Proper 15B Solomon and wisdom

          Today’s Bible readings are about the spiritual gift of wisdom. Solomon prayed for wisdom and God answered his prayer, giving him the wisdom for which he prayed, and riches and honor besides. The church as Ephesus is told, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” And St. John recalls Jesus’ command to the disciples to continue to come together week by week to receive the spiritual food of remembering Jesus’ death and resurrection in the bread and wine – the spiritual flesh and blood of the risen savior.

          Practical wisdom is knowing and doing the right thing in every situation. In Ephesians it is “understanding what the will of the Lord is” and acting on that understanding.  Wisdom translates the Greek words Logos and Sophia. Logos is also translated Word, as in the opening of St. John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, was one of the titles of Jesus, and it is the name of the great central church in Constantinople. Jesus understood the will of the Father and acted on that understanding. Our wisdom is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and in his gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

          Let me begin with the historical context of the Old Testament reading.  Solomon reigned from about 970-930 B.C. Two great powers have historically struggled for control of the middle east, the great Fertile Crescent where civilization began: Egypt at one end and Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria) at the other. In Solomon’s time both were weak. A new Egyptian dynasty (the 22^nd) had just begun to rule. Solomon married a daughter of the first pharaoh of this dynasty. Mesopotamia was divided by internal conflict. (So what else is new) The Assyrian (Kurdish) empire just coming together. It would conquer the northern kingdom of Israel in 722, about 200 years after Solomon and the division of the kingdom. Because both great powere were weak Solomon was able to control the center part of trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Think of the trade route like I-40 or I-95. The trade route ran from Egypt back from the malarial Mediterranean coast to above the Sea of Galilee then through Syria and down the Euphrates River.  (Imagine if a ruler of Lenoir/ Black Mountain captured Morganton /Asheville and put a toll on I-40, then traded say for horses with Winston-Salem and for moonshine with Asheville/Knoxville). Besides controlling the trade route Solomon sent ships through the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to trade with Yemen and East Africa. We hear of the visit of the Queen of Sheba. The Ethiopian monarchs claimed descent from the queen’s child by Solomon. Solomon kept David’s army of mercenary soldiers. He continued and expanded David’s practice of marrying for property and political and economic alliances. A ruler who wants to get rich by trade needs peace. Any wars should be quick, cheap, and victorious. Peace is better. Keeping the peace requires wisdom, knowing and doing the will of God.

          We read of wisdom in Isaiah 11, the description of the coming Messiah, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”  

          The church at Ephesus is encouraged to be “wise” to “filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Last week’s children’s talk reminded us of the importance of singing and making melody to the Lord.” We begin our prayer this morning that the bread and wine we offer will be for us the real and spiritual body and blood of Christ Jesus with these words, “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

          And finally, “Jesus said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’”  Jesus did indeed give his flesh, dying on the cross to take away our sins, rising from the tomb on the third day as our first-fruits of resurrection and new life. By his resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit we begin a new life in him in our baptism.

          Practical wisdom is knowing and doing the right thing in every situation. Our wisdom is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and in his gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have been set free from the need to sin, and we have been given a new and eternal life. So let us serve our risen Lord this day and always, in truth, in power, and with wisdom, seeking always to know and to do God’s holy will.  Amen.

 

Proper 14B Absalom

          God loves us as his children. He offers us eternal life with him, eternal life through the death and resurrection of the Father’s only-begotten son Jesus Christ our Lord. And God gives us instruction in how to live in this life as we await the life to come.

Today’s Old Testament reading tells of David’s love for his difficult and rebellious son Absalom. God loves us, even when we are difficult and rebellious. When David heard that Absalom had been killed, he “wept; and as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”  Jesus our Lord died for our sins and rose to give us new life as God’s reborn children.

          Today’s gospel includes both the promise of eternal life and the way this promise is fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. And finally today’s epistle gives us practical guidance on how to live in thanksgiving for God’s unconditional love in the promise of eternal life.         

