’
It pleased the Lord that
Solomon had asked this. God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have
not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies,
but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do
according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one
like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give
you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other
king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes
and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your
life.’
Then Solomon awoke; it had
been a dream. He came to Jerusalem, where he stood before the ark of the
covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and offerings of wellbeing,
and provided a feast for all his servants.
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