James 1:1-12; 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14

August 29, 2021

  • How we can be wiser people

I’m not sure it is a goal for my life to be considered a wise guy or not.  So many connotations there – I could be a smart Alec or a mafia informant or something more like Solomon, all being “wise guys” in one way or another.  Of course, wisdom is not gender specific.  There may well be a bit more wisdom among the women.  I’m comfortable admitting that.  What I do know is that wisdom is something that is promoted as a virtue, something which we are told we should strive to obtain or achieve, and it is not something with which we are born.  No one shows up in this world as a wise person, but all of us should want to be one.  The first chapter of James points us in this direction.  Guess where we are going today?

In our journey through the time of the kings in early Israel, we have travelled through the story of Saul and David, and now we are arriving into the rule of King Solomon.  The average person really may not know that much about Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, but if they know anything, it is that he is supposed to be Mr. Wisdom.  Beyond that, they may have heard something about a clever scheme involving dividing a baby between two prostitutes, and they might know that he is the king who builds Israel’s first national temple.

You might be asking, “So how does Solomon relate to me?”  We are going to spend three Sundays considering Solomon and his place in the story of Israel, and (I’ll say) it is a dramatic place.  Today, we consider wisdom.  Next Sunday, we are going to think about what building the Temple of Solomon means.  The third Sunday will be how Solomon’s brand of wisdom worked out for the Kingdom of Israel – because to be honest, the kingdom was never bigger or brighter or more impressive than it was under Solomon.  It was Israel’s literal golden age.  He was the master of his domain all around.  In fact, he assassinated his older brother who had a claim to the throne and his father’s general and exiled his father’s priest.  People came from all over to buy horses and chariots from him.  He had the corner on land trade with his Phoenician friends who ruled the water routes.  He had 700 wives and 300 concubines from all over, and he built them altars to their gods and worshiped with them, too.  His building spree was massive, lasting for 20 years and included the Temple, but he enslaved 30,000 of his own people to do it.  It was his use of slaves that eventually split the Kingdom and stripped most of it from his hand and family.

Wait a minute…. Some of that may or may not look like wise behavior.  It may sound more like the wisdom, “An apple a day keeps the doctor way, especially if you throw it hard enough.”  Solomon was promoted as the wisest person who ever lived.  He is reputed to have composed the books of Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, along with some Psalms.  And yet, the kingdom essentially fell apart over the course of his reign.  That’s later, but for now, we need to rethink wisdom in light of Solomon.  I do think he excelled in wisdom in his day and age; it was just not your grandparents’ kind of wisdom, those people who might have told you more….

“Don’t be judgmental. You don’t know what someone else is going through until you’ve walked in their shoes.”

“Take time to have fun and smell the flowers along the way.”

 “Good manners don’t cost a thing. Practice them and make an impression.”

“People will forget how you look but they’ll never forget how you have made them feel.”

Solomon’s wisdom is less relatable.  He never had the luxury of growing up on a farm, tending to the sheep, like his father, David.  That is a little tongue in cheek there because Solomon grew up in all kinds of luxury, just the normal kind for princes.  No, I would say Solomon probably did not know much about hard work at all and could not identify well with the common people, but he was good at puzzles and riddles and loved to learn, especially about different people and cultures.  He became a student of politics and figured out how to make alliances and strengthen his political power.  He was shrewd and cunning and clever, and he knew that if he wanted to make a name for himself and become the greatest king that he could ever be, he needed a strong mind first.  He understood that knowledge is power, so it should surprise us not at all that when God made the great dream offering: pick your gift, Solomon, long life, power, riches, or wisdom – that he should choose wisdom because he understood what wisdom meant.  Wisdom is the ability to get things done.  He wanted to govern the people effectively, to be political effective.  He wanted to be wise in governing God’s people.

Just think about it: a wise king needs to be a good ruler; a wise teacher needs to be an effective educator; a wise pastor should bring an authentic witness of Christ to the people; a wise parent guides the lives of the children in healthy and good ways; a wise mechanic is able to solve issues and find the best ways to fix cars; a wise engineer builds things that will last and work well.  You see where I am going with this.  Wisdom is a very interesting quality of life.  It is about doing whatever you are doing in the best way, succeeding in your task.  Everyone from judges to sanitation engineers can use wisdom.  Wisdom can take you through daily tasks, daily living, and daily decisions, too.  The more we seek wisdom in our living and doing, the better we will be at getting our things done in a better way.  It is not something theoretical or abstract.  Wisdom is deliciously practical.

