Second Sunday After Christmas January 3-4, 2026
“Seek Ye First” I Kings 3:4-15
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Just the week before Christmas a puzzling mystery was solved. Coors Field, home of the baseball Colorado Rockies, has been home to “Socks”, a stray black-and-white cat. But for an entire month she was not to be seen. The workers at Coors Field, who would put kibble into her bowl, said that her bowl was licked clean, but they didn’t see their friend.
The culprits? Over-aggressive, and hungry, raccoons. After taking care of the raccoons, the December 16 article said that Socks, and a friend, were back. Katie Langford, who wrote the article added, “There was no word on whether the raccoons are also to blame for recent challenges experienced by Coors Field’s other residents, the Colorado Rockies.” (The Denver Post, December 16, 2025)
Finding something that is lost is important. Tell me, what do you look for in another person? What do you value most about them? What would draw you to them? Looks? Appearance? Clothes? Where they live? What they drive? How much money they have? Who they hang with? The influence they can create? How about the priorities they have in life?
How about this – how wise is that person? How do they arrive at decisions? How do theymake choices? Are their choices good? How do you arrive at decisions? How do you make choices? Do you know that passage in the Old Testament, “The Lord does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7) Today I am going to talk about a wise and discerning heart.
Our reading for today is the account of Solomon. David, Solomon’s father, had died. Solomon had been selected to be the next king. God came to him in a dream and said to Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon was young and inexperienced. He was in over his head. What should he ask God for? Peter Scaer said, “Perhaps, if I were king, I’d pray for a long reign. Maybe, I’d ask that the land be prosperous and I would preside over a nation that grew in power and wealth. Maybe I’d petition for a large and efficient military in order to defend the borders of the land. Or just for fun, I’d ask for a great big palace, with swimming pools and a spa.” (Concordia Pulpit Resources, January 5, 2014, Pages 22-23)
I love Solomon’s answer to God’s question, “Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 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?” (I Kings 3:7-9)
Do you know any wise people? Do you consider yourself to be a wise person? How did they get to be that way? How did you get to be that way? Or, on the other side – do you know any foolish people? Do you wonder if you are among the foolish?
What makes a person wise? It must start with humility. Like Solomon, “I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.” He was being asked to do something that was large and overwhelming. He had great responsibility. The lives of many others would be affected by his choices. I remember the election of Pastor Randy Golter to be the President of the Rocky Mountain District in 2002. Pastor Golter had been the pastor of a single church – Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Highlands Ranch, and was now called to oversee about 165 churches in the District. He was humbled and overwhelmed. He told us that he needed wisdom – a discerning heart.
But someone needs to be more than overwhelmed to be wise. To be wise is to have faith in God. To be wise is to trust Him with all your heart. To be wise is to cling to His promises which are ever true. You may have heard this verse before, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Paul speaks about a confidence of God’s power in his life as he writes, “Therefore I will boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Corinthians 12:9-10)
Maybe life has humbled you. Maybe God has humbled you. But we have a God who lifts us up. Our God restores broken people and contrite people. The first thing that a wise person exhibits is humility. That which follows humility must be faith in what God can do. Jesus says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
Solomon had humility and he had faith in God. True wisdom. But he gave it all away. He got older but he didn’t get wiser. The prince of wisdom became the king of fools. God told the nation of Israel not to intermarry with the nations around them because the gods of those nations were involved in human sacrifice, even child sacrifice. Solomon didn’t break God’s command just once;he did it a thousand times. “Solomon had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart afterother gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.” “So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely.” (I Kings 11:2-4, 6) By the way – Do you know why a man cannot marry even two wives at the same time? The Bible says, “No man can serve two masters.”
Do you want true wisdom? Here is the path: Humility. Faith. Christ. There is no wisdom without Jesus. God’s greatest wisdom came in Jesus. There is a prophesy about the Christ which says, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears from his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:2-4)
Jesus is wisdom. Every word from His mouth, every action from His hands, every attitude He exhibited was pure wisdom. In Corinthians Paul would say, “It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (I Corinthians 1:30)
The wisest thing that Jesus would do is to go to the cross to be our redemption and the atonement for sins. That sacrifice, that gift was brilliant – coming from the very mind of God. In John 12, just hours before His betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus says, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:27-28)
Some, then and now, looked at the cross of Christ as a place of weakness and foolishness. God wouldn’t, or couldn’t, save people in such a fashion. In that same chapter of Corinthians that I quoted just a minute ago this is what is spoken, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (I Corinthians 1:22-25)
I like how Solomon started his prayer. He had complete humility concerning himself and total dependance and reliance upon God. He was among the wisest. I love how Christ has completed our prayer. With great humility, with full thought, with a right and discerning heart, Jesus offered Himself for our life. God sought us first. Our God is amazingly wise. Amen!!
