A Sermon Preached at Maple Street Congregational Church, United Church of Christ Danvers, MA Date: July 19, 2015 Rev

A sermon preached at Maple Street Congregational Church, United Church of Christ Danvers, MA Date: July 19, 2015 Rev. Kevin M. Smith, Pastor 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

Risk Taking and Faithful Discernment

I got my first motorcycle in the summertime of my fifteenth year—a little Yamaha 90 whose engine went “ring-ding-ding-ding.” Summer always reminds me of the fun times I had with that bike AND a few of the close calls I’ve had on a motorcycle. That motorcycle reminds me of one of the characters I was fascinated by in my younger days—one of the more curious Americans that I watched out of the corner of my mind’s eye for years. I’m sure many of you remember the wild and crazy man from Butte, Montana, named Evel Knievel! The newspaper called him “a daredevil extraordinaire.” (“PROBLEMS OF EVEL, AGING DAREDEVIL DEALS WITH PAIN” San Jose Mercury News (CA) - July 10, 2006 - 2D Sports). I think that was a very apt description of this canyon-jumping, rocket-riding risk taker that captured America’s fascination throughout most of the decade of the 70’s.

Now Evel’s real name was Robert Craig Knievel, Jr. Perhaps one of the reasons Evel became “Evel” the risk taker and daredevil was because he was a “Jr.” Like most folks who walk in the shadow of someone larger or older or wiser than they are, and then cannot even get their own unique name but have to carry around someone else’s name for the their entire life, they decide they have to do something outrageous to establish their own identity. Or, perhaps, growing up in a smaller town like Butte, Montana, required doing strange and dangerous things just to find some entertainment!

Well, the story goes that little Bobby Knievel got his nickname in a rather inauspicious manner. The online encyclopedia “Wikipedia” has it this way: “Knievel dropped out of high school after his sophomore year and got a job with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator in the copper mines. He was promoted to surface duty where his job was driving a large earth mover. Knievel was fired when he made the earth mover pop a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte's main power line, leaving the city without electricity for several hours. With a lot of time on his hands, Knievel began to get into more and more trouble around Butte. After one particular police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he said "Hey, we got a guy named Knievel in one cell and another named Knofel in the other… Double the guard! We got Evel Knievel and Awful Knofel here tonight." Evel’s nickname stuck.”

Thinking about Evel Knievel and his risk taking rides takes me back even before I got that first motorcycle to the first bicycle my father bought for me. Well, it really wasn’t a complete bicycle my Dad bought for me. You see my Dad was really cheap. I mean really cheap. He used to take me to these county surplus auctions and he bid on and bought all kinds of things—things that my Mom and sister and I just called “junk.” Well, one time he bought a frame—just the frame mind you—of an old Schwinn bicycle. It had no tires, no handlebar, no chain, no nothing, just an ugly old brown and white frame. My Dad then proceeded to go out to our local hardware store and buy the sprocket and chain and pedals, but he let me buy the tires and handle bar and seat. So, being thrilled as I was at the time with the big motorcycles that Evel used to ride on, we got these big old rubber balloon tires, a high-rise handle bar and a “banana” shaped plastic seat with gold flecks all over it! I’m sure all the parts that we bought for the bike probably cost more than a new bike would have cost from the beginning, but I know my Dad thought that he had gotten a real bargain! (Now, I have to tell you that my first car that my Dad bought for me came from the same county auction, but that's for a later sermon!)

So I had this hot bicycle, and living out in the country I had my run of every gravel road and ditch and dirt trail that you can imagine. Evel Knievel had nothing on me! I’d fly around Fairfield and the farmer’s fields doing wheelies, and “laying rubber” on the dirt road, and all doing kinds of stunts. I was Krazy Kevin on that cobbled-together race bike. The first time I tried running up a really high mound of dirt that looked just like one of Evel’s motorcycle ramps and went flying through the air I remember the really weird feeling that was a mixture of freedom, fear, and sheer terror as I began to free fall through the air over a ditch that was a whole lot deeper and wider than I had realized before heading up that mound of dirt. Well, in mid-air the bike and I parted company. I flew one way and the bicycle flew the other, which was probably a good thing. If I had stayed on that bike all the way up and crashed to the ground on it, I’m sure I my body would have been mangled a whole lot worse than it was when I came thundering down into a pile of dirt and thistles. The mouth full of dirt that I swallowed and the few bumps and bruises I sustained were enough to end my days as an Evel Knievel wanna-be!

I wish I had had the wisdom of Solomon back in my childhood. We read this morning that when Solomon ascended to the throne of his father, David, and once he had solidified his kingship he went up to one of the “high places” or places of pagan worship in those days and worshipped God by falling asleep hoping to receive a message from God. He had to worship at the pagan temples because he had not yet built the temple for God. And indeed, God came to Solomon in a dream asking Solomon what it was he wanted. God tells Solomon in the dream to “Ask what I should give you.” Instead of asking for wealth, and power, and things, Solomon admits that he is just a babe in the woods and doesn’t know whether he is coming or going. He asks God to give him an “understanding mind” to govern, for the ability to discern between good and evil—basically he is asking for wisdom. Solomon had the good sense, the beginning of wisdom, to know that he was taking a huge risk as a young man in thinking he could lead a great people, especially people chosen by God to be responsible for being a model to the nations about how to serve the Lord. Frankly, I think he was taking a risk, too, to try to find God in a place where pagan gods were worshipped.

But the most important thing Solomon did is to open himself up to really listening to God. He didn’t tell God what to do. He didn't claim to know the mind and ways of God. He was humble in asking God not for riches and wealth or success but simply for wisdom and help with discerning how to be a good leader of his people. Even after Solomon had taken some pretty harsh measures to consolidate his throne (we all make mistakes), he still realized that this challenge was more than he was up to by himself. He needed God's help. Many times in our lives we face these daunting challenges in our work, or at home, or with the sudden onset of a serious disease that we just have to ask God how could we ever face these huge and sometime frightening challenges in our lives. Challenges and problems often of our own making. Oftentimes we feel we just cannot measure up to what is facing us—that we don’t have the talent, or brains, or skills, or maybe even luck to attempt a challenge that looks harder than jumping a motorcycle over the Snake River Canyon! But still, challenges happen to us.

Sometimes God calls on us to take those challenges, to take a risk. I think these are times when we just have to choose to enter into those unchartered waters and with a lot of prayer and more prayer and faith we enter into the fray. If we can anchor ourselves and our souls in God and most of all enter into a position or state of listening rather than forcing something or charging ahead without being open to God, God will indeed show us the way. But, it will be painful at times.

For in each moment that we live God places an initial aim toward the right path to follow. Prayerfully, humbly, with an open heart and mind if we listen and look for that guidance from God in each moment, God will be there to guide us. The guidance may not come in dreams on a high mountain top, or it may not come in a bolt of lightening, but it will surely come through events and ideas that we can discern with our minds and hearts if we are open to learning, sometimes making mistakes, and taking risks that are grounded in faith. This is entering into what we might call faithful discernment: the process of listening first, being open, not prejudging the outcomes, having a willingness to be led, being accepting, and having faith in where God is taking you and me. We don’t have to be Evel Knievel and take ridiculous risks for fame and fortune; but we can take risks that are under girded by prayerful discernment and faith. Amen.