Rooting For The Underdog
June 21, 2009
1Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2Saul and the Israelites gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, and formed ranks against the Philistines. 3The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. 8He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10And the Philistine said, “Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
12Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. 13The three eldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle; the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14David was the youngest; the three eldest followed Saul, 15but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening. 17Jesse said to his son David, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers; 18also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See how your brothers fare, and bring some token from them.” 19Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. 23As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. 24All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid. 25The Israelites said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. The king will greatly enrich the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter and make his family free in Israel.” 26David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27The people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.” 28His eldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David. He said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart; for you have come down just to see the battle.” 29David said, “What have I done now? It was only a question.” 30He turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way; and the people answered him again as before.
31When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul; and he sent for him. 32David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34But David said 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, 35I 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. 36Your 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.” 37David said, “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.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!” 38Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them.
40Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. 41The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” 45But David said to the Philistine, “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. 46This 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, 47and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
48When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
I Samuel 17:1-49
This morning, you are going to hear me do something that I have never done since I’ve been at Park View (and for you smart-alecks in the group, it’s not that I’m going to preach a good sermon for the first time…you’re still going to have to wait for that). Since it is Father’s Day, I thought I would begin my sermon by talking about sports. Because in the entire time I have been here at Park View, I have never once used a sports metaphor in a sermon. Did you know that? There’s a couple of reasons why.
The first reason is that I think sports metaphors are overused. It’s just too easy. They’ve become cliché. Yes, life may be just like a ballgame and yes, God may want me on the winning team, but I’m tired of hearing about it. There are other ways of talking about Christianity. And so, from a purely creative standpoint, as a preacher I try to come up with different illustrations.
But probably the real reason I don’t talk about sports too much is because I’m not really that much of a sports fan. I know that’s not a very manly thing to say, but I’m okay with that. I do follow the Atlanta Braves and the Georgia Bulldogs, but other than that, I could pretty much care less about sports.
The one big exception is golf. I really, really like golf. In fact, besides the Game Show Network, golf is probably the one thing that I watch the most on TV. And of course, this is a big weekend for golf. It is the 109th U.S. Open, which is being played up at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Long Island, New York. So far, a lot of it’s been rained out.
But the sports story I want to tell this morning is not about this year’s U.S. Open, but last year’s. In 2008, the U.S. Open was played at Torrey Pines Golf Course in California. And at the end of four rounds, there were two players tied for the lead. One of the players was the most famous athlete in the world. Maybe you’ve heard of him—Tiger Woods. Tiger is without a doubt the greatest living golfer, and in my opinion, he’s on his way to becoming the greatest golfer of all time. I don’t care if you like him or not; it is impossible to deny his talent. And any time that Tiger gets on the golf course, he is a force to be reckoned with.
But last year, at the end of the tournament, Tiger Woods was tied with a golfer named Rocco Mediate. Now, you probably aren’t as familiar with him, but I have liked Rocco Mediate for a long time. Long before last year, I liked him just because I thought he had a cool name. But needless to say, Rocco was a long shot to win. This was the classic case of a David versus a Goliath. At the time of the 2008 U.S. Open, Rocco had only won 5 PGA tournaments in his entire career. Tiger had won over 60. And yet, it was Rocco who played well enough to get into a Monday tiebreaker with Tiger Woods. They played another full 18 holes, still they were tied. It wasn’t until the 19th hole that Tiger finally broke through and won.
Now, that may seem like an odd story to tell, especially on this Sunday when I am preaching about David and Goliath. Because it would seem to make more sense if I told sports story where the underdog actually won. After all, that’s what happens with David and Goliath. But I’m gonna come back to the story of Tiger and Rocco because I think it has some light to shed on our passage of Scripture for today.
David and Goliath is one of those Bible stories that everybody knows. And it has become a metaphor for any situation in our lives where we are faced with impossible odds—the little guy vs. the big guy, the whistleblower vs. the evil corporation, the Chicago Cubs vs….well, anybody. But I think that like many famous stories from the Bible, we miss out on some of the more profound truths in this passage because we think we already know the story so well. So, this morning what I want to do is to take another good look at the story of David and Goliath. Because I think that there are some important things this Scripture has to teach us, particularly as we think about what is happening in our life together at Park View Baptist Church.
