"Widest Horizons"
Solomon only got it half-right
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, November 2, 2003
Text: 2 Chronicles 1:7-12
About five-and-a-half years ago I flew into the Island airport on the day I had confirmation of my appointment as senior minister here at Eaton Memorial. I was on my way to meet the staff for the first time. Unbeknownst to me, I had to cross a body of water on a ferry, so I waited on the other side for a member of the staff to greet me. (Unlike all the other churches that I'd been in, nobody on staff walked on water, so I had to take the ferry across.) There on the other side, parked in a green Honda, with a loving smile and a warm embrace, was The Reverend John Harries. “Welcome to Timothy Eaton!” He said. “We're going to have fun together for the next few years.” I got into his car, he drove me to this wonderful church and we began our ministry and our planning together.
It seems very strange for me this day to be telling you that John is announcing his retirement from full-time ministry in the United Church of Canada and his retirement from his position here at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. As many of you will see when you leave, there are copies of the letter that John wrote to the chair of the Ministry and Personnel Committee, you're invited to read it and see what John has in mind, and his gracious thanks to the church, and his recognition of his 11 years of ministry here at Eaton Memorial.
I'm pleased to say, however, that John will not be leaving us until the end of November, so we'll have ample time to express to him our gratitude, and to show him and Barbara our love and support. On November 30, we'll do so at a lovely gathering at the conclusion of our 11:00 o'clock worship service. In the meantime, I know that you will want to join me in wishing John God's richest blessings on the making of what must have been a difficult, but also a liberating and joyful decision.
And so, we stand now on the other side of a harbour, as it were, waiting for John to depart but knowing that we will greet him and say goodbye to him with the same warmth with which he said hello to me.
A number of years ago I had the onerous task of sitting on a college admittance committee. I, along with three others, was to interview the candidates to see whether they were worthy of receiving a particular scholarship as well as being admitted. It was a great eye-opener for me to sit on such a committee, for we asked all the students to put up a signpost of where they saw their lives going, and by looking at the signposts, determine what benefit they could derive by participating in our program and receiving its support.
It was fascinating. Student after student picked up a signpost pointing to the future when they would be wealthy or powerful, influential and healthy, successful and popular. All the signposts that these students put up suggested to us that they saw in our college a program that could help them advance and become successful.
But there were two students who took a totally different approach. When I asked one of them what he wanted to be when he grew up he looked at me, perplexed; and turned the tables and said, “Well, what would you like to be when you grow up?” Needless to say, he did not receive the scholarship. But there was another student who had a very profound answer. I asked him what he would like to be when he came out of college. And he said, “I want to be wise.” He got the scholarship.
I've thought about that student many times when I've read the story we heard this morning from the Second Book of Chronicles. It is the story of King Solomon, supposedly the wisest of all the monarchs. In this morning's passage, Solomon has a dream. And in this dream he has a conversation with God. God says, “Ask what I shall give you.” Now, God expected Solomon to say wealth, power, influence, success, a long life and all these other attributes that one would apply to a successful life - but he didn't. He simply said to God:
You have dealt with my father David with great loving kindness, and have made me king in his place. Now, O Lord God, Your promise to my father David is fulfilled, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours? God said to Solomon, 'Because you had this in mind, and did not ask for riches, wealth or honour, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but you have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may rule My people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will give you riches and wealth and honour, such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed nor those who will come after you.'
If you look at the life of Solomon you can see that his dream came true in many ways. For Solomon, this son of David and Bathsheba, this third monarch in a series of kings, this man who was to build the great temple on Mount Moriah, this man who was to establish a building program unparalleled in the history of Israel. Walls were established, fortresses were built, places for chariots were constructed. Here was a man who, because of his scholarship, was able to draw people into his court.
They came from other countries, from Midian, from the Ammonites, they all came to the court of Solomon - even, it is believed, the Queen of Sheba herself - and sat at the footstool of Solomon, for all his wisdom and the wise people that he gathered together.
Here was a man who was ascribed certain great works such as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Whether he wrote all those or not, the wisdom contained therein was akin to the wisdom that Solomon was supposed to have had as his great gift. Here was a man who made a little, unknown, divided nation into a place of cosmopolitan splendour where people from other nations looked upon the glory of Israel and said their god is great because of the wisdom of their king - Solomon.
But the wisdom that Solomon asked for was not the wisdom that we often think of: It was not philosophical wisdom. It was not wisdom in terms of information and the ability to discern those things known from knowledge. The wisdom that he was looking at was the discernment of God.
One of my favourite words is “sagacity.” And what Solomon wanted was sagacity - he wanted that ability to have the insight of God into practical matters. He wanted to be able, in other words, to think with the mind of God, to be able to rule practically with wisdom. Even the knowledge that he wanted was not the knowledge of things outside of God, but the knowledge of God Himself, in order that he could be a wise ruler and lead his people on a moral path. And so, this great king wanted practical guidance for the ruling of his nation in order that God would be honoured.
Now, I say all this because I believe that he had a vision. He wanted to see his nation expand, but to expand to the glory of almighty God, and when he asked for wisdom and knowledge he wanted a broad horizon.
I want to take us from the vision Solomon had to today. One of the concerns that I have is that our horizons in many ways are being narrowed and not broadened. Don't misunderstand me; it is true to say that this generation has a knowledge base greater than any other generation that has lived. With the expanse of technology, with the knowledge that we can gain from the Internet, with television and the print media, young people in particular have a breadth of knowledge that would absolutely flummox a mind of 10 or 20 years ago.
Even yesterday, I went on the Internet and started to play around (I have a new computer and I was like a child), and actually was able to find out how to rebuild a carburettor of a 1973 BMW 2002 TII. It's all there, right before your eyes! just one press of a button and you can fix almost any car that you want. (Not that I'm planning on doing that, mind you, but the information is there.) The knowledge-base that we have is incredible.
