1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Saint John 6:56-69
On election night 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to his New York townhouse. The incumbent, Herbert Hoover, had just conceded defeat. His son James helped him into bed and kissed him good night. His father looked up and said, “You know, Jimmy, all my life I have been afraid of one thing – fire. Tonight, I think I’m afraid of something else.”
James asked him what he was afraid of. “I’m just afraid that I may not have the strength to do this job.”
As Jimmy left the room, his father said to him, “After you leave me tonight, Jimmy, I’m going to pray. I’m going to pray that God will help me, that He will give me the strength and the guidance to do this job and do it right. I hope you will pray for me too, Jimmy.1
I find this quiet, personal, moment from John Dickerson’s book, The Hardest Job in the World, to be such a contrast to the usual way we think of President Roosevelt. We remember those pictures of him in motorcades with a broad smile on his face and a cigarette held at a jaunty angle. We think of his powerful words in his addresses to congress and his personal approach to his listeners during his fireside chats.
There is even a great image in Jon Meacham’s book, Franklin and Winston, of him sitting at a specially made bar to accommodate his disability, mixing drinks and entertaining friends making sure that everyone’s glass was full and that a good time was being had by all.
This is the Roosevelt we think of not the man doubting that he is going to be up to the task of being President and asking for prayer.
In our day, with an election not far away, we might wonder if that isn’t the best place, the only place, for someone who wished to govern a great nation to start. Maybe we would be a lot better off with leaders who instead of telling us how great they are, or how smart they are, or how popular they are, were so acutely aware of their own shortcomings that they knew they needed to turn to a higher power other than their own.
That is where King Solomon began, and he became legendary for his wisdom.
I love that Solomon starts with a little humility. He knows that he is ascending to the throne of his father David after his forty-year reign. We’ve spent a lot of time this summer dealing with King David’s shortcomings – and Lord knows there were many – but in the end, he was a dearly beloved king despite his failures. When David left this life and as the Bible so beautifully puts it and went to “rest with his ancestors” he had, what we would call, a very high approval rating.
Like Roosevelt, Solomon may have been afraid that he would not measure up and that his leadership abilities might fall short. So when the Lord appears to him in a dream and asks “what should I give you?” The question “presents both a challenge and an opportunity.”
How does one respond to such an open-ended possibility? We could think of the usual trappings of this world that people seek—money, power, status, acclaim, longevity. There is no indication that God has placed stipulations on what Solomon can request. Of course, the conversation between them reveals that Solomon is measured and balanced in his response. He is not thinking of mere personal gain... 2
His answer is amazing! He says in paraphrase:
“[H]ere I am: God, my God, you have made me, your servant, ruler of the kingdom in place of David my father. I’m too young for this, a mere child! I don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this job.”3
So, he prays: ”Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. For who by himself is able to carry such a heavy responsibility?”4
Solomon, renowned for his wisdom, is asking for God’s help and the help of his people.
What would we do if a candidate said that? Some of us would be delighted but the spin-doctors would be apoplectic. The opponents would have a field day while supporters might be trying to explain away the “little child” and “don’t know the ropes” part and emphasizing that their candidate knew his way around the ring as well as a full-grown, very bright, adult. Campaign managers would try to walk this back. They would tell us that he or she had, without a doubt, the most understanding heart in the world and that they already knew what was right and wrong.
Solomon was having none of that! He knew what he needed, and he knew where to get it. If he was going to be able to lead his people, he would need one thing: an understanding heart that came from his relationship with the LORD.
Biblical Scholar, Jana Childers noted: “An ideal king – and by extension an ideal nation – would be one that operates with a certain levelness or steadiness of focus and a certain humility.”5
“Leadership, be it governmental, religious, or otherwise, requires us to hold in tension humility and confidence, finitude and limitless capacity, the gifts we have and the gifts we have yet to acquire.”6
Those gifts can only be acquired if we listen to others. Not always being so quick to speak but willing to listen.
