Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship, May 15, 2010
1 Kings 3:16-28.
One day two prostitutes came before King Solomon. The Bible does not record their names, so I've made up names for them—Miriam and Tamar.
Miriam was the one who initiated the case. She presented her complaint first. “Your majesty, this woman, Tamar, and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby boy at home while she was there. Two days later she gave birth to her son. There were just the two of us in the house. No one else lived there.
One night Tamar accidentally rolled over on her baby and smothered it. She got up while I was sleeping and switched babies. When I woke up the next morning and went to nurse my baby I realized it was not my baby.”
Tamar adamantly denied Miriam's claims. “That is a lie. I did no such thing. The living child is mine. The dead one is yours.”
Miriam shouted back. “No, the dead baby is yours. The baby you're holding is my son.”
The women screamed charges back and forth for several minutes until finally the king interrupted them.
“What am I to do?” Pointing at Miram, he said, “You say the living child is yours.” Then pointing at Miriam, “And you say the living baby is yours. No one else was in the house. There are no witnesses. It's your word against each other.” He paused, then ordered an attendant to fetch a sword.
The woman glared at each other, waiting for the king to give a decision.
When the man returned with the sword, King Solomon ordered him. “Cut the living baby in half. Give half to each woman. Then every thing will be even.”
Tamar, the second woman, nodded her head. It was okay.
Miriam, however, fell on her knees almost hysterical. “Please, sir, no! Don't hurt the baby. Give him to her. Whatever you do, don't hurt the child.”
Solomon ordered his officers, “Give the child to the first woman. She is his mother.”
And all the nation when they heard his verdict, applauded.
The mark of a true mother: The life of my child is supreme. Break my heart, if you must. Give me life-long grief, if need be. But whatever you do, don't do anything to harm my child.
Of course, this mother wanted her child. That is why she pressed her claims in the royal court. But when she saw her child at risk, she immediately renounced all claim . . . thus establishing beyond question in that court, the truthfulness of her claim to be his mother.
And God says, “This is a picture of me.”
While the Bible writers far more frequently use the metaphor of Father to picture God, from the very beginning the role of Father was linked with the role of Mother. And there are a number of Bible passages that explicitly use maternal imagery to help us make sense of God.
Deuteronomy 32:11
[God is] like an eagle that stirs up her nest and hovers over her young,
That spreads her wings to catch them and carries them on her pinions.
Isaiah 49:15
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Even if she could forget [which, of course, is highly unlikely],
I will not forget you.
See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
Matthew 23:37
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! . . . how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings . . .
Isa. 66:13. As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.
John 3:3-3. Jesus declared, “No one can see the kingdom of God (KOG) unless he is born again.” Nicodemus countered, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!” Jesus responded, “No one can enter the KOG unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”
The ultimate effect of spiritual life is to give us a new parentage. Being born again means having a new parentage. We move from understanding God as a mirror of our earthly parents to understanding God as he/she really is and embracing that divine reality as the primary foundation for our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.
When we are born again, we have a new mother—God!
For those whose mothers were generous, devoted, nurturing, consistent, reliable, disciplined and fair, it is fairly easy to use our imaginations to work directly from our experience as daughters and sons of our mothers to understand our privileges and responsibilities as daughters and sons of God.
For others, the frailties and failings of our mothers make it more difficult embrace the truth about God's maternal regard for us. For some, the failings of their mothers were so profound, no amount of imaginative reworking of your memories can turn your mother into a helpful metaphor for God. If that is you, I suggest the following strategy:
If you are a mother or an aunt or even if you have a cat or dog or bird that depends on you for their well-being you can look into your own heart for insight into the motherhood of God. In spite of your failures and imperfections, you are aware of a deep, ineradicable regard for the little people in your life, for the little ones that depend on you. Your own “mother's heart” is outraged when you read of mothers who fail their children. No matter how your own mother treated you, no matter where you are in relation to having children of your own, a mother's awareness is already written in your heart. That sensibility is planted there by God. Pay attention to it.
Do you think it's right to abuse or neglect a child? No, of course not. Neither does God. Do you think all children should be given affection, affirmation and warmth? So does God. Do you think children should be given discipline, structure and consistency? So does God. Your mother's heart is telling you something about what God desires for you. Trust your mother's heart. God created it within you.
I began with the story of two prostitutes in court fighting over a baby they both claimed. If we can find a picture of divine maternal love in the story of prostitutes fighting for custody of a baby, then surely you can find a picture of God's maternal affection in your own heart.
God is at least as good a mother as you can imagine.
Will you allow God to be your real mother? The one that gives you an unshakeable foundation of affection, affirmation and love?
Women, all of you who have mother's hearts, God wants to touch the world through you. God wants to love your children, your nieces and nephews, the children of your neighbors and friends through you. God is counting on you to provide a model of nurture, care, affection, thoughtfulness, generosity and warmth for the little people in your world. Will you join God in mothering the world. As you do so, you will find your own heart warmed. You will find rest and security in God as you extend his maternal affection to those within your reach.
Men, open your hearts to receive God's assurance that more than anything he desires your well-being. God biggest ambition is your success, your effectiveness in life. Nothing can shake this. Not calamity or injustice that happens to you. Not failure or stupidity on your part.
All of us, men and women, children and teens, own God's heart the way that infant owned the heart of his prostitute mother. We are loved.
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2 comments:
I know this question doesn't pertain to you central thesis which is safely banal, but it seems the story of solomon is less history and more metaphore. At least that's how it's being used here. Is that how you see the Bible? There is probably historical figures behind the stories, but where do you draw that line between history and myth? Or is that even a useful line to draw?
" . . . but where do you draw that line between history and myth? Or is that even a useful line to draw?"
It seems to me there are two distinct projects when it comes to working with the Bible. One is historical investigation concerning the facts--what exactly happened in Solomon's court? What was the nature of access of prostitutes to royal intervention? Did mother's roll over on their babies and kill them or was this an incidence of SIDS? Did Solomon actually give this ruling? or was there some literary creativity
This kind of investigation is less and less interesting to me.
The other is literary (spiritual, aesthetic, artistic, religious). In this approach the questions are things like, what did the author want to say about the human condition or about God? What do I understand about God and/or the human condition having read the piece? What help do these words give me as I seek to live meaningfully, ethically, richly, happily, godly.
When we approach the Bible as literature rather than as an artifact it becomes a useful tool for spiritual, philosophical, theological, creative thinking.
Myths--stories with meaning--are far more valuable than a collection of historical facts. I am not intending to make any statement against the historicity of the Bible. I'm just leaving that argument for others to engage in.
When the community through its designated "holy person" affirms a sweet, sentimental, metaphorical reading of the Bible, it is doing precisely highest work of a religious community--transmitting "myth," that is passing on a "story plus meaning."
The fact that The Shack was the number one NY Times bestseller in paperback fiction for two years suggests there is a significant hunger among humans for "the banal" as you called it.
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