1 Kings 8 - selections
One night the 96 year old draws a bath. She puts one foot in and pauses. She yells down the stairs, "Was I getting in or out of the bath?"
The 94 year old yells back, "I don't know. I'll come up and see." She starts up the stairs and pauses. Then, she yells, "Was I going up the stairs or down?"
The 92 year old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea, listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful."
She knocks on wood for good measure.
Then yells, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."
Life can be mighty confusing!
For any of us.
What am I doing?
And why?
Where am I going?
And for what purpose?
The classic questions of life.
Good questions.
Who,
What,
Where and
Why …
I’m not sure we ever have closure on these questions.
There’ve been times in my life, when I thought I had it all figured out, and then Donna reminded me that I needed to put out the trash, mow the yard and pick up the kids from school.
So much for highfalutin’ ideas.
I remember when I turned forty.
Felt really good.
Sense of achievement.
Confident about what I knew and what I was doing.
For about six weeks.
Then on the seventh week, it said goodbye to me and took a hike, and it’s never again paid me a visit.
Life is a huge journey.
Does anyone ever arrive?
I remember calling in a nursing home 30 years ago in a tiny little town in northern Wisconsin … a tiny little lady in a tiny little bed … her physical strength gone; her mind yet agile and her memories clear … we visited a good many times together, and then one day, she said to me, her watery blue eyes looking straight at me:
I have something to tell you.
I’ve carried it within me since I was a little girl.
A great shame.
I have to tell you … I have to tell someone before I’m gone … I don’t want to take this with me.
With sighs and tears,
From her tiny little bed,
This tiny little lady told me,
A sad story about a tiny little girl
And a very bad man,
A family member,
An uncle.
You can fill in the blanks.
When she finished telling me her tale, she held my hand tightly,
Looked at me tearfully,
Said,
In a tiny little whisper,
Thank you.
Life is strange.
Enough twists and turns to break the back of snake.
Bad things, good things …
And everything in between …
That’s why grace is so important.
That’s why love is the only thing that really counts.
And the fruits of love:
Kindness.
Gratitude.
Forgiveness.
Compassion.
Courage.
Patience.
Vision.
Purpose.
Devotion.
Dedication.
Understanding.
Faith and hope.
The ability to rise above ourselves.
To be more today then we were yesterday.
To push the envelope - go the extra mile.
But keep our eyes on grace … grace for others, to be sure, but grace for ourselves, as well.
We can’t do everything.
We can’t solve every problem.
We can’t be everywhere and everything all at once.
We can’t always say it right.
We won’t always do it right.
We won’t always be on top of our game.
But if grace gives us latitude,
Grace also compels us to greatness.
We can do a lot, and we’ve already done a lot,
Grace encourages us to take a loving look at ourselves – That’s okay, says grace.
We solve problems all along the way.
We’re in many a place, and we do a ton of good things.
The world is better because of us, and it’s okay to know that, celebrate that, and believe that.
The problem is rarely that we try too much.
The problem is mostly that we don’t believe enough in ourselves to really try at all.
The original temptation still plays havoc with us.
The snake in the grass,
You’re not good enough as you are.
You can’t and you won’t and you never will.
Something is missing.
God cheated you.
There, on the tree … yeah, that’s the one; ya’ see that fruit?
Pretty, isn’t it?
Take it …
It’s yours.
It’ll fill your tummy and finish the work.
You’ll be better off than ya’ are right now.
The snake in the grass is alive and well.
Telling us the same old tired stories:
So we go shopping,
For this and that and everything else we can cram in our little carts.
That’s too bad.
We pay so little attention to who we really are:
Our gifts.
Abilities.
Character.
Goodness.
Because you and I are wondrously made.
Things in life will hurt us … and hurt us bad …
But nothing can take away our true character, nothing can change the fact that you and I are remarkable, even in our hurt.
We can love beyond the limit.
Forgive and get on with it.
Tackle huge problems and make a difference.
Change course in mid-stream.
Back up and turn around.
Start all over again, we really can!
One thing I’ve learned over the years …
When we look at God for a long time,
Slow and steady …
Something good happens to us.
It doesn’t happen over night.
It takes time!
As all good things do.
Carl Sandburg said to a young writer, If you want to be a writer, read, read and read.
Immerse yourself in what you want to be.
“Julie and Julia” – delightful film.
Julie Powell, a young lady from Texas, newly married, living in a tiny apartment in Queens, looking for a life, decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” – all 524 recipes in one year, 365 days.
