Christ Episcopal Church
June 24, 2012
7 Proper B
As many of you know, Don and I are originally from Arkansas. Our sons, who have never lived in that state, have been enthusiastic Razorback fans pretty much since birth. At tender young ages, they could quote statistics, tell us all about the players, and wore Razorback clothing to school and church. We even have the game "Hogopoly," a Razorback spin off on the game Monopoly. Over the years, their devotion to the team has only grown.
Last fall, Arkansas played Vanderbilt in Nashville. Since Nashville is only 6 hours away, and the game was a Saturday morning game, we bought tickets, reserved a hotel room, and looked forward to the weekend with great anticipation. The kids were looking forward to seeing Arkansas stomp Vanderbilt. Don and I, however, went to graduate school at Vanderbilt. Don’s loyalty to the Razorbacks is pretty solid, but mine....well, lets just say I have a photo of the scoreboard when Vanderbilt was ahead by a good number of points. There is just something about rooting for the underdog that is appealing, and since I earned a degree at the underdog school, I felt more loyalty than perhaps my family would prefer.
For a while that morning, I actually believed Vanderbilt might win. They were ahead for a good part of the game. In the end, however, the win was not to happen. The Razorbacks squeaked by, on my account of the story at least, and my sons left happy. With a long ride back to Ohio, that was a good thing.
On the surface, that football game looks like a David and Goliath story. David, the young shepherd boy, tells Saul, the king of Israel, that David will go and fight Goliath. Goliath is an enormous, powerful, and experienced warrior. Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas. David makes his appeal to Saul and says "The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion, will save me from the Philistine." Saul relents and allows David to go, probably because everyone else is too afraid to volunteer. David refuses the armor Saul offers because David could not walk in all that gear, and David goes off to slay Goliath. Which David does. One shot of David’s slingshot and Goliath is dead.
So, is the message here that, with God’s help, the little person always wins?
As much as I would like to think that, the evidence is to the contrary. Vanderbilt does not always win. In fact, Vanderbilt rarely wins. But to put it in a more meaningful context, only occasionally does the underdog win the election, the more socially just but less popular value prevail, or the smaller company prevent a buy out by a larger one. On the rare occasion that the underdog does prevail, we get so excited that the victory is all over the news, books are written and movie deals are made. But that is rare.
If this beloved story of David and Goliath is not just about the underdog winning, with God’s help in this case, what is the story about?
In the gospel reading, the disciples and Jesus are crossing the lake when a great windstorm produces such huge waves that the disciples are afraid the boat will be swamped and they will all drown. While the disciples are wringing their hands and panicking, Jesus is asleep in the stern, apparently unconcerned about the impending disaster. The disciples wake Jesus up and say "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" Jesus wakes up, probably yawns and stretches, and says to the wind and waves "Peace, be still." And the wind and waves calm. Then Jesus says to the disciples "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And the disciples say to each other "Who is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?"
There are several interesting twists in this story. First, Jesus says "Why are you afraid?" He does not say "There is nothing to be afraid of." The difference is huge. The storm is truly fierce some. The disciples might really drown. That is scary stuff. There is clearly something to fear.
Secondly, who, in Hebrew scripture, is more powerful than the wind and sea? God. God separates the land from the sea in the story of creation. God asks Job "Who said to the sea, stop here and go no further?" The answer of course, is God. In the Hebrew scriptures, only God has control over the wind and sea. By commanding the wind and the water to be still, Jesus is showing the disciples in the most clear way possible that he is God.
Lastly, the disciples are professional fishermen when Jesus calls them. They have spent a lot of time on the water. At this point, they are probably much better at catching fish than they are at being disciples. So, in theory at least, they have the skills to read the wind and waves and know how to handle this situation, or at least avoid it in the first place. But in their fear, they forget.
I believe the story of David and Goliath is also about fear. Unlike the bigger, stronger, more experienced warriors, David is not afraid to take on Goliath. But it is not just because he has faith that God will save him. Hear what David says to Saul "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father, and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth, and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumsized Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God." Only after David has put forth his own credentials, does the young shepherd say "The Lord who saved me from the paw of the bear and of the lion will save me from the hand of the Philistine."
David is unafraid because he trusts both God and the gifts God has given him. David has a very accurate and much practiced shot. He knows that with that skill and God’s help, he can defeat Goliath. The disciples trust neither their skills as fishermen who must continually contend with wind and waves, nor God, and they are overcome with fear. The David and Goliath story does not tell us that even the very gifted, well practiced underdog will always win with God’s help. We know that is not true. But, when we hear about David and Goliath together with Jesus calming the sea, we hear a new story, not about the under dog winning, but about the crippling power of fear and the bold power of faith.
Amen.
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