1 Kings 3:5-12
Proper 12 (17) - Year A
Solomon’s disposition in the beginning was for wisdom. Where did that go wrong? By the end of his reign things were falling apart. It is difficult to maintain wisdom in the midst of power.
Is a part of the issue before the church and world a continuing constriction of where G*D can be found? Here at one of many local shrines, wisdom can be sought. In the one and only temple, power can be found. How are we constraining G*D these days through space and scripture and specialness?
Solomon begins where Adam and Eve do, looking for the difference between good and evil. They find evil in the blame game (it’s your fault). Solomon will find evil in power (it’s my right). Where do you find evil? Searching out a difference between good and evil may be a beginning spot for wisdom, but in the long run wisdom needs more than this. It also needs to find a way for a prophetic judgment that difficulties are also my fault and blessings are also your right.
Is a part of the issue before the church and world a continuing constriction of where G*D can be found? Here at one of many local shrines, wisdom can be sought. In the one and only temple, power can be found. How are we constraining G*D these days through space and scripture and specialness?
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
Solomon's disposition in the beginning was for wisdom. You might ask where that went wrong. By the end of his reign things were falling apart. It is difficult to maintain wisdom in the midst of power.
Is a part of the issue before the church and world - the continuing constriction of where G*D can be found. Here at one of many local shrines wisdom can be sought. In the one and only temple power can be found. How are we these days constraining G*D through space and scripture and specialness?
Solomon begins where Adam and Eve do, looking for the difference between good and evil. They find evil in the blame game (it's your fault). Solomon will find evil in power (it's my right). Where do you find evil? Searching out the difference between good and evil may be a beginning spot for wisdom, but in the long run wisdom needs more than this. It also needs to find a way for the prophetic judgment that difficulties are also my fault and blessings are also your right.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
Life happens! The weakness of "unfair" crops up all around. For Jacob the trickster it is unfair to be tricked. If we pay attention to the situations in which we claim an unfairness has happened to us we may get an insight into both our understanding of G*D/Life/The Universe/and Everything as well as into our own particular weakness that we inflict, without awareness, upon others.
A question that gets raised here is that of our response to being tricked. Do we have a larger picture than that which we have unfairly received? Will we escalate trickiness, leading to a further escalation of being tricked and our tricking back? Where does this end? With Frost's standoff? -- Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee / And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.
Even as I hope to get past being trickier than I need to be, I still hope there are tricks to be played. One trick I anticipate is seeing Justice Roberts turn into the Chief Justice Warren of our day - the appointing president's self-identified "worst decision". This is in keeping with the great joke of the last coming first and the first going last.
Don't forget to hoot a bit as you catch the tricks played on you ("That was a good one, it helps me see what is important.") and don't forget to moan a bit as you catch the tricks you play on others ("Sorry, that didn't help us move toward a better future, did it?").
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
1 Kings 3:5-12 or Genesis 29:15-28
Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 128 or Psalm 119:129-136
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
With what intentionality does G*D create or foreknow? One camp says absolute intentionality - there is plan, purpose, malice aforethought with every thought/action of G*D. Another camp says no intentionality, only potential.
Of the two, we side with the potential that accords with spending time following the twists and turns of love and understanding. Mindful of a covenant of mutuality that thinks and acts for the sake of others/creation, we experience a love and understanding that continually pulls us toward one another.
There are many ways to express this unity of mutuality. Mustard seeds, yeast, treasure, pearls, and fish but scrape the surface of the presence of G*D.
- - -
before prayer
a sigh
before knowing
a call
before covenant
a thanks
before serving
a love
before presence
parable