It is not by sword or spear

Note; This is the first of the doubt sermons... it also deals a bit with violence in the Bible and violence in our lives.
The only thing that I think needs comment is the phrase 'countermemory' which Tom Thatcher uses in his latest book on the Gospel of John and Empire; Greater Than Caesar: Christology and Empire in the Fourth Gospel. I will admit that I may not have used the phrase in a technically accurate way for scholars anyway... but sometimes when I read and write sermons phrases creep in during the prep and delivery of the sermon.

Intro:
One of the questions I am called upon to answer as a pastor is; what do I do when I’m just not feeling it? And by ‘feeling it’ people mean that they do not feel the presence of God, are doubting their faith, feeling their discipleship isn’t making any difference in the world or in their life. This September I will have been preaching for 10 years and this concern is the most common concerns I have heard.
When we feel low, like prayers aren’t answered, life is too complicated and stressful, the world around us is a mess and we begin to wonder; if there is a God why is the world this way, or, if I am a disciple, why don’t I feel more joy or peace. Why don’t I feel at least like my believing and hoping and serving is getting me anywhere or my family or community or the world. Why aren’t we getting anywhere close to the Kingdom that we pray for, hope for, work for and struggle to imagine?
Today we are going to read a story from 1 Samuel. The story of 1 and 2 Samuel is the story of the transformation of Israel from what scholars often call a ‘loose confederation of tribes’ to a small but strong nation of people united under King David. And I think that we will discover that despite the fact that this story was written oh, approximately 2500 years ago and takes place even farther back in history than that, that the stories of 1 and 2 Samuel, specifically the story of David and Goliath, addresses issues that will sound familiar. Israel is dealing with similar questions to our own, and facing challenges and temptations that are not so different from our own.
1 and 2 Samuel was written sometime during the Babylonian Exile. As some of you may know the Babylonian exile took place after the Assyrian Empire finally destroyed the last holdout of the fractured nation of Israel, the birth of which we will read a part of today. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple, that David’s son Solomon built, was destroyed and the people (mostly the wealthy, the powerful and the influential people) of Judah were carried off to Babylon. They lived in Babylon under great pressure to give up their heritage and their faith in God as a part of that heritage, so that they could survive and thrive and make a life. And there was internal pressure also… a sense of being abandoned by God. But the internal pressure also took the form of their children growing enamored of and attracted to Assyrian culture and religion. And you can imagine that they too asked questions similar to our own; Where is God, is there even a God? Why do we hang onto this faith in God when our friends and neighbors and children are leaving it behind? We simply struggle to make it through one day into the next, how do we keep hoping and believing?
So they recorded this story of their birth as a nation in 1 and 2 Samuel; their early history when the nation of Israel was still young, just in its infancy. In those days the external threat came from the Philistines who wanted to take possession of the land that Israel called its own. The internal threat was a bit more complicated, but still similar. The book of Judges which comes before 1 and 2 Samuel ‘historically’ describes what life was like for Israel before King David, just after they had come into possession of the land of Canaan. It describes great turmoil and is one of the most violent books in the bible, but it sums up the Israel experience in one sentence, the last sentence of judges ‘ In those days there was no king in Israel, all the people did what was right in their own eyes.’
Another facet of this internal conflict was the religious life of Israel. 1 Samuel opens with the story of Eli who is the priest and his sons are priests too… but they are so greedy and self-serving and cruel, that God has decided to replace them…
The one thing that was meant to unite these tribes, covenant with God, suffered because the leaders, the priests reflected the culture (did what was right in their own eyes…) instead of showing the people a better way, God’s way… to live in covenant with God and each other.
So the story of 1 and 2 Samuel shows us the transition from chaos to peace and prosperity under the leadership of David. But the specific story that we read today also includes violence and a bit of chaos… so lets read it…
(Read the story of David and Goliath and Pray)
It is important, I think to begin with a discussion of the violence in this story because violence and faith are so closely linked even in our modern experience. Just recently George Tiller was murdered in his own church on a Sunday morning as he passed out bulletins. He was a doctor who performed abortions. And I suspect that the person who shot him did so under the deeply held conviction that what he did, he did in the name of God, to save innocents. I am not supporting or condoning that view, but I suspect that is how he condoned what he did.
And also recently in the news, the stories of Pentagon reports on the war in Iraq with Bible quotes on the cover-sheets. This is one of those times I wish we had power point so that you could see them. The one that particularly well, I don’t know if it amuses me or bothers me… a picture of a number of American soldiers kneeling in prayer, another of troops walking into the sunset and then a picture of a row of tanks… with the caption from Is 5:28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Now, they have really taken this out of context… these are the words of Isaiah, warning Israel about the impending doom that God will bring on them because they fail to heed God’s word… it isn’t a rousing speech about the strength and might of the armies of Israel… it is a warning of the strength of the enemy that God will use against Israel. This is warning about the destruction to come, not encouragement to go and commit destruction. Now I’m not trying to say that the war in Iraq is the moral equivalent of the murder of an abortion doctor or that American soldiers are the same as vigilante’s… not my point at all…
I simply want to illustrate that across a wide spectrum of our own culture…faith and violence are closely connected.
Does the story of David and Goliath support this connection, condone this outlook, or not?
Lets talk about the story a little bit… We begin with a detailed description of Goliath’s size which some translate at 9ft tall and others as 6ft. 9 inches tall (depending on which version of this story you read) either way, Goliath is an impressive and intimidating physical specimen.
Then we get to his armament
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (125 lbs); 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels (15 lbs). His shield bearer went ahead of him.
All of this may not seem like much to us… but in that time and place, Goliath’s size, his armor and his weaponry is the ancient equivalent of shock and awe. He has the very best military equipment, the very latest technology for warfare.
Now, notice what happens when David, who we know is ‘just’ a shepherd boy, goes to the battle lines and offers to fight Goliath. Saul, who is currently the king (picked by the way, in part because he is a warrior of great size himself) decides to let David face Goliath in combat and, 1 Sam 17:38-39
He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. So Saul is just as fixated on weapons and strength and size as Goliath. Do you notice that there is little difference between Saul, the King of Israel and Goliath, the champion of the enemy? Perhaps goliath is bigger, but both he and Saul see their place in the world through their own ability to fight… to be more violent than the next guy.
Now look at David.
1 Sam 17:39-40 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
There is the story on the surface in 1 Sam 17 and that surface story is that the small shepherd boy David struck Goliath and cut off his head… but there is another level of this story…
Goliath is the face of the violence that surrounds Israel. Saul is meant to match that violence… with size and strength and weapons… violence for violence… but he cannot… we are told in verse 11 that Saul and the Israelites are ‘dismayed’ when they see Goliath and hear Goliath. (by the way, the Hebrew word that is translated dismayed literally means beat down or to prostrate… to bow down… which suggests that Saul is ready to bow down to Goliath. Strength and violence have become Saul’s god.)
So Israel’s strength cannot match Goliaths and Saul’s weapons cannot compete with Goliath’s… which suggests the counter-story, the other level of this story… do not trust in weapons, or size or strength or violence to make your way in the world.
David is victorious with just a staff and some rocks…
Now if that doesn’t convince you that this story is not condoning violence, but offering a critique of violence in God’s name… look at the words that David says to Goliath

