United we stand, divided we fall

²²“No!” the other woman
shouted. “He was your son. My baby is alive!” ”The dead baby is yours,”
the first woman yelled. “Mine is alive!” They argued back and forth in
front of Solomon, ²³until finally he said, “Both of you say this live baby is yours.²⁴Someone bring me a sword.” A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, ²⁵“Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him.” (1 Kings 3.22-25)

Solomon
is approached with a serious dilemma. The equation doesn’t seem to add
up. Two mothers. One baby. In what's declared as an act of wisdom, Solomon decides
to cut the baby in half to correct the equation. When threatening to do
so, the truth is discovered and the baby is returned to his mother.

While moderating at a recent presbytery
meeting, I had a new insight into this particular story. Except in my
case, we are not fighting over a baby. We are fighting over a community –
the Presbytery of San Francisco community. By name, my presbytery is
assumed to be liberal, but in reality we are evenly divided, evenly
split and all the players have a high stake in who wins and who doesn’t.
Lately, the issues we have been fighting over have been anything that
has to do with LGBTQ issues: ordination, sense of call, marriage, sin.