SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020

Read 1 Kings 3:16-28 and Psalm 57 (attached at the end)

Here are Preaching Notes for the day.  We will live-stream at 10:30 a.m. this Sunday via Facebook, you can meet in your car in the Church parking lot, and then it will be available after that online - look for the link on Church website. 

"The DNA/Compassion Test"

Introduction: What if Mom stopped doing all that Mom does?

Laundry Crisis (Copyright 2000 W. Bruce Cameron)

            As usual, I’m the one who was blamed for the recent family crisis, even though, as readers of this column well know, I am a sensitive and humble husband who is right pretty much 100 percent of the time.

            I do admit that when it comes to the system that runs the laundry at the Cameron house, I have been a tad...oblivious. By “system” I mean, of course, my wife, who takes care of washing clothes for the rest of us without complaint—until recently, as you will soon see.

            My oldest daughter has never mastered the tricky mechanism required to open and shut her dresser drawers, with the result that her clean laundry winds up right where my wife has stacked it—on the bed, where it tips onto the floor and mingles with the dirty clothes residing there. “I have nothing to wear!” she’ll shriek every once in awhile, despite the fact that she is standing ankle deep in her entire wardrobe. When I get tired of this ransacked condition and advise her she can’t go to a friend’s party until her room is cleaned up, ignoring her claim that “these are the most important people in my life I PROMISED I’d be there,” she’ll take care of the problem by gathering up everything and trucking it down to the laundry room, even if my wife just washed it that very day.

            For my youngest daughter, the issue is the competency of the laundress. “I told you that this blouse has to be washed separately,” she’ll scold. “You’re supposed to soak it in rain water and then dry it with cotton balls!” Apparently everything she owns was hand-sewn by movie stars out of butterfly silk, and my wife is constantly “ruining” things by not treating them with gentle cycles and soft murmurs.

            My son never gripes about clothes—as far as he is concerned, the laundry area could be converted into a video game room. He generally wears the same outfit until it becomes toxic; the EPA has been to our house twice to see if his clothing should be awarded Superfund status. Often, peering at the condition of his attire, I realize he has more dirt on him than I have in my yard. Cleaning his apparel causes the washing machine to make a grinding, gritty noise, as if sand has gotten into the bearings.

            Against all this, my complaint seems a pretty mild irritant: I’ve begun noticing that whatever wash cycle she is employing, my wife is causing my pants to shrink around the waist. “You’re shrinking them so bad, I can barely button them,” I grumble. “Look at this!” She regards me wearily. “Those are new pants. I haven’t even washed them yet,” she advises. “What’s your point?” I demand. Sometimes she can’t seem to stay focused. “Meaning, I couldn’t have done anything to shrink them. They came like that.” “Defective trousers?” I sputter. How much more am I supposed to endure? She pokes me lightly in the stomach. “No, they’re the right size,” she claims. “So you did shrink them!” I accuse.

            Now, even though all I am doing is serving in my prosecutorial capacity as the man of the family, she completely over-reacts. “You know what? You’re right. I must not know what I am doing. So from now on, everyone in the family has to wash their own clothes. I am through doing laundry!”

            At first I believe this is a bluff. Each of us have our family responsibilities, after all—for her not to take care of the clothes would be like me no longer bothering to decide what we will watch on television. But when, after a few days, it becomes apparent that she has no intention of calling off her unauthorized labor action, I summon the children for an emergency session of arguing over who should take over laundry duties. We decide on a system based on blame and denial. This leads to a minor disaster in which everyone’s clothing somehow becomes pink, and a demand from my children, “How are you going to get Mom back in the laundry business?” I don’t know, but I suspect it will involve a lot of chocolate.

            Were we to make a job description and list all the things that Mother's do - it would be quite a list...so many things! But as we will be reminded of today - a true mother is way more than that "list."  And, a true mother is way more than even giving birth to children. The assignment of the name of Mother in the Bible entails so much more.

            We are going to back up our story in 1 Kings 3 to the beginning of the chapter (3) because, in like manner to a good definition of what it means to be a Mother, being a King takes far more than having a crown.  Instead, God grants us what it takes to be that which God has called us to.

Earlier in 1 Kings, Chapter 3

5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

6Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

7"Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.

8Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.