As former President Obama said the other night:
That sense of mutual respect has to be part of our message. [W]e need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices. And that if we want to win over {those who do not agree with us} we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process.7
Only listening to the sound of our own voice and clinging to the solidness of our own opinions can lead to trouble, deep trouble.
I have been reading an incredible book by Barbara Kingsolver called The Poisonwood Bible about a missionary named Nathan Price “a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family to the Belgium Congo in 1959. The Reverend Mr. Price is headstrong to say the least and in the process is putting his family and the village he is supposed to be serving through needless turmoil because he has strong convictions – in some cases – worthwhile convictions but he wants to force his ways upon others.
I remember Washington Post columnist, George F. Will, saying once: “The height of hubris is not knowing that you do not know.” The Reverend Mr. Price, does not know what he does not know.
So, he doesn’t bother the find out much about the village he lives in or listen to the stories of the people he is living with. He’s got his story and the Bible story and that is more than enough, thank you very much.
The struggle begins with his stubborn insistence that the people be baptized by immersion but since there is no font in the makeshift hut which serves as his church, he keeps insisting that they be baptized in the nearby river. Every Sunday he preaches about baptism and their need to be baptized in order to be saved and his congregation which only tops out at about a dozen or so attendees either just sits there or flees.
Even his daughter Adah notices. “Our Father could not seem to accept what seemed clear enough even to a child: when he showered the idea of baptism – baptiza – on people here, it shrunk them away like water on a witch.”8
Finally, a village elder appears at his door. Mama Tataba appears, and she is furious. She is hollering about a little girl from the village who was killed last year. “What happened to her?” one of his daughter’s, Leah, asks and then reports: “He did not look at me now, but stared off at the distance. ‘She got killed and eaten by a crocodile. They don’t let their children step foot in the river, ever. Not even to be washed in the Blood of the Lamb.’”9
The humility of Solomon can break down our might makes right and our loudest voices win systems. Solomon seemed to know that a little humility and a kind heart would make him a wise king.
As Dr. James D. Howell, observed in a lecture on humility in his series, “The Election, Your Spirituality, and the Soul of Our Nation.” “Humility listens. Humility honours. Humility is merciful with {other people’s} flaws. Humility defers. Jesus was renowned for his humility in action, word, and posture toward any and everyone. He was humble enough to be gentle and welcoming. The only people who got his dander up were the cocksure who felt anointed to judge others.”10
Perhaps the secret to such humility could be best expressed by one of my favourite equine philosophers, Mr. Ed, who followed a simple, humble, principal. For it was said of this wiser than most humans palomino: “Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say.”
Maybe exhibiting that kind of humility when times and Jesus asks hard things of us and we are tempted to go away will keep us humble. Maybe taking a moment to think before we speak would serve us well. Then, maybe when we do speak perhaps the only thing we will be able to say, the only thing we’ll want to say is: “Lord, to whom shall we go? For we have come to believe and are convinced that “you have the words of eternal life.”
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1. John Dickerson, “Pray for Me” in The Hardest Job in the World: the American Presidency (New York: Random House, 2020), p. ix-x.
2. Kyle Brooks, “Commentary on 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14,” Working Preacher, July 29, 2024, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-2/commentary-on-1-kings-210-12-33-14-6.
3. 1 Kings 3:7-8. (MESSAGE) [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2004).
4. 1 Kings 3:9. (TLB) [TLB= The Living Bible (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971]
5. Jana Childers, “Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (2020): pp. 175-177.
6. Cameron B. R. Howard, “Commentary on 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14,” Working Preacher, November 11, 2020, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20-2/commentary-on-1-kings-210-12-33-14.
7. “Transcript: Barack Obama’s Speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” The Seattle Medium, August 22, 2024, https://seattlemedium.com/kamala-harris-joe-biden-presidential-race/.
8. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2022), 73.
9. ibid., p. 81.
10. James D. Howell, “The Election, Your Spirituality, and the Soul of Our Nation.” Lecture series Myers Park United Methodist Church, Charlotte, NC.
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