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
Let's be unrealistic for awhile and wish for the following miracles: no one get sick ever, no one ever die, thunder and lighting are perfectly timed with all human interaction so as to be but nature's firework show without ever striking a human or without ever emptying rain to flood, and no people ever go to war with each other. In short, what about the miracle of perfect harmony among everything and everyone that exists?
If miracles were the norm, then they would not exist because the state of the non-miraculous would not exist.
So, getting real about life means that what is fortune, what is miraculous, and what is good and perfect, exists because in our experience we've come to know that all intermix with what is known as bad luck, bad, evil, and imperfect.
Since we have known so much pain, deprivation, evil, war, discord, accidents, and the experience of the death of our favorite people, and other people, and of pets and other animals, the contrast of what is unfortunate has arisen within the field of what can probably happen.
What is the field of probability otherwise called? The field of true freedom for probable outcomes.
The Bible is a book of insight from people who believed that God is compatible with the field of free probabilities of what can happen in this life. God is so compatible with the way things are that God is the fullness of sustaining the continuous creative process which is always already going on.
What are some of the probably things that can happen? Some of the worst things that can happen people, even taunting giants like Goliath who seem to challenge one's right to have continuing life. Such giants may be the leaders of nations and people who want to threaten the lives of peoples of other nations. In the many conflicts which arise among people, sometimes a miracle is but a statistic, meaning a miracle is when a highly improbable good outcome occurs.
When the forces of Israel were being threatened by the Philistines, their generals did not have this as their military strategy: "Okay, let's recruit a young shepherd from Bethlehem who is good with a sling shot. Let's have him encounter alone the great tall warrior Goliath. If he is able to hit Goliath with a stone in the forehead and drop him to the ground, the Philistines will see this and run in fright."
David was the improbable and the unplanned battle strategy of the Israelite leadership. He appeared and he ad libbed with his own suggested strategy. David knew some things about himself that no one else knew. Being a lonely shepherd defending his flock gave him experience. He had trained himself to be accurate with a sling shot to fight off and even kill threatening beasts. Only David knew that if he had killed a lion with a stone from his sling shot, he could also fell the giant Goliath.
Faith then often means that we need to know our own abilities and how to deploy them against circumstances which seem on the surface to be impossible to negotiate.
To have faith is to know how to live with both the probable and the improbable. Faith is the overall art of living and life skill to live one's best given the specific probabilities which befall us and those with whom we live.
St. Paul made a list of all the hardships which had come to him and he confessed that his inspiration in surviving and thriving was to have the freedom of service. Perhaps the supreme way to live with all that can probably happen is life is to have it on our survival resume so as to able serve others more effectively. As mere mortals, the very best that we can do is to be serving mentors to help those who might fall prey to believing their lives are meaningless because of the severity of the hurts of life.
One was the chief requirements of life is living the best that we can with the probabilities of what can happen, not only because of human misbehavior, but because we have but human nature within Nature itself.
Nature experience is a full experience. We can stand in awe at the pounding waves of the ocean with their powerful awesome beauty. Our lives can be overwhelmed by the ocean waves of the tsunami which wipes out people and property without warning. Rain can water our lawns and crops, it can flood us and drown us. Lack of rain can harm us. We live in all kinds of probable occurrence with events in Nature; some more predictable than others. We have developed the scientific method as the best probability predictor so that we can prepare ourselves to face the various situations of Nature.
Nature has a particular imposing milestone for human nature, the milestone that we call Death. So in a real sense how do we live with the perpetual sword of Damocles, death, hanging over every moment of human existence? Death seems to be the Goliath of life which cannot be defeated; it has no forehead that can be penetrated by the stone of some human skill of combat readiness. With the supremacy of death, all we can do is to "bargain" for the most time possible. "God give us and all at least a shelf life of 70, 80, 90 years and then in a comparative sense of life with each other, we can say that we've been fortunate." All our bargaining for life expectancy does not work because death comes in varied and indiscriminate ways and times.
The parable of Jesus calming the sea is a faith parable of the early Christians. If Christian faith meant that every time that we're in harm's way, Jesus would appear Abra Cadabra and fix us and save us from harm, then there would not be any successful people of Christian faith. The faith life is not having Christ as a personal interventionist fixers. If this were the case, then the disciples would have asked Jesus to intervene and not let the storm on the lake happen while they crossed it. Can one appreciate how silly some people are when they talk about the selective miraculous interventions of Christ. If Christ's only truly loves those who have known improbable interventions, what does that say about his concern for all who have not known any such improbable interventions. Let us be very careful how we appropriate the faith meaning of the disciples encounter with the threatening nature situation.
The faith key for probability living is what I would call togetherness. In birth, life, and in death, Christ is the good news of God being with us. And as Paul found Christ to be with him in all that he experienced, Paul said, "It happened to me so that I could also be with you to help you in facing all that confronts you in your lives."
The Gospel for us today, is not about having interventionist miracles from all the threats of humanity and nature; the Gospel is knowing that the Risen Christ is with us in everything, to help us be with each other in the very best way to help each other handle what may arise in the best possible way, even if some of the probabilities are loss and death.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not exempt us from the spectra of probabilities; the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us the completeness and perfection of togetherness, together with God in Christ, and together with each other to face what probably will happen, because love means that we are never separate from everything. Amen.
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