LESSON INTRODUCTION
Welcome to week 8 of the Narrative Lectionary.
We transitioned last week
from stories about the God of the covenant
to hearing stories about life under the covenant.
God had promised the people Israel:
blessing, land and descendants.
God always keeps God’s promises.
The people have grown in numbers,
Abraham is an ancestor of a multitude.
The people are in the land.
The people are blessed.
The nation prospers under king David,
though we heard last week about David’s greatest failure,
how coveting Bathsheba led to adultery,
and adultery led to murder.
It is a warning to those in power,
absolute power corrupts absolutely,
and even the most faithful of us
has a capacity for evil in our hearts.
We all need forgiveness.
Bathsheba was impregnated by David,
and that baby died.
The text says it is punishment for David’s sins.
David took Bathsheba as his wife,
one of eight.
In time, David and Bathsheba have Solomon,
and Bathsheba is a force to be reckoned with:
she persuades David to make Solomon king,
rather than David’s oldest surviving son, Adonijah.
Perhaps now, in a small way,
there is finally justice for Bathsheba.
Ok - imagine you find an old bottle in your cupboard
and out pops a genie
who will grant you three wishes.
What do you wish for?
Wealth? Fame?
World peace?
Sanity in the White House?
No, silly - you ask for more wishes.
That’s the smart thing to do.
Of course God is not a genie in a bottle.
We don’t just get anything we ask for.
Part of today’s story is about God answering prayer.
When we ask in Jesus’ name,
in accordance with God’s will,
ask and ye shall receive.
Like Solomon, we don’t pray for intelligence, or smarts,
we pray for Wisdom.
We pray for the Holy Spirit to come.
Invite scripture reader forward
As we enter the story today,
king David has died,
and Solomon is to reign.
He is young. Maybe 12. Maybe 14. Maybe 20.
But in this face to face with God,
God speaking through the dream,
Solomon shows wisdom well beyond his years.
Let us open our hearts to God’s Word for us today.
Narrative Lectionary Reading: 1 Kings 3:4-28
A reading from 1 Kings.
4 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. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” 6 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 toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 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, 12 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. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14 If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”
15 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 well-being and provided a feast for all his servants.
16 Later, two women who were sex-workers came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house; only the two of us were in the house. 19 Then this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him. 20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead, but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king.
23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’ ” 24 So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 But the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because compassion for her son burned within her, “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” 27 Then the king responded, “Give her the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.” 28 All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon
The assembly is seated.
Silence for reflection follows the sermon.
I’d like to tell you a story about a family,
and we will call them the Smith family.
The Smith family isn’t just one family,
this story is a melding of a few different families,
and the stories that get shared around our dinner tables.
Maybe you can see your own family
or extended family in the Smith family.
The Smith family gathered for supper,
back in the 80’s
when you had to actually call your kids for supper,
and not send a group text message
to people in your own home.
I digress.
The Smith’s are a faithful Christian family,
they go to church every Sunday,
their kids are in Sunday school.
They fold their hands and pray,
and then chow down!
Mom’s a great cook.
As the 4 children slow down with their spoons,
the dinner conversation grows.
The oldest is a somewhat typical oldest child,
who takes on a certain responsibility-
but he says something mean to his sister
after stealing her dinner roll.
It’s the kind of thing one sibling might say and do to another -
and they fight.
Mom and dad want the dinner table to be a place of peace,
and they quickly recognize that the older brother
is stirring things up,
just being mean.
What do you do if you’re the parent?
Do you sit quietly and let them sort out their fight?
Do you step in and mediate?
Well, mom saw fit to send the oldest for a time out.
Mom called him by his first, middle, and last name,
and said you’re being mean to your sister,
you took her bun,
go have a time out until you are ready to apologize.
It’s pretty standard parenting with young children
- maybe you’ve parented your own children that way.
When our kids are young,
they need a lot of help sorting out problems,
they need some reminders of the rules
that keep families safe.
When your child hurts their sibling,
the parent steps in to help them learn their mistake,
learn their lesson,
and make it right with the sibling they’ve hurt.
That’s what you do:
when you hurt someone,
you make it right.
It seems this can get harder and harder as children grow up.
Fast forward to the Smith dinner table in the 1990’s
with teenagers clad in neon colours,
Mom and Dad don’t pipe in as often
when the teenage kids fight,
they want their children to learn,
to figure out how to communicate
and deal with conflict for themselves.
It seems all the kids do is fight.
Fast forward 40 some years to the 2020’s,
and mom and dad Smith - now Grandma and Grandpa
have called the 4 children together for supper.
This time they send a group text to everyone,
including some of the grandchildren who have phones. “Come for supper on Sunday.”
Grandma and grandpa Smith
are excited to have their children and grandchildren together.
