Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday August 25, 2019
Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:1-11, 32-49, 51-54
David and
Goliath. The classic story of the
underdog defeating the obvious choice.
It is such a classic story that it is the prototype for anyone facing
overwhelming circumstances – you hear the media referring to a “David and
Goliath Situation.” The small but mighty
hero saves the day.
I want to invite you
to imagine yourself into David’s shoes for a moment. You are the youngest son to a farmer in
Bethlehem, out on the fringes of society.
And as the youngest, you are given the job of tending the sheep, meaning
that you are away from the comforts of home and human companionship for weeks
or months at a time.
Then one day a prophet
named Samuel shows up in your father’s home, announcing that the next king
would be one of his sons. But you aren’t
related to the current king, Saul. The
prophet looks at each of your brothers in turn, and decides that they aren’t
the one who will be king, and it’s only then that they remember that they have
another brother, one who is out in the distant fields with the sheep. They send a messenger to fetch you, and when
you get home, this prophet announces that some day you are going to be king,
and he pours expensive oil over your head, anointing you as if you were already
a king. How must that feel, being told
that you are a king, while the old king is still alive?
And then the summons
arrives. The king has heard that you are
a musician, and he needs someone to play the harp for him, to soothe his
heart. How must that feel to enter the
king’s household as a young boy, knowing that a prophet has announced that you
are the rightful king?
And then we come to
the war with the Philistines. They are a
more powerful army, and are likely going to win the war, but to minimize the
potential loss of soldiers, they issue a one-on-one challenge. Really, the king or one of his top soldiers
should be the one to take up the challenge, but everyone is afraid. Sure Goliath is massive, with huge muscles,
but he can’t move very quickly so that should even the odds a bit.
You see how he can be
defeated, by exploiting his slowness to move, and so you tell the king that you
will take him on. After all, a young
musician and shepherd boy is better than nobody at all, and if nobody steps
forward, then your side will lose by default.
The king tries to
dress you up in fancy armour, and give you the best weapons that his army has,
but as soon as you put them on, you know that this will take away any advantage
that you have. After all, wearing this
armour, you will be as slow as Goliath, and you won’t have any of his strength
to compensate.
You insist on heading
in to the combat armed with just your slingshot and five smooth stones – the
same weapon that you have used to protect your father’s flock all these
years. After all, there’s not much else
to do on the hillside other than practice your harp and practice your
marksmanship.
I wonder if anyone
tries to talk you out of it, on your way down the hill to meet Goliath. If someone does try to talk you out of it, if
someone points out just how massively huge Goliath is, and how strong his
muscles are, and how sharp his sword is – if someone does try to talk you out
of it, are you tempted to turn around and head back to your father’s
sheep? There’s no glory there, but there
are no giants either!
But you don’t turn
around, and when you get within a stones throw from Goliath, your muscle memory
kicks in – after all, it’s no different than trying to do away with a wolf or a
lion who is threatening your sheep.
How does it feel when
you see your stone hit its mark? Do you
feel triumphant? Do you feel empty? Do you feel proud? Did you catch a glimpse of the surprise in
Goliath’s eyes when he realized that this fight wasn’t going to go the way he
thought it would?
Now let’s step out of
David’s shoes, and examine the story from the perspective of Saul, the king.
Saul was the first
king of the Israelite people. When they
had crossed the Jordan River after 40 years of wandering in the desert
wilderness and entered the Promised Land, they initially lived as tribes – each
tribe descended from one of the sons of Jacob – each tribe governed by wise
judges. But the people wanted a king –
they saw the powerful empires of their neighbours, and they cried out to God,
“We want a king!” God replied, “No you
don’t,” but the people persisted, “We want a king!” And finally God relented, and the prophet
Samuel anointed you, one of the members of the tribe of Benjamin, as king.
You did your
best. It’s hard to be the king of a
people who aren’t used to having a king.
