B, Post-Pentecost 24 Proper 27 - Mark 12:41-44 & 1 Kings 17:10-13 “This is what you need!”

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How am I supposed to survive now? [L] Perhaps this would be the regular response of one of us having just begrudgingly given away our last possession! How, are we supposed to live now?!!!

It's a good question. How are we supposed to live—as Christians—in drought, with debt, with financial responsibilities, with congregational giving down and a church constantly facing crisis?

We hear two words from Scripture, which show us how we 'should' live. The first tells us about Elijah living in a drought. A drought allowed by God, because King Ahab, and his wife Jezebel, led Israel into Baal worship; and also because the forbidden rebuilding of Jericho took place by Hiel of Bethel.

[Elijah] arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand."

And she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die." And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. (1 Kings 17:10–13 ESV)

And the second word from Scripture is from the Gospel of Mark. As the people make their offering to God Jesus observes how we humans live.

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." (Mark 12:41-44)

Having heard these two words from Scripture, it's hard for any person in Australia, or for that matter, anywhere in the western world, to imagine such poverty or lack of culinary choice.

One handful of flour and a little oil in a jug; you can't even make satisfactory pancakes with just flour and oil. Even if all you had in your house was flour, eggs, milk, and a little honey, it would still be more than this woman and her son had to eat. All of us have access to much more food than that!

Two very small copper coins, put on the plate; our treasury doesn't even make copper coins anymore. We live with such wealth that even the silver in our wallets and purses is overlooked in favour of gold coins. But these two bits of copper are the widow's last two coins, after that she had absolutely nothing! Yet even as many of us cry poor, our possessions and bank accounts would add up to greater amounts than what the rich people offered as Jesus stood by and watched!

We have no comprehension, even with recent droughts, what life would be like with poverty and scarcity like that! The fundamental necessities of food, water, clothing, and shelter have been a given for most of the west in recent times. God has allowed us technical advances so that we might more easily collect and store food and water, and that we might efficiently make materials for clothing and shelter. These advances over the last one hundred years have accelerated to a frightening pace and along with these materialistic advances so has our faith and trust in them.

The fundamentals of food, water, clothing, and shelter, which God promises to provide us, have now been revised by us. We need oil, coal, and electricity too. We need oil for fuel, to make our cars, and run our cars. We need oil, coal, and other minerals, to build the plastic and synthetic products we desperately need around us to apparently survive these days! And we need electricity too! Lots and lots of power to give life to the inanimate objects that give our lives true meaning, like televisions, toasters, toys, computers, cameras, email, mobile phones and music making machines of various kinds. And with all these possessions and the electrical power needed to give them life, we invest big in military power to protect the materialistic mountains we build to Babel proportions.

So quickly we place our trust in products and possessions that have rapidly evolved in recent years. As we all know, things that come about quickly, generally tend to disappear just as quick too. Will our teetering tottering tower of technology be sustainable in the future? Probably not, I suspect!

So where will your faith be, in what state will it be, "when" the economy explodes, technology tumbles, the lights go out, our plastic and metal gods stop serving us, and darkness descends over the materialistic western world?

Some might say, "But we need these things! How are we supposed to live without them?" We might need these things, but others live without them! However, we need God more, we can't live without him.

We might need material things; but we need Jesus Christ more! We might need TVs, phones, emails and computers to communicate; but we need God's word more! We might need electricity and oil, and coal; but we need the renewing power of the Holy Spirit more! We need time for enjoyment and entertainment; but we need rest and peace and the joy of eternity more! We need to eat, a cup of water, warm clothes, and a roof over our heads; but we need faith in God who gives us these things—more. Even if we have the whole world, without him we have absolutely nothing!

We all have much to confess because of our unfaithfulness and lack of trust in God's ability to be God. God is not just gracious when the going is good. He loves us and looks after us even when the barns are empty; the sheep are weak, and when the pantry and deep freezer aren't full. Why should we doubt and lose faith when we see the silos and shelves are bare? Just as the woman gave her last meal to Elijah in faith and the old woman put her last two coins into the temple treasury, we need to trust in God even more when times are tough. We need to give to God in faith who faithfully gives us everything! When the going gets tough, the faithful keep believing!

