Three good passages of scripture this week invite us to look to carefully scrutinise
our experience of life and of God.
The well loved story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
is a carefully crafted gem of encounter with God.
It doesn't take much effort for us to translate this story into our own experience
because we all have times when we feel that everything is stacked against us.
The metaphorical gigantic opponent in our lives is at times all too real.
As is the feeling that our little boat is being swamped by the raging storm (Mark 4:35-41)
and Paul gives us one of those readings in which he reminds us that, for him at least,
the Christian life has not been one of bliss and ease
but rather full of difficulties and danger.
So the passages fit well together.
Real situations
One of the striking things about these readings
is that we are pushed to deal with reality.
Each of the passages speaks to us of real situations.
And even if we take them as metaphorical
there is no one who doesn't connect
with the idea that we have to deal with hardships
and difficult odds.
We may not be going out into an open battlefield
to fight an experienced soldier who towers over us
and we may nevere step foot in a boat,
but we all know the sense that at times
the odds are really stacked against us
or we are in danger of being swamped.
Paul interprets his experiences
and we hear him recognise thatin his suffering God's grace abounds.
Indeed he says more than this,
"Don't let the grace that God give you be in vain."
For Paul the suffering has a purpose,
more than that
God uses the suffering to bring about
character change and growth.
as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good reputeWe often don't get this.
David and GoliathA couple of salient points:
there is a deal of testing that needs to go on.
While David is convinced that he can defeat Goliath, Saul is not
and has to be convinced.
We often forget that we need to test our ideas of what God might do through us
Arguing the case is perhpas a good sort of discipline.
Those of us who "play the Devil's advocate"
also need to realise that when the case is made
we need to honour that (as indeed Saul does)
we also need to keep on evaluating our encounters with God
in order that we better understand what is going on.
It is through this that David is able to move from
...I've had lots of relevant experience
to.....My strength comes from God.
This is great and powerful growth in David.
Growth that will be essential for the way he conducts himself in future.
So the process is ......make your case, and get others to test it
but realise that it God who is acting
and act in acoprd with that.
As you think about your Goliath problem today
remember that process:
Make the case, test it, get agreement and support and act.
Going deeper
We see in Paul's commentary that he is able
to reinterpret a whole range of experiences
and understand them not just to be a bit of a pain in the neck
but rather the grace of God
moving him forward and causing him to grow.
This is not always easy.
It is, perhaps, supreme faith to be able to see God's hand
not as the cause of our trouble,
but rather as the psalmist put it
"our ever present help in time of trouble"
and that learning to trust God in times of difficulty
requires a maturity
that goes beyond
simply thinking that trusting God
will wave a magic wand over our life.
As you think about trouble you may be having
or have had
can you also ask yourself
what is it that God is drawing me?
Awaking the sleeping Jesus
I always think when I read this story
that my life almost always feels like a boat that is about to be swamped!
It is an image the Mark uses deliberately, I think, to speak to us about the nature of our lives.
The feeling of being swamped is ever with us.
What this story reminds us of too
is that Jesus is also always with us
This is his post resurrection promise
-I will be with you always-
but we treat him as though he is asleep
it's often more convenient for us that way!!
The gist of the story is straightforward
we awake the sleeping Jesus and he can deal with the situation,
but there is more here than that.
He actually rebukes his disciples for their lack of faith.
Is he telling them here
that they should trust their own faith
like David or like Paul,
and not simply drop their bundle and say ...Here you sort it all out!
This is often the way we treat God.
Let him sleep until we get into trouble
then wake him up and drop the problem in his lap.
The rebuke that Jesus utters is about God expecting more of us than this.
We are to be people of faith
and to use that faith
....do not let God's grace be in vain...
but rather act out a life of faith.
It is Jesus's promise to us
not that he will make all our problems disappear
but rather that we will be able to live our life in God's power
to do what God wants us to do
and to be faithful.
So it's not that Jesus can't meet our needs
it's that we also need to recognise that our needs can be met
by what God has given to us.
God does not expect us to allow ourselves to be overpowered by his majesty
but rather to cooperate with him.
This is what David did
this is what Paul did.
It is the way that Jesus shows us.
Conclusion
I hope that we see that these stories move us on.
From a dependent immature faith
to one that acts powerfully in accord with God's will.
Our brashness, like David's needs to be tested
we should not just presume on God's mercy.
But let's not waste what God has laready done for us.
Anbd being conscious of Jesus ever with us
we also are called to act as he acts.
This is powerful and important stuff that we are called to. Let this be the character of your life.
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