Wise and Discerning Minds

I want everyone to take a moment to put yourself in Solomon's feet,

God comes to you and says,

“Ask what I should give you.”

Whoa. The first 'make a wish' moment.

We do have this opportunity,

we are allowed to tell God what we would like God to give to us

many times this is exactly how we use prayer.

God, give me a better work situation, help my daughter find a husband, and give Marshall a new arm

Oh, and the VBS students all want to be better at Fortnite.

Solomon was a little better at thinking through the opportunity he had in conversation with God

and asks for an understanding mind, knowledge of good and evil, to be able to govern the people

in telling this story we typically say that Solomon asks for wisdom

I have a few issues with this story,

partially because the Hebrew word for wisdom isn't used when Solomon asks for understanding,

though it is used at the end when the story says God gives Solomon a wise and discerning mind,

and

the story is a total show of patriarchy

because in the scriptures

we already have a story about a woman seeking the knowledge of good and evil,

remember Eve

and God being upset by it,

and the exile from Eden,

yet, here is a man asking for the knowledge of good and evil

and God is very happy with it.

Double standards.

But I am glad that Solomon was smart enough to ask for help with a challenge he truly faced

knowing how best to govern the people,

so God grants him a wise and discerning mind.

If you know a lot about 9th century BCE history, anyone?

Or really know the book of First Kings, anyone?

Anyway, despite this famous story about Solomon being granted wisdom and discernment

The rest of his life story shows that in human terms he acted with great business acumen

creating relationships with other countries and using slave labor to build up the city of Jerusalem,

including the great Temple,

though he didn't always use his wise and discerning mind when it came to his religious and spiritual decisions.

Solomon didn't always stay true to God.

Sometimes he sacrificed and prayed to other gods.

It seems having a wise and discerning mind is good.

Using your wise and discerning mind is even better.

We see this come up again in the Gospel passage again.

In the parables of Jesus that we hear, some of them are about discernment, about wisdom,

about being able to use our wise and discerning minds

to help us recognize what is important and precious in this world

then letting it guide our lives.

In these parables we get the sense that what is important from God is small, yeast, a pearl, a mustard seed

but that it impacts everything, it changes everything.

But making those decisions are hard.

To find a pearl and then to sell everything you have for it.

I mean, we have more possessions than most people in the first century did, but no matter how much you have, its a hard decision to put everything into one little thing like a pearl, or a field.

Discernment is an important skill!

If you were here last week, you may remember

I ended my sermon with asking what we all have faith in.

If you weren't here, I preached about the basic question of faith in our lives

and how we need to ask ourselves what we have faith in

so we can live out our faith.

After hearing the scripture passages this week,

it looks like the next step in this basic process of spiritual development is then

discernment.

Living out our faith requires us to make choices

which requires us to use God's wisdom and discernment to make good choices.

We make choices all day long

some conscious, some unconscious

And this is where things bring up more questions

what is simply a choice and what needs discernment?

When we talk about discernment in the church we may use it as insider lingo meaning one of two things,

trying to figure out if you're called to a specific ministry, especially an ordained ministry, but can be lay

or trying to make a big life choice, getting married or moving for a new job.

We make choices all day every day

and when we have to think about them, weight the options, forecast the consequences, get input from others,

that is discernment.

Naturally, people do this individually

but typically we do this in community

in family units,

in friend groups

in larger communities, especially when the decision will impact everyone

We live in an interconnected world,

what we do makes an impact on others.

In some ways, the disciples had already exercised their discernment in following Jesus

they had left everything they had in order to wander around with Jesus

They understood what an impact that had made on their life and choices

When we know what we believe in, we take our creed,

and we best determine how to live them out.

I believe in God and that God is love

and I discern how to live my life through that lens.

In just a couple of minutes

we will all affirm our faith in God

using the words of the Nicene Creed (using the words of the Apostles Creed).

And hopefully you do believe those things.

Or perhaps you should say them or read them and think about whether you believe those things or not.

But what we do today, is a perfect example of acting out of faith.

Because we believe in God

because we believe in Jesus

because we believe in the Holy Spirit

and we believe in the teachings in the scriptures

8 am

we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember Jesus in bread and wine.

The discernment process that gave us the Nicene Creed

and the practice of Eucharist

10:30 am

we baptize children.

The discernment process that gave us the Apostles Creed,

and the action of baptism

didn't happen here or recently

it was done through the wider community

over decades, centuries, with thousands of people

repeating the process, thinking about the words and action

having conversations about what and how and who and why

we do these rituals.

Ruth Haley Barton, a devoted lay leader and founder of the Transforming Center wrote a couple of books which have to do with discernment

she writes, "Discernment, in a most general sense, is the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity of God - both in the ordinary moments and in the larger decisions of our lives. The apostle Paul says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can discern what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:2). This includes not only the mind of each individual but also the corporate mind."

real discernment, even personal discernment, happens in community

it takes time and the ability to connect to God's wisdom

through prayer and conversation and feelings and being foolish

and the ability to follow.... to accept the guidance of God

even when it doesn't seem to be going in the direction of human wisdom

it might not be

We know this.

We naturally fall into talking to others

We may not like what others say or maybe we don't even truly ask them what we are grappling with

But we ask others their opinions.

And that is part of our discernment process. That is part of how we deal with our lives

Discernment is intentionally inviting others into our decisions

Discernment is intentionally inviting God in and asking for guidance along the way

We are in an individualistic era.

This is part of our problem with many issues going on in the globe right now.

We are well connected in some ways, but lack a real sense of community

that we are interconnected.

Despite God giving Solomon a wise and discerning mind,

despite Jesus telling his disciples about the kingdom of heaven.

There's no kingdom, no neighborhood, no town or community

with one person.

A mustard seed may become one tree, but its not the kingdom until the birds and insects live with it.

Well, yeast is never on its own. I've never seen one yeast organism... you use a teaspoon full

which may not look like much, but together as a community they create amazing things like bread and wine.

If we are facing big decisions

And that's subjective

Because every decision does impact others

But intentionally asking other people to pray with you or to think about your situation

Intentionally asking others into community to make decisions

Is part of discernment.

Discerning needs to happen in community

one of the benefits of belonging to a church or other healthy community

we need others in helping make those big decisions

Our climate crisis is not going to change because of individual action,

its only going to change by communal effort.

Our economic disparities aren't going to change because of individual action

but only through communal efforts.

Together

we can use our wise and discerning minds

to find where God is at work in the world

and help God change the world.

I hope you'll join me in the journey.