A giant undertaking …
As she’s doing it, she says to a friend, I think I know Julia. It’s like she’s here, with me, in my kitchen, looking over my shoulder.
To be a Christian
Immerse ourselves in God.
Read, read, and read the Bible.
We are people of the book.
Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus.
Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Galatians and Ephesians.
Titus and Jude and the Book of Revelation.
And that’s how we get to know God.
Working our way through … cooking God’s recipes …
One day, we say, I’m getting to now God. God is with me, right here in my kitchen, looking over my shoulder, helping me.
And that’s where prayer begins.
Solomon’s kind of prayer.
For wisdom, a good mind, to know the difference between good and evil.
Between the imitation Gucci handbag and the real thing … between the cheap knockoff and the genuine article.
One of our Presbyterian Saints,
And we don’t have saints, as Presbyterians go,
But if we did,
I’d nominate William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
He’s one of MY saints, at least.
His stuff shapes my life.
His writing inspires my own.
His insights grip my soul and galvanize my energy.
He wrote about the real thing:
There is, says Coffin … a difference between having a friend and being a friend.
Between having success and being successful,
Between getting an education and becoming learned.
[Credo, p.122].
Julie Powell might have followed a recipe or two, or even three or four.
And that would have been just fine.
But working her way through the whole cookbook, every recipe, day-by-day, tempted to give up, she learned about the AUTHOR of the cookbook.
It’s one thing to know the recipe; it’s another to know the author!
Solomon knew the author … and here are some of the recipes:
v. 14, Solomon turns around and blesses the assembly … Solomon knows full well that he didn’t get there all by himself … the people stand with him, behind him, for him.
Solomon knows: we’re all in this together, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.
Turn around sometimes – you’ll see a giant parade behind you … parents and grandparents, teachers and preachers … friends and family … folks you know, and folks you’ll never know … bankers and attorneys, doctors and nurses, firefighters and police officers, folks who make your cars and build your homes and fight your termites and clean your pools and change your oil and turn your bed down and serve your food and write your books and entertain you on TV.
Quite a parade, isn’t it?
Solomon turns around.
It’s a good thing to do now and then … we may be at the head of the parade, but we’re not alone, and it’s a parade, after all … there’s no such thing as a one-man parade, though some have thought so.
Turn around and bless your parade.
Vs. 22, while facing the crowd, Solomon spreads out his hands to heaven.
Wow.
Solomon knows that whatever the crowd needs, only heaven can give it.
Solomon knows that he’s the middleman.
Aren’t we all?
Heaven’s blessings flow through Solomon to the crowd that day.
The middleman,
Who stands between heaven and the people.
Hands open to heaven, ready to receive,
Ready to pass it on.
The church at its best.
The church of Jesus Christ.
Standing before the crowd,
Hands open wide to heaven,
Ready to share the blessings of God.
Vs. 27 – Solomon acknowledges that his great achievement isn’t big enough or good enough to hold all the glory of God!
Solomon remembers that God is always greater, always bigger, always better than any of our buildings, our theology, our history, our hymns and our missions – great at they are, God is greater still.
God didn’t stop inventing the day God created Presbyterians and Covenant on the Corner …
God didn’t stop inventing when God created Israel, and then the church.
We sometimes forget that.
Fundamentalists forget it much of the time.
Christians sometimes think the church holds ALL of God’s glory.
The whole truth, and nothing but the truth – as if we had it all … our story, our buildings, our traditions, our hymns, our faith, our take on things.
But Solomon wisely understands.
There’s more to God then we can hold in any one temple, building, book or tradition.
God is always greater.
But … and this is important: Solomon also knows that his temple is special.
As is the church.
As is our faith.
As is every religion on the face of the earth.
God is pleased to shed God’s glory in all it.
So we go with what we have.
There’s no need to put anyone else down.
No one has to be wrong in order for us to be right.
What we have is terrific.
It’s not all of God, that’s for sure.
But what we have of God in Christ is real and true and good.
I love how Solomon prays:
For this building, this temple.
When folks look at it, God will look at them.
I like that.
When they pray within it, or toward it, God will hear them.
When they have sinned, and all hell breaks loose, if they but turn back to God and remember the temple, forgiveness will flow and a fresh start be made.
When you pray this week,
Think of Covenant on the Corner …
In your mind, as you pray, roam around here.
The pews, the windows, the sounds of music …
Fellowship Hall, the Fireside Room, the courtyard.
Pray your prayers to God this week through Covenant on the Corner.
Amen and Amen.
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