Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
August 16, 2009
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

Where Is Wisdom To Be Found?

What is wisdom, and where is it to be found?

These are pertinent questions in the face of media images of hysterical citizens interrupting discussions of health care reforms! “Birthers” insisting that President Obama was not born in Hawaii. Voting along strict party lines on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor instead of on the merits of her credentials. Sex scandals kept under wraps by Christian fundamentalists inside “the C Street House” in Washington.

What is wisdom, and where is it to be found?

Wisdom is broader than information. Wisdom is different from knowledge. Wisdom isn’t achieved by googling a question on the internet. Although wisdom may involve these.

Webster’s International Dictionary devotes three column inches to “wisdom:”

Among the definitions: “...the intelligent application of learning: ability to
discern inner qualities and essential relationships: insight,...”
And wisdom is more than what’s in one’s head, says Webster;
it “grows out of the temper or heart of a [person]
and not out of his [or her] intellect.”

In the ancient world, people sought wisdom, “a quality of mind . . . by virtue of which [one] is skilled and able to live well and both succeed and counsel success . . . existing ideally with God and imparting form to creation.”1 We have a good example of that in today’s lectionary text from 1 Kings, a passage that should be required reading for everyone in political life – a primer on leadership and governance.

Here’s the situation: King David has died, and his son Solomon is to be his successor. But Solomon is a young man and doesn’t feel up to the task. He goes to Gibeon to make sacrifices to God, and there God appears to him in a dream. In the dream Solomon confesses to God that he is like a little child, so confused he doesn’t know whether he is coming or going, that he doesn’t know the basics of how to govern, that he is overwhelmed by the task of being king to these people whom God has called, and he asks God,

“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?”

God is pleased with Solomon’s request and says to him,

“Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life [-- that is the death –] of your enemies, but have asked for your self understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; ...”

And then, to top it all off, God gives Solomon, too, what he has not asked for – riches and honor and a long life.

Because Solomon has wisdom, he gets it all.

Where is wisdom to be found today?

When I read the newspaper, I want to hold my head in my hands. What is happening to common sense? To concern for the common good? To honor and respect?

In a cartoon published in The Week, one man says to another, “Obama’s not president because he wasn’t born in the U.S. He was born in Hawaii!” The other replies, “But Hawaii became a state two years before his birth...,” to which the first responds, “All part of the conspiracy....”

Where is wisdom to be found?

This country has been discussing health care reform for 60 years – and has yet to provide universal health care for all Americans. Whom do you know who is without coverage? There are 46 million Americans, my son and daughter-in-law included, because they lost their jobs. What small businesses do you know that are laying people off or not hiring because they cannot afford the health insurance? How much money do you suppose is wasted on infrastructure and administration of our complex health care delivery system, funding that could go to treating people?

But the headlines scream, “President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!” because proposed legislation offers funding to counselors who will help seniors prepare living wills and medical directives – something all of us should have in our estate plans, something the AARP encourages along with the need for health care reform!

And lies are being spread about loss of choice in insurance options and rationing of benefits and bankruptcy. Thursday NPR covered a story about the millions of people in the U.K. who are rising up and emailing their satisfaction with their national health care system. And Friday there was an editorial in The Providence Journal written by a physician and health-policy analyst in Toronto, defending the Canadian health system. Of course, the health care system we develop here will need to be fashioned for us, as a companion to what already is in place, and need not be a carbon copy of other nations’ plans.

But dialogue seems to be stymied amidst fear-mongering, partisan politics, and corporate culpability. What is poisoning the debate? Perhaps a better question is, What is poisoning America? Is it racism with an African American in the White House? Is it greed by the insurance industry? Is it a power struggle for control? Is it fear of change that makes us vulnerable? Is it the media who are looking for trouble because trouble sells newspapers and ads? The New York Times on Friday attributed the source of resistance to health care reform to the same conservatives who killed President Clinton’s health care proposal 16 hears ago. They are still at it!

Where is wisdom to be found?

Solomon went to his house of worship, admitted his weakness in the face of the enormous responsibility resting on his shoulders, and asked – not for health and long life, not for power for himself, not for political advantage, not for riches and reputation – but only for the capacity to be a good leader, to be faithful to God’s word, for sufficient understanding to discern between good and evil, for the wisdom to care for his people.

Would such wisdom be found in this country today. Let us pray that it may be so!

Amen.

1. Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, pp. 852-3.