1 Sam 17:45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel,
1 Sam 17:47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's,
Let me say that line again…
Now what I want to suggest is that the story of David and Goliath does not support violence in the name of God precisely through this second level of the story. Those with the weapons and the size and strength are portrayed as either afraid, in Saul’s case, or as cruel, and prideful and generally dis-tasteful in the case of Goliath. And the story ends with a boy who has not size or strength or weapons winning the day.
We could be cynical and say that this second level of the story simply tells a violent story and then tries to legitimize David’s violence by invoking the name of God. And isn’t that what the pentagon reports tried to do… add legitimacy to violent acts by claiming God’s blessing and mandate.
I don’t think that is what this story is doing however. I don’t think that this is simply propaganda. I do think that the writer of 1 and 2 Samuel (or writers) are trying to think theologically about the reality of life around them and they lived in a violent world. I don’t think they are trying to legitimize violence as much as they are trying to tell you and I, the readers something about God… and in so doing… trying to place a wall, a hedge, around violence, so that they can defend themselves from violent nations and tribes around them, but still not turn into a society, a culture that lives on the violent conquest of others as the Philistines (and the Assyrians) do. They can’t or aren’t willing to be pascifists, but they are trying to place very strict controls around violence so that it does not define them… it does not become their default mode in the world… it does not become a social method… and remains a last resort and something that is entered into with great hesitation.
It is actually a common theme in the Hebrew Scriptures…
In Numbers 13, Moses has led the people to the borders of Canaan, their promised land… He sends scouts to look ahead and see what Canaan is like and they bring back this report; Num 13:27-28
"We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. Num 13:31-32"We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."
And here is God’s reply…Num 14:11 The LORD said to Moses , "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?
What displeases God is the fact that Israel even at this early stage is focused on military might and loose trust in god’s might… in this case they do not have any… but they suspect that the Canaanites do..
Earlier in Exodus, when Israel must defend itself against another stronger tribe, the Amelikites we receive this amazing vision of Moses standing on a hill overlooking the battle-field… and as long as his hands are raised in the air to God, Israel takes the upper hand, but if his hands fall, they begin to loose
And in Judges 7 the great story of God choosing an army for Gideon to defend Israel… only God chooses the weakest the smallest and the least skilled at battle for Gideon’s army…
Throughout Israel’s history they have maintained a testimony of victory, not by strength or skill, but through depending on God. There are military victories and some very violent passages… but counter to those are these stories where the story is not about strength, but about God… which is intended to keep violence from becoming a driving force in Israel’s identity and its culture.

