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Karen Hollis | Aug 18, 2024
Pentecost 13
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Then David slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established. Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, "Ask what I should give you." And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?" It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, "Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life."
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
Dreaming . . . the experts say we all dream, though not everyone is aware of dreaming or remembers anything in the morning. Do you remember your dreams? Do you ever share your dreams with other people? I find that in sharing mine, I hear the content in a whole new way. Perhaps that’s why in some cultures, people gather in the morning and share the content of their dreams – they find them hugely valuable. Sometimes if it isn’t convenient to share with another human, I will describe the dream to myself in my head or in writing . . . and sometimes it’s like my soul is speaking to me or God is speaking to me, giving me insight or a new perspective. I love dreams, especially ones where I feel weightless – not necessarily flying, but like I’m connected to some kind of bungie cord that helps me defy gravity – some people actually fly in their dreams or connect with people who have passed on or have recurring dreams or start a dream one night and finish it on another night.
Have you heard of people sleeping in holy places in hopes of hearing God speak in their dreams? Perhaps this is what Solomon is doing in this morning’s story. Since Solomon’s Temple was not yet built, they went to high places to sacrifice to God and Gideon was a high place of status with a particularly large altar for making his enormous offerings. Sleeping in such a place was a practice known as incubating . . . to sleep in a holy place was a way of supporting and encouraging communication from God. I saw a perhaps related practice on Sunday nights at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. Still today, crowds of people gather for the Vespers service and many people bring pillows and blankets to lay under and around the altar to listen to the absolutely heavenly music of the Vespers Choir. If they didn’t get something meaningful out of positioning themselves in that location, I doubt they would put the energy into it. The music and location feed people with closeness and perhaps people even receive the occasional revelation from God, like Solomon.
How many of us over the years have gone to bed, praying for God to respond? Respond about questions of life, health, family, work, and even church.
There’s something about the night . . . it’s a time where we take deeper breaths, blur lines, let our guard down, allow the mind to wander, marvel at the night sky and the incomprehensible mystery, rest into the unconscious and dream. As the sun rises in the day, the energy shifts. If we’re lucky, unconscious things come with us into the light. Sometimes they need a little coaxing, sometimes we need to sit with them as we drink our morning coffee or walk with them in the morning air to see if they are ready to fully cross over and be known.
I was sitting in bed a few weeks ago with an ice pack on my food from the blessed bee sting – I told you in a previous sermon about how I had to acknowledge the reality of not being able to walk and squaring that with the plans I had for the upcoming days. I cancelled my plans and hung out in the spaciousness that had been imposed upon me – it was not quite dream-like but a space set apart. And our church came to mind.
We have dreamed, for sure and discerned God’s call for us as a congregation. In countless gatherings, we’ve worked to name things that could be a reality for us, that live just beyond the veil, and together, gently coax them into our awareness. When we look to the future, we hear the same themes come up again and again: senior support and pastoral care, upkeep of the building, community engagement, reconciliation, affirming, and creation care. We are pretty clear about what needs our focus and what action steps will move us into the future we envision. And it’s still tough to get there. We have some very hard working, dedicated people in our midst who are serving the congregation well . . . thank you, everyone, for all you do . . . and we all know there are some important gaps. In the space set apart, the gaps came into focus for me.
I’m quite in awe of the clarity of Solomon’s dream. God had come to him . . . he may have opened himself to the experience, but God came to him . . . and while I don’t necessarily think there was a causal relationship between the bee sting and the space set apart for me, God occupied that space with me. And I saw us trying to move forward – some areas are more successfully than others – and suddenly thought, I don’t think we have clarity about where we are. Perhaps what’s important right now is not to push ahead and get things organized, rather to slow things down and have another look at where we actually are, at our actual starting place.
Over the last year or so we’ve looked around various rooms for leadership . . . and I have often raised my hand . . . “I can do that” . . . around strategic planning, committees and projects around the church. I’ve probably offered too much of my leadership. Because I want all of our dreams to come true. I think I’ve been a leader over the past year who has run ahead and said, come on, it’s this way, we can do it! At this point along the journey, maybe I need to be a leader who walks along side and asks “how’s the walk going today? What are you noticing?” I know a lot of people were tired when I got here from supporting the church in a time of transition and needed a break. I totally get it . . . and in the midst of that, I’ve had an opportunity to over function, which I have a tendency to do . . . that’s not a lesson I have learned yet in this life. It just fit together perfectly – and ultimately provided an opportunity for me to see. When I adjust my leadership to an appropriate level, the gaps are easier for all of us to see . . . and we need to see them.
I know there’s lament and perhaps even frustration that we’ve done our share of leading in and out of the church. I hear people say: I’ve been the council chair, I’ve sat on M&P, I’ve organized events, made all the coffee. We’ve wondered together: where are the Solomons? . . . the next generation to whom we can pass along the leadership of the church? Why are they not here? That’s an important question to consider, though it shouldn’t distract us from the truth that they’re not here . . . they’re not here to help and serve and lead. They may be here in the future . . . but right now, we’re here, it’s still us (pause) . . . we’re here for many reasons, including that we believe in this place, it’s important to us, our lives are better because we’re connected in here.
God comes to Solomon in a dream and asks, “what shall I give you?” God invites him to draw on the wealth of Divine resources as he prepares to lead. Here, in the spaciousness of summer, with God coming along side us, what are the Divine resources we need to see ourselves as we are? God’s light and love, God’s self-compassion and radical acceptance, God’s oneness and connection, God’s creativity and inspiration. With our collective Divine and human qualities, we need to come together and find ways of doing leadership that work for us, that help us move forward.
My hope and intention is to be a leader who comes along side without trying to pull things too far ahead or holding things back . . . who engages fully in my part of ministry and practices good boundaries so that I don’t burn out.
A lot of times people look to me, as the minister, and ask, can we do this, is it ok if I do that? And we forget sometimes that this is your church. This is your church. You’re in the driver’s seat. I’m with you . . . we walk this road together, side by side, with God as our companion. My prayer is that we can walk forward together with new eyes to see. Thanks be to God.