Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost Year B 2009

11 Pentecost B 09
August 16, 2009

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
10 Then David slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the city of David. 11 The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David; and his kingdom was firmly established.
3 Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4 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. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give you." 6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?" 10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 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, 12 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. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14 If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life."

Psalm 111
1 Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. 2 Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. 3 Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful. 5 He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant. 6 He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations. 7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. 8 They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. 9 He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.

Ephesians 5:15-20
15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6:51-58
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

Marrying God

There’s a story I’ve told before about the mom who spent most of her life fighting with her son over how messy his room was, how little he cared about his clothes or his appearance or his hygiene. By the time he was fourteen she’d just about given up. Then one day she walked by her room and noticed that the floor was clear and vacuumed, the closet was hung with neatly pressed and spotlessly clean clothes, the bed was made. Going a little farther down the hall she found him standing in the bathroom carefully combing his hair, his face scrubbed, his pants creased. To what did she owe this transformation?

A girl.

The Spirit of God is like that girl, full of power to transform.

I remember falling in love with my wife. It happened when I was visiting her while she was working a waitress at a restaurant. I was sitting at a table and I was watching her work. She always wore a man’s big shirt when she worked there, with the long sleeves rolled up on her forearm. I can see her just as vividly as if it happened yesterday. To me she seemed to glow with beauty and power. She was graceful and strong. I particularly remember how beautiful I thought her hands were, how the movements of her fingers were like the movements of a dancer. I just got plain stupid with love.

I wanted her with me for my whole life. I wanted to be one with her. I suddenly realized I was only half a person and she was the other half.

That’s how it’s got to be if you want the Spirit of God. You’ve got to fall in love with her.
Yes, I said “her.” Did you know that the bible closely associates Holy Wisdom, the wisdom of God, with the Holy Spirit? And did you know that the wisdom of God is usually portrayed in the bible as a woman? If you believe that the Holy Spirit is a person in the trinity, it would be entirely appropriate, entirely biblical, to speak of the Holy Spirit as a woman, to refer to her as a “she.”

Chapter 3 of Proverbs reads:

13 Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.

Oh, yes, she’s a luscious peach, is the Spirit of God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This passage is often quoted. A lot of people have a problem with the word “fear.” I’m going to do another translation for you to help you. Let’s translate this sentence, “Falling in love with the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Now I want you to pay attention here, because there’s one big difference between falling in love with God and falling in love with your life partner. Every passage we’ve been studying since Pentecost eleven weeks ago has been about lords, human lords. Saul, David, Herod, Solomon, and of course Jesus. A lord is an authority, a ruler, a boss. A lord is someone you obey above all other authorities. So when you fall in love with God, you are falling in love with a Lord, forsaking all other lords. You are falling in love with an authority, forsaking all other authorities. That’s different from your relationship with your human lover, at least if we’re to understand Genesis. God created male and female to be partners, and in Paradise, the relationship was between equals. Not so with those who fall in love with God.

Apart from that, the bible uses the sexual relationship as a metaphor for the relationship with God very, very frequently. In fact that very relationship seems to be essential in some way to God’s identity. In Genesis God created humankind in his own image, “male and female he created them.” God’s word often compares the relationship between God and God’s people as a marriage, the failure of that relationship as a divorce, and unfaithfulness to the relationship as adultery. Jesus is called the bridegroom, and many of his parables and at least one of his most famous miracles have to do with weddings. It may be that the ode to a wise wife in Proverbs was included in the bible to suggest to us that the Father and the Spirit might be thought of as husband and wife. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we called the Holy Trinity “The Father, the Mother and the Son.”

If the Holy Spirit is also Holy Wisdom, well, Solomon fell in love with her. Solomon was about to take over the reins of power in Israel, as God’s anointed king. God, like a genie, offered to him whatever he asked. He could have asked for power and riches, but he didn’t. “I don’t care what else you give me, Lord, just give me wisdom.” Wasn’t that how you felt about your wife when you fell in love? “I don’t care what else you ever give me, Lord, but just give me her.”

