10:30 am, Sun, June 23, 2024

(1 Sam 17:1-11, 16-23, 32-47; 2 Cor 6:1-13) J G White / FBCA

We have good reasons to be victims, sometimes. When we know a lot of frightening details about and experience of danger. Look back to the David and Goliath story, and all those details about the Philistine warrior. His size, his armour and weapons, not to mention his speeches to the Israelite army. Goliath was a real threat, and he knew how to terrorize. At the front of the Philistine army, he represented them all.

The facts and the rumours about the dangers you and I face have an impact upon us. We can be intimidated, expect the worst, and give up before we ever begin. We react. It’s normal to react, but when we over-react, we can be our own worst enemy. For instance, I don’t know if COVID-19 or cancer or some other disease has ever terrorized you, but we can get caught up in being a victim of such threats.

And we become fearful. This is certainly illustrated in this military scene in 1 Samuel 17. In the face of champion Goliath – and his speeches – it says right here the Israelites were greatly afraid.

What is that famous quote about fear from Dune – the novel and the film? I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

Maybe that science-fiction is right. We know our Bible keeps saying two things about fear. ‘Fear God.’ I want to see this as deep respect for the Almighty One. The other scripture phrase is ‘Fear not,’ or, ‘Do not fear.’ That is so often said when someone meets God, or meets some holy being, a divine representative. Fear. Do not be afraid.

Perhaps it is when a threat keeps on keeping on that we get trained to be a victim. In that ancient Israelite scene, we are told Goliath comes out every day for forty days, morning and evening, challenging and threatening. ‘I dare you!’ And the Israelite warriors don’t dare.

It is a normal thing to come back at an ongoing threat with dread and play the victim. In The Seventh Story book, we are told: The victimization story alienates us and invites us to self-harm by defining “our” suffering as greater than “theirs,” perpetuating violence by demanding vengeance. Life is very hard for some people. Well, for many people in this world. How do some of them rise up from being victims, and live better? It happens. We see it.

I look back to the words of those early Christian preachers, in 2 Corinthians. Paul and his teammates kept suffering all sorts of troubles, as they traveled with the message of Jesus. They had afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger! They were dishonoured, treated as imposters, unknown, and so forth. You may know this is not the only list of the troubles the apostle Paul suffered. Through it all, he found strength and courage and confidence. We know from history those early believers kept on, even as they started getting killed off.

You and I may have had moments of looking for ways to keep on being positive, and make some difference when everything seems lost. Maybe this is one of our greatest challenges: doing some little, good thing when we can’t fix the big problems all around us.

In the Goliath and David story, we read of this moment when the Father of a bunch of young men sees to it that some provisions are sent to the front, for his boys. One of Jesse’s youngest, David, has the job of taking the bread and cheese to the boys and leaders in the army. It is simply a little bit of help, something Jesse could do, in the midst of the enemy that faced his people. This anecdote reminds me that the little actions we can take are still important. Still worth it.

Gareth Higgins grew up in Northern Ireland, in the 80s and 90s, when the Protestant/Catholic conflict and violence was so terrible. He has a lot of stories to tell; here’s one. On the day after Pope John Paul II died in 2005, some anti-Catholic graffiti went up on a very conspicuous location in Belfast. It was an opportunity for easy condemnation – of the nastiness of the slogan and the people who wrote it; it also would have been easy to shirk responsibility, and wait for local authorities to clean it up (which would take time during which the damage and the message would be repeated). Instead, a small group of friends went out at four o’clock in the morning, and painted over the graffiti, in large letters, one word that could open the door to a reconciliation path: SORRY. (Higgins & McLaren, Ibid, p. 144)

Other times, someone takes a big step, and inspires hope for victims. The story of David and Goliath famously has the young shepherd step up and say, ‘I’ll take him on. Don’t worry!’ King Saul and the armies of Israel were acting like losers already, unwilling to meet the challenge, forty days running. David sees a possibility. He will go for it.

I just spent four days at a seminar on the theme of imagination – imagining the possibilities of Faith. What we heard was rooted in the imagination and history of centuries of Celtic Christianity and of Indigenous spirituality. I can see that with great imagination comes great hope. We are in need of some inspiration these days. We need to dream dreams and see visions of the future. New possibilities.

Rabbi Michael Lerner says, Martin Luther King, Jr. is not known for a speech entitled, “I have a complaint.” Of course he spoke against the injustices of his time, but he also outlined a vision to overcome them. (Higgins & McLaren, The Seventh Story, 2019, p. 129) ‘I have a dream!’

Not everyone is gong to be ready for the dreams. At first.

Of course, as soon as young David says he’ll face Goliath, King Saul says ‘no way.’ He can’t believe it; he criticizes. But David turns out to have confidence, experience, skill, faith.

As we peek ahead to the start of the Christian era, and that time of peaceful action and non-violence, Paul the apostle lists the skills and qualities he and his fellow leaders were showing, by the grace of God. They had great endurance… purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, power of God… weapons of righteousness. All those powerful, peaceful weapons made possible some amazing victories over terror and trouble.

The next bit of this David story is another bit we learned in Sunday School. The armour and weapons. Someone else’s great big gear just won’t work for tough, little David. He ends up using the tools he already has and knows so well. He carries a staff – a big stick – some stones from the riverbed, and his sling. Hey, that’s what he used against the wild animals that threatened the sheep he cared for.

There really is something to be said for using your own tools and your own best skills. Sometimes, the smallest, simplest things we have at hand are enough to deal with big problems. A terrible sadness, a terrible illness, a terrible betrayal – these could be combatted by the basic methods you know. Your prayers and meditative moments. Your friendships. Your activities that keep you balanced and healthy. We have practiced these things for such moments as these. Moments when troubles come – or come back – in a big way.

In the end, reliance upon God is demonstrated by young David. The whole army that is feeling like they are about to be victims of their enemies, are no longer victims.

Out of this ancient story – and a war story at that – comes some inspiration, some imagination for us. There can be freedom from being the victim of circumstance, of enemies, of life itself. The giants that face us, need not control our lives, our attitudes, our relationships.

In Christ, we find the way out of living our lives as victims: us in spite of them! Instead, we live a loving life, ‘some of us for all of us.’

So may it be.