9So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

10The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.

            We know this story of how Solomon became and was widely known to be the wisest person who has ever lived.  The king made his wise request in the context of a dream. He had been offering a thousand sacrifices at Gibeon, and as he worshiped, "the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, 'Ask what I shall give you'" for he had been walking in the way of his father David - in the ways of God.  God did not place any conditions on the king's request, but simply invited him to ask whatever he wished. This extraordinary and unprecedented invitation and the way that Solomon responded would reveal the character of the King (more than his job description).   

            Later, Solomon would become famous for saying, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). His own request is a perfect example, because the king begins his prayer for wisdom by reverently proclaiming who God is and what God had done. Young Solomon was a man that feared the Lord.  He acknowledges that the God of his father has put him on Israel's throne. He remembers that God has chosen his people, and when he says that they are "too many to be numbered or counted for multitude" (1 Kings 3:8), Solomon echoes the covenant promise God made to Abraham—that his children would be as countless as the stars in the sky, or the sand in the desert (Genesis 22:16-18).

            It is with humility - a fear of the Lord, that Solomon makes his request in verse 9 - he first, properly, acknowledges the greatness of God. There are those things that are far more valuable than gold.  And that is certainly Solomon's attitude in Proverbs.  Wisdom is far more valuable. 

            And God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you" (1 Kings 3:10-12;  2 Chron. 1:11-12).

            It wasn't the position that made Solomon wise or to be greatly revered.  God granted him what was needed.  It did not begin with a crown or a throne... but character and Godly wisdom. 

            God was so pleased with what Solomon asked that he granted his request. The king became what God promised: the wisest man who ever lived. This gift went beyond Solomon's natural intellectual ability (which was probably exceptional), to endow him with the kind of spiritual insight that can only come from God (Proverbs 2:6).

            At this time Solomon serves as an ideal example of an important principle that Jesus taught his disciples: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). Love for God is its own reward, but along with it come blessings. 

            Now we are at the reading for today... Solomon, swords, babies women fighting, plot twists... it's the Bold and the Beautiful or The Young and the Restless - Israelite version.

The wise decision: 1 Kings 3:16-28

            This is one of the stories that you never forget. Hearing it as a child, you remember it with vivid detail even if any full understanding of how it fits into God's plan and the lessons that are involved comes much later on. It starts first as an example of how smart and wise Solomon is. And it serves that purpose in 1 Kings very well. This is "case in point," Solomon is wise.

            -summary of the story-

            We are astounded at the idea of slaughtering a child -- inconceivable. We remember it because the wisdom is inconceivable -- it never occurs to us to answer the argument in that manner (evidence of Godly wisdom, not human). We remember it because love and justice wins out in the end.

            What a familiar situation the story presents, that age-old conflict of one person's word up against another's. It's been going on since beginning of time shows up in the nightly news...nightly. We run headlong into it under in number of contexts. Our children come running to us each with opposing stories. How do you know which one is true. Arguments, battles, and lawsuits... How do you know which one is true? It is one person's word against another's.

            We don't know the names of the women involved in fact their true identities are revealed in a much different way. The first title given to these ladies in the passage are simply a reference that they are members of the oldest profession. They are prostitutes. But not like a Hollywood version of Pretty Woman where Richard Gere comes to the rescue, and her hard-luck story has a fairytale ending. She is a working woman. Her real identity in the best title comes in the very last sentence. It identifies the woman as a member of the second oldest profession. She is a mother.

27Then the king gave his ruling: "Give

the living baby to the first woman. Do

not kill him; she is his mother."

We must be careful to note that Scripture is discriminating in bestowing that title, of mother. There are, after all, two women in the story. Both of them claim to have given birth, and both make the claim of mother. But in the story, the actual rank of mother is withheld from each of them, until that telling moment when one of the women felt compassion for the child, about to be sliced in half. 

            The text bestows on her the honor of and the mantle of motherhood. It established the quality of compassion as the difference between a biological and a Biblical mother - if we can make that distinction.  It is not her ability to separate dark and light colored clothing for the wash.

