It's not about being right: Sept 22

Year B, Pentecost 22                                      James 3:13-4:3; 7-8a                                                                                     

                I often hear people bemoan the current political discourse and long for those days of the past when people were more dignified and kind.  I would agree that what we have experienced lately has been toxic, immature, and at times cruel and irresponsible.  I was a political science major in college and have always followed campaigns closely, even as a teenager.   They seemed more civilized back then. I saw a clip recently of a candidate from several election cycles ago respond to someone who said they were scared of what would happen if the other person won.  This candidate defended his opponent and said he was a decent person and not someone to be feared.  Given that fear mongering has become an Olympic sport in our politics today, that response was astonishing to hear now.

Being in the church where our founding fathers worshipped, I hear people occasionally hypothesize what those same founding fathers would think of our current political climate. The assumption of course is that they would be horrified. As a result, I have read a bit about their rhetoric and it wasn’t always as kind and dignified as we might imagine. 

The first contested election was between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.  At the time, candidates couldn’t campaign directly, but they had others who campaigned for them. Apparently Jefferson’s people accused Adams of wanting to be a king and create a dynasty so that his son could succeed him and then nicknamed Adams “his rotundity.”  Adam’s people said that Jefferson would promote incest, adultery and prostitution.  They also spread the rumors of Jefferson’s affair with a woman he enslaved.  There were many other insults that would not be appropriate for church.  I fear that even our founding fathers, who we treat with reverence (perhaps too much reverence) were not always careful with their words.

We have been reading the book of James for 4 weeks and this is our 2^nd week on chapter 3.  In the first half of the chapter, James spoke of the power of the tongue—how such a small part of the body can do so much damage.  The author compared the tongue to a fire, a fire that cannot be tamed.  He wrote, ^“but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God…” It seems hopeless, does it not? If it is impossible to tame (as it would seem in these verses), then what are we to do about it?  Perhaps we can’t even blame those people who speak carelessly or even purposefully hurt others with their words.  They just can’t control their tongue.

Our reading for this Sunday picks up where we left off, but there is a shift.  James is no longer talking about the uncontrollable tongue, but instead, the focus is on wisdom.  You see wisdom is what controls the tongue. It is what is inside you that affects what comes out of our mouth. He then differentiates the wisdom from above versus earthly wisdom.  Earthly wisdom is associated with envy and self ambition. God’s wisdom, the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy…without a trace of partiality and hypocrisy.  Can you imagine how different our world would be if our decisions, our actions and yes, our words—were infused with that kind of wisdom?

I was struck by the words peaceable, gentle, willing to yield.  So often, when we are convinced that we are right (which we so often are) we feel that we have to be forceful with the truth, perhaps even get a little louder—because we have truth on our side.  Why would we yield if we knew that we were right?

          When James differentiates between the wisdom from above and earthly wisdom, it’s natural to assume he’s talking about facts---what is right and what is wrong.  If we are guided by God’s wisdom, then we would know that we are right, that we have the truth on our side. We could be confident in those words and choices—like so many are.

I am not sure it’s about what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false.  When James speaks of wisdom, it’s about mercy, gentleness, peace, and righteousness.  It’s more about the way we interact with people that actually displays wisdom and understanding rather than what arguments we win. If we are willing to yield and meet someone half way, we might not always get our way, but we might accomplish something that would otherwise be impossible when we are so entrenched in our conviction of what is right.  When we can listen to the wisdom of others, when we are not so fixated on what is right, then it’s amazing what we can actually learn from one another, the wisdom we can gain.    

          James says that if we are seeking the wisdom from above and living into that wisdom, then “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”  I talked about righteousness a few weeks ago and how we really don’t like that word very much because we associate it with self-righteousness.  At the time, I defined righteousness as being in right relationship with God and our neighbor.  I still stand by that.  However, when I was reading about this section of James, one commentator defined righteousness as: “living as though God were the determiner of who was worth loving and who wasn’t.”[1]   In other words, God is the one who gets to decide who is worth loving. 

That might sound way too obvious, but look at our Gospel reading. The disciples, the ones closest to Jesus, were arguing about who was the greatest.  We spend so much time in our nation, and in our church to a lesser degree, arguing about who is worthy.  Yet what God said over and over again, throughout the entire Bible, is that everyone is worthy of God’s love, and therefore our love.  We are not the arbiters of who deserves love and compassion. When we can admit that, then a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace, for those who make peace. You see peace doesn’t just come to us.  We have to create it.

It’s ok to have strong opinions and be passionate.  Strong opinions and passion can be incredibly motivating, especially when it leads us to positive action on behalf of another.  However, we could accomplish so much if we tried to emulate those characteristics of God’s wisdom—peaceful, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy.  That is what curates wisdom, not the act of being right.

We can critique our politicians (and many times we should) but given that they are never on the receiving end of my sermons, I wonder if we could start closer to home. We can start our pursuit of wisdom in our interactions at work, at school, in our families, with our friends, with others in church.  Those are places that also need peace, gentleness, mercy and some flexibility. And because many of us are tired, weary, and have a little decision fatigue—let’s remember what righteousness is. It’s living as though God were the determiner of who was worth loving—not us.  We do not get to make that decision. God already has.  God’s infinite wisdom has decided that we all are worthy of love and compassion. When we can see that and feel that—then we won’t need to worry as much about the words that are coming out of the mouths of others or ourselves.  All are worthy.

