Wise Donkey

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
First Reading for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year B)

God, as the Divine appears in this passage with Solomon, definitely has a genie/riddle-giving wizard vibe. Obviously whomever wrote Kings did not intend it that way, but that is how I read it. God appears to Solomon in a dream and asks what the king wants.

The TL;DR version (though you ought to read it) has Solomon asking for the wisdom to govern and the ability to discern between good and evil. God responds that since the king asked for this instead of long life, wealth, or the deaths of his enemies that Solomon would be granted wisdom plus the riches and glory. And if Solomon actually utilizes that wisdom then God will grant him long life.

So I have been mulling on wisdom today, which is a super pretentious thing to write. And I kind of hesitate even writing about wisdom because claiming to have wisdom is usually a surefire way to show how lacking one is in that department. So disclaimer: I am sometimes an idiot but these are my thoughts.

1. God gave Solomon something he already had
The young king recognized the extraordinary opportunity that was before him and knew he best not mess this up. It is incredibly wise of Solomon to ask for an understanding mind to govern and to discern what is right. If this was a test (and it kind of seemed like a test), then the guy aced it.

Growing up in church, Solomon’s wisdom was almost depicted as a superpower that God granted the king (and all the foreign wives was more or less depicted as his kryptonite). Yet Solomon was already wise, which makes the notion of Solomon’s wisdom less something that was magically zapped into his being and more (this is where I feel like I am grasping at straws a little) God helping Solomon nurture something that was already created within him. It’s more organic.

I think we can sometimes make the mistake that God will magically make us wise or compassionate or immune to a particular foible. And that’s just not how it works. God helps us but I think that help is more of a process in which we mature in those areas with time and intentionality.

2. Culturally, we often assume the wealthy and powerful are wise
On one hand, I get the whole bit about Solomon’s wisdom opening the door for him to also be wealthy and powerful. On the other hand, I think this narrative plays into an error that all of us make on the regular. If someone is powerful or influential, wealthy or popular then we should learn from them.

Just because someone is successful does not mean that they are wise or someone to emulate. I think about social media influencers who get book deals in which they give life advice because millions of people follow them on Instagram. I think about megachurch pastors who have an outsized influence on our spiritual discourse because they happen to have a large congregation.

I am not saying that all social media influencers, megachurch pastors, or wealthy individuals are not wise. We just need to be mindful of what we are valuing as a culture. Jesus said that we’ll know a tree by its fruit and I am pretty sure the fruit of which he was speaking was not power, popularity, or wealth.

3. Wisdom (or compassion or faith or anything good) must be humbly nurtured
Spoiler alert: Solomon, for all his wisdom, power, and wealth, screwed up big time. He ended up oppressing his people, worshiped anything that had an altar, and his kingdom fractured in disarray. What happened?

He stopped seeking the right thing to do. He had all of this wisdom, but he did not actually put that wisdom into practice. Maybe he got arrogant. I mean, when you become world famous for your intellect there is some potential for that to go to your head. This is not a theological term, but it seems like he became a little bit of a jackass.

I wonder if Solomon thought that he had arrived. Did he think that was at the pinnacle of wisdom and therefore did not need to pray or seek council or whatever else? The truth of the matter is any good quality that any of us possess needs to be nurtured. Just as God doesn’t magically give us wisdom or compassion, we don’t magically retain it. We must always be learning, always be growing, always be seeking.