Tonight’s worship service included a wonderful homily by our Lutheran Campus Ministry (LCM) chaplain, Corey Seabock. The scripture he chose to use and his sermon appear below. We are truly blessed by the presence of our campus ministry participants and this is just one of the many ways in which they participate in the life of our church.

1 Kings 3:5-14
⁵At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ ⁶And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. ⁷And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. ⁸And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. ⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹²I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. ¹³I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. ¹⁴If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.’

Just a few weeks ago the LCM group took a trip to Savannah Georgia for spring break. Before going, Pastor Rosemary informed us that we would be choosing a word that we would like to incorporate into our lives in the next year. It took me a couple of days, but I figured out that I wanted my word to be “Knowledgeable.” I chose this word because in the next couple of years it is going to be important for me to be knowledgeable about different types of jobs I want to be applying for and which graduate school I want to go to. I want my eyes to be wide open.

How can being knowledgeable about God and our faith be beneficial? Proverbs Chapter 3 says “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized that being a Christian is all about being knowledgeable of God’s word. It’s the reason we have LCM, Bible studies, and sermons. We grow in our faith by learning about God and teaching others about him. How could that be possible if we are lacking the knowledge of the bible? We would no longer be able to tell other people about God’s abundant grace and love. God gives us that power to have the knowledge to spread his word. We need to be more knowledgeable not just about the bible, but how to apply it in our everyday lives. God gave us the gift to be knowledgeable in situations that have to be thought through. If we are saying a prayer, talking to others about God, or learning about other’s beliefs, God gives us the knowledge to apply our faith to whatever it may be. However, being knowledgeable requires that we must exercise our minds to understand what God is saying to us. By reading the bible and going to Sunday school we become more knowledgeable about what God wants us to do here on earth.

When we went down to Savannah it was a wonderful experience and I got to learn more about the members in LCM when we shared what words we had chosen. Throughout the week we had little jars with our words on them and every time someone saw you living out your word, they would write it down on a little index card fold it up and place it in your jar. By the end of the week all our jars were filled to the rim. That showed me that even though I might feel like I’m not as knowledgeable as I should be, that other people can see where I am being knowledgeable.

So I challenge you to think about a word that you would like to incorporate into your lives for the next year. I hope that if you accept this challenge that you will find it as beneficial as the LCM group has found it to be. I hope that you will go into each situation with your eyes wide open. Amen