Ephesians 5:15-20; I Kings 3:3-14 The Essentials of Wisdom 8 19 18

More than 1000 years before the birth of Jesus, King David ruled in Israel.
You will remember this Biblical leader as the one who lusted after his neighbor’s
wife, Bathsheba, and sent the man to die in battle so he could take her as his
own. Ultimately, he gained insight into his wrongdoing and confessed his sins.
The first child of David and Bathsheba died in infancy. Their second child,
Solomon, became the next king. I wish I could say that Solomon rose to his role as
monarch because of his wisdom. It is probaybly more accurate to say that
Solomon was cunning and shrewd. He either killed off his competition to the
throne, or put them under house arrest. In this passage of I Kings, he refers to
himself as a child, but he was 30 years old at the time he came to power.
I Kings 3:3-14 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father
David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. The king went to
Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to
offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to
Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your
servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in
righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him
this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne
today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my
father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or
come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a
great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your

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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 pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because
you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the
life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is
right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning
mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after
you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life;
no other king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my
statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will
lengthen your life.”
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of God lasts forever.

If only it were as simple as asking God for wisdom! Imagine the state of the
nation and the world if we were granted the gift of discerning what is the right
thing to do simply by asking for it. We might assume that the wise people we
know were born that way, rather than attaining wisdom along the way.
We learned yesterday that former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, died
at the age of 80. Annan was a man of wisdom and a global leader committed to
education, affirming the dignity of all people, and working toward a more
peaceful world. Mr. Annan’s impact on the planet came in the form of advocacy
for the people of Rwanda, economic opportunity through the advancement of
women in society, and a presence of strength and solidarity. He was a man of
action, not content to engage in endless discussion. He said, To live is to choose.
But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where

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you want to go and why you want to get there.1 Kofi Annan’s message of choice
was based on integrity, and served as the cornerstone of his wisdom.
For those of us who are just regular folks, we may not have been born with
wisdom, nor granted the gift of discernment from God, nor found a way to make
choices based on personal integrity. For you and me, we start at the very
beginning (a very good place to start).
The first essential element of wisdom comes from the Psalm in our Call to
Worship this morning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It bears
repeating that when the Psalmist says, “fear” of the Lord, it is not an
admonishment to be scared of God. Yes, God’s power is scary, but the fear of the
Lord in this instance is more the awe of God, or the reverence. The beginning of
wisdom is the acknowledgement of the grandeur of our Creator. The Psalm
enumerates the qualities of God’s honor, majesty, justice, faithfulness,
trustworthiness and righteousness. In order to gain wisdom in our own
decisionmaking, we start in humility.
When we are humble before God, we are saying “I KNOW that I’m not all
that,” and we really mean it. False humility does not lead to discerning what is
right. We are encouraged to practice our understanding of who God is and what
God does, so that we are fully cognizant of our place in the scheme of things. The
ability to say and believe “It’s not about me,” is essential to developing wisdom in
our lives.
It could very well be that when Solomon approached God saying, “I am only
a child,” he meant that he was childish in his self-centeredness; he was focused

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https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/kofi_annan
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on everything being about him, rather than using his authority and decision-
making abilities for the good of others/ for the good of neighbor.
This turning point may have come at the moment God asks Solomon what
he wants to receive. Up to that moment, King Solomon was focused on making
thousands of sacrifices to God – it was all about what he was doing. When God
spoke and said, “Ask what I should give you,” it was a wake-up call. “It’s not
about what you are doing, Solomon, it is about what I the Lord your God, am
doing. I am the giver of all things, not you.” This moment of humility, the fear of
the Lord, was the beginning of Solomon’s true wisdom.
The second essential of wisdom is intentionality. This is where we expand
our perspective to include the teaching of the New Testament. The first line of
the Ephesians passage that Barb read this morning says, “Be careful then how you
live, not as unwise people but as wise.” It sounds like the command: Just Do
It. Or, Snap out of it! If drinking leads you to foolish behavior, don’t drink. It is a
very matter-of-fact approach. When you and I are faced with decisions, especially
decisions that directly impact others, as people of faith striving to be wise, we do
not have the luxury of making decisions thoughtlessly. In the process of
developing wise ways, our choices need to be thoughtful, carefully considered –
intentional. That may mean taking time, or not making decisions right away. It
may mean saying, “I need to think about that,” rather than making a quick choice
that is not grounded in what Kofi Annan called the knowledge of who you are and
what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.2
Intentionality also includes consultation. We are created to be
interconnected with others. It is how we are wired socially, physically and

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Ibid.
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spiritually. None of us lives in complete isolation, so our processes of
discernment, to be wise, are also in relationship. We cannot govern ourselves -
we need to create intentional systems of checks and balances, systems of equity
and justice, and communities of care so that we have feedback about our
discernment and adjudication.
The essentials of wisdom include the fear of the Lord, intentionality and,
finally, Spirit. Ephesians guides us: be filled with the Spirit… giving thanks to
God.” I love the fact that it includes singing spiritual songs AND singing in your
heart. You don’t have to be a singer to sing to God! You can sing and make
melody to God in your heart. To have spirit is not limited to artistic expression, it
includes having passion, commitment, joy, imagination and peace. It is the heart
of wisdom – the inner grace needed to serve others.
King Solomon learned a lot once he opened himself to receive God’s
wisdom. Famously, he served as judge for two women who had both recently
given birth. One woman’s baby died in the night, and she switched her child for
the other woman’s living child. In the morning, the woman knew her living baby
was in the arms of the other woman, so they came to Solomon for a decision.
Solomon called for a sword. He said, we will divide the child in half, and raised
the sword. The mother of the child said, No! Let her have the baby. The mother
who stole the child said, Yes! Neither of us will have the baby. Solomon gave the
child to the one willing to give the child away so that it could survive, pronouncing
that the true mother would make that choice. Solomon, whose name comes
from the same root as the word Shalom/ Peace & Wholeness/ brought wholeness
for all because he knew that the mother’s compassion, her spirit, her heart, would
guide the day.

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I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the
leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take
the lead and make the leaders follow. Kofi Annan

Ephesians 5:15-20
Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most
of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what
the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be
filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among
yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to
God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.