They know the oldest will be there,
probably the second oldest too,
but they aren’t so sure about the youngest son.
They aren’t seeing him as often,
and they aren’t exactly sure why.
You come to mom’s house for supper on Sundays.
You do the things with your family.
That’s the way it is.
But a couple years ago,
there was a really challenging family dinner for the Smiths.
Not unlike suppers from the 80’s and 90’s,
the oldest sibling was picking on the youngest sibling,
but it sounded a little different than in his adolescence.
You see, the youngest Smith child
got married to someone who did not look like the Smiths,
did not sound like the Smiths.
The newest Smith by marriage had darker skin,
she was born in Canada,
but her parents had immigrated from another country
back in the 90’s.
She is a Christian,
but her Christianity
sounds a little different than the family’s Christianity.
The oldest Smith child,
now a father himself,
chose that family dinner a couple years ago
to tell Mom, Dad, his siblings,
and his sister-in-law
that people from that country are lazy
and should not be allowed to immigrate here.
The youngest Smith and his spouse
are often invited for Sunday dinner,
but they do not come anymore.
Lately, mom and dad aren’t seeing
the third Smith child for dinner very often either.
The 3rd Smith child
has been hesitant lately
to bring any potential partner home for Sunday dinner.
If sister-in-law is ridiculed for her ethnicity,
then what will that mean for her and her potential partner?
Well, the Smith family had their Sunday dinner,
mom and dad at the head and foot of the table,
and even with the sounds of
a couple joyful grandchildren,
they’re glad the oldest son keeps coming over,
but they miss seeing the younger two Smith kids.
Their Sunday dinner is incomplete.
They wonder - what went wrong?
Can you see yourself in the Smith family?
Their dinner table looks like many of our
extended family dinner tables,
and, dare I say,
The Smith family reminds me
of our Advent Lutheran Church family
and other families of faith I’ve known.
When conflict arises in the young family,
if mom and dad keep quiet during a fight,
playing a neutral Switzerland,
it often means one kid gets hurt
at the expense of another.
Kids need help saying sorry and making it right.
Maybe adults need help too.
Mom and dad need to love and teach and discipline
ensuring the home is safe for all their children.
This gets harder as our kids get older.
Parents often choose neutrality,
hoping the kids will still come for Sunday dinner.
The truth of neutrality
is that when we remain neutral in the face of oppression,
we take the side of the oppressor
and not the oppressed.
If your child steals another child’s dinner role
and you say nothing,
you condone the behaviour.
That Sunday a couple years ago,
The Smith mom and dad played Switzerland
when the oldest sibling hurt the younger,
when they didn’t stand up
for the youngest daughter in law,
when older brother stole her dignity and worth as a person,
when they didn’t disagree with the oldest sibling’s prejudice.
Now the oldest brother has a seat at the table,
and other chairs remain empty.
We are about to move to our dinner table,
our God, our Mother, Our Father is serving us,
and even though we gather with the saints
of every time and place at this holy Communion,
we know that this table is missing some saints.
There are younger siblings
who don’t feel welcomed at Sunday dinner
because of the ridicule and judgement they’ve received
from some “older siblings”
Mom and dad taught us -
When you make a mistake,
you make it right.
It is not Jesus’ words that cause empty seats.
It’s us - it’s people,
Christians who play Switzerland
while people are hurting,
and so-called older siblings who spout hurtful words,
often in Jesus’ name,
often beginning with “Oh I’m just being honest”
Remember, Jesus often sent away the religious elite,
and welcomed in the outcast.
Jesus’ welcome is as wide
as God’s inclusive love for all creation.
God invites us to seek Wisdom,
to seek the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Compassion.
God invites us into compassion.
Not into liberal or conservative,
not into Evangelical or Main-line,
God calls us into compassion.
Compassion is the secret to life.
That’s the wisdom lens for viewing the world
that will help Christians make it right
with those we have hurt,
to see that others have been hurt
in the name of church,
Compassion will help us to live into truth,
to be agents and spreaders of God’s inclusive love.
Compassion sees the suffering and cannot let it be.
Sympathy is only so good,
feeling pity for another is only so good.
Empathy get’s you going,
you can walk a mile in their shoes,
but you can get stuck in inaction and grief.
Compassion sees the suffering
and tries to do something to alleviate it,
to make it right.
Maybe that’s as simple as a hug
or a prayer
or a cup of cold water,
or even a simple and honest - I’m sorry.
Compassion and Wisdom are linked.
Compassion finds wisdom, like Solomon.
Compassion and Wisdom both put on humility.
Consider Solomon’s ruling over the two sex-workers
who fight over whose child it is.
It might have seemed brutal:
I mean, bring me the sword!
He has to be ready to follow through!
But Solomon’s wisdom allowed for compassion to rule.