Well, that is all well and good, you are thinking, but what has it to do with the question... what do we do when we aren’t feeling our faith, when we question or doubt the goodness of God…
Lets go back to the story, When David first goes to Saul to offer to fight Goliath for Israel… Saul is not inclined to let him
1 Sam 17:33-37; 33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Notice that last line… This is what the writer is trying to tell us about God…
What does David say the Lord has done for him in the past? Delivered him… and what will the Lord do for him in the future… Deliver him… This is another piece of the story I just told… David doesn’t see battle as something he does on his own, by his own power or strength… but instead it is a moment for God to be God… to rescue and protect God’s people…
Now, that word, deliver… in Hebrew that word is [natsal] and Brueggeman, who knows a lot more about the Hebrew language than I says that ‘the verb references an abrupt physical act of grasping or seizing in order to pull out of danger.’ (TOTOL 174) Makes me think of those ‘Amazing Rescues’ shows on TV where the helicopter swoops into the woman whose car is caught in a flash flood and she is harnessed to a wire and carried away to safety.
Now, here is the interesting thing. [natsal] is used throughout the Hebrew scriptures, but guess what specific story from the OT this verb is most often used in reference too…?
Ex 3.8 ‘I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians
Ex 6.6 and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians
Ex 18.9 the goodness which the Lord has done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
That pattern repeats in Judges 6.9 and 8.34… when Israel remembers God’s amazing rescue of them in Egypt and at the red sea, they use the word natsal… deliver… seized out of danger. When we read the story of David and Goliath, we are not only to be impressed by David’s courage or faith… we are to see this as another Exodus… another instance of God snatching Israel out of the mouth of destruction… Natsal reminds us of the power that God wields to rescue those are faithful to him… We are meant to see Exodus, which wasn’t a story of Moses strength or Israel’s strength, but purely of God’s strength to rescue the vulnerable…
Birch says about this… ‘David is the model for another way, of those without the benefit of superior arms and armies who never the less trust that God can make deliverance possible against the odds, that there is hope even when faced with apparently hopeless situations.’ (NIB Vol. II; 1112)
This is King Saul’s failure you see… his dismay, his despair and hopelessness, leads him to think only of his own resources or scarcity of resources, of size, strength, military might… and to forget the resources that God can provide. We are warned here not to face our Goliaths with our own strength… which will lead to dismay, but to remember God’s strength….
This applies not only to military or battle situations. Our Goliaths will not always be the external threats of armies… Our Goliaths will be, well, for instance; the legislation banning prostitution…which is apparently languishing in our legislature due to some ‘experts’ who think that legalizing prostitution is the real answer. It is a Goliath in our nation, the goliath that causes us to do all of our reasoning based on economics and inhibits view-points that say some things should just not be commodified, things such as sex. The Goliath’s come in the facts such as we are serving 8 families in our summer meal program, but If I remember correctly Rhonda said that the schools identified 62 families that would be challenged by lack of nutrition this summer.
And if the story of david and goliath teaches us anything it is that those who put their hope in their own strength, even when that is strength to do good instead of violence, those who trust in only their own will and resources and strength, will soon grow weary and discouraged and be dismayed or beaten down. While David offers us another way to face our goliaths… a way of faith that relies on the strength and the might of God.
This Story of David also teaches us not to get stuck in questioning why God allows things to be the way they are around us. I think it is natural to do so and good to ask why as a kind of motivation… but we aren’t to get stuck in those questions. Instead we are to see these instances as a time to offer courageous witness to the world of the way that God intends them to be. David doesn’t stop to ask why God allows the goliaths of the world to exist. David seizes the opportunity to show the goliaths the power of God… and for us, for you and me that means that we continue to feed as many hungry as we can, to witness to the evils of legalized prostitution to anyone who will listen, and even in our own lives to view disappointments not as defeats, but as opportunities for God to deliver us, to show his love and strength to us in new and exciting ways.
How? How are we supposed to do that?
Well, that is why I shared the history of the creation of 1 &2 Samuel with you. For that seems to be the answer. What did Israel do when faced with the goliath of the Babylonian Exile…. They remembered the story of David and Goliath and told it in a way that reminded them of Exodus. Instead of accepting a story of defeat and fear, they reminded themselves of the story of God amazing love for them, a love that did not forget or abandon them… a God and a love that would fight for them. Fight for them and win. Every Goliath in our lives is an opportunity for us to experience the victory of God’s love for us and a chance for us to show the world the strength, the courage, the peace that comes to those who believe that God’s love wins.
That isn’t something that comes naturally by the way… it is something we have to practice… this takes us back to some of our traditions and answers some basic questions… sometimes people ask me, why do we sing so many songs… singing what we believe about God’s love and God’s strength… the singing of those stories kind of helps those stories stick in our heads…singing helps us remember the story. Some other things that help us remember the story of God’s love overcoming Goliath are daily prayer and taking time every day to read the bible and reflect on it… Its tough to make time for this I know…
So start with psalms for instance
There is a psalm that David wrote about being delivered… psalm 18
I want you to think about the things that dismay you… grand things like hunger and poverty and prostitution… or personal things… struggles with raising children, guilt or shame from your past, or hurt that just wont heal…. Think about them and listen to these words of david

What will your psalm say, when you are delivered from that which dismays you…
Lets pray…