The psalmist tells us what Holy Wisdom looks like. It’s remembrance of the mighty deeds of God. Falling in love with the Holy Spirit is remembering the history of God. When I look at my wife today, I remember on some level everything about the history of our relationship. I remember the dating and the conversations and the happy times and the difficult times. I don’t even have to work very hard to remember all those things, because I’m in love, you see. I remember the times when we were unsure about our partnership, and other possible partners were still available. I remember how much it hurt to think she’d forsake me and choose someone else. I remember the joy I felt when it became clear that I was the one she’d picked.

To fall in love with the Holy Spirit is to remember the history of God’s relationship to his people, to own it and make it our own. Most of all it is to remember Jesus, everything he taught and did, to get to know him as intimately as we got to know the loves of our lives. I’m here to tell you, to know him is to fall in love with him. To know him is to fall in love with the Holy Spirit.

Why fall in love with the Holy Spirit as the sole authority in your life? Well that’s what we’re here for, people. We’re here to tell the world why it should fall in love with the Holy Spirit. We’re here to tell the world why the Holy Spirit alone is worthy of ruling it. It’s very simple. Human authorities rule with the power of death, but the Holy Spirit alone rules with the power of life. Human authorities rule with the power of fear, but the Holy Spirit alone rules with the power of hope. Human authorities rule with the power of hate, but the Holy Spirit alone rules with the power of love. Human authorities rule with the power to punish, but the Holy Spirit alone rules with the power to forgive. The wreckage of paradise is our fault for trusting in human authority. The restoration of paradise is the Holy Spirit’s offer for trusting in hers.

Falling in love with the Holy Spirit is the beginning of wisdom. It’s only the beginning. There are Christian traditions that never get on to the courtship or the marriage. In fact I think that’s the problem with the church in the West these days. We like the falling in love part but we don’t like the getting married part. We like to keep our options open.

David married the Holy Spirit, but he cheated on her. Solomon married the Holy Spirit, but he cheated on her, too. In fact, the big problem that later developed with Solomon is that he married too many wives. Each wife came from some other nation that worshipped some home-made god that really amounted to human authority, some self-serving, self-invented deity that was really just an expression of human willfulness. It’s one of the most basic expressions of human sin, making up a god that justifies our self-will. He made deals with these false gods, these human authorities, through these marriages, most of which were diplomatic moves, and he got rich doing it, and in fact, Israel got rich doing it. But his unfaithfulness was the seed of disaster, and Israel was all downhill from there.

How many people here think that marriage is an exclusive relationship? Anyone think it’s okay to fool around? Falling in love is such a wonderful experience, isn’t it? Sometimes I see a beautiful young thing, and I think about falling in love with her, how pleasurable that would be. A friend of mine said that once you reach fifty, everyone under thirty is beautiful.

That’s the way it can be with marrying the Holy Spirit. Other beautiful authorities come around, with great assets, beautiful promise, look like lots of fun, wealth at someone else’s expense, death-dealing power to terrify the enemy, the purity of cold hatred, the warm fuzzy feeling of moral superiority, the thrill of fear. Beautiful young things, these authorities. Shapely, inviting. “Well I’m married to the Holy Spirit, but what the Holy Spirit doesn’t know won’t hurt her” or “what’s wrong with loving more than one person?”

I refuse to pursue those pretty young things because I am one flesh with my wife. To break my faithfulness to her is to tear my own body apart. Saul and David and Solomon and Herod pursued the pretty young things and they tore the body of Israel apart.

Jesus is different from Saul and David and Solomon and Herod in that he married the Holy Spirit and he remained faithful unto death. In Jesus, Spirit and flesh became one, and a new creation was born. Paradise broke through from heaven into the world in Jesus. The gates of hell could not prevail against it.

The Lord’s supper is the wedding feast of your flesh with the Holy Spirit. When you come to the table you are coming to a marriage with God.

Amen.