Sunday Message
August 29, 2004
Robert D Bohnsack
Text: 1 Samuel 17:1-58

This violent and vivid story of the Old Testament is one we can relate to. It is a story many of us know from Sunday School. Or, you might know it from Bible stories on tape.

When I was six years old my mother bought my sister and I three Bible stories on cassette tape. Each tape came with a matching book. We had David and Goliath, Moses and the Hebrews, and Daniel in the Lion's den. Carin and I would sit in the huge backseat of the family's 1973 Buick LeSabre and listen to those classic stories from the Old Testament. I can still hear the "thud" of Goliath falling to the ground after David hits him with the stone from his sling.

David, the young, handsome, obedient shepherd boy, kills Goliath, the tall, grotesque, hideous, mean giant. Goliath is not just tall, he is really tall. Scholars tell us that he is at least six feet nine inches tall, or even as tall as ten feet. He is a big man. David knocks out Goliath with one stone from his shepherd's sling.

It was not until I was older that I realized that David then kills Goliath with his own sword. David, the shepherd boy not only kills Goliath, he cuts off the head of Goliath, an armored, heavily armed, well-trained champion of the Philistines. David cuts off Goliath's head and hauls it around with him as a trophy. I wonder why they did not put that part of the story on my Bible story cassette tape?

Our culture is abundant with stories of the underdog or the little guy defeating the champion or the bigger kid. Many of us like to cheer for the underdog. We probably all have a personal favorite underdog story. Yours might be the US Olympic hockey team beating the Soviets in 1980, little Milan High School winning the Indiana State High School championship as depicted in the movie, "Hoosiers," or maybe you have a new underdog from the 2004 Athens' Olympics.

Few would deny that thirteen rebellious colonies of the British empire were underdogs when they declared their independence from King George and friends in 1776. Our forefathers strove valiantly and overcame adversity. We won our independence. For a long time we were the underdog nation, a David among a world of Goliaths. As the world's remaining superpower we do not really qualify as the underdog anymore. Just because we are not the underdog does not mean that we have to stop standing up for what is right though.

We could tell a lot of underdog stories right here at Market Street Church. Some of you were the underdog. You were the underdog as you built your business, raised your family, and supported your church. It takes courage, faith, and hope to stand up and be the underdog. It takes courage, faith, and hope to challenge the status quo and follow God's call for your life.

Is David really the underdog though? David is an incredibly confident character. He encounters the situation, watches Goliath issue his challenge to the army of Israel, and then decides something needs to be done. He asks the men around him, "who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

David decides that he must challenge Goliath. Nobody has to convince David to fight Goliath. David just does it. He tells Saul, the king of Israel:

"Let no one's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine."

David is full of confidence. His speech does not waver. This detailed story does not suggest that David is nervous at all. He makes up his mind that he is going to fight Goliath. Even when Saul reminds him that Goliath is a lifelong warrior, and that he, David, is a mere shepherd boy, David replies:

"Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or 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 uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them; since he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine."

This confident David rejects Saul's armor because it does not fit, and then steps onto the field of battle. He tells Goliath:

"You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by the sword or spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand."

That is not the speech of an underdog. That is not the type of speech Rocky made before fighting Apollo Creed, or Luke Skywalker made before flying his X-wing fighter against the Deathstar, or Jimmy Stewart makes in the Frank Capra classic, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." David speaks like a confident victor. He speaks like someone who knows the outcome of the battle.

Unfortunately, instead of relating to David we relate better to Saul, the king of Israel. We feel limited by our circumstances. We can feel like we are in a perpetual stalemate. We are afraid to step out onto the field of battle. We are afraid of the outcome. What if we lose, or even worse what if we win? Then what? So, instead of taking a step onto the field of battle we just maintain and grow comfortable with the status quo. We don't do anything. The Goliath we face becomes bigger, meaner, and scarier everyday. We like to think that he will eventually go away. Maybe he will get bored and leave us alone.

So, we sit and wait for a David to come along and save us from Goliath and ourselves.

David proclaims on the field of battle, "the Lord does not save by sword and spear." The Lord saves. David knew that, and Saul knew it. We know it. David acted on his faith and hope in the Lord. Saul acted on his fear, and his misplaced trust in armies, armor and weapons. David acts because he knew and believed that the Lord who saved him from the lion and bear would save him from the sword, spear and javelin of Goliath. David is no underdog. David is a servant of the Lord who knows the Lord saves.

David stepped onto the battlefield confident in who he was. David was a shepherd from Bethlehem. David does not try and pretend to be a warrior and fight Goliath with sword, spear, and javelin. David fights Goliath with what he knows: faith in God and his sling and staff.

In stepping onto the battlefield David breaks the stalemate perpetuated by Saul. David takes a risk. When he accepts Goliath's boastful challenge he says he is not satisfied with the status quo. Knowing the Lord saves and not doing anything about it was not acceptable.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a man of action. He stepped forward and did things his way. On April 23, 1910, at a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, he uttered these famous words:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." ¹

Even young David would have realized that the death of Goliath did not mean the end to evil, injustice, tyranny, hate, violence, and all the other evils of the world. Despite that he strode out onto the field of battle and fought Goliath because God saves. He listened to God's call. He acted because the Lord saves. He was not willing to sit back and do nothing. David took a risk and entered the arena. He was not afraid to fail because the Lord saves.

We are saved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We, the children of God, are forgiven. We are people who know and proclaim, "the Lord saves."

We cannot be content to be Saul. We cannot be content to maintain the stalemate and avoid risk. We are not the underdog. We are the children of God. We are called to step onto the battlefield, or to climb into the arena. Like David we must be ourselves. We need to take off this ill-fitting armor and be ourselves. The Goliaths of the world want us to battle them on their terms and with their methods. We must stride into the arena as children of God. We must stride into the arena proclaiming that the Lord saves. Stride into the arena confident of the victory won by Christ Jesus.

We stride into the arena confident that God will use us just as he used David to triumph. We have to take that step into the arena though. We cannot be content to be Saul.

Praise be to God. Amen.

1. Roosevelt, Theodore. "Man in the Arena." April 23, 1910, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.