A Faithful Imagination
A Sermon by Randy Harris
Highland Presbyterian Church
June 24, 2012
Ephesians 6:10-17; 1 Samuel 17:32-49
We heard a few moments ago from Highland’s Activity Building Committee as
they bring us up to date on their progress with plans for renovation of our building across
the street. They’ve worked this winter and spring with West & Stem Architects. I don’t
know if you’ve ever had the privilege of working with architects; if not, I hope you do at
some point. Here’s what amazes me about what they do: they can see things that aren’t
visible to the naked eye, and then make it possible for those things to appear. They
looked at our Activity Building, and heard about our 50 years of active ministry there: all
of the meals, and the youth ministry, and the scouts, and the community groups, and
more. And, about our frustrations about things like acoustics, and leaks, and the kitchen,
and storage, and youth space. And as they worked with the AB Committee, they were
able to see things the rest of us couldn’t see (at least I couldn’t see) about ways that space
might be used, because we are so accustomed to seeing what is there before us!
Architects can see things the rest of us can’t, I tell you.
You know, David had that same gift—that gift for looking at what the rest of us are
seeing, but seeing something else. What is that, that gift of seeing?
Whatever it is, Saul didn’t have it. Tall, dark, and handsome soon-to-be-former
King Saul is cowering behind Israel’s lines, scared to death of an enormous Philistine
named Goliath. It’s a tenuous time for Israel as they settle into their land, making their
way for the first time with a King. The Philistines are threatening Israel’s fragile
existence, and they have assembled quite an army on the other side of the Valley of Elah.
And there in their midst is Goliath, hurling invective, spewing venomous insults,
mocking the Israelites. Goliath is the epitome of power and might. Verse after verse, the
power of Goliath is spoken, and the Israelites are scurrying for cover. And Goliath’s
armor...his armor is described in great detail: his helmet, and coat of mail; the greaves on
his legs and the javelin on his back, and his spear; his spear was, well, I think the Hebrew
word means “ginormous.”
Yes, Goliath has the armor. But as Walter Brueggemann has said so well, he
doesn’t have the armor of God.1 The one with that armor, as it were, is the young
shepherd boy who has been shuttling food from home to his elder brothers, the boy king
we know as David. And of all the Israelites who are gathered for battle that day, David
alone is the one who can see things the way they really are. He doesn’t just see the
brutish power of Goliath; he sees someone who is insulting the army of the living God.
And he alone is willing to face the giant, because he knows that the living God is for him,
and not against him.
Saul is unimpressed by the young David, given Saul’s eye for military power and
might. Saul has what Eugene Peterson has called a “Goliath-dominated imagination.”2
1
2
Walter Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel. Interpretation (WJKP, 1990), 127.
Eugene Peterson, Leap Over a Wall (HarperCollins, 1997), 39.
2
You know that sort of imagination. It keeps you so focused on what you fear that
you can’t even begin to notice what you have, or who is around you to help, regardless of
whether your Goliath is a tough class in school, the prospect of losing your job or not
getting a new one, a strain in a relationship, or something else. It’s all you can see, that
giant.
A Goliath-dominated imagination looks around at a violent world, and says that the
only way to live amidst such violence is to confront the enemy on the enemy’s terms,
using the enemy’s tactics and tools and so to be violent ourselves, and so seeks safety in
more armor.
A Goliath-dominated imagination believes that power and happiness come with
wealth, and so finds its greatest motivation in doing whatever it takes to get more wealth,
and thus have more power.
With his Goliath-dominated imagination, Saul tries to array David on Goliath’s
terms, but Saul’s armor (which was doing him no good behind Israel’s lines) doesn’t fit
the shepherd boy. To tell the truth, I’m not sure David would have wanted it even if it
did fit. And so David sets out for the Valley of Elah wearing none of the armor, and
carrying none of the weapons. All he has are the 5 smooth stones he picks out of the
brook, and his faithful imagination. And that, as we who have just heard the story know,
is enough.
The gift of seeing that makes David different is his faithful imagination: his ability
to trust in God, and through that trust to see what others don’t yet see. You see, Saul and
Goliath aren’t so different. As they stare each other down across the valley, it’s clear to
them both that the only thing that matters is the power of military might; it’s also clear
that Goliath and the Philistines have the edge. If the sheer power of military might is
what matters, then the more of it the better, and the Philistines will win every time. Saul
knows it.
But David is different. David knows that the real power lies in the hands of the
living God, and so he can imagine an outcome for this day that is quite different from
what everyone else is seeing. He knows that the shock and awe of military might isn’t
the strongest stuff in the world after all. He knows that the living God isn’t intimidated
by the likes of Goliath. So David takes his 5 smooth stones—the very sorts of tools he
uses to protect his flock from the threat of lions and bears, the tools that are authentic to
who he is. And he takes his faithful imagination, his God-centered, alternative-seeking
way of viewing the world, and he defeats Goliath and routs the Philistines, with one stone
from his sling. And his action has inspired countless acts of courage as seemingly small,
powerless persons have sought to confront giants of injustice, hatred, and more.
