A
Sermon preached in
Christ
Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate
The
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost,
RCL Proper 12, Year A
30 July 2017
30 July 2017
May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts
be
always acceptable to you O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
In the 1991 movie City Slickers the cowboy Curly gives city slicker Mitch some life
advice. They are riding horses along the prairie to move the herd from here to
there. In this scene, Curly says to
Mitch, “Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger] This.”
Mitch replies, “Your finger?” Curly scans the horizon, ignoring Mitch, and then
explains, “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean
[nothin’].” (expletive deleted)
Mitch thinks for just a moment and replies,
“But, what is the "one thing?" As they ramble along, the hot sun
shines on Curly’s face and with a raised eyebrow, Curly replies, “That's what
you have to find out.” For Mitch, whose was about to turn 40 his One Thing was
buried deep in his heart. His work was
to sort out his One Thing in the midst of complicated life.
Of all the “things” for which Solomon could
have asked (in today’s first reading), when God showed up… of all the riches,
or long life, or victory over his enemies, the One Thing Solomon wanted was an understanding mind. Solomon’s motivation
to understand, however, was not as simple as this appears. This little bit of
text from our lectionary compilers does not tell the whole story.
See, Solomon was a complicated character and
scripture more complicated than it appears. The text prior to today’s reading offers
background. The first verses describe
Solomon as having married the daughter of Pharaoh. What does that imply? Well,
one commentator explained, that, “political exigencies are one thing, but it is
hard to justify kinship ties with Egypt the great oppressor of Israel.”[1]
Further, this marriage violated the Israelite covenant to “not have relations
with foreign people.” Subsequent verses describe Solomon as faithful and
devoted, loving the Lord and walking in the statutes of his father David,[2]
but worshipping by sacrificing and offering incense at high places.[3]
Those “high places” were almost always strongly condemned when mentioned in the
OT.
Yes, Solomon was a complicated character. And,
the original Hebrew of this conversation between Solomon and God unveils the
complications, too.
First, do you see (in that first line?) how
The Lord appeared to Solomon, and God said? Two names being used. Here, The Lord and God.
See, the English use of The Lord is
usually from the Hebrew Yahweh, from
the four letters YHWH. Yahweh is the only proper name for God in Hebrew,
arising from the pronunciation of YH-WH, the sound of breathing. (yah…breathing
in, weh…breathing out. That’s a great spiritual practice on which to meditate -
another sermon for another time). This name means something like, “immediacy, a
presence,” or “God is with us.”[4]
The English use of God, in this case, is from the Hebrew Elohim, the subject of the Bible’s first sentence, the Creator God.
Elohim means God in the highest and
widest sense, with the fullness of divine power and expansiveness of the
heavenly host. This name means God beyond our imagination BIG.
Now, see how Solomon addresses God, “O Lord
my God”? That double name emphasizes the majesty
of Elohim found in the immediacy of
Yahweh. That double name is commonly known in the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The
Lord our God, The Lord is One” and emphasizes the paradoxical intimacy and
immensity of the Divine.
So, when Solomon addresses God with his
desire, he says something like: You, who are so close to me as my breath
and so pervasive and expansive I can’t comprehend, You are the only one
to whom I can ask, from my depth, for an understanding mind.
But wait! There’s more! For Solomon asks for understanding with
the Hebrew word “shama,” meaning discerning:
to hear, to listen to, to obey. And
Solomon asks for a mind with the Hebrew word “leb” meaning the heart: the feelings, the will and the
intellect.
Our complicated Solomon is asking from this
paradoxical God for a listening heart.
It’s complicated and it’s simple. Can you
relate? People are always a mix of
complex motives and it is dangerous to romanticize anyone. All lives have back stories, and all language
used to describe them is insufficient because our feelings cloud the seemingly
simple view of our lives.
Maybe our grief surrounding the death of
our best friend is fraught with the time we were angry at her for something
that we never got to resolve while she was alive.
Maybe our trust in a friend is frayed because
he did not reply to our call for help when we really needed him.
Maybe our compassion for the woman begging
for food is deepened because she looks like our sister who suffers with mental
illness.
We, too, are complicated characters with
mixed motives. What is our One Thing? Aren’t we, too, asking, from that same
paradoxical God for a listening heart?
It’s complicated and it’s simple. We wonder with listening hearts: Why am I
struggling financially? Why did my friend get cancer? Why did that transgender teenager take their
own life? Why is that person so snarky at me because of the color of my skin or
because of the gender of my lover? That One Thing for each of us, is
different.
So on that
day, to Solomon, who had prayed and walked in the statutes of his father David throughout
his complicated, young adult life … to Solomon God appeared. God appeared. Who was this God? This was the God who came to Solomon despite
his complicated failures and frailties. This
was the God who wanted to listen with God’s heart to him.
Last week I heard about the
nearly-completed development of Nasa’s most powerful telescope ever. The James Webb Space Telescope, (to be
launched in October of 2018)will study, with infrared and other new
technologies, every phase in the history
of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to
the evolution of our own Solar System. This telescope is so powerful that it
will be able to look at stars before they were born. Before they were born! That means exploring the whole of creation and
the dynamic processes of stardust.
In November last year, NASA invited
creative artists from around the country to visit the telescope, with its
gold-coated mirror. Twenty-five selected artists brought art supplies to listen
with the ear of their heart and create in front of the telescope, housed inside
its massive cleanroom behind a viewing window. The artists used watercolor, 3D
printed sculpture, silk screening, acrylics, comics, woodwork, metalwork, fiber
art, ink, kite-making, tattooing and other media.
Their One Thing? To create in front of the
observation of creation. To listen with
their heart. To consider with awe, up close, the expansiveness of our universe.
See, this
desire to understand, this desire to
be known, is not only what we, humanity, seek, it is also the desire of the God
who seeks us, the God who appears to us every moment. This is the God who initiates contact with us, despite our
complicated lives and frailties. This is the God who makes the first move and
keeps yearning to know us, to discern our hearts.This is the God of Love who
meets us with a powerful, mysterious yearning and an intimacy so near as the
breath passing over our lips.
This is the God whose “one thing” is to
Love and be loved. Amen