In my preparation for this week, I asked people what they thought about wisdom and the answers were everywhere.  Some thought about knowing lots of things or being mature in your thinking.  While these are useful parts of wisdom, it is also more.  It could be knowing the right thing to do, but knowing the right thing and doing the right thing are very different.  In fact, it would be foolish to know the right thing and NOT do it.  That’s the opposite of wisdom.

Wisdom is what was lacking in the evacuation of Afghanistan.  We did not do it well or effectively in a way that seems wise.  So much of the way government works seems to be without much wisdom since they seem to really accomplish so little, let alone well.  While we should certainly continue to pray for wisdom for our leaders and government, real wisdom seems to be something more relatable on the more local level.  There is less bureaucracy and more accountability and responsibility for service to the community.

And that is the next part.  What do you actually do with wisdom?  And what’s more, let’s say Christian wisdom or the kind of wisdom we associate with God.  It is more than simply getting things done well if we think about this from a spiritual perspective.  Solomon recognized this, also.  He prayed for wisdom to lead the people.  This was an act of service to God and to the people God had given him to rule.  That is the job of the king, but his heart going into this was to honor God with his service as king.  He saw wisdom as a spiritual gift to be used for God’s glory.  Unfortunately, Solomon also glorified himself a good bit.  This is the catch.

If we receive wisdom, it comes with the cost of having to use it for the good of others.  God gives us blessings to share with others, wisdom included.  There is no point to wisdom if it does not benefit anyone but yourself.  After all, that would not be very wise – to live for your own benefit.  We are here on this planet to make the world better, our neighbors better, our community better.  That does not come from serving ourselves.  I can be the best and wisest lawyer in town, but if I am only mindful of my clients, I look no different than an atheist who is a good lawyer.  Greater, godly wisdom looks for ways to reach out beyond what is expected and serves those who are in greatest need.  Anyone who wants to do a good job is going to see to their customers.  It is wiser to extend God’s love through our gifts and service to those whom we need to love and follow through with that love.  In embracing God’s call through Jesus to love as we have been loved, we show a more beautiful wisdom.

This is not easy.  There is nothing simple or easy about wisdom.  It makes us responsible for more when we are aware of new ways that we can do things and help others.  Also, James talks about us seeking wisdom in the middle of his teaching of being tested and tried by the struggles of life.  Wisdom will help us get through the challenges and struggles and dark places, but we do need to ask for greater wisdom.  God certainly wants us to be wise and will help us get there.

Yesterday, I was talking to Katherine Farmer and shared this passage that I read from James because she said it was one of her favorite books.  And I get that.  James is a very practical, hands-on book that is not about theology but living out the faith.  It is a wisdom book in this regard.  We need wisdom in our lives because wisdom will help us get through the struggle in faith and better succeed in our service to God.

Solomon struggled to keep on the wise path as his own glory got brighter and brighter.  His love for the little person seemed to diminish as his bank account got bigger and bigger.  For someone who was given the map of wisdom, he seems eventually to have gotten lost.   Of course, we are here to do better, to live with wisdom from God, to not only succeed in our ministry and service in our lives but also in our community here.  It does not matter what you are trying to do in life or this world.  If it is worth doing, it is worth doing with wisdom.  You will accomplish what you hope to do with greater success.  You will learn and be able to share.  You will also be able to give God glory if you seek that wisdom from God.

And that is the key.  Here we are friends.  It is so tempting to think that we already know enough or are wise enough on our own to get things done, but the world is bigger than we are.  This pandemic has shown us that.  We need more wisdom.  We need God’s wisdom.  We need to be able to serve effectively as people of faith in Christ, so we need to be intentional about this prayer to God.

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.

Wisdom is as wisdom does, my friends.  God’s wisdom is as God’s wisdom does, in our lives and in the lives of those whom God brings into our lives.

To God be the glory.  Amen.