1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Proper 15 (20) - Year B
Young Solomon got his Miss America wish for world peace through personal wisdom.
He also go two tests to go along with it - riches and long life.
What is your evaluation of how wise Solomon was with his riches? It sometimes seems he simply used it to get more and more and more.
What is your evaluation of how wise Solomon was with his longevity? Didn't things fall apart when he died and so how did he spend his time? Seems like he failed to take the longevity of the system into account.
We usually apply the "divide the baby" scene to Solomon's wisdom, not these immediate gifts/tests. What happens to your view of Solomon if we track these other additional gifts/tests through his reign?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/august2003.html
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 or Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 111 or Psalm 34:9-14
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
The temptation of "understanding" is very great. Even wise old Solomon finally failed that test. Along with understanding came/comes riches and honor. And what, I ask, can stand in the face of such principalities and powers? Understanding eventually pales in the temptation of increased riches and honor. Why, simply because it takes so much to increase in wisdom appropriate to this new time and place. Let your growth in understanding lag for a bit, presuming for a moment that you have sufficient, and, lo and behold, riches and honor gain momentum and priority.
Without an increase in wisdom there can be no sense made of metaphor and mystery such as living bread imaged in personal terms. Alice in Wonderland's bottle and cake remain as strange to us as Jesus' language about eating him. Where we are willing to suspend our disbelief with Alice, we don't seem to be able to do so with Jesus.
[Can't help but wonder if Jesus tastes as wonderful as Alice's drink - "mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast" or what my flavor(s) might be or yours.]
- - -
wisdom connects
far better
with departing
from evil(1)
and doing good(2)when wisdom
gets mixed up
with riches and honor
there is going to be
hell to payto keep wisdom
increasing in stature
attention to G*D's presence(3)
even more than any list
becomes our joy and focus
[Note: (1) (2) (3) are references to The United Methodist General Rules.]
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Leaving out verses 2:11-3:2 dramatically changes the nature of this passage. What we miss is all the very practical political consolidation work Solomon did upon becoming King in Israel. Do read these details because the question coming to Solomon about what he desires takes on a different tone than if we just read the high-minded request for wisdom without this important context.
It is evident from the elided material that Solomon is a very accomplished accumulator of power and that takes a kind of wisdom, a conniving. Solomon knows very well how to "go out or come in", to move around the political realities of his time.
Without the historical references, "wisdom" is some ethereal, spiritual, state unconnected to the real world. With them, we see how Solomon plays G*D for a sucker in the same way he does his rivals. There is nothing like sucking-up to G*D or Jesus or Spirit or Nation or Boss or Family or my bad habits to get them off my case.
It won't be long, however, before even sagacious old Solomon comes up against death and G*D and dissolution of power. So read this pericope with a big grain of salt. If you read it as currently cut and pasted, there is real danger that one's preaching will be superficial and one's listeners lied to.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
O what tangled webs we weave when we begin cherry-picking the scriptures. The elided section does not speak well for David or Solomon. There is no “peace from the Lord forevermore” when it is based on retribution leading to more. Oh, Solomon can fool some of the people some of time with his reputation for wisdom and wealth, but all that is left out will come back to haunt for generations. Power remains an uneasy ally.
It is simply not kosher to make this sort of false advertising for Solomon. One might think there are political ads in religious politics as well as public politics. Well, of course, they would be correct, but that is not good PR and the prosperity gospel of Solomon will eventually bite David’s descendants who get all privileged and out of touch with reality.
What sort of G*D plays these succession-of-power games? Make me look good, says G*D, and I’ll do the same for you. This is an unequal bargain and eventually it tarnishes both parties.
So what will a congregation take away from this passage with a huge hole in it? That religion is surface-oriented, say humble things and be rewarded with expensive things? Any depth available here may well be stripped out with an appeal to a second-class wisdom (our wisdom is smaller than Solomon’s as no one as wise will follow him?). What is intended to make G*D look good, just shows the tricks Solomon has learned from David and Bathsheba to get his way. A rather sad passage, all in all.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/08/1-kings-210-12-33-14.html