Some background to the Old Testament reading:  David’s first wife was Michal, King Saul’s daughter. He lost her when he revolted and Saul married her to another man. After Saul died David took her back from her grieving second husband. David and Michal had no children. For good cause she despised him. At Hebron during the conflict with Saul David formed alliances with other powerful leaders by marrying their daughters. He had sons by 6 women.  You can imagine the drama, and the potential succession conflict.                 Amnon, David’s oldest son, lusted after his step-sister Tamar, Absalom’s brother. Amnon pretended to be ill and David ordered Tamar to care for him. He raped her, then he hated her, and two years later her brother Absalom murdered him and fled to his mother’s family in Geshur. Joab, David’s nephew and army commander, negotiated Absalom’s return to Jerusalem but not to the king’s household. Four years later Absalom went to Hebron and, following his father’s example, raised a revolt.  David fled north and hid in the forest of Ephriam. Absalom captured Jerusalem and pursued David, but was captured and killed by Joab’s guards in defiance of David’s public order, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” Joab was David’s nephew and his military commander. He had arranged the death in battle of righteous Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband. David mourned for his son until Joab and the army said, “Enough!” and forced David to return and reign. After Absalom’s revolt David hired more foreign mercenary soldiers and put down more rebellions. After another family conflict David appointed Bathsheba’s son Solomon to succeed him.  Absalom was not a good son, his behavior disappointed David, yet David loved him. We are not good sons and daughters, our behavior has disappointed our earthly parents, yet we are loved, and we love our children even when they do not live up to our expectations or live up to their best potential. David loved his son; we are loved and we love, and God loves us.             God loves us as his children. He offers us eternal life with him, eternal life through the death and resurrection of the Father’s only-begotten son Jesus Christ our Lord. And God gives us instruction in how to live in this life as we await the life to come.             St. John’s gospel expresses his mature life-time reflection on his life with Jesus.  Week by week for some 60 years John’s community had met to hear of Jesus’ life and teaching and to join spiritually with Jesus in active remembrance of the Last Supper - and the crucifixion and resurrection. As they received the bread and wine they remembered Jesus’ self-revelation as “the bread of life . . . the bread that came down from heaven.” They ate the bread and drank the wine trusting in Jesus to “raise them up on the last day.”  So we today receive the bread of life and the cup of salvation trusting the Lord to raise us up on the last day. He has done that for almost 2000 years for many millions of believers.  “I am the bread of life, the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”              Like the Ephesians, we have some practical guidance in living this new spiritual life we receive in baptism.  We receive power by the holy spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith to “speak the truth . . . to put away . . . bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, and malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” This is not automatic. God works by the Holy Spirit in us and through us, and with us. God will not overrule our free will. If we want to be Absalom, difficult and rebellious, God will let us. But he will grieve as David grieved for Absalom, because God loves us, all of us, all the time, into eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Proper 13B Truth

          In today’s collect we pray that the Lord’s “continual mercy” may “cleanse and defend your Church; and . . .  protect and govern it always by your goodness.”  In the collect for St. James’ Day July 25 we prayed God  “will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people.”  As this parish begins to seek the rector God is preparing to serve among us and as the diocese begins to seek the bishop God is preparing to serve among us, we pray these prayers: that the Lord’s “continual mercy” may “cleanse and defend your Church; and . . .  protect and govern it always by your goodness, and that God  “will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people.”

          The source and the example of God’s continual mercy, of God’s cleansing and defending goodness, and of “that spirit of self-denying service” is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. By the gift of the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, by the truth and power of the Holy Spirit of God, given us in the new birth of baptism and received by faith, we can indeed “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

          We are all examples to one another. Some of us are good examples; most of us are very mixed examples. David was a very mixed example. We saw last week his example of yielding to the sins of lust, and adultery, and murder. Today we hear of the courage of Prophet Nathan, and of David’s example of truth and repentance.  Nathan proclaimed the Lord’s judgment, and David had the grace to admit, “I have sinned against the LORD.” David’s sins were many and gaudy, but David did tell the truth, “I have sinned against the LORD. 

          Many of us have had, or been, children caught with hands in the cookie jar – or the like. And many of know the natural human first reaction to being caught in the cookie jar or the like. What is our first reaction? Do we naturally admit that we have done wrong? That has not been my experience. My experience is that the first reaction is to lie. We all want to be innocent, good children. That is our self-image, and we protect that image - even at the cost of truth. To paraphrase Alexander Pope’s 1711 Essay on Criticism “to lie is human, to forgive divine.” (line 275) And when the lie breaks down, our next human impulse is to blame. I’ve mentioned TEAPOT – Those Evil Awful People Over There.

We see this in Genesis 3:8-13: Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

          When Nathan proclaimed the Lord’s judgment, David had the grace to admit, “I have sinned against the LORD.” In today’s epistle we read of God’s desire that “all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. . . . speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, . .  as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.”

          The quick lie is easier than the hard truth, but as we grow up we learn that it is the truth that sets us free from the tangles that lies get us into.  

     St. John tells in chapter 8 of Jesus teaching the disciples, “the Jews who had believed in him, “…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

     St. John’s gospel reflects a lifetime of reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ life and resurrection.  Archbishop Rowan Williams dates it toward the end of the first century – about as far from the Resurrection as we are from the Korean war.  Our Sunday gospels this month focus on the meaning of Jesus’ feeding the 5000.

     “The truth will make you free.” The disciples who said, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone,” were not telling the truth. The foundational story of Israel is the Exodus. Slaves in Egypt were set free by the mighty hand of God working through Moses. For over 500 years Israel had been subject to Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander and his successors, and then to Rome. Jesus reminds his disciples, and us, that “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Only by Jesus’ death and resurrection can we be free from sin. Jesus  sets free from the spiritual consequences of past sin, and Jesus gives us the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit to resist temptation.

     In today’s gospel Jesus encourages the people, and us, to resist the temptation to work only for the food that perishes, but to work “for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”  We receive that spiritual food, “food that endures for eternal life” given to us in Holy Communion as we remember with present effect, spiritually with the disciples in the upper room on the night in which he was betrayed the Son of Man giving the bread of life, “this is my body given for you,” and the cup of salvation, the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, shed for us and for all who will receive him.

 

          We  pray that the Lord’s “continual mercy” may “cleanse and defend your Church; and . . .  protect and govern it always by your goodness.”  The source and the example of God’s continual mercy, of God’s cleansing and defending goodness, and of “that spirit of self-denying service” is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. By the gift of the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, by the truth and power of the Holy Spirit of God, given us in the new birth of baptism and received by faith, we can indeed “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Amen.