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Just a quick note, the story we just heard is violent and unfortunately there isn’t really any way to pull that violence out, not completely, but the story has a lot to offer, so for those of you who find it difficult, I am sorry.
What a story, what a story indeed. The lectionary, that calendar of scripture passages that many churches follow, takes their congregations through a collection of stories and lessons over a three-year cycle, and attempts to paint a picture of our Christian tradition, its teachings, its origins… and of the stories told over that arc that the lectionary follows very few stories are as well-known as this one. The Story of David and Goliath, at least within my experience is a childhood staple, its primary lesson even escaping the confines of Christian culture and spilling out into secular life as well, the underdog can emerge victorious if they stand tall, hold tight to their purpose, and give everything they have to the fight… big things come in small packages, don’t judge a book by its cover, no matter how you spin it, the central message of this passage as we know it is powerful and almost universally understandable, and to a human being setting out to live in this competitive, fast paced world, it tells us something we NEED to hear… we have a chance, we might just make it!
I love it, I share those ideas and perspectives with my children all the time, or at least I try to. But today I want to take a step back and twist the perspective a bit. I don’t intend to alter the significance of the story, or throw out tradition, or just agitate you for the sake of my own good times, my hope is to encourage you to take a closer look, or maybe step back and take a broader look at the stories, assumptions, understandings, and beliefs that you have internalized over the course of your life. Maybe they came from work, from school, maybe from your parents or community, maybe they even came from church… take a look, ask questions…
This Sunday is the first Sunday in a summer series of services where Pastor Cindy and I, will look at stories and people from scripture, that may be overlooked in traditional readings and approaches. I was actually unsure what passage to start with when she and I were discussing this path, so we just decided that for this week we would stick to that lectionary… and the perfect passage emerged. Like I said, there are very few stories as well-known as this one, but think about it, have you ever heard Goliaths side of the story? One of my favorite parts of literature classes in college was the discussion of the unreliable narrator. This idea is really something, because the narrator in a story is the primary source of information, so if you were to approach all texts unaware that the narrator could be unreliable, then you would be forced to take them at face value, forced to take away the significance that the author intended, even if the text just described an event, its meaning would be forever shaped and dictated to you… is that something you are OK with? Being told what to think, what to understand, what to feel?
The story of David and Goliath tells the story of a child defeating a soldier, but not just a soldier, a giant of a soldier, so those traditional takeaways seem appropriate… David was a teenager, potentially fifteen or sixteen if not a little younger. When he walked out onto the battlefield where Goliath was waiting, he was not armored, he had no sword or shield, no spear, just his normal clothes, and a length of leather cord, with a small pocket midway. He swung this length of string quickly as he came out onto the field. To Goliath this was almost laughable. Goliath was a well-known, if not famous soldier, David was a teenage shepherd. Goliath had been in many battles before this day, and was no stranger to taking a life. David had bragged about killing lions and bears while protecting his sheep, but some scholars believe as Goliath would have, that David had never taken the life of anything truly capable of threatening his own, certainly not a bear or lion, or a human being. Goliath, if the story is to be believed, and some scholars are permitted to offer input, stood between 7 and 10 feet tall. His spear, the size of a weaver’s beam, may have been 10 feet long with a 16 lb. head, and a 10 counterweight, bringing the total length to around 12 feet and the total weight to around 30lbs. For reference, think of a ten-foot pole as big around as my wrist, tipped with the head of a large sledgehammer on each end, only very sharp. His armor would have weighed at least 125 lbs. This was a mountain of a man, and if David was even remotely normal, his 15-year-old frame would have been thin and wiry, but not yet possessing a grown man’s strength. From our traditional perspective, rooting for the underdog, fully aware of God on his side, David’s victory is an unlikely, but reliable outcome, after all God is at work here! But from Goliath’s side of the field this was a child sent to defend an army. Goliath was doing his work, what he had trained for and practiced, as heinous and brutal as it was. He was pursuing the goals of his leaders, not his own. If his efforts were successful, and the conflict at that field of battle could be resolved in single combat between two people, then countless other lives could be spared. So I ask, is this the obvious action of a bad guy threatening a defenseless child? That’s certainly how the story is presented, but let’s take a closer look…
Let me give you a little more context, because it turns out that if we look at things from a slightly different perspective, then the real underdog was Goliath. Goliath was huge, he was strong. He had the best equipment available in his day, he was practiced and well trained… but he was slow. His spear could have devastated David, but it weighed a lot, and would have taken a long time to bring to bear on the quick unencumbered teen he faced. Even if he had dropped the spear and pulled his sword, the distance between the two would have made it a running game, and that’s not even Goliaths real disadvantage. The source of Goliaths greatest disadvantage was swinging quickly from the hand of the shepherd boy that approached him on that field. You see the sling David brought into battle that day was not the child’s toy that the story seems to suggest. In the hands of a skilled user it was a deadly weapon, comparable if not more deadly than a bow and arrow. A shepherd sling was again just a long string of leather cord with a small pouch midway where a small stone was placed. The stone David would have taken from the wadi, or riverbed, would have been heavy, smooth, and very dense. Making it a more effective than usual projectile. Then David would have used his practiced aim, practitioners of slings from that time could potentially hit their target from a quarter mile away, and sent the stone rocketing through the air at the speed of a 21st century bullet, with roughly the power of a .44 caliber handgun. So who was the underdog in this fight?
If we take all that in and set aside the way we have heard this story in the past, then it shifts from a story of promise and potential, to one of warning. It becomes a warning against complacency, against judgement, and against vanity. If Goliath had given the proper weight to David’s potential threat, maybe it would have ended differently, maybe he could have approached things more carefully, less aggressively. If Goliath hadn’t assumed this was a harmless child, if he had considered the deadly nature of David’s sling, maybe he could have defended himself. If he hadn’t been so sure of himself and his invulnerability, then maybe he could have lived that day…
This summer we will hear stories that we don’t hear often and take perspectives that we don’t often take. The danger is that you will discount these things because they differ from what you “know”. Resist that! This might even be useful outside of this room… Challenge preconceptions and understandings, even within yourself, grow! The UCC, of which this congregation is a member, regularly quotes Gracie Allen “Never place a period where God has placed a comma,” God isn’t done, so neither are we. We must keep growing, learning, and loving in new and relevant ways!
Amen