            "Compassion" is not a casual word, just as "Mother" is not used casually. It is not simply an emotional response. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word which crosses over into English from the Hebrew for "compassion" has its root the in the word used for "womb."  Compassion in Hebrew has a very literal image of being gut-wrenching - compelled to act on behalf of another... Pregnancy (not to presume knowledge beyond me) is also gut-wrenching... there must be a better way of saying that!

Compassion and Womb - literally and figuratively stirrings deep inside...

            An author and theologian by the name of Phyllis Tribble suggests that despite our diligence in digesting the details of this story, the real gold to be mined is a yet deeper understanding of God - as seen in this mother. Remember that the Bible is not about us, it may be full of stories and characters, patriarchs and matriarchs, sin and devotion... But it's all to reveal God and God's nature.

            Tribble builds on her insight about womb imagery in the Hebrew Bible, noting that in the singular, the word means 'womb' or 'uterus', but in the plural the word includes the abstract terms of compassion, mercy, and love. Theologically conceived, God creates and nurtures the fetus in the womb, prepares the uterus for birth, assists in the delivery, receives the infant from the womb, and sustains the newborn's life into the future. Divine compassion is expressed by the metaphor of a mother's experience and stirrings of feelings and carrying a child to term in her womb and in bonding to that life throughout the offspring's and her future existence.

26The woman whose son was alive was

filled with compassion for her son and

said to the king, "Please, my lord, give

her the living baby! Don't kill him!" But

the other said, "Neither I nor you shall

have him. Cut him in two!"

            The compassionate woman's maternal feelings were stirred, verse 26, literally of her wombs were stirred, out of compassion for her son. Her opponent, on the other hand, is inhumanly cold. Even when she has one the baby by the compassionate woman's capitulation, she still insists on the 50-50 split which would be objectively fair, but morally monstrous. Biological mother, allows for objectively fair, but room to be morally monstrous. The Biblical mother, gives up her rights for the sake of the other. She makes a sacrifice, it's not about her.

            In other words, in this story, there is a difference between a mere biological mother and Godly/compassionate/Biblical Mother. A merely biological mother believes the womb to be an agent of control over life, the life it contains. This kind of mother - she has exclusive ownership of the life that is to be birthed. It is after all a part of her - all decisions are made with regard to herself. Her life is greater than the life within her. Her womb, her rules. I am not denying women's rights - this is an extreme story with extreme contrasts to making something extremely clear. 

            A Biblical mother sees the womb as the agent for giving life and freedom. It is a safe place in which life is nurtured, and it's also the instrument that yields and engenders something/one that she puts ahead of herself.  And whenever that concept of bringing forth life is threatened or diminished, a Biblical mother's womb cries out with yearning to reestablish it. Compassion - a gut stirring move to act on behalf of another.

            John Piper writes...

           The way of love is both the way of self-denial and the way of ultimate joy. We deny ourselves the fleeting pleasures of sin and luxury and self-absorption in order to seek the kingdom above all things. In doing so we bring the greatest good to others, we magnify the worth of Christ as a treasure chest of joy, and we find our greatest satisfaction. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And the supremacy of that glory shines most brightly when the satisfaction that we have in him endures in spite of suffering and pain in the mission of love.

            So, then, how does the Biblical Mother give us a glimpse of God? Frankly, this should be obvious. It is God in whom we live and move and have our being, as if we live and move in a mother's womb. It is God from whom we must be born again. It is God who lets us go, granting us free will. Giving us birth. It is God who allows us to make our own choices. It is God who suffers right along with us when we make wrong choices. It is still God, at least according to the writer of Deuteronomy, who like a mother eagle pushes her offspring out of the nest, teaches us to fly, and wills is to fulfill the purposes for which each of us was born.

            From Jeremiah 1:5, we hear...

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

We also read Psalm 57 because it too has an obvious feminine image for God...

1 Kings 3 has quite a fight/dispute... note that in Psalm 57 the nature of God is also revealed in adversity.

            In the Psalm David appears to be in deep trouble. He talks of people setting traps for him and of being surrounded by enemies. As important as those facts are to him, we, in reality, learn very little about the actual trouble that he is in and much more about the God to whom he looks.