After all, we are called to believe, or have faith, in God the Father "Almighty", Maker of heaven and earth. We are called to believe that God has created me and all that exists. That he has given me and still preserves my body and soul with all their powers. That he provides you and me with food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all you and I need from day to day, whether we give our last two bob, our only moment of free time, our last bit of energy, or the leftovers of our God given excesses. God gives out of his divine goodness and mercy, even though we do not deserve it.

But our greatest need is this: To trust in Jesus Christ, Son of God sent by the Father to save us, who watches us make many faithless mistakes, yet still wills us to boldly come to him, confess our sin, and live under the forgiveness he has won on the cross. This is what you need!

If God would go to such lengths letting his only Son die, so we might drink from the river of life, and be nourished by the eternal fruit on the tree of life, he will surely sustain us with food and water, clothing and shelter in this life.

How are we supposed to live now!? We live as "forgiven" sinners, mercifully carried along by God's grace and mercy. Amen.

A, Pentecost 6 Proper 12 – 1 Kings 3:5-12, 16-28 “Wisdom from God”

Two prostitutes plying themselves to their whorish trade find themselves in a predicament. Both of them are tripped up in an obvious work hazard and give birth to babies. As was their practise the mothers slept and nursed their children in their beds. Unfortunately one of the mothers smothers her baby by accidentally rolling on it while she slept during the night. The next morning the two mothers awoke to find one child dead. Accusations fly that the mother of the dead child swapped the two children during the night and now both argue that she is the mother of the living child.

Being the only two in the house the prostitutes need someone to come and judge who is the mother and who is lying. There was no DNA test to show the maternal mother, only equal claims on the child. These two women needed a person who might hear the case and understand exactly what had happened. They needed a person who could hear not just the words from their mouths but also the thoughts and motives concealed within; one who truly understood, one who knew the truth of what was going on.

King Solomon was that man. In fact he was the king of Israel and highly respected by people near and far. Everyone who knew of his wisdom came into his courts for advice. From social misfits to the queen of Sheba, all came because of Solomon's ability to discern between right and wrong. He was blessed with wisdom; with the ability to hear and understand just what was going on.

So how did Solomon decide which mother was the true mother of the living child and who was the mother who had rolled on her child and smothered it. Solomon's wisdom put the mothers to the test and he called the living child to be sawn in two and half given to each woman. One mother thought it was a reasonable idea, but, in a bid to preserve the life of her child, the other mother pleaded Solomon to give her baby to the other woman to spare its life. Solomon's wisdom led him to make a seemingly foolish decree that would allow him to simply hear and understand the truth of the situation. The true mother in her desperation to preserve the life of her flesh and blood ultimately winning out and Solomon returned the child to her.

From where did this wisdom come? How is it that Solomon knew to use such deadly words to find the true mother? We are told when all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, …they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. (1 Kings 3:28 ESV) Solomon had wisdom from God.

We have heard in text that Solomon was a weak man. When Solomon first became king he said to God, And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. (1 Kings 3:7 ESV) Solomon was weak; he was immature and hadn't developed the ability to govern what his father had left him. Solomon was not a baby or a toddler; in fact he was probably about twenty years old when he took up his father's leadership. But he knew he needed to suckle on the wisdom and experience of someone else if he was going to survive as king and lead the enormous kingdom of Israel.

Solomon was a weak man, his immaturity led him to sacrifice and burn incense on the high places originally built to worship Baal. But in his weakness and immaturity God still came to Solomon, even after he offered a thousand burnt offerings at Gibeon's high place. God appeared in a dream and said, Ask for whatever you want me to give you. Aware of his short fallings Solomon asks, Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So 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? (NIV) Discernment—the ability to distinguish or judge correctly—to be able to truly hear and understand without being led astray by coloured words or by his own wayward heart. This is what he asked for, and this is what God gave to him.

