Dealing with the Big Goliath of Life

4 Pentecost Cycle B Proper 7    June 20, 2021
1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 Psalm 9:9-20
2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Mark 4:35-41    

Lectionary Link

It is not surprising that the dominant book of a large portion of humanity, the Bible would provide the common cliches and metaphors for life.

What do we say when an obvious underdog is facing a formidable opponent?  We say it is David versus Goliath.  This is a cultural metaphor.

What do we say about the great trials in life which can come to anyone at almost anytime?  We call them the storms of life.  We want to be spared or saved from the storms of life.  And so the stories about Jesus as the storm whisperer have become faith metaphors for us.

One of the problems in the reading of the Bible is that it is a book that is often read only for individual and personal meaning.  We can forget that the Bible was written within communities and it was a continuous collaboration of writers within their communities in trying to bring spiritual insights to their people.  The Bible is to be read and interpreted collaboratively as a community which means there is not final interpretation of the Bible since the Bible will continue to be read within communities of people.

One of the reasons why biblical fundamentalism has happened is because individual readings of the Bible have become elevated as the rule of the community.  Readers who mistake poetry for science have caused misreadings of the Bible.  Readers who have made teaching stories and narratives into exact historical accounts have caused misreadings of the Bible.

What perhaps is the biggest issue of human life?  It is death.  How do we integrate encounter with death into our lives while we live?

The big Goliath of human living is Death.  That's the big elephant in the room.  It's the secret we try to keep from children as long as possible, but when a pet or someone close dies, they become aware of the phenomenon of death.

David, the prominent model for the Messiah, was threatened with death by Goliath.  The people of Israel were threatened with death by Goliath and the armies of the Philistines.  But David was the hero in the face of death, and he helped Israel deal with the enemies who threatened them with death.

What is the main feast day of all Christianity?  It is Easter.  It is resurrection day.  The resurrection is when God through Jesus Christ provided a new meaning for Death.  And what was the new meaning of death?  It was no longer an ending only; it was seen as a new beginning in a life beyond life.

The early church was built around resurrection as the supreme value.  It was a way of life of dealing with the reality of death.  The death of Jesus, God's Son on the cross was real and deeply felt by his friends.  The re-appearance of Christ after his death was so meaningfully real to his followers that an entire lifestyle was created.  What was this lifestyle?

It was the baptismal lifestyle.  In baptism one symbolic is immersed in the death of Christ in water;  and one comes up from the water to have that water of death calmed and neutralized in taking on an identity with the resurrection of Christ.

Let us appreciate how the stories of Jesus are parables of the teaching of the early church.  Jesus calming the storm on the sea is a metaphor for the Risen Christ calming the power of death exemplified in the threatening water and storm.

If this is a historical event of Jesus with the disciples, we would have some great moral inconsistencies.  Like why does a threatening storm only get calmed for Peter, James and John, and not for the millions throughout the ages who have died because of hurricanes, tornadoes and firestorms?  Is God only an interventionist for a few favored people?  Can one see how important it is for the integrity of God, to read these passages as theological teachings and not as private individual events.

The big teaching of the church is this: The Risen Christ is present and co-exists with everything else, including death, so don't live in fear or denial, live with faith and acceptance of what happens even as we accept that the Risen Christ is with us through everything.

Paul was so certain about the Risen Christ that he listed what he was able to tolerate because of his hope in the Risen Christ: "through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything."

Paul was saying, "I'm not going to lie to you about the great Goliath's in life which are anchored in our eventual deaths; but what I confess to you is that the Risen Christ is known and co-exists with all of these things, because the Risen Christ is a witness to life after life after life after life after life....

Let us accept the Gospel lesson today.  It is not a cute little story about the selective intervention of Jesus in a storm for Peter, James and John in a boat; no it is the teaching of the faith of the church in the Risen Christ who is with us always, in everything, and at our deaths and beyond.

We are not exempt from having to face our Goliaths in this life.  Let us have the faith of David and faith in the Risen Christ to live with hope within all that happens to us.  Amen.