Wisdom for Life: Solomon
Wisdom is Practical Know-How
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Aug. 18th, 2024
When I was in school we didn’t have the internet. If you wanted to find a book in the library you had to consult the card catalogue. When I worked on research projects in elementary school I had to go to the local cyber cafe to access the internet. I don’t know if you had a cyber cafe here in Bad Axe. But one of our local internet providers had a room with maybe eight or twelve PC’s and a bar with pop and candy. You’d pay for a certain amount of time at the computers, and could buy pop and so forth. It was a big deal growing up when we finally got the internet at home. On our shiny Windows 95 PC.
I still remember in middle school when our computer science teacher introduced us to this fancy new website: Google. It was better than yahoo, or lycos, or webcrawler, or altavista. It was a search engine that was more likely to put what you were looking for at the top. And was so slick it made yahoo directories obsolete. Now it seems ridiculous that a middle schooler would be introduced to Google.
The internet came with a lot of promise. It would make information free. Knowledge would stream through the cable lines to your computer like water through a tap. People would grow more informed, knowledgeable, and empathetic. How foolish we were back then.
Now we are so awash with information we don’t know what to do with it all. Only companies like Google, Apple, and ChatGPT know how to monetize all the information we generate. It used to be said, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” But now with the benefit of technology a lie can run at least three laps before truth’s shoes are laced. Does anyone go on Facebook expecting to find the truth anymore?
In a world so awash with information what we really need is wisdom. Not facts and figures, anecdotes and code, but real know-how. Practical knowledge that helps us navigate life and make sense of a rapidly changing topsy-turvy world. Perhaps this is why there is such an industry of gurus who claim to hold the key to a flourishing life. Like Jordan Peterson who claims his training in psychiatry helps him to understand the deeper meanings of Pinocchio and Moses, and how these stories give us at least twenty four rules for life. Or Tony Robbins who wants to help you get past your limiting beliefs to recognize your full potential. Or Norman Vincent Peale who wants you to think positively and, I dunno, it’ll just work out.
While the world of ancient Israel was not as fast moving or information heavy as today, people still sought wisdom. People of all times and places have sought that practical know-how that helps them lead their best life now. The Bible recounts one such individual: Solomon. Solomon, the Bible claims was the wisest person of his day.
This morning we heard how he got this wisdom. We are told that after David had died Solomon went to sacrifice to the Lord at Gibeon. It was there that the Lord appeared to him in a dream and for the sake of Solomon’s father David offered him anything he wished. "Ask what I should give you.”
While if I were in Solomon’s shoes I’m sure I would stammer, and wonder, and probably wake up without having asked for anything. But Solomon knew exactly what he wanted, exactly what he needed. “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 great people of yours?””
In other words Solomon says, “I have no idea what I’m doing! I can’t lead this people you have given me unless you give me a wise mind. A discerning mind. One that can tell evil from good and know what to do about it.” And this greatly pleases God. It pleases God because Solomon did not ask for wealth, or honor, or power. He asked for wisdom. And wisdom will always make us kindred with God. So God promises Solomon he will have wisdom, that he will be the wisest King. And moreover, “I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you.”
The wisdom Solomon possessed was not simply a spiritual wisdom. An otherworldly wisdom. The wisdom of some monk on a far off mountain humming mantras or speaking in koans. This is not an escapist wisdom. The wisdom of the Solomon was the wisdom of know-how. The practical knowledge that allows one to live well, to lead well, to serve well.
Lucky for us, this wisdom did not die with Solomon. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes recount this same wisdom. The Second Book of Kings shows that wisdom in action. And for the next few Sundays we will follow the lectionary as this wisdom is shown and described so we may see too how we may lead wise and flourishing lives today.