Baptismal Wisdom: A Sermon for Ordinary Time, Proper 12

Our four-year-old son Julian is going through a vivid dream phrase right now. This past week, the night before his first day at the Tree House Summer Day Camp, Julian was incredibly excited. The next morning, he woke up telling us about his “camp dream.” He dreamt that he went camping outside in the snow, so when he got dressed for summer day camp, he put on a stocking cap and mittens. It was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen! When Emily and I reminded him that we are in Florida, and that is summertime, and that Summer Camp was going to be…summer camp, he didn’t budge. He wore that stocking cap and those mittens to camp, and his teacher told me that he kept it on for 30 minutes before finally taking them off. 

The dream that Solomon had in our reading this morning was much different from Julian’s dream. At this point in his life, my guess is that Julian is perfectly satisfied with exciting, adventurous camping dreams. But at this point in my life, oh how I long for the day that God appears to me in a dream like he did to Solomon. If and when that day comes, I hope I am as prepared for the encounter as Solomon was. 

When God appeared to the young King Solomon and asked him what he wanted from God, Solomon’s response was shockingly mature, and, well, wise: “Give your servant…an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” Solomon’s response was spot-on – so much so that God granted him “a wise and discerning mind.”

What if all of those throughout the world who are in positions of leadership would first and foremost seek to have “an understanding mind to govern people, able to discern between good and evil.” 

Now when I quote this passage, the word “govern” likely steers our minds to our local, statewide, and national governments. And that makes sense –this pandemic has put our government in the forefront of the news, and election season is upon us. Some of us are pleased with how our political leaders are governing right now, and some of us are not. I’m certainly not able to settle this debate here, nor would it be wise for me to even try. But I’d like to take a deeper look at the word “govern” as we find it in our passage today.

The King James Version translates it as “judge,” as in, “Give your servant…an understanding mind to judge your people, for who can judge this your great people?” Of course, in ancient Israel to serve as the “judge” over nation is very different than how we understand that term today. 

On the opposite end of the translation spectrum, Eugene Peterson’s paraphrased translation of the Bible –The Message – translates verse 9 of our passage this way: “Here’s what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is capable of leading your glorious people?”

I like Peterson’s choice to use the word “lead” here instead of “judge” or “govern” – it broadens the implications of the Solomon’s request. As your rector, I am not called to govern you - I am called to lead you. Church vestries have governance responsibilities, but the most effective vestries are those that operate primarily within the paradigm of leadership rather than governance. As the old saying goes, “The minute you start quoting Canon Law or Church by-laws to parishioners, is the minute that you’ve lost them.” Those of us who have been chosen to lead our parish as clergy and lay leaders have been given a great responsibility. And during this terribly challenging time, how we lead is critically important. I imagine that if you feel faithfully led by the vestry and me, you are more likely to join with us as we navigate this challenging time together. If you feel governed by us, well, perhaps not so much.

But each of us, through our baptisms, are called to be leaders in our churches and communities. The baptismal covenant is grounded in our own commitment to take responsibility for living our baptismal lives as members of the Body of Christ. As such, through our baptisms, we are all, in a sense, priests and thus leaders in Christ’s Church. Martin Luther called this priestly baptismal identity the “priesthood of all believers.” Remember, baptism isn’t just a washing…it is a literal anointing with oil on the forehead, just as Kings David and Solomon were literally anointed with oil back in the day. We are all anointed as leaders in Christ’s Church. Of course, we are unable to faithfully live in to this anointed calling without the power of the Holy Spirit. Our priesthood is not based on how good we are, but how good God is. It all begins with God’s grace, mercy, and love. Our leadership in Christ’s Church is simply our faithful response to God’s grace-filled action.

As baptized leaders in Christ’s Body and in the world, we would do well to use Solomon’s dream as our playbook for wise and faithful leadership. If God were to appear to me and say, “Ask what I should give you,” I’d love to think that I’d answer how Solomon did. But in all reality, I’m afraid to say that I might start out with a whole host of things that I want for my family and me. Or maybe I’d be selfless enough to first ask for an end to this pandemic and World Peace. I’d probably squeeze in a National Championship for the Florida State basketball team before coach Leonard Hamilton retires, and an endless list of other relatively not-so-important things. It would really depend on when I was asked. But, if God is asking, why not make the list as long as possible? But this response is why I will never be confused with Solomon – the one about whom God said, “no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.” 

When Solomon responded to God’s gracious question, notice that he started with gratitude to God for all that God had done not to Solomon, but to Solomon’s father, David. Solomon – the archetype of wisdom – started with gratitude, not a wish list.  

The next part of Solomon’s response was a continuation of his gratitude to God - but this time for what God had done for him personally. Solomon wisely recognized that his exalted position as King of Israel wasn’t based on what Solomon had done but rather what God had done. 

Next, Solomon responds to God’s offer of a lifetime with humility, as well as a remarkable self-awareness of his own limitations – “I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.” Scholars tend to agree that Solomon wasn’t literally a child in this passage, but that he rather was humbly likening himself to a child with regard to how qualified he felt to be the King of Israel. How sad is it that if a leader today admitted to feeling un- or underqualified for a job, he or she would be considered weak or incompetent? I’ll be the first to admit that I am not fully qualified to serve as the rector of a church – and if you ask me in 10 years I’ll say the same thing. I’ll never be fully qualified for a position such as this. But that is why we clergy have lay leaders to journey with us. If you think about it, on a larger scale, who is really fully qualified to be King of Israel, President of the United States, or even a baptized Christian for that matter? The minute we claim to be fully qualified is the minute we are unknowingly admitting our lack of qualification.

The grateful, humble Solomon indeed was also deeply wise, and his wisdom led to his gratitude and humility, and vice versa. It seems to be that those who are wise are always seeking to grow their wisdom. Ironically, those who tend to be most effective in positions of power or authority are those who don’t even seek power. Nelson Mandela is who comes to my mind in that regard. Those who are most ambitious for power tend to be those who lack gratitude and humility, and thus they lack wisdom. Or as the saying goes, “Beware of those who are dying to go to seminary, or those who are dying to serve on the vestry.” 

When God offered Solomon the anything in world, Solomon simply asked for the wisdom to be an effective, faithful leader. He didn’t ask for power, or even knowledge. He simply asked for God’s wisdom to be channeled through him as God’s chosen leader. 

This is one of those Sundays that is really hard not to just make the sermon about myself. Because I think this passage from 1 Kings should probably framed and hung on every Rector’s office wall. It certainly has been a fruitful message for me to engage with this week. But I think that this message is for all of us…and that is because I have a really high theology of baptism. I truly believe that with our baptisms comes the responsibility for all of us to seek a life of wisdom, so that we may better discern good from evil. We are called to hold our baptismal identity and vocations in a healthy balance between joy and gratitude on the one hand and fear and trembling on the other. We are called to live our baptismal lives grounded in gratitude and humility, always seeking the wisdom from above. Imagine our world if all Christians lived this way. Imagine our world if all Christians led this way. Imagine our world if all Christians loved this way.