When Solomon assumed the throne after his father David died, he had immense shoes to fill. The people of Israel loved King David passionately. He had charisma to rally all sorts of people to his side. People were loyal to him even when he messed up. Even when King David got caught up in sex scandals and political corruption, still his subjects followed him with utter devotion. At the end of his life and reign, King David designated his son Solomon to be his heir. And then David died peacefully, to remain immortal in the minds and hearts of the people of Israel still today. So when the people turned to Solomon to be their king, he wasn't at all certain how he could possibly follow in his father's footsteps. They couldn't love anyone as devotedly as they loved King David, so it seemed that he was doomed to be a disappointment. When faced with what seemed an impossible task, Solomon asked God for help. Solomon went to a holy place where people were known to encounter God. And God appeared to Solomon in a dream, and they talked about his problem. "Ask what I should give you," God instructed. Solomon told about all his insecurities and worries. Solomon listed all the reasons why he probably was ill-suited to be king. He talked about how incredibly popular was his father's legacy. Solomon worried that he was too young to be taken seriously. And Solomon observed that the people of Israel were a peculiar people with a long history with God, filled with stubbornness and disobedience. Finally, Solomon explained that the only thing that he could think of that could possibly help him would be wisdom. Solomon asked God to grant him the gift of understanding, in order that he could discern right from wrong and thus rule with justice. God was pleased by Solomon's request. Solomon's prayer revealed that he already possessed the wisdom that he would need to be a good king. He could have asked for long life or strong armies or lots of wealth, but he showed wisdom by appealing to God for understanding to rule wisely. And so God explained that Solomon would continue to possess wisdom and a discerning mind. And not only would Solomon be a wise and just ruler, God promised that he'd be rewarded richly in his lifetime and would be remembered throughout history as one of the greatest of the kings of Israel. "Walk in my ways, and follow my commandments," God explained, "and you will be remembered with the same love and devotion as King David."

The story of Solomon all by itself is a little theologically dangerous, I think. The moral of the story could be, "Pray for what you need, and God will grant it." Solomon prayed for wisdom, and God granted it with a healthy dose of riches and fame on top. But in real life, prayer seldom works that way. Seldom do we see an immediate return on our prayers to God. Seldom do we simply ask for a thing in prayer, and immediately find our desires fulfilled. Paul's letter to the Ephesians helps to make sense of the story of King Solomon. Paul taught the Ephesians that they must exercise wisdom in order to live out their calling as God's children. It's not that God will follow our direction when we pray for what we want. But God will help us to see God's direction for our lives, if we sit with God in prayer and seek God's will above our own. God has important work for all of us to do. Some of us may be kings and politicians, with the fate of whole nations resting in their hands. Certainly our elected officials stand in need of divine wisdom to discern what's right. But it's not just those who command political power for whom God has a plan. Each of us has a calling from God – teachers, doctors, lawyers, the unemployed, the very old, the very young. Each of us has a part to play in the unfolding of God's work of justice and peace. God's written each of us into the story of how this unfinished work of creation is inching forward toward completion. We’re part of the unfolding of God's beautiful vision of how the world should be. We're part of God’s plan. God has a path for each of us to follow. We can't follow someone else's path and still get to where God needs us to be. There are tons of forks in the road that we must choose to travel one direction or another. But the path is ours to travel, and through prayer, God offers us a little of the divine perspective to help us see which steps to take. In my life, I’ve felt the calling of God intuitively. When I’m trying to sorting through how to make sense of my choices, I feel God’s guidance as a nudge or pull. I picture it very much like hiking down a trail, with forks and twists and turns. I know when I’m on the right path by a feeling of balance and rightness with the steps that I take. When I’m struggling with my own motivations, when I feel uneasy with a decision that I’ve made, then I tend to return to God in prayer. When every step I take seems to be a struggle uphill, with no meaning or value to the struggle itself, then I try to consider if there’s more for me to discern in choosing which step to take next. When I began to pursue ordained ministry as an answer to God’s call, I felt that sense of balance and rightness with my steps. When I came out to the conference, I felt that same sense that I was striding along the right path, even though that path was filled with uncertainty and difficulty. Prayer and discernment give me a sense of peace inside when I consider God’s will for my life. God isn't a magician, pulling out wealth and happiness from a hat whenever we ask for them. Instead, God is an architect, with the vision of how all the parts fit together toward the building of a world of perfect peace and holy justice. Prayer is our opportunity not to get God in line with what we need, but in order to get ourselves in line with what God needs from us.

What would your answer be if God were to ask you the question, "What can I give you?" Faced with our insecurities and longings, what would we ask God for if we truly expected that our petition would be granted? When God asked Solomon that question, his answer pleased God. But I suspect that there are many requests placed before God that aren't so pleasing. Clearly there are a lot of prayers that God's not so quick to grant as he granted Solomon's. So what we pray for deserves careful attention. The story of the genie in a bottle has become a cliché in popular culture. Perhaps its roots lie in the stories of the Arabian Nights, but I suspect that it's a more ancient folktale than that. You know the premise. A genie in a bottle or a mysterious stranger or some angel or demon offers to grant a person three wishes. Anything they wish will be made true. They can only have three wishes, though, so they must exercise their wishes most carefully. These stories are always filled with disaster for the person who makes the wishes. They wish for wealth, but the wealth brings them misery. They wish for power, but that power makes them hated and isolated. Whatever selfish desire they wish for comes back to haunt them. Thus the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for, for you may get it." In these stories, the wise wisher is the one who finally realizes that selfish desires are dead ends. The wise wisher is the one who uses the last wish not for fame or fortune, but in some selfless act of generosity. He or she wishes for a thing that's small, simple and direct, and above all, brings no benefit to the person making the wish. And that selfless wish ends up being the only wish that can truly bring happiness. God's no genie in a bottle. God doesn't magically fulfill our wishes with the snap of fingers. But prayer is just as complicated as the three wishes of that genie in the folktale. Prayer reveals our true priorities. Prayer with God holds up a mirror of those parts of our souls that are truly following the will of God. In the same way prayer exposes those parts of our souls that chase after the fleeting gains of our selfish desires.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray without ceasing. Jesus encouraged them to make every moment, every act, every breath a prayer to bring them into closer communion with God. I think Paul's words to the Ephesians echo the same sentiment. Paul wrote, "Make the most of this time, living not as unwise people, but as wise people." Paul warned against debauchery and drunkenness, no matter how tempting and fun those choices may sound. The choices are always ours. There are choices that are clearly dead ends. There are lots of choices that are more complicated to figure out. But whatever choices lie before us, we exercise wisdom by seeking not so much for God to change the circumstances around us, or to change us to better meet our circumstances. But we exercise wisdom when we pray for discernment to see the path God has placed before us. We exercise wisdom when we pray for the insight to recognize the strength of character God has woven into us from the moment we were created. Our prayers are most pleasing to God when they serve more than our shortsightedness and impulsive desires. Our prayers are most pleasing to God when they reflect our true desire to follow the path that God has chosen for us.

Amen.