You tried your best to balance out doing what God told you to do through
the prophets with doing what the people wanted you to do. And eventually the pressure got to you, and
you weren’t able to do it all.
And then the prophet
Samuel, the same one who had anointed you as king, told you that you weren’t
good enough, told you that God had chosen another king instead. How does it feel to hear this? Do you feel cheated? betrayed? set up to
fail?
And through all of
this, the threat from the neighbouring tribes and kingdoms never lets up. The newest threat comes from the Philistines,
this sea-faring nation that settled the Mediterranean coast and is trying to
make their way inland. And now they have
issued a challenge – send your best warrior to enter one-on-one combat with
Goliath, a giant and the secret to their success in battle.
What are you to
do? If you refuse the challenge, you
will lose by default, and you will lose the land that God gave to your
ancestors. And yet who are you going to
send? If you go yourself, you will
likely be killed, and then that pronouncement by Samuel that there is a new
king will come true. And yet you don’t
have any soldiers in your army who can match Goliath’s size and strength.
It’s no wonder that
you have stress in your life and you aren’t able to sleep. Honestly, who in their right mind would want
to be a king?!
And then this boy,
this child who entered your household as a musician to help to soothe your
heart and mind in the middle of all of the stress, this boy steps forward and
offers to fight the giant.
How does this feel to
you? Are you ashamed of your actions,
watching this boy step forward to do what is, by all rights, your job? Are you afraid for him, afraid for the
outcome, afraid that the land will be lost for all of your people?
Or maybe a rumour has
reached your ear that the Prophet Samuel has visited the farmer Jesse, and has
anointed this boy David as the next king.
Maybe the thought of David going into battle against the giant fills you
with relief because if he is killed, you will be the only anointed king in the
land.
And how do you feel,
watching this boy without armour, without weapons, defeat the giant that you
assumed was undefeatable?
It is a complex story
– one filled with intrigue and plotting.
I was trying to think of a good contemporary situation that is similar –
and in many ways I think that this is the story of David and Saul, rather than
David and Goliath – and the person who came to mind is Greta Thunberg. Last year, when she was 15, she began a
“school strike for the climate” which has now spread around the world. Led by Greta, the students of the world are
trying to reach us adults and convince us that we need to change the way that
the world runs. Are we Saul in this
story, letting a young girl do what we should be doing? Thunberg has gone on to address the United
Nations climate change summit, the World Economic Forum, the EU Parliament, and
she is now crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-emissions boat to address the
United Nations again. One person, a
David, doing what she is able to do using the gifts she has been given, to
approach the Goliaths of the world powers.
Greta Thunberg, addressing the European Parliament
CC-BY 2.0
I have to ask though,
where is God in the story of David and Goliath?
I don’t see God acting through war and violence and killing and
political intrigue. But David knows that
God is with him. David knows that God is
with him, and that he doesn’t need to be led by his fears. David knows that God doesn’t want him to be
afraid, doesn’t want him to be paralyzed by fear the way that Saul was.
And isn’t that true
for all of us? If we trust that God is
with us, then we don’t need to be led by our fears. It’s OK to be afraid, but if we let that fear
take over, then it’s as if we are saying that whatever it is that we’re afraid
of is stronger than God. If we trust that
God is with us, and that God is stronger than our fears, then we can keep taking
one step after the other as we follow God.
This week, the world
has been flooded pictures of the rainforests burning in Brazil, and it is good
that we are afraid. After all, these
forests are the lungs of the earth that God created. If we don’t have trees, then nothing will be
able to breathe. But if we allow
ourselves to be paralyzed by fear and overwhelmed by the enormity of the
challenge, then things will only get worse.
Whatever Goliath you
are facing in the world, be like David and remember that God is with you. God is stronger than our fears, and God’s
love is stronger than anything it is that you are afraid of.
And remember that God
is always saying to you,
My love is stronger than your fears.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger.
And I have promised, promised to be
always near.”[1]
May it be so.
Amen.
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