I think of Tiananmen Square in 1989, as the powers that be in China sought to clear
away the thousands of student protesters who were longing for openness and freedom,
instead of the oppressive, coercive power of the Chinese government. And the day after
the June 4 massacre, the unknown protester who stood in front of the tanks of the Chinese
army, defying the power of the empire with the shopping bags he waved like semaphore
flags, and his willingness to stand in front of a column of tanks to oppose their entrance
into the Square. No one knows what became of him, but the world was watching, and the
power of China was made smaller that day.
I think of the giant of bigotry and hatred, embodied painfully in the recent witness
of the Rev. Charles Worley, a pastor here in North Carolina who preached a sermon just
3
last month in which he suggested that all homosexual persons should be put inside an
electric fence until they die out. I suspect you heard about him, as he made national
news. What he said was a shameful, shocking outrage.
Enter the Rev. Mark Sandlin, our colleague in Salem Presbytery and pastor of
Vandalia Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, who had an idea—a “wickedly beautiful
response” to Worley, as it was described.3 In the face of such hatred and cruelty, Sandlin
took the smooth stone of his blog, The God Article, and proposed something simple. For
those who were concerned about the wellbeing of gay folk in light of Worley’s sermon,
Sandlin suggested that they make a donation to a group that supports gay persons… and
make it in honor of the Rev. Charles Worley. And send him an acknowledgement
postcard, so that he would know that help was being given in his name to the cause of the
very people he was hoping to exterminate. Worley will forever be on the mailing list of
every organization that seeks to treat gay persons the way that the rest of us take for
granted. With his call for donations in Worley’s honor, Sandlin seeks to show Worley
and others what “creative, non-violent resistance looks like.” In the face of the enormous
face of bigotry, hatred, and cruelty in our time, such smooth stones as postcards and
donations may seem small, but they can be quite effective—especially when they are
offered in a spirit of love. After all, every small act of love in the face of overwhelming
anger, hate, or violence is an expression of faithful imagination, as we envision and enact
a future different from what is now.
Maybe you know of some other Goliath-like need or challenge in our community or
world that needs a faithful, imaginative response—hungry children in our community this
summer, the bitter acrimony of political rhetoric that rends the very fabric of community
that it would seek to sustain, or something else. Let’s put our God-dominated faithful
imaginations to work, and look around for some smooth stones—something that God has
gifted us to do, authentic to who we are, that we can use effectively and well for sake of
the reconciling, healing work of our living God.
But as we do, I offer a word of caution. Should we succeed in our David-like
effort, let’s not allow our success to turn us into a Goliath! Unfortunately, it wasn’t long
before David himself became a Goliath, as we’ll hear in a few weeks. Sam Wells, Dean
of the Chapel at Duke, recently cautioned a graduating class at Duke against just such a
tragic happening, and suggested that the best way to guard against becoming the very
monster we seek to overcome requires that we attend regularly to the source of our
power.4 In so doing, I think we also nurture those faithful imaginations of ours. He sees
five sources of power for David, and for us, gathered around David’s powerful five
stones.
Stone number 1 is that David didn’t just use his time to pursue his own goals. Time
is power, and David did a lot of hard, unglamorous work with his time—feeding sheep
and tending to the needs of others. He was comfortable with ordinary time.
Stone number 2 is that David was comfortable outside—the world of sheep and
stones and streams, and not just the world of technology and armor, the indoor world of
stuff.
3
See his blog entry here: http://www.thegodarticle.com/15/post/2012/05/a-sinfully-beautiful-response-toncs-latest-gay-bashing-minister.html
4
Samuel L. Wells, “Five Smooth Stones,” at http://www.faithandleadership.com/sermons/five-smoothstones?page=0,0
4
Stone number 3 is that David knows himself, and is comfortable with himself. Saul
wants David to be like Goliath; but David wants simply to be David. How many of us
waste our lives trying to be someone else, instead of simply being the gifted, wonderful
persons we are?
Stone number 4 is that David knows who God is. Goliath is not God. Saul is not
God. David is not God. David knows who God is, and who God is not. Wells notes that
too many Christians in this country have forgotten who God is and what the God we
know in Christ is like; and so they have tried to turn Jesus into Goliath, a source of
coercive power and intimidation over those who would be different. The world is
rejecting such misused power as some in the church would seek to wield, and it is right to
do so.
Stone number 5 is that David knows ultimately what power really is. It’s not in
muscle, but in faith. It’s not in armor, but in wisdom. You and I know that such power is
not in forceful coercion, but in kneeling love.
When we remember the source of our power, we have the potential to maintain the
creative, faithful imagination that David exhibited that day in the Valley of Elah. It
matters not if we are young or old, big or small, well-connected or on our own. The
world needs such faithful imaginations as these in these troubling times. Even our
smallest acts of love and care are enough for God to work through us for sake of the
transformation of the world.
How will you nurture the God-given imagination and power you have in this
Goliath-dominated world? And what ever will you do with it? Amen.