Christ Episcopal Church
August 19, 2012
15 Proper B
We spend a lot of our time at Christ Church thinking about how we can make a difference in our community. Just this summer, we have hosted Reading Camp for children who have just finished second grade and struggle to read. On Christmas in July, we gather socks and underwear as gifts for the baby Jesus and children in Springfield without such basic items. And now we prepare for our annual Neighborhood Fair on Saturday-our gift to the neighborhood as we invite our neighbors for a free afternoon of games, prizes, food, and other activities. And August is our month to serve at the Rainbow Table, our ecumenical hot lunch on Fridays, and the Food Pantry operates every Wednesday all year long. Outreach and making a difference in our community are the foci of our live together at Christ Church and we would have it no other way.
Some weeks, however, like this one, our focus turns to serving each other, which is also an important part of our life together. There has been much to do this week with two funerals with receptions and one marriage blessing and reception, and several people sick and in need of care. And we have risen to the challenge. Not once this week have I asked anyone to do something and gotten "no" for an answer, and Sally Schwartz and I have done a LOT of asking. Just as with our outreach ministries, those who can bake have baked, those who can organize have organized, those who can comfort have comforted, those who can visit have visited, and on and on. When we all do what we can do, great things happen in this place.
And so, I have to confess that I stand here this morning on the brink of sinful pride at the way this church has come together to take care of each other this week. But the reading from I Kings keeps us humble. In that reading, we watch as God appears to Solomon in a dream and says "Ask what I should give you." Solomon does not ask for riches or power, but instead asks for an understanding mind and the ability to discern good from evil. God does as Solomon asks and Solomon is known through out history for his great wisdom.
But for some reason, the lectionary leaves out the two verses prior to our reading. In those verses, Solomon makes a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and he marries Pharaoh’s daughter. He finishes building his own house before building God’s house, which means the people had to make their sacrifices at the high places, the places of pagan worship, since they had no temple of their own. We are told that Solomon, too, sacrificed at the high places. Despite these actions that are most certainly not pleasing to God, God grants Solomon’s request for an understanding mind and the ability to discern good from evil. God goes even further and gives Solomon such riches and honor that no other king shall compare to Solomon. All of this seems rather odd, since we have jut been told that Solomon has done things that are despicable to God. God seems to have a bit of selective memory this morning!
God’s selective memory does not just apply to Solomon, however. We also hear God say about King David, Solomon’s father "If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life."
What part of the lectionary over the last few weeks has God forgotten? We have heard all about David’s affair with Bathsheba, how David tried to trick Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, so that the child she conceived with David would look to be the child of her husband. We have heard how, when that plan failed, David had Uriah sent to the front lines of battle where he would no doubt be killed, and he was. And we heard of God’s anger at David and that God’s punishment of David would be visited upon his family yet unborn. David had done what is evil in the sight of God. Now we hear God say that David kept God’s statutes and commandments?
What are we to make of this bit of selective memory on God’s part?
I don’t know the correct answer to that question. However, I do see two helpful themes here as we think about our own work in the world and in this place. First, God obviously does not mind using flawed people to accomplish great things. In fact, God seems to seek them out. This is good news. David and Solomon were not perfect but they did love God, and that seems to be the real criteria for use by God. So, on the one hand, we know that God will use us despite our imperfections. On the other hand, our imperfections are no excuse for avoiding the work God has given us to do.
Secondly, God appears to Solomon in a dream. God asks Solomon what God should give him. God gives Solomon the wisdom for which Solomon is known. God gives Solomon the riches and honor Solomon enjoyed. God is the chief actor in this story, just as God is the chief actor in our individual stories and the story of our life together.
What we accomplish at Christ Church, both in our work to make a difference in the community and in our work to care for each other, is only possible because God uses imperfect people, us, to make a difference. David and Solomon are not role models for our actions, but they are role models of people who are open to God and are willing to offer themselves to God and let God work though them despite their imperfections. Realizing who works through us and whose work we do will keep us humble and focused as we seek to make a difference in the lives of each other and in the community.
Amen.
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