Reading: I Samuel 17:1-40
After getting off to a promising start, the brand-new kingdom of Israel is in trouble. Saul, the first-ever king, has begun his reign with a series of military victories over the Ammonites and the Philistines – two troublesome neighbouring kingdoms. But the Philistine army quickly regroups and comes back looking for revenge. Now, Saul and his army are on the defensive.
Also, dissent is beginning to form against
Saul within the kingdom as his high-handedness starts to show. Samuel, the priest and prophet of God who
anointed Saul to be king in the first place, has split from him and has already
given his blessing to an unusual successor – David, the youngest of the eight
sons of Jesse, whose main job so far is to be shepherd of the sheep and servant
of his siblings.
The Philistines gathered for battle in Socoh, a town in Judah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in Elah Valley, where they got ready to fight the Philistines. They were on one hill, the Philistines on another, with a valley between them.
From out of the Philistine camp there came a giant of a man named Goliath, to challenge the Israelites. He was over 9 feet tall, wore bronze armour weighing 125 pounds, and a bronze helmet. Bronze armour protected his legs, he had a bronze javelin slung over his shoulder, and his spear was as thick and heavy as a weaver’s loom. A soldier in front of him carried his shield.
Goliath shouted at the Israelites, “Why are you lined up for battle? Choose one of your men to come fight me. If he wins and kills me, we will be your slaves. If I win and kill him, you will be our slaves. I challenge you: pick someone to fight me!”
When Saul and his men heard this, they were terrified. For forty days – day after day, Goliath came out and challenged them. And for forty days – day after day, no one from Saul’s army came out to meet the challenge. Even when Saul offered a big reward, the hand of his daughter in marriage, and the rank of nobility for all the family of any man who would defeat Goliath, no one stepped forward.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Jesse asked David to come in from where he was watching the sheep, to take supplies to his brothers who were part of Saul’s army, and to bring back word of how they were doing. When he arrived at the lines, he saw and heard what was going on and that for forty days no one from the army had yet gone forward to meet the challenge of Goliath. He couldn’t believe it.
David’s oldest brother saw David’s curiosity, and told him to go home and watch the sheep. “Just go do your job back home, and leave this to us.” From each one whom David asked for any information, he got the same answer.
King Saul heard about this curious shepherd-boy in their midst, and called to see him. When David stood before him, Saul also told him to go home, and leave the fighting to the warriors.
“Your majesty,” David said, “I take care of my father’s sheep. When a lion or bear carries off a lamb, I go after the animal and get the lamb back – even if I have to take it out of the wild animal’s mouth. If the animal turns on me, I grab it by the throat and kill it. And I will do the same to this Philistine. The Lord has saved me from lions and bears; the Lord will save me from this Philistine.”
So, Saul agreed to let David meet the challenge of Goliath. David had no armour, so Saul gave him his and had his servants help David put it on. David tried to walk in it, and couldn’t. “I can’t fight with all this,” he said. “I’m not used to it.”
He took it all off, and he picked up his shepherd’s staff. He picked up five smooth stones from the stream, and put them in his bag. With his sling ready, he went out to meet Goliath.
Meditation
He picks up his shepherd’s staff. He picks five smooth stones from the stream and puts them in his bag. With his sling ready, he goes out to meet Goliath.
And thus, marches David into the pantheon of the human gods among us whose trust in the desire of God to save others from the goliaths of their time inspires us all. Is there any story more classic and more captivating than that of David and Goliath?
When I told Japhia this was the reading for this week’s worship, her immediate response was “I love that story.” As a child it spoke to her exactly the hope she needed about prevailing against oppressive and dominating power, and she has loved it ever since.
I remember also when I read a selection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales to young Aaron as bed-time stories, and after having read enough of them, let him choose which one he wanted, it seemed his favoured choice was “Jack the Giant-Killer” – a Grimm version of David and Goliath in one way, and no doubt a much-needed ray of hope in his own life (hmm … Happy Father’s Day, dad?) about the little guy doing in the big mean guy.
And even as adults, don’t we give special attention to stories like that of Greta Thunberg, only 18 years old this year and for the last 3 years, known for protesting outside the Swedish Parliament for real climate change action, saying “how dare you” to a United Nations assembly of world leaders, and taking her passion for addressing climate change into the heart of Alberta and Wild Rose country?
