A Pastor's Heart - 1 Kings 3:16-28 Part II

A Pastor’s Heart – 1 Kings 3:16-28 Part II

The mothers take their case to King Solomon in order that he might properly adjudicate this conflict between them.  Again, you will recall that the mothers were alone on the maternity ward.  Before King Solomon, reputed to be the wisest man in the ancient world, these two mothers argue back and forth about the living baby.  Both of them insist that this living baby belongs to her.  Symbolically, these two babies represent two competing visions for this Church and its ministry as the twenty-first century unfolds.  What is the living vision for First Baptist Church Capitol Hill as we conclude the seventh year of the first decade of this century?  Are we relegated merely to reminisce about one great moment in time?  Is the living vision to nurse that legacy as far into the future as we can?  In contrast, is the living baby a new vision in which we define twenty-first century problems (the potential re-segregation of the public school system, adoption of the hundreds and thousands of children in state custody, the rise of abortion rates in the African-American community, capital punishment and its disproportionate use in relationship to African-American males, the prison industrial complex, the rise of HIV/AIDS among African-American women, to name a very few number of issues amongst the many that exists) that we are called to resolve with contemporary means and methods?  Which baby is the real living baby?  How do we determine which baby is alive?  How do we determine to which baby we are to give birth?  The answer is no easier for us than it was for these two competing mothers.  Just as they sought King Solomon’s wisdom, we similarly must seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

On the second Sunday of next month, instead of gathering for another business meeting and a time inn which we hear a litany of complaints and accusations let us gather for the purpose of praying and seeking the counsel of the Word of God.  Would our church family come out of the wood work, like we did last Sunday, for the noble and most honorable purposes of asking for the wisdom of Almighty God in resolving our current strife?  Are we willing to humble ourselves before the very Creator of the universe and the Maker of all that is seen and unseen?  Shall we persist in the unproductive and divisive vain of self-reliance which will result in the splitting of the baby?  Will we commit two and a half hours to prayer, meditation and Bible study to find a resolution to the Church Renovation Project?

As the mothers argue profusely and vociferously between each other about the living baby, King Solomon determines a foolproof method of ascertaining the baby’s real mother.  He orders a sword to be brought to him.  He says that the living baby will be cut in half with each mother receiving fifty percent of the baby’s remains.  Were that dastardly deed to have occurred, it would have meant that both mothers would have lost one hundred percent in that both of them would have become childless!  Shockingly, one of the mothers actually agreed to this order.  “Neither I nor you shall have him.  Cut him in two!”  Let’s imagine what this woman’s heart looks like inside.  Consider the anger, bitterness, strife, hurt, disappointment, low self-esteem, fear and pain that must reside their in large quantities.  How could she possibly believe that cutting the baby in half would be an appropriate solution to this dilemma?  I submit that this woman’s harden heart symbolizes those of us at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill who insist upon having our way regardless of the consequences.  I find it incredibly difficult to understand the position of withholding my giving until my personal preferences are appeased without realizing that my actions create an artificial financial crisis that may harm other people and irreversibly wound the very Church that I claim to love?  If I take that stance today, what would prevent me from taking that same approach each and every time that someone does something with which I disagree?  Can I justly and honestly portend to care about my church family members and my Church if I am willing at any point to damage them through my failure to give time, service, money and commitment because they do not satisfy my emotional needs?