Sermon: Solomon's Guide to Prayer (May 28, 2016)

Pentecost 2C
May 29, 2016

1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43

            This past week we had our final class of confirmation for the year, a year we spent learning about the Bible. As a competitive recap of the year, we played Bible jeopardy, pitting family against family in a battle for the coveted Yolickity gift card. You can imagine, intensity was high. The final round of the game was essay questions. The families were to respond to one of three questions: 1) Do we still need the Old Testament? 2) Do prophets still exist? Or, 3) Is the Bible true, fact, neither, or both? What’s the difference?

            Half of the families chose to answer the first question: do we still need the Old Testament? And, I am pleased to report, everyone answered that yes, we do need the Old Testament, and gave very good answers about why, generally saying that the story of faith is a continuous one that starts long before Jesus, so we need the Old Testament to help us better understand our faith and who Jesus is and why we need him – just like knowing the story of your childhood might help someone better understand who you are today and why.

            So in light of the conviction of our confirmation class, I’m going to preach today on 1 Kings, because here we have an Old Testament passage that can teach us a lot about our Christian faith. Also, this is a passage about Solomon, who was one of the “good” kings of Israel, the son of the famous King David, and for those who are participating in our year-long journey reading through the entire Bible, we just happen to be in the midst of Solomon’s story right now.

            So first, a little background on who Solomon is: He was, as I said, King David’s son. Though

King Solomon

not David’s oldest son, he was the one that God appointed to be the king of Israel. Solomon proved his worthiness for the role when, in a dream, he told God that what he wanted more than wealth and riches was the wisdom to govern God’s people. God was so impressed, he granted Solomon both wisdom and wealth – and so Solomon is known for his unmatched wisdom, which drew world leaders to come and sit at his feet, as well as his immense riches. Notably, especially for today’s reading, it was under Solomon’s reign that the first Jerusalem Temple was built – a place that was envisioned by his father David, but carried out by Solomon the builder. It was a place of splendor and beauty, ornate and impressive. Walls of cedar and cyprus, carvings overlayed with gold, huge sculptures of cherubim whose wings spread from one wall to the next. Here was a place that was worthy to hold God’s name, a place where God could be worshiped.

            After seven years, the Temple was finally completed. The final piece was to put in place the ark of the covenant, the box that the Israelites had carried with them for forty years in the wilderness that held the 10 Commandments, the sign of God’s covenant with God’s people. Until this moment, the ark of the covenant was what had represented for the people the very presence of God with them, which they had carried with them from place to place until they settled in the Promised Land. Now, finally, was a temple, which was worthy to hold God’s name, worthy to house the one true God. As the ark was brought into the Holy of Holies, the special room at the center of the Temple, a dark, thick cloud descended and God’s presence filled the temple. Can you imagine the drama, the hushed amazement as God took God’s place in the Temple? With all the people of Israel assembled there to witness this grand moment, the wise King Solomon lifted his hands to the heavens, and he prayed.

Solomon dedicates the Temple

And a part of this prayer is the text we heard a moment ago.

            I told you at the beginning of this sermon that we have something to learn from Solomon’s story. Well here is the first thing: the structure of prayer. You notice Solomon does not begin by asking God to be there, or by asking God to bless them and this place they had built for God to dwell. No, the first thing Solomon does is give thanks. He spends much more time doing this than we heard today – you see some verses are cut out from our reading. In these verses, Solomon spends some time recalling the amazing works of God, and all the ways God has brought them through trials and to this point.

Genuine prayers of thanksgiving can be such a powerful thing. In our morning prayer liturgy that we are currently using for Prayer First [on Wednesdays at Bethlehem], our time of open prayer is structured to first allow us time to offer prayers of thanksgiving. Before we start asking God for anything and naming what we lack and what we need, we take a moment to look around, reflect on life, and just be grateful. This week has been a tough one at my house, partly because my entire family is sick and exhausted from the colorful array of sickness Grace brings home from daycare. But there were a couple of times this week, times when I was at my weakest, when I had an opportunity to name aloud something I am deeply grateful for… and in doing so I was completely overcome to the point of tears. Gratitude can have that power – it reminds us of how good our God is to give us so much good in life, and moves us ever to praise.

After Solomon has given due time to thanking and praising God, he moves in his beautiful dedication prayer for the Temple to a time of petition – asking that this would be a place where the people truly would know and encounter God, where God would hear their prayers and respond. He prays for the people of Israel – but then, remarkably, he gets to this part of the prayer that we hear in our reading today, in which he prays for foreigners, “who are not of your people.” He prays that even these people, these people who are outsiders, who might have been dismissed or forgotten, who certainly aren’t cared for, who may even be their enemies – even these people would have their prayers heard by God. Solomon prays that they, too, would have their needs met by the God of Israel, that they, too, would know the love, mercy, and compassion of God.

And here we have another important lesson in faith. This opportunity – to pray for our enemies – is a central one in the Christian faith, as well, one that Jesus preached and demonstrated regularly. In fact, even in our Gospel lesson today, Jesus shows compassion to an enemy, and outsider, when he heals the beloved slave of a centurion – a centurion who, as a Roman, was a part of

the group that was occupying and oppressing Israel. He was the very definition of enemy! But Jesus shows us that God’s love does not discriminate, and so, as people baptized into the resurrection of Christ, neither does our love and prayer discriminate between friend and enemy.

What does that look like, today? Perhaps it looks like praying for all the people of Syria – the innocent victims of ISIS as well as the members of ISIS and all those who perpetuate unthinkable violence. What might that prayer look like?

Perhaps it looks like praying for each remaining presidential candidate by name – both those you agree with and those you don’t. What might that prayer look like?

Perhaps, as we as a synod are studying issues around racism and mass incarceration, our prayers are for those who are victims of crime, as well as those who have committed crimes, as well as those who are unrightfully convicted of crimes, and those who convicted them, and those whose lives were ruined as a result of that conviction, whether rightful or not. What would it look like to pray for a drug dealer and for his family, or for someone caught in the crossfire of an unjust justice system?

The model of prayer that wise King Solomon offers us here is a life-giving model. It helps us to focus on God’s faithfulness and mercy, both today and throughout the generations of the faithful. It invites us to recognize just how amazing our God is. It invites us to listen for God’s call to reach out to the proverbial “foreigner” – those we would have dismissed, or whom we dislike or disagree with, or who have or want to hurt us – and pray for their well-being and spiritual health as well. It is not an easy call that Solomon demonstrates – no easier than the call that Jesus also issues. Thanks be to God that we are not in it alone. We have generations of faithful people behind us and generations before, we have our current church community holding and helping us, and most of all, we have the promise of a God whose love, forgiveness, mercy and compassion, extend to us, and to all, each and every day.

Let us pray… O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart. We pray for all those for whom we find it difficult to pray – the foreigner, the stranger, the bully, the people we don’t understand, the people we disagree with, the people who challenge us – that they would all know and experience you and your love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.