I did a real double-take this week as I looked at the suggested scripture readings for today . When I first read the gospel lesson, I thought to myself, "I've already used that." Then when I looked back in my records and in the lectionary, I saw that the selected gospel readings for the past several weeks were partial repeats from the previous weeks.
Sometimes it is well worth taking the time to repeat some things. I don't think anyone here would deny that repeated readings of the bible are worthwhile. Is there a parent who would say that repeating the act of tying a shoe for a young child is unimportant? Or taking the time to read a favorite book to your children? We learn many skills by the act of repetition. Remember repeating those multiplication tables for math? 2x2=4, 3x3=9, 4x4=16, 5x5=25, and so on and so on. Or those times that you had to memorize a particular passage from a book or play.
I remember a time when I was still in elementary school. We were practicing for a program about the Audubon society. A student ahead of me in school was to play the lead role in a short, one act play. Throughout the time that the other students were practicing their lines and rehearsing the play, I acted as a prompter. On the afternoon of the day before the play was to be presented for all our parents, the lead actor ended up being taken to the hospital with appendicitis. The teachers scrambled about, trying to determine who would take his place. No one had considered the need for a "back-up." Finally my teacher came to me and said, "Dan, you're not going to be the announcer, you've been picked to replace Wesley as the lead," and handed me a script to use during the final rehearsal, then set about making some props that would enable my lines to be hidden so I could read them, if needed, and not have to hold a copy of the script in my hands.
When I got home from school that evening, my mother began to go over the play with me, wanting to help me learn my lines. I didn't need a single prompt from her. In fact, as she read all the other parts, I occasionally corrected her misread lines! The next day, my teacher quickly ran through all the props that had been made with me. When the time for the play arrived, everyone took his or her place. Another student got to do the part of the announcer, since it was a reading part. The play began. There I sat, at a table, drinking a pretend cup of coffee and reading the paper. Another student in that scene with me walked in and began to speak. I could almost hear the teachers as they gulped in anticipation of my missing my first line.
Now it was my turn to speak. I closed the newspaper, which had been specifically opened to the page on which my lines had been inserted, and laid it down on the table. Without any hesitation, I spoke my first line with confidence. The teachers could be heard giving a sigh. The play proceeded to the end without a hitch. Even when others would hesitate, before any of the teachers could respond, I had already whispered the correct line to the individual.
I don't seem to have that same ability these days. It takes me much longer to learn the words to a new song than it did to learn that entire play. But on that day, little did any of the teachers know what I had already accomplished, though I was not aware of it myself at that point. I had repeated the play so many times while acting as the prompter, that I knew the whole thing by heart. The repetitious act of saying every word of the play to myself as the actors practiced gave me an advantage for that day.
God gave Solomon a great advantage as king of Israel. Solomon went to gibeon where he offered many sacrifices and burnt offerings to god. While there, god came to him in a dream. Solomon was told that whatever he asked, god would give him. Solomon praised god for all the kindnesses shown to his father David, and asked for only one thing; the ability to discern right from wrong so that he might govern god's people righteously.
God was pleased with what Solomon asked for. He did not ask for wealth or riches or for long life. He did not request the destruction of his enemies. He asked simply for wisdom, for the ability to rule with justice as king over the great people of god. So god gave Solomon what he had asked for, and promised him, that if he walked in the ways of god and obeyed the commands and statutes of god, wealth and long life would be his as well.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; knock, and it shall be opened on to you". This is the first lesson. To know what it is that we need to ask of God.
In recent years I have often heard the phrase, "be careful what you pray for; you might get it." Learning to pray to god and ask for what is beneficial in our laboring for him is what is important. Like Solomon, we need to know how to work with god's people. Wealth, power, long life – these are of no use to any of us if we do not know how to get along with people. Many beasts of burden have much greater strength than you or I. But they can not build great buildings. Could an elephant erect a structure such as this building? Of course not! But we, utilizing the strength of an elephant, can. And why? Because we have the ability to think and reason. We can take what we know is possible and apply it in a way so that something else can be made possible. Wisdom is much greater than all of the physical abilities. Without wisdom, nothing else is worth having.
Lesson two. The gospel speaks to us of Jesus' giving, of his giving of himself to us so that we might have eternal life. Having asked God to grant us wisdom, we need to receive that wisdom into our very being. Jesus, speaking to his disciples and those who had gathered around, was repeating himself to emphasize this point. To come to God, we must first come to the Son. To receive God, we must receive Jesus. To have God in our lives we must first receive Christ in our lives.
To receive Jesus is more than stating that we believe in him. To receive, in this sense, means to take in, to absorb, to incorporate Christ's life into our own. It easy to say the words. But it is much harder to receive the words, because in receiving, we are making a commitment to the word. And commitment seems to scare off a lot of people today.
Lesson three: if we ask of God as we have need, and if we receive with conviction and commitment that which God offers through Christ, then, we must, as Paul wrote, "be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise, but as wise." We must not be foolish, but must understand what the Lord's will is. We must allow the spirit of the Lord to fill us and guide us. For God has given us everything we need; we must now give back to others what God has given to us.
That is the will of God; that is the love of Christ; that is the commitment of the Christian.
Amen.