Anybody here ever make a wish?  I think we all do in our own way – there is something so intriguing about the unexpected, about the possibility of getting something in an instant that we might never get if we had to work for it – we have birthday candles, wishbones, shooting stars.  We even have Jiminy Cricket and his theme song ‘When you wish upon a star’ – because ‘when you wish upon a star, it may come true’

            And isn’t there something fascinating about all those stories about Aladdin and his magic lamp.  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could just rub something, like a lamp, or a bowl or maybe a Tupperware container? And a genie would come out and grant you three wishes?

            Three wishes?  What would you do with three wishes?  If you had three chances to wish for the desires or your heart – what would they be?  Health? Wealth?  Long Life?  World Peace?  An end to hunger?  What would they be – and how long would it take to decide? An hour? A week?  A Year?  Would you hold one in reserve just in case? Or use that last wish to wish for three others?

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This morning’s scripture begins with the death of King David and concludes with the beginning of the reign of Solomon.  This morning’s verses are really the white-washed version of the succession.  You see Solomon is the first king of Israel to become king simply because he was a king’s son.  Israel’s first king was chosen because he was a mighty warrior.  He was tall and impressive, a full head taller than most men of his day.  Israel’s second king was chosen because he had a heart for God.

            But Solomon is a different case.  Solomon is the son of David and Bathsheba – certainly not the eldest of David’s sons, not the child whom most would expect to take the reins of state. Scripture tells us that God loved Solomon.  Yet at his father’s direction, he killed all those who might oppose his rule – including a few of his own brothers.

            After a start like that, is it any wonder that Solomon, who could have been no more than 20 years old, felt a bit too small task for the task that lay ahead of him?  How can you rule a kingdom peacefully when you have started out by murdering your own kin?

            He even starts out on the wrong foot by marrying an Egyptian princess.  Politically, this was a good move.  Her father had conquered a Judean city and Solomon got it back as part of her dowry – but he also got a wife who was not Judean and did not worship God.  This kind of practice – marrying for political gain would come back to haunt him later in his reign.

            As Solomon returns from marrying this princess, he stops at Gibeon, a place where people sacrifice to the Lord God in the time before the building of the temple and offers sacrifice there himself – even here he does things in a big way – 1000 burnt offerings. (Wouldn’t you like to have the firewood concession there?)

… and God speaks to him. “Ask what I should give you”.  Wow!  Imagine an invitation like that: make a wish, a real wish – for real –from God.  If you had just one wish from God, what would you wish?  I mean, it could be anything: long life, riches, fame, power, world Peace, for the sun to stand still – or even for three more wishes.

            How long might it take you to decide?  We ask God for things all the time when we pray, but if the Creator of the universe volunteered to give you something, anything, what would it be?

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Solomon asks for wisdom – in the Hebrew, this is not sagacity for sagacity’s sake.  This is a wish for the kind of practical wisdom needed to rule well: ‘an understanding mind to rule well’ – an odd request at a time when wars and political assassinations were common.

            God says, ‘Very cool!  I like that!  Since you have not asked for anything for yourself, I will make you wise – wiser than anyone in the history of the world – and I will also give you the riches and honor you have not asked for--- If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked.

            IF - If you will walk in my ways.

            Solomon does become wise.  The portion of scripture immediately following this morning’s is the story of the two women who come to Solomon each claiming to be the mother of the same child.  It’s one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament.

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            Solomon’s reign was a time of a great intellectual awakening in Israel a great flowering of wisdom and learning – even one of science based on a keen observation of the natural world.  Solomon built up a bureaucracy the federal government would be proud of.  He divided Israel up into 12 districts under 12 governors each of whom was responsible for supplying the king’s household for an entire month.  Now-a-days of course, we call that gerrymandering – changing boundaries to suit the current political climate and in doing so, he crossed powerful tribal boundaries.

            Solomon is famous for building the temple in Jerusalem – but guess who paid for it with taxes so high they could hardly live.  The first temple, the tabernacle in the wilderness, was built entirely with offerings – the second temple, the great temple of Solomon, was built entirely with taxes.

            The tabernacle was built by persons moved and filled by the spirit of God to do the building.  The second was built with conscripted labor force of 30,000 men who served to cut cedars in Lebanon on a rotating basis, 10,000 each month.  Another 150,000 labored in the hill country to cut stones.

-- and the temple was pretty impressive – 90 ft long and 20 ft wide and 45 feet high, and it took seven years to build.  While Solomon is building, the Lord speaks to him again.  We read it in 6:12:

‘Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David.’

There is that big If again: ‘If you will walk and obey and keep the commandments.’

I have to wonder if Solomon forgot about that part because the end of Solomon’s reign stands as a bitter disappointment to the beginning of it.  Solomon had 600 wives and 300 concubines and he let each of them worship their own gods.

            Solomon spent 7 years building God’s house, but he spent 13 years building his own – after al, you need a lot of room for that many wives, children and servants.

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Solomon’s end was not as grand as his beginning.  The great king who is credited with writing the book of proverbs with all it’s wise one-liners –also wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and about the futility of seeking wisdom.

I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.  I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.  What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.  I said to myself, ‘I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.’ And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind.  For in much wisdom is much vexation, and those who increase knowledge increase sorrow. (Ecc 1:12-18)

Solomon had it all – fast chariots – beautiful women – good food – wealth and power and wisdom.  And it wasn’t enough.  After the death of Solomon, the people were so tired of the monarchy that the 10 northern tribes bailed out and the kingdom was ever after divided.  What began so well ended so badly.

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What happened? Wisdom as an end in itself is without moral qualities required by God.  There is that little caveat in this morning’s passage – If you will walk in my ways.  Solomon had it all for a time, but discovered that even the pursuit of wisdom can get in the way of following God.

            Solomon had it all and found that everything was worthless – except for the thing that he forgot – to seek justice and pursue it, to walk in the way of the Lord

            God does not call us to great deeds.  We don’t need riches and honor and learning to be great people for God.  Even great wisdom will not make us happy.  Solomon had plenty of wisdom but did not live wisely.

            Elsewhere in scripture we read:                  

• Take delight in the Lord, and God will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 NRSV).

• The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:17 NRSV).

Just one wish – what would you ask for if you could make just one wish?

Riches, fame, glory? Wisdom and honor?  How about a humble and contrite heart, a heart that lives in communion with the God of the Universe, a heart that seeks communion with the Holy Other?  A heart that follows after God?

I think that must be one wish God would be happy to fulfill – and one we would be blessed to receive.

Amen.