            Scripture speaks to the idea that God's character is revealed in adversity in many ways on many occasions. God is revealed God's true nature is revealed when the Hebrews are under the watchful eyes and heavy hands of the oppression of Egyptian taskmasters. God delivers them. Job learned of God's nature on an ash heap. Jonah learned of God in the deep of the sea. All humanity learned of God upon the cross, for while he we were yet sinners Christ died for us to reveal God is the God of love and redemption. In adversity God's colors shine.

What is the nature that is revealed? In Psalm 57,

1Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy

on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I

will take refuge in the shadow of your

wings until the disaster has passed.

2I cry out to God Most High, to God, who

fulfills [his purpose] for me.

            God's nature is expressed in feminine images that are as accurate as masculine ones. Here's one passage in which God is compared to a mother bird gathers her brood under her wing. God's nature is discussed in the Bible in feminine metaphors with equal accuracy as when discussed under masculine ones. God is one who protects us. David believes the soul can take refuge in the shadow of God's wings. He believes, too, that this protection will last until the storm has passed.  As it happens, the Hebrew word for "wings" can also be translated as "skirts."  Mother hen/wings - not unlike hiding behind a Mother's skirt...

            Jesus uses that very same image... it's a good one to reveal the  character of God...

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Matthew 23:37)

Such obvious parallels between the Biblical Mother/feminine imagery and God:

            If those parallels are not obvious to us, they would be in the Hebrew language of Scripture. Whenever we read the passage that told of Moses encountering God on Sinai, Exodus 34

⁴ So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. ⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

In those Hebrew words define the word 'compassion' at its source.

"Wherever the mercy of God is described, we would also find the family words derived from the root "womb." We would see with our own eyes that what is being said is this: it is as if God has a womb which weeps for us, yearns for us, and trembles with hope that we will be all we were born to be." (Cindy Johnson)

Conclusion: Anthropological Evidence of Compassion

            One day a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. He expected the answer to be a clay pot or perhaps a fish hook or grinding stone. Her answer was "a healed femur." Mead explained that no healed femurs are found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, reigns. A healed femur shows that someone cared. Someone had to do that injured person's hunting and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion is the first sign of civilization.

            And, it is evidence of God's true character as revealed in our Mothers.

1 Kings 3:16-28

16Now two prostitutes came to the king

and stood before him.

17One of them said, "My lord, this

woman and I live in the same house. I

had a baby while she was there with me.

18The third day after my child was born,

this woman also had a baby. We were

alone; there was no one in the house

but the two of us.

19"During the night this woman's son

died because she lay on him.

20So she got up in the middle of the

night and took my son from my side

while I your servant was asleep. She put

him by her breast and put her dead son

by my breast.

21The next morning, I got up to nurse my

son-and he was dead! But when I

looked at him closely in the morning

light, I saw that it wasn't the son I had borne."

22The other woman said, "No! The living

one is my son; the dead one is yours."

But the first one insisted, "No! The dead

one is yours; the living one is mine." And

so they argued before the king.

23The king said, "This one says, 'My son

is alive and your son is dead,' while that

one says, 'No! Your son is dead and

mine is alive.' "

24Then the king said, "Bring me a

sword." So they brought a sword for the king.

25He then gave an order: "Cut the living

child in two and give half to one and half

to the other."

26The woman whose son was alive was

filled with compassion for her son and

said to the king, "Please, my lord, give

her the living baby! Don't kill him!" But

the other said, "Neither I nor you shall

have him. Cut him in two!"

27Then the king gave his ruling: "Give

the living baby to the first woman. Do

not kill him; she is his mother."

28When all Israel heard the verdict the

king had given, they held the king in

awe, because they saw that he had

wisdom from God to administer justice.

PSALM 57

1Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy

on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I

will take refuge in the shadow of your

wings until the disaster has passed.

2I cry out to God Most High, to God, who

fulfills [his purpose] for me.

3He sends from heaven and saves me,

rebuking those who hotly pursue me;

Selah God sends his love and his faithfulness.

4I am in the midst of lions; I lie among

ravenous beasts- men whose teeth are

spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

5Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

let your glory be over all the earth.

6They spread a net for my feet- I was

bowed down in distress. They dug a pit

in my path- but they have fallen into it

themselves. Selah

7My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart

is steadfast; I will sing and make music.

8Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

9I will praise you, O Lord, among the

nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.

10For great is your love, reaching to the

heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

11Be exalted, O God, above the

heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.