He found a way to get at the truth of the situation,
to see which mom was telling lies,
and which mom had humility,
and ensured that the child grew up with the correct mom.
Compassion leads to justice.
It helps us see the wideness of God’s mercy,
that even the impregnated sex-worker has a voice
and is included in God’s justice.
Unfortunately we don’t know what happened to mom #2.
She needed to make it right with the real mom,
and the truth is she needs compassion too.
She lost her baby -
a baby she likely conceived not by choice,
she probably thought it was her own fault
and that loss made her delusional
to the point that she’d rather see
another person suffer.
That’s kind of normal for us:
when we suffer,
sometimes’s we’d rather see someone else suffer
than to see actual justice.
Sometimes that’s when you and I are the meanest
to the people we love the most:
it is when we are suffering ourselves.
Part of the Smith family story I shared
is that the oldest brother was suffering too,
and his suffering led him into some pretty hurtful beliefs.
Perhaps the oldest Smith brother can’t find compassion
until someone takes compassion on him too.
Compassion that puts on a humility
that might recognize certain beliefs hurt people.
The truth of the Smith family story -
is that each one of them is a saint,
and each one deserves a seat at the supper table.
Mom and Dad,
oldest and youngest sibling,
spouses and partners,
those present for Sunday dinner
and those missing - each one is a saint,
justified and redeemed by God.
Each one of them is also a sinner,
in need of God’s forgiveness and leading.
Compassion is the way forward.
Have I told you about these pins that I wear most Sundays?
These three symbolize for me
the youngest Smith siblings:
the people that have been hurt the most by Christians.
And they remind me to seek compassion.
I wear the Moosehide campaign pin and Thursdays in black.
The church has historically been silent
with regards to spousal abuse,
clergy abuse,
and many have been told to simply endure abuse,
after all, he is the head of the household.
God calls us into compassion.
I wear the orange shirt pin:
recognizing that the various churches
in cohort with the government
sought the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples,
and it was done in Jesus’ name.
Like the story of Layne and the Elder Alphonse
from Walk as We,
I like to view Indigenous peoples in Canada
to be our new older siblings,
to learn from Indigenous elders and people
that I might help make it right
on behalf of the church I love.
Compassion is our way forward.
I wear the progress pin
to remember that gay and lesbian
and bisexual and trans people
have been hurt by church people.
You could say it is just one bad English translation
of the bible that has caused so much trouble.
Thanks a lot Revised Standard Version!
We all suffer with the lingering effects
of poor interpretation of the scriptures.
Wisdom and compassion will help us trust
in God’s living word of affirmation and acceptance
for 2SLGBTQIA+ siblings.
What is Wisdom’s response?
What is compassion’s response?
What might the Holy Spirit of Wisdom
stir up in us siblings in Christ
to help make it right?
Might we find compassion and say
- okay, I don’t understand it -
but queer people,
Indigenous people,
people of colour,
liberals, conservatives,
and even old school European Lutherans
are all made in the image of God,
and God is calling us for supper:
together, not separate.
I know I’m not completely at fault for the sins of the church,
but I have a place in God’s reconciling future.
So do us all.
God is here,
our God is not a genie in a bottle,
we can’t just ask God our parent to clean up our mess.
We can’t play Switzerland, say nothing,
and expect the oppressed and outcast
to come home for Sunday dinner.
The youngest sibling wont come for dinner
until they know they are safe,
and valued,
and wont be ridiculed.
Like Solomon,
may we pray for wisdom,
may we pray for discernment,
may we trust in the God of compassion
to fill our hearts with compassion.
Ask and ye shall receive.
Compassion seeks to make it right,
to alleviate the suffering.
Compassion is our way forward in wisdom.
The answer cannot be to split the baby.
The way forward is not to keep silent move on.
God is saying all are welcome.
Come to my table.
Be fed and nourished.
It’s hard for the youngest sibling to come for dinner
if they’re just gonna be ridiculed
for who they love or where they came from.
Trust Jesus, the Good Shepherd is out looking
for those who are lost from our table
and we can join that work,
but not as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The God of wisdom has compassion on us.
We who feel like mom and dad Smith,
we who have done the best we could
and yet conflicts and empty seats remain.
We who are the older siblings,
who have said and done the things
that exclude and bring suffering,
We who feel unwelcome at the table
because of the older siblings
- both the hurt and the silence -
God has compassion for you.
We are all saints - beloved in God’s eyes,
made in God’s image.
We are all sinners - broken, hurting
in need of forgiveness.
Trust in God to forgive you at the supper table.
Trust that by your baptism in to Christ,
you are a child of the Creator,
made in the image of God,
and that each and any person is your sibling,
and they have a place at the table right beside you
along with all the saints.
Come home. It’s time for Sunday dinner.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