Or the story of Ashley Jenkins, the temp nurse hired in 2020 to help Rosslyn Place long-term care facility comply with health regulations, who instead, for the well-being and survival of the residents there, blew the whistle on how irredeemably bad the conditions were, and helped wake up all of Hamilton and Ontario to the travesties of long-term care in the city.
People like that stand out, as do so many others, like those in a photo included by Pete in last week’s online worship – descendants of settlers and recent arrivals to the Stoney Creek area, wearing orange t-shirts and standing at the First Nations monument in Battlefield Park in solidarity with members of the First Nations grieving and lamenting the discovery of the bodies of 215 First Nations’ children buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School – daring to face the ogre of racism living all these years in the basement and in the very foundation of Canadian society.
Or like so many others who dare to stand up for a friend against a bully, who confront a co-worker who shares a racist or sexist joke, or who stand with, rather than against or just apart from a schoolmate who comes out and faces harassment or exclusion because of it.
They stand out. And I wonder if this also is one of the points of the David and Goliath story. Not just the conflict between David and Goliath, but also the contrast between David and King Saul and the whole of his army. Between David – a shepherd-boy, the least of Jesse’s sons (and who is Jesse?), and King Saul (the tall and brave) and all his army (lined up in battle dress, armed to the teeth) in fearful silence before the challenge of Goliath?
Is it maybe their very reliance on their armour, their weapons, their marshalled ranks and their military strategy that is the reason they are not willing and are afraid to step out and meet the challenge of the great and fearsome Goliath? They know their weapons, their armour, and their strength are no match for his. And because they have so committed to their weapons and armour and strength and strategy, have they forgotten what it means to trust in God, and in the desire of God to work through and work with those who honestly give themselves for the well-being of others?
As a shepherd, David knows he is really no match for lions and wolves who want to steal the sheep of the flock he cares for. His staff, his sling and his stones, the puny strength of his own hands and arms will never overpower an animal of prey.
But he also has come to know that as he uses what he has and puts himself on the line for the sake of the sheep’s well-being, God is with him, protects him, works through him, and helps him prevail – helps him and the sheep find their way through to a good end.
Is that something available maybe to all of us, in one way or another? To be like David – a stand-out for God for the well-being of others, rather than a stand-back with King Saul and his army in our own nervousness, in the face of some challenge from a goliath of our time?
Last week in a United-Church webinar about ministry and mission in a time of pandemic and post-pandemic, I learned that one of the greatest dis-eases of our time afflicting the lives of almost everyone we know, including ourselves, is the feeling of being unwanted, and the sense of being un-needed. It’s a giant shadow that lies upon the lives of many around us, and a challenge that shadows our lives as well. It makes us all just want to withdraw, and find a quiet place of small meaning and personal comfort.
But maybe, like David, does our experience of God and our trust in God’s desire to use us for others’ well-being, help us let go our fears, let go the temptation to rely on high-tech and high-end solutions to everything, and just pick up what we have – something maybe as low-tech as a phone call or a front-step conversation, as human as a casserole or a cake left at a front door, as humble as the loan of a book or a magazine article that meant something to us, as ordinary and risky as a community cooking class – just to break through someone else’s giant despair; to undo someone else’s dark sense of being unwanted, un-needed and unimportant; to bring the dark giant of loneliness in their life to its knees, and help them stand up and live again with a sense of being important and cared for.
Maybe that’s goofy. But on the other hand, maybe it’s true that God gives us all a pouch of smooth stones to use for the good of others in life, and that as we use them, the pouch itself is refreshed and they’re never used up.
Some like Greta Thunberg and Ashley Jenkins, probably are meant and are well-positioned to sling their stones as hard as they can at the foreheads of some of the corporate and global giants of our time that run and ruin the lives of many, and much of life on Earth.
For most of us, it’s likely enough to spend our time just dropping or gently casting our little stones as we are able into the pool of other’s lives, to stir the water, create some gentle ripples, and but by bit invite them to feel the movement of God’s Spirit in their life too, telling them they are wanted, they are needed, and they are important.
Do you believe we all come into this world with a little pouch of smooth stones?
And that it’s up to us whether and how we use them?
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