Proper 7 B + David and Goliath + 6.23.24

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M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

Proper 7 B + 6.23.24

(1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4–11, 19–23), 32–49; Ps. 9:9–20; 2 Cor. 6:1–13; Mark 4:35–41)

He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

When I was a teenager there was a brand, No Fear, that was very popular. Being a somewhat anxious teen, the idea did not compute. I was much more of the school that, if I could worry about something enough, perhaps it would never happen.

But I feel like today’s theme is No Fear. David says “Let no one’s heart fail because of him.” And Jesus literally stands up in the boat and tells the storm to calm down. How many of us have wanted to do this? To calm the weather or control what seems to be an uncontrollable situation around us? Well, of course this is Jesus, so he is just a bit more capable than we are. But the disciples are understandably agog. And he’s just like, what, you still don’t believe? I think they begin to understand just a bit more who their teacher, their rabbi, is in this moment. They see a connection between him and God in a different way.

Sean turned me on to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants this week, and while I did not have time to read the book, I read a summary and it turned my sermon plans on their head, which were to rehash a previous theme. I love the concept Gladwell shares in his book about David and Goliath. In it, he points out that we must reconsider what we know about David and Goliath. We often assume that, since he was big, Goliath was the more feared combatant. But Gladwell points out that David actually had the advantage. Let me explain.

We all know that here, the Philistines and the ancient Israelites are at an impasse. Both are on either side of the Elah valley, and they have to resolve this issue. At the time, there is an accepted form of solving conflicts, “single combat,” in which two representatives duke it out rather than having everyone fight at once. So, Goliath calls for a competitor and after a pause, because the man is huge, the relatively small David comes forward.

There are a couple of things to consider here. Some have wondered if Goliath, being so much bigger, actually had a medical condition, acromegaly. It happens when one has a tumor in the pituitary gland and makes too much human growth hormone. It makes you really big, but it also can make you have double vision, not too helpful for combat.

In addition, Goliath probably also expected to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and instead David was slinging rocks, a completely separate form of combat. Gladwell’s point is that David had the advantage because he did not play by the rules that were expected of him by Goliath, but instead used his own gifts and strengths.[1] The idea is that God gives us enough to succeed, if we use the gifts God has given us.

David is first saddled with full armor. He puts on a bunch of heavy equipment and he can’t move. But then realizes that he needs to let that armor go, to take it off and just engage in the way he knows. We may not be in a combat situation, but in life’s engagements, can we drop what doesn’t serve us and trust what we know to help bring us success? How can we find our strengths and what will help us succeed?

Matt Skinner points out that at the end of the Book of Acts, Paul may be physically imprisoned, but he is teaching with boldness and with akolutos- which means “without hindrance” in the Ancient Greek. This man who has all the hindrances of the world placed upon him is nonetheless free inside.[2] This inner freedom helps us be free to use the gifts that God has given us.

I think this inner freedom also has to do with what he is sharing with us in 2nd Corinthians, when he talks about an acceptable time. Can we trust in God’s timing for our lives? and also what David shows us in facing off with Goliath using only his best abilities and faith in God. We who are acolytes, followers of Jesus of Nazareth, are invited to act boldly with akolutos- without hindrance. We have many challenges facing us on the storms of this life, but hidden in the Christ, we know that today is also the day of our freedom. How can we move forward out of this time, and envision something new, something free, something loving and something just for our future?

A last thought about David and Goliath. In the book, Gladwell points out that Germany bombed Britain, hoping to cow her as a country and force her people to kneel. Instead, when the vast majority (also sadly not all) survived the bombings, they were filled with confidence. They had survived this, and they would survive so much more.[3] How can we look at life’s difficulties like that? Trusting not so much that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, but that every challenge has within it a lesson for us, if we are open to learning what that is?

Paul talks about how we feel poor but are rich, like imposters but are true, like we have nothing, but really in God we possess everything. This poetic passage reminds us not to look at our lives with the eyes of the world, but instead to trust God to guide and provide, even as we also actively use the gifts that God has given us in smart and strategic ways for the good of the kingdom!

Gladwell says that “so much of what is beautiful and valuable in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine.”[4] So remember, what God has given you is enough, and be patient with God’s timing even as you are strategic in using your gifts as we follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus!

Amen.

 

 


[1] BusinessNews Publishing, Review and Analysis of Gladwell’s Book: Summary: David and Goliath, BusinessNews Publishing, 2015.

[2] Matthew Skinner, “Pesky Reminders from the New Testament about How, as Always, the Church of the Future Will (and Should) Be Like the Church of the Past,” from the Festival of Homiletics, 2021 (Bonus content).

[3] BusinessNews, Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

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