The Wisdom of Solomon

We have moved from 2 Samuel to 1 Kings this week. We are moving through the story of Solomon as the "wise" king. While David is considered the greatest king Israel has ever known. Solomon is considered the "wisest." I notice that there is a difference between greatness and wisdom. And I think we see it lived out in the differences between David and his son Solomon.

For example, Solomon built the temple of God before he built himself a palace. David built himself a palace and then thought about building God a temple (he never got around to it). Perhaps Solomon learns from his father’s mistakes and builds on his father’s successes—wisdom. It does seem to be true that Solomon was deeply intent on growing forth the faith life of the Hebrew people. Once that was in place, then he considered any personal needs or any personal grand goal—wisdom.

One of my mentors in ministry always asked as he was helping lead people in all matters “Where’s the wisdom in this or that?” I’ve never forgotten it. It is an important question as I live my life as a son, father, husband, friend, citizen, pastor, American, Caucasian with English and Irish roots. Where is the wisdom?

How do I get at wisdom in my life? How do you get at wisdom in your life? A good place to start is asking “what are our priorities? Do we put God first when planning our day or making decisions about how to spend our time and money? I have discovered that when I put God first in my life, my priorities are different than what they might be otherwise. Wisdom is found in this one fact: There is nothing more important than knowing the one who created me and saved me.

Remember the words of Jesus? “Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33) - Dr. Terry Walton, senior pastor

Looks A Lot Like Life to Me

I know that 2 Samuel’s story revolves around David’s triumphs and tragedies. But really—these final chapters need some kind of a directory to help us keep all of the players straight. Some of the story’s characters are larger than life. Some are seemingly insignificant. Some dominate the plot, and some are just acquaintances along the way. And the relationships inside and outside David’s family—what a mess! Who is on whose side? Who is deceiving whom? Whose counsel is to be believed? Who is a war with whom (and why)? Who loves and hates whom? Who is in power, and who is out of power? I found myself reading and re-reading and trying to make sense of it all.

And where is God while all of this is going on? Sometimes God is not even mentioned for pages.

Perhaps that is the point. David’s victories and catastrophes plunge us into the actual business of living itself. David’s life displays the human condition. He is God’s person (even God’s king), but David is a real person who lives a real life. His story doesn’t show us how we should live but in fact how we do live. In the process, 2 Samuel teaches that real daily life is the stuff God uses to work out his purposes of salvation in us and in the world.

Part of David’s closing prayer in 2 Samuel 22 (The Message) gives some perspective: But me he caught—reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos, the void in which I was drowning. They hit me while I was down, but God stuck by me. He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved—surprised to be loved! - Dr. Steve Winter, executive pastor

Seek God's 'Do-over'

Espionage, spies, intrigue, battles, kings, witches, prophets, rape, and promises made and broken ….it’s all there in this week’s readings. The stories told that sound more like the headlines of today’s papers than something you would expect to read in the Bible. 1 & 2 Samuel have shown us the best and the worst of King Saul and King David. We’ve witnessed acts of extravagant kindness, faith and bravery and acts of extreme cruelty, faithlessness and cowardliness.

Often when we hear the stories of the great characters of the Bible, we see them in the light of hero with a character that seems to have no blemish or fault; yet when we are willing to look a little deeper into their lives we see that they too make poor decisions, behave badly and seem to exhibit anything but Godly behavior. Perhaps that is why it is difficult to accept that our Sunday School heroes often stumbled and failed – we want to only see them in that light of goodness and greatness.

So what is there for us to see and learn from these stories, this quagmire of daily living that can easily disillusion us from these ones that, perhaps until these readings, we admired? Maybe it is this: that even in the midst of our "stuff" God is ever present….ever waiting to be called upon for guidance and help. In every venture, when God was called upon, God was present and ready to love and forgive. That forgiveness did not take away the consequences of some very poor and destructive choices, yet it allowed them to move forward with hope and renewed identify of children of God…with a fresh start from that moment forward.

Maybe our inability to conceive the depth of that kind of forgiveness from God is why we struggle to believe that God can truly forgive us. When we fail to live up to our expectations of what it means to be a Christian, how can God possibly forgive us? We live with idealized, often romantic, ideas of what it means to be a Christian in this world; ideas that are often not based on the reality of the messiness of life. We are hurt and we lash out causing more hurt, we compromise our values in small ways and later find ourselves in places or situations we never expected to be, we are disappointed in others and choose to never trust again. If there is one thing we can learn from this week’s readings, or from the Bible in its entirety, is that God never gives up on us and there is no limit to his forgiveness.

When I was a kid, we’d often have "do-overs" if things were going really badly or someone just needed a chance to try again. We’d stop the game and call "do-over" and it was if the previous pitch or hit never happened…..it was a fresh start. Maybe that’s what we need in all our lives – especially when it seems all our efforts are just taking us farther and farther from who and what God has called us to be. "Lord, I am so sorry, and I need your forgiveness." And God replies with a smile on his face, "Do-over!" - Kathy Lamon, pastor of Congregational Care and Older Adults

Hit the Pause Button

We are in the midst of a very important week – even more important than Spring Break!

It is Holy Week -the week in which we remember the last days of Jesus’ life. This is the week in which we remember God’s love and faithfulness in providing for us a Savior. This is a week in which we retell the story of God’s amazing and great love for all people revealed to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But this love story began when God, the Creator, first crafted humanity in His image. It is indeed a story of love that the Bible tells from beginning and into the future – a story of God’s pursuit of being in relationship with humanity.

And so it seems appropriate – that just for a moment you hit the pause button on your reading in the first book of Samuel and consider these Scripture verses that will help us remember once again the purpose and the meaning and the love through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. Romans 5:6-9

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. Ephesians 1:4-7

When they hurled their insults at Jesus, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." For "you were like sheep going astray," but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:23-25

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14

This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
　

Thanks be to God – for the gift of his Son Jesus Christ – through whom we receive the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. Amen. And Amen. - Wendy Cordova, pastor of Evangelism and Lay Ministry