Aladdin’s Lamp

Everyone knows the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp. It comes from the Tales of the Arabian Nights. It is the story of the young Chinese boy Aladdin who comes to have in his possession a magical oil lamp. When he rubs the lamp genii appear and offer to fulfill whatever Aladdin may wish. As familiar as the story is, I don’t think I’ve ever read it in its original form. The only synopsis I could find yesterday had some features that surprised me. First, Aladdin was evidently not the innocent, wistful charmer he is often portrayed. Rather he was lazy, obstinate and quite a troublemaker. When Aladdin by chance rubs the lamp, two genii appear to serve him. Nothing is said about three wishes; rather, the genii stand ready to serve Aladdin as long as he possesses the lamp. Maybe it’s only genii in bottles that offer three wishes.

It was this morning’s reading from the First Book of Kings that reminded me of Aladdin and genies. Unbidden, unexpected, the Lord appears to Solomon in a dream by night and says, "Ask what I should give you." Your wish is my command. Any child who knows anything about genies knows to consider such an offer very carefully. In so many versions of stories with genies, the number of wishes to be granted is limited. It is easy to carelessly squander the magical offer and lose out on potential loot. "Ask what I should give you." I will grant you what you wish for, the Lord seems to say. A child raised on Aladdin stories might knowingly reply something like, "I ask you, Lord, for a million more wishes. I ask that you will continue to give me everything I seek for the rest of my life."

What would you reply if God roused you from slumber in the middle of the night and said, "Ask what I should give to you?" Would you wish for a million more wishes? Would you, as Solomon does, spend what might be your only wish asking for an understanding mind? Solomon’s answer is really quite surprising. He asks for wisdom and discernment in ruling his people. Although Solomon is sometimes known for his wisdom, elsewhere in Scripture he is portrayed more like the real Aladdin, not the purest or noblest of human beings. He is more the sort who would try to grab for all he could get. He came to power by brutally murdering his half brother. The gross extravagance of his lifestyle, his household and his palace are striking. The daily provisions for the palace were thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. That fed the seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, among others… Today’s reading lauds Solomon for not asking for long life or riches. Maybe he didn’t need to. I have to believe that material well-being and political power were pretty high up on Solomon’s wish list, probably more important to him than "an understanding mind" or wisdom.

So what would you ask for? Imagine that it’s a genie, not God, who’s offering to fulfill your wish. Would that change your request? You don’t have to worry about looking good in front of God; you don’t have to ask for just the things you think you should ask for. What do you really want? I think if a genie from a magic lamp appeared before Solomon and offered to grant him his every wish, he would have asked for more cattle and fatted fowl, an even grander palace, maybe another hundred or two concubines.

Every Sunday at the beginning of our worship service we hear a prayer called the Collect for Purity. "Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid…" God knows the desires of our hearts. God knows what we would ask Aladdin’s genie for. We cannot hide our ambition, our greed, our real desires, from God. Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secretes are hid. God knows what we want. And, knowing what we want, God gives us what we need.

I can’t help but wonder if, on that night at Gibeon so long ago, Solomon didn’t really ask God to bash his enemies and bring him abundant riches. I’m sure that was a strong desire of his heart. But despite Solomon’s desire, God gave Solomon wisdom and discernment. God gives us what we need.

There’s a prayer that has been often reproduced. Its origin isn’t known. In one compilation of prayers that I have, it’s attributed to "an unknown Confederate soldier." Listen:

I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I had asked for,
but everything that I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

My unspoken prayers were answered. I am most richly blessed. Blessed by God. My unspoken prayers were answered. The problem with genies, whether they come in magic lamps or bottles along the seashore, is that they answer our spoken desires. Genies give us what we ask for. Literally. If you asked a genie for the greatest kingdom on earth, you would be given cities and highways and armies and cable/communication companies. If you asked God for the greatest kingdom on earth you would be given a mustard seed. A tiny thing to look at, but something that will grow.  Something that will grow wondrously, awesomely.

If you asked a genie for a great kingdom you would be given power and authority over many people, over a great society. If you asked God for a great kingdom, you would be given yeast, yeast over which you have absolutely no power whatsoever. Yet yeast that by its own power will leaven bread, the staff of life. If you asked a genie for a rich kingdom you might be given hefty blocks of stock in the greatest companies that fuel the global economy. (And where would you be now?)  If you asked God for riches you would be given a barren field, seemingly of no value. But if you went about exploring that field, in the process, in the journey, of exploration you would find treasure of immeasurable value.

You get the point. If we want our unspoken prayers to be answered… If we wish to be given what we truly need, not what we think we want… then what really matters is not what we ask for, what really matters is whom we ask. We can spend our lives searching, hunting, for rare magic lamps, or a genie in a bottle. Or we can turn to God, who is right here.

When Aladdin’s wife was tricked into giving up the lamp, they lost the power of the genies. Evidently they hadn’t thought ahead to wish for some sort of eternal insurance policy protecting them from potential genie loss. Nothing can ever separate us from God and God’s love for us. We can struggle and plot, hoping to manipulate a genie into giving us everything we want. Or we can bring our desires, our wants, our needs, our hopes, all of the good and the bad that is within us, all that we are… to God, trusting that God will give us what we truly need.

Ephesians 3:20, 21: Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

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