Text: 1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
By: Rev. Terry Carty
Date: 06-24-2012
Place: Kingston Springs United Methodist Church
Season: Fourth Sunday After Pentecost; Proper 7; Ordinary 12
Main Point: God will use you to face evil. Do not fight evil with evil. God’s people are people of good and the weapons of good are sufficient to accomplish God’s will.
Children’s Time: Talk through the story of David and Goliath
Philistines were enemies of the Israelites.
The Israelites were not really an army – the men and older young men volunteered.
The families sent food out to their men who volunteered.
The Philistine king had a really good idea that each side would send out one person to fight instead of the armies fighting for a long time. But the Philistines had a giant who they thought could not be beat.
Young David trusted that they were God’s people and God would not let them become slaves of the Philistine king.
When we know what is the right thing to do, we can trust God to help us do the right thing.
Read 1 Samuel 17:32-49
Today’s scripture reading from 2 Corinthians continues Paul’s defense of his ministry. Read 2 Corinthians 6:3-10
What do David and Paul have in common in these stories?
1. They trust that God will help them prevail.
2. They do not use the weapons of their enemies. They use the assets that God has given them. They do what they know best.
When I was in elementary school I was digging around in our basement and I found my dad’s old sea bag from when he was in the navy. It seemed like such a treasure to me as I opened it and found his white uniforms rolled up and his deck hats just like he had left them when he came home from the war. I unrolled them and put them on. The pants were too long but as were the tops, but I wore the tops anyway. They seemed pretty neat with the cape-like thing on the back of the neck. His deck hat fit very loosely. I guess I looked pretty funny, but I felt important. When I grew a little larger, I wore his oversized pea coat to play in the snow. And then I sadly outgrew it.
The story of little David trying on the king’s armor reminds me of trying on my dad’s navy gear. I felt the power of the garb, but I knew that I was not in the navy. I did not have the training that my dad had gotten. I did not know much about ships and knots and big guns. I was just pretending.
When David put on that armor, he couldn’t move. He may have played with a stick sword but may have never held a real sword in his hand. He knew that he could not face the giant with a sword in his hand and wearing heavy, ill-fitting body armor. He would rely on what had worked for him before.
Paul also speaks of carrying weapons that he is familiar and comfortable with when he serves Christ. These are purity, knowledge, patience, generosity, genuine love, telling the truth. These sound a little like choosing stones from the river. Paul had tried the weapons of hatred and punishment to defeat the Christians, but Christ had won over him with love. Now he had turned to Christ’s way.
We face evil giants daily. Some of the giants are people who use their power to diminish other people. Some of these are significant giants – Goliaths. I feel I am facing Goliath when I talk to an insurance company about a denied coverage. When I see someone who does not have the money to buy gas to get to work or cannot provide shelter for the children in their car when night falls, I know that I they are facing a giant. When I see someone battling an overwhelming disease with little or no medical knowledge, I know they are facing a giant. When I go to the voting booth, I am facing a giant.
And so what weapons will we take up to face these giants in our lives? The weapons we take up will reflect the power of the king we serve. If we serve the same power as the giant, we will try to fight injustice with a different variation of the same power. And sometimes this works. After all, we see it on tv shows, in movies and in books all the time, don’t we? But those stories often feed our fantasies.
If we are to overpower the giant of evil, we will need to use the weapons of the king of all goodness and love. These are the same as Paul used: patience, generosity, truth, and love.
Some questions to consider this week are:
- Who are your giants?
- And what weapon will you chose for your face off?
The weapons of good are sufficient to accomplish God’s will.
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