They
say you should be careful what you wish for.
When the Lord appeared to Solomon and asked what he should give him as a
new king, Solomon replied, wisdom. It
was a clever answer, indeed a wise one, because he was able to hear the
question for what it was, not ‘what do you want most?’ but ‘what do you need
most?’ You no doubt want what most
people crave: wealth, success, a long life.
And if you were a king in the ancient world, those things counted, for
they were signs that the gods had bestowed their favour. But Solomon knew that they were not
enough. What he needed if he was to be a
good king was altogether more precious and more rare, a quality of character
marked by insight, understanding, discernment, reverence for life, love of
God. All this the Bible calls wisdom.
If
you adopted a suspicious reading of this text, you might think that Solomon was
simply saying what God wanted to hear, and that if he played the game and gave
the right answer he might get the other things he wanted as well, as indeed he
did. Someone as complex as Solomon would
certainly be capable of acting out of motives unknown even to himself. In his later life he fell in love with the
lifestyle of an ancient near eastern potentate. The seductions of riches,
power, ostentation, slavery and sex show how capable he was of being corrupted.
Don’t think any of us is immune. ‘Let those who think they stand take care lest
they fall’. And yet…. How appealing is
this story of the young winsome king at the dawn of his reign, so eager to
please God, so willing to do the right thing, so humble in accepting that he
knew nothing and had everything to learn.
It was the best moment of his life.
Despite his fame and fortune in later years, he was never richer than he
was that night when he had a dream, and God called to him, and he knew what he
must ask for.
We
are privileged today to be with these ten good people as they are ordained
priest. They start out like Solomon did, both excited and daunted by what lies
ahead. This story says so much that is important about office-holding, standing
for God in public, making sure that our motives are pure and our vision bright
and that at the heart of it all is a sense that we are accountable to God whose
work this ultimately is. It’s more than
forty years since I was ordained priest. I shall never forget the holiness of
that summer, the expectancy and privilege I felt as I offered my life
surrounded by those who loved me and were praying for me. The memories have sustained me all these
years, reminded me what I must live up to, encouraged me to persevere when
times have been hard. Like Solomon, I knew I was not ready for this awesome
task, never would be unless God gave what only God can give: wisdom, understanding,
strength and the capacity to love.
In the past few days I’ve been immensely
glad to spend time in retreat with the ordinands. We've been reflecting on the
beautiful hymn to the Holy Spirit we shall shortly sing together as the
ordination prayer begins, Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire. It was
written by a seventeenth century Bishop of Durham, John Cosin and has been sung
at ordinations ever since his time. We’ve explores some of the themes in these
verses: vocation and illumination, protection and resilience in public
ministry, and how we do love’s work in our witness to the gospel, leading the
church’s praise, caring for those in pain, and reaching out to the world. All
this they do in God’s name. So it's right that the hymn ends with the prayer Teach
us to know. The focus is God himself, because to know God and love him is
what we were made for. It’s the basis of all life, all faith, all ministry. So
our prayer that these new priests may have Solomon’s wise and understanding
mind comes down to this: that they may know and love and glorify and find joy
in God whom we worship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Like
Solomon, our ordinands have dreams, and why shouldn’t they on this great day in
their lives? What will they ask for in their dreams? Will it be success, being
popular and admired, well spoken of, having a life free of conflict and
hostility? They wouldn’t be human if they did not recognise that ministry would
be a lot easier and trouble-free if only it were like that.
But
the story of Solomon speaks of desires that are more grown-up than the wish
list we put to fairy godmothers. “Give
me a wise and understanding mind.” Which means being aware of what God wants
for the world and for human beings, all that will make for our reconciliation
and flourishing, our healing and our happiness. One way of seeing ordained
ministry is that it lives out this quest to be wise, to be a seeker after
truth, in a public way. Solomon’s wisdom was not given to him for his private
use. It was so that his whole people
could become wise too, and God’s wisdom be known to the ends of the earth. Teach us to know will be the prayer we
sing for our new priests as they kneel at this most solemn moment of their
lives.
But
we ask it for ourselves too, and on behalf of many others in our world. So pray
that our priests may always want to know God so that they can prompt us in turn
to feel after God and find him. Pray that they may touch human need so that we
stand together in Christ’s name close to those who are poor or helpless or in
pain. Pray that they may bear witness to God’s goodness in a way that brings
good news to people far and wide. Pray that they may lead us in word and
sacrament to praise God "for our creation, preservation and all the blessings of
this life, but above all for his inestimable love in the redemption of the
world by our Lord Jesus Christ".
And pray that they may imitate
Christ himself. Because in the New Testament, it is Christ is the wisdom of God, embodied in our midst, the one who came to bring to the world his light and life. So our dream is simply to be as he was and do
as he did, anointed by the Spirit who came upon him: glorifying his Father,
speaking words of grace, praying for his people, healing the sick, serving the
poor, announcing the kingdom of heaven, laying down his life for his friends.
Yes, it is so easy to say and so hard to do.
Yet he comes to us, as God came to Solomon, and asks us what we most
need if we are to be obedient to his call.
And he longs to hear us say, as we long to hear ourselves say in our
best moments, ‘Lord, I am only a child. I do not know how to go out or to come
in. Give your servant therefore a wise and understanding mind’. And with it, the gifts to lead and serve, and
a heart to love.
1 Kings 3.3-15
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