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[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/doers-of-the-word/seventeenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/seventeenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-preaching-notes

Happily Ever After: 1 Kings 3:5-12

Year A, Pentecost 8                                               July 26, 2020

 Early in the quarantine, we purchased Disney Plus.  Every Friday night is movie night and Joshua gets to pick out the movie.  Early on, he got obsessed with Peter Pan and we watched every iteration of Peter Pan you can imagine. I finally got him to watch Aladdin recently.  If you haven’t seen it, Aladdin is a poor young man who falls in love with a princess, but can’t marry her because he isn’t a prince.  Then he finds this lamp with a genie and gets to make a wish…any wish. He of course wishes to be a prince so that he can marry the princess.  Of course, that is not the end of the story, but you get the idea. 

 There is no genie in any of our readings for today, but God poses a genie like question to King Solomon in our Old Testament reading.  God comes to King Solomon in a dream and says, “Ask what I should give you.” It sounds too good to be true.  It must be a trick question.  God doesn’t usually give people this option.  It’s usually him deciding what we need or us asking for something and waiting for an answer.

            King Solomon doesn’t seem surprised by the question, maybe because it was a dream. Whenever a weird thing happens in a dream, it always seems totally logical.  Solomon started by praising God for his love and the way he treated his father, King David.  He praised God for keeping his promise to David and allowing Solomon, his son, to take the throne.  Then Solomon admitted that he was inexperienced and didn’t know very much—but he was given this big and important job.  It’s a nice little speech, especially for a dream. It almost sounds like he is buttering God up, preparing for a really big and outlandish request.  But then he comes out with this, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”  It’s not just wise, it’s also an extraordinary display of humility.

When most people tell the story of King Solomon and this request, they say that he asked for wisdom.  However a better translation of the Hebrew is “a listening heart.” He asked for a listening heart. He could have asked for anything: long life, a strong nation, vanquishing enemies, wealth…..  But no, he wanted a listening heart, so he could govern God’s people and know the difference between good and evil.  That is amazing, especially given the fact that he was probably 15 or 20 years old at the time.  How many of you would ask for a listening heart?  You get one request (not 3 like you would a genie).  Would you ask for that? I don’t think I would…maybe if I had just preached on this text, but otherwise, probably not.

Yet when I think about it, that would be really helpful. Having an understanding mind or a listening heart means that you are open to God’s divine direction.  There have been so many times in my life when if I just listened to God the first time, things would have gone so much more smoothly.  And if I had this wisdom, I would never be indecisive.  Every decision would be clear…at least that is the Disney version of wisdom.  I think in reality, it’s probably a little more complicated.

            We get a little more elaboration on this request when God reflects the question back to Solomon.  He is of course delighted that Solomon didn’t ask for success or wealth.  God responded, “but you have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right…” That is actually slightly different than what Solomon asked for.  If you go back to the Hebrew, you will find that the word God used---is justice.  God said, “You have asked to hear justice.”   I wonder if Solomon got a little more than he bargained for.  Wisdom is one thing.  Hearing justice, acting justly, is quite another.  It’s one thing to be a person who can dispense wisdom.  It is quite another to be a person who can hear the cries of the oppressed, hear the cries of the people who are being denied justice and then act on their behalf.  That is what God wanted of King Solomon; that is what he wanted of every ruler.  Think about it, if you could just pick one description of your perfect leader---what would be better than someone who hears justice, God’s justice?

            That was God’s gift to Solomon.  Solomon didn’t earn this from years doing the job.  It was a gift. Most of us do not have a direct line to God’s justice, although I think there are some who think they do.  But honestly, I am not sure any of us really wants that, because that would be a hard life. God’s justice is rarely the popular option.  It is not determined by public opinion polls.  Even King Solomon, who was given this amazing gift, ended up chasing false idols.  Even he failed to live up to God’s view of justice. 

Maybe until we are strong enough to be the hearers and carriers of God’s justice, perhaps we can go with that first request that King Solomon made, having a listening heart.  That means that we truly listen to God, which isn’t east.  Sometimes it is hard to determine if it’s God talking, or me just talking to myself. One way I have discerned God’s voice from my own is that if it’s easy, it’s probably me talking.  A good step toward a listening heart, is to listen to one another---specifically to those who disagree with you, or who you disagree with. 

Thankfully, there is no shortage of topics out there that people are disagreeing about right now.  Masks, schools opening, the protests, the upcoming elections, confederate monuments and memorials…just to name a few.  Or if you are not ready to wade into that rather choppy water, watch a different news station than normal.  If you usually watch Fox News, watch CNN---for a whole week! If you are devoted to the New York Times, read the National Review….for a whole week!  It sounds like a small thing, but it’s a start.   When God created us, he didn’t use a mold.  God’s intention was never for us to think exactly alike.  It seems to me, that the more children of God we listen to, the better we can listen to God, the better we can hear God’s justice.

I have enjoyed watching most of the Disney movies. It’s been a good escape and I think we have all needed a little escapism lately.  Yet I often find myself dreading the time when Joshua learns that the world is nothing like Disney.  It’s not always Happily Ever After.  Yet as Paul reminds us, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  That is one thing we have in common at St. John’s.  We all love God.  We want to work for his purpose.  So let’s listen to one another---because that will enable us to do the work God wants us to do.  There is a happily ever.  It’s not Disney.  It’s what Paul tells us, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers…. nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”