God gave Solomon wisdom and in this wisdom Solomon leaves the high place at Gibeon and returns to Jerusalem going to the Ark of the Covenant, the earthly footstool of God, and burns offerings to God. Solomon then went on to build the temple of the Lord, to house the Ark of the Covenant, in Jerusalem. He built God's earthly dwelling on the plot of land that King David bought, the threshing floor of Araunah.

Unfortunately Solomon lost his wisdom in latter days. He lost sight of God and the understanding that only God could give. He became a whore to his wives and their Gods, and built altars and high places for them. His discerning heart was severed from its source; when he turned his back on God the wisdom also went. His seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines became the centre of his attention and without God and the wisdom he gave, Solomon's weakness ruled his life once again. He gave up his God given, God glorifying judgement, and turned to judgement without the wisdom of God.

God calls us to be discerning in all we do. But if Solomon in all of his wisdom can lose it, how is it that you and I might retain the wisdom God has gifted us with in our lives?

Like Solomon we are weak in our sinfulness, we are not able to get ourselves out of our predicament. But God came to us while we were still sinners and gives us wisdom and maturity. In fact the most mature person is one who has no need to take the wisdom of God and colour it with worldly understanding. The most faithful person is surely a young baby at baptism, lying in the arms of Jesus, trusting completely in his gift of eternal life. Unfortunately as we grow we learn to become weak and immature and chase after the things of this world. And then it takes a life time for us to recognise and surrender to the maturity and wisdom of God which was placed in us at baptism.

So how does God affirm and reaffirm that maturity he places in us at baptism, even though we continually seek to dilute it with the immaturity of our worldly thinking? And how is it that God allows you and me to become wise and discerning, first of ourselves and then of others? So that the maturity of God allows us to have faith like that of a child, and to follow God like a little child follows its daddy? And so we can lovingly encourage others to hang onto the wisdom God has given them?

Solomon's wisdom came from God, and our wisdom, to hear and understand with the heart of God-like compassion, comes from Jesus Christ alone. Unlike Solomon, Jesus didn't just receive the wisdom of God; he is the wisdom of God. Solomon was merely a custodian of the wisdom and so too were the Pharisees and the scribes, the teachers of the law, in Jesus' day. Their understanding and ability was incomplete and far from perfect, whereas Jesus is perfect in discerning just what you and I need, so much so that in complete wisdom he was crucified, buried, and raised for you and me. He knows you and understands you perfectly; he hears exactly what you need. He knows your inner most thoughts—your misery, your joy, your suffering, your secret sins—he knows your human plight. In Jesus you find the perfection of wisdom, not Solomon in his earthly kingdom but rather the King of kings in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. When Jesus spoke—he spoke not like a scribe, a teacher of the Law, a secretary of the Word—he spoke with authority and wisdom as God the Son, the Word of God living as a human amongst humanity. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God, and he speaks as the King of Heaven, here on earth as a man to you.

Jesus is the wisdom of God and he lives in us right from our baptism. Some grow and bury Jesus under a whole heap of garbage in their lives, gathering around them many gods just as Solomon gathered and worshipped his wives and concubines. But no matter how much garbage you have in your life, and we all have our favourite whorish activities, Jesus is still there in you living his wisdom. His perfect wisdom is hidden in you and in his perfect wisdom he intercedes on our behalf before our Father in Heaven together with the Holy Spirit. And these two members of the Trinity take our prayers and present them to, Abba, God our Father, as a pleasing aroma even while we struggle to surrender and lie in the arms of God with the maturity of a little child, confident in faith that we will receive for what we ask and for what we need.

How can we be confident that this all happens for us? The word of God promises us if God is for us who can be against us! Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. That is: nothing will separate us from his wisdom in our lives and his Kingdom in eternity. There is not one thing in this life that anyone can do to sever the promise God makes to you in Christ Jesus; there is nothing anyone can do to sever God from the wisdom found in his Word, written and incarnate.

You have been predestined to be God's child, hear his word, his promise, and joyfully receive the child-like maturity and wisdom he places in you, which leads you and calls you to his Kingdom. Jesus lives in you, wisdom lives in you, the King of Heaven lives in you; this wisdom has predestined and called you by his word to be a part of his kingdom forever. Amen.