The breadth of knowledge that our children learn in their schools is also incredible. The insights that they have are wonderful. But there is an irony: In a world of expanding horizons in terms of knowledge more often than not religion is not taught in our schools. Children and young people are not exposed to religious values and morals. They are asked to have a breadth of knowledge of the world but are not asked to look at the wisdom that undergirds it and gives it sense.
I think that Solomon, if he were looking at our land today, would be saying that what our people need to succeed, to move ahead as a society and a world, is wisdom and knowledge - the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
“...if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,” said Paul, “but do not have love, I am nothing.” If we possess all information and can glean everything but do not have the wisdom to know how to live than we have nothing. Solomon knew that. Now, there are those who would say that the way to wisdom is simply experience. All we have to do to gain that wisdom is get better.
I read a wonderful aphorism by the famous Danish writer Piet Hein. He wrote a number of aphorisms and is well known in his native country. During the Nazi occupation he would write in aphorisms, in Danish, so that the Nazis wouldn't understand what he was saying. He was a friend of the physicist Neils Bohr and someone who wrote 20 volumes of aphorisms, called “grooks.” He said: “The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less.” Indeed, that is true, but that in and of itself does not show us the source of wisdom it just tells us how not to do things badly. There needs to be something more.
I read a story not long ago of a young ensign who was on board a ship and had been away from port for a year but now was returning home. The captain, realizing that this young ensign had done such a wonderful job, gave him the task of taking the ship out of port.
The ensign got everybody all worked up he planned his strategy for how he was going to do this and he did so with tremendous speed and alacrity. He had everyone running up and down the ship, making sure that everything was ready, and he took that ship and it began to sail out of the harbour with the speed and precision that was unparalleled. The ensign was full of himself.
Finally, a seaman came to him and said: “There is a call for you from the captain.”
The ensign said, “I know, he's going to think I've done a good job.” And he took the phone.
The captain said, “Ensign, I want to tell you: You've done a marvellous job! I have never seen such speed before, such precision. It was glorious. You did everything by the book, with the exception of one unwritten law: Never leave port without the captain!”
My friends, our lives are like that ensign. We're charging ahead wanting success, we have a fast-paced, quick-moving society that is constantly acquiring more knowledge and developing and becoming more successful and going faster. But often we do it without our captain. Without one to guide us. Without wisdom.
Solomon was right. Before any of these other glorious things: Seek God and get God's direction, and than you will go the right way. In other words, rather than narrowing our horizons, we're living in a world that needs to broaden them with a practical view of life based on the wisdom of almighty God. The wisdom that comes from the Word. The wisdom that comes through worship. The wisdom that comes through prayer.
Having said that, Solomon was by no means perfect. Indeed, Solomon, having started on the path of wisdom, having acquired knowledge, became so full of himself, so wrapped up in his own ability that he forgot the way of God. He lost sight of the signpost and of the captain. So much so, that Solomon took unto himself many different wives when monogamy was what God intended for His people.
Here is a man who decided, after having started by worshipping God, to worship other foreign deities from other lands so he might appear sophisticated and have friendships with other nations. Here was a man who, after having built great temples and wonderful cities and magnificent walls and fortresses, imposed such high taxes on the people that they weren't able to pay them and caused the people to live in debt. Here was a man who, because of his own seduction by power in making a once small nation cosmopolitan had caused it to lose its identity and caused division in the land. Here was a man who, because he was trying to build beyond his ability to do so properly, had forced labour and made people work for a pittance. Here was a man who had started out wise but, because of his own self-aggrandizement, had become a fool.
So often, my friends, we may start out seeking wisdom and knowledge. We might say to God that we want our lives to conform to His image, but unless we make God a part of our lives, unless we check in with Him daily then it is so easy to become seduced by our success like Solomon, and forget that God is our source. The good news, however, is that even when we do falter - and we all falter - even when we get wrapped up in ourselves, God can still by grace use us.
There is a wonderful line in the Book of James: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given.” You see, God can use even that which is imperfect and by virtue of His wisdom make it something beautiful.
There is an old Indian parable that goes back hundreds of years of a servant who was taking water from the river to the master's house in two pots. He had a stick across his back with one pot on each end. For two years he carried water from the river to the master's house. The only problem was that one of the pots was cracked. The pot that wasn't cracked started bragging about the fact that he'd been able to bring water to the master faithfully and without any problems. But the cracked pot did not feel so cocky. The cracked pot said to the servant, “I am sorry that I have spilt so much water through my crack. I am sorry that I have not been faithful to you and you have carried water in me and I have spilled so much. I am sorry.”
The servant said, “There is no need for you to apologize. Have you noticed how many beautiful flowers there are in the master's house?”
The cracked pot said, “Yes, I've noticed those flowers.”
So the servant said, “Well, I'll tell you where they came from. You see down one side of the road we've walked there are all these flowers?”
The cracked pot said, “Yes, I've seen them.”
The servant said, “What I did was plant seeds on that side of the road. But it was because of the water that you spilled through your crack that those seeds grew and turned into beautiful flowers. When you thought you were no good, when you thought you were contributing nothing, you were making something beautiful, according to my plan.”
That is the wisdom and the power of God who, like that servant, takes us - cracked pots - people whose lives are often broken, not living up to the mark, a bit like Solomon. But if we ask, if we seek, it is God who is the source of wisdom, not us. It is God who can use us for His purposes. It is God who is the source and if we will but broaden our horizons, if we will but ask for knowledge, God will make things beautiful through us. Thanks be to God. Thanks be for Solomon. Thanks be for wisdom. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.