For starters, we need to see that the way this story is told emphasizes the differences between David and Goliath. Verse 4 says that Goliath of Gath stood six cubits and a span. Depending on the way you interpret it, that’s either six foot nine or nine foot nine. Either way, it’s tall. Goliath was not a giant in the way we think about giants from fairy tales, but he was without a doubt the tallest man around. He would have stood head and shoulders above the rest of the troops. And if that wasn’t bad enough, verses 5-7 describe Goliath’s armor. The commentary I read this week said that Goliath’s armor alone probably weighed about 125 pounds. So, Goliath wasn’t just some schoolyard bully; he was the absolute most fearsome warrior the Philistines had. He was so physically and mentally intimidating that nobody in the entire Israelite army was willing to face him.
David, on the other hand, is described in this passage as a young boy. Verse 42 says that when David came out to fight, Goliath made fun made of him because he was a pretty boy. Goliath was a man’s man, a manly man. But David looked like the kind of wimp who watches a lot of golf on TV. Obviously, in comparison to Goliath, David just didn’t stack up. In terms of age, or strength, or weaponry, Goliath had the edge. But what is perhaps not as immediately obvious to us is the way this passage also compares David to Saul.
We know that Saul was the king of Israel. And earlier in the book of 1st Samuel, we are told that Saul was chosen as king in part because he was physically intimidating. Just like Goliath, Saul was a tall man. And in verses 38 and 39 of this chapter, we find out that just Goliath, Saul had some fancy armor he used in battle. So, this passage is not only setting up a conflict between David and Goliath; it is also setting up a conflict between David and Saul. The txt is very clear that Saul and Goliath share some disturbing similarities. Because both men trusted in the wrong things.
That’s important for us to understand, because this is a story all about trust. You see, both Saul and Goliath assumed that battles are won by the strongest men with the best weapons. That makes sense. And it’s why Saul tries to convince David to put on his armor. Saul is convinced that the armor is what will save David. But David knows better. And I think that his refusal to wear Saul’s armor provides a helpful lesson for us as we think about the church today.
Sometimes, when we are faced with challenges and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the tendency is for us to conform. We look around at other churches and we say, “Well, our church is struggling right now but that church down the street sure has a lot of cars in their parking lot, so we need to start doing what they’re doing. We need to have a contemporary service, because that’s what everybody else is doing. We need to have small groups, because that’s what everybody else is doing. We need to be just like Willow Creek and Saddleback and all those other big churches because they’re successful and we aren’t.”
That’s a very common attitude in the church today. I get invited to seminars and workshops all the time on how to turn our church into somebody else’s church. Essentially, the argument is that if we can’t beat ‘em, we should join ‘em. And that’s just what Saul does in this passage of Scripture. He says, “We can’t beat Goliath by trusting in God, so let’s get some big armor just like he has and do it that way.” The only problem with that line of thinking is that when we conform to the wrong thing, we might as well be beaten, because we’ve given up on the right thing.
In the next few weeks, and months, and even years here at Park View, it will be easy for us to latch on to one thing as the solution to all our problems. Because I think our tendency as humans and as a church when faced with difficulties is to compromise and to become something we’re not just to survive. Y’all see what I’m saying? There are things that we could do as a church that would probably help us grow numerically. But they wouldn’t be true to who we are or what we’re about. And we would be doing those things because we were too afraid or too impatient to put our trust in God.
You see, even though Saul was a great warrior, he was a failure as a king because he misplaced his trust. Saul thought the only way to beat Goliath was to become like him. He forgot what it says in verse 47--that our God does not save by the sword and spear. Our God doesn’t do things the way everybody else does. Our God roots for the underdog. And our God saves, not because we are big and strong, but because we trust in him.
Let me return to the story of Tiger and Rocco for just a minute. It’s true that Rocco lost to Tiger in that tournament last year. But I think that Rocco Mediate was still a winner, not because he beat Tiger, but because of the way that he played. And even though he lost, Rocco won a victory that day because he believed that he could.
That’s the story of David and Goliath. David was a winner not because he beat Goliath, but because of the way he beat Goliath. I like the way that Walter Brueggeman put it in one of my commentaries. He said “The purpose of David’s victory [was] not simply to save Israel or to defeat the Philistines. The purpose [was] the glorification of God in the eyes of the world.” Unlike Goliath or even Saul, David refused to put his trust in armor and physical strength. Instead, David put his trust in the Lord. And even though he was the underdog, David won. But David didn’t win because he killed Goliath; he won because he believed that he could.
That’s a crucial distinction. And it makes me wonder, what would it mean for us to win, here at Park View Baptist Church? You see, I think that there are different definitions of winning. Will we have won when we are like every other church? Will we have won when we have more people and more money? Is that our goal? Is that what we are working so hard to achieve? Or is winning about something else?
As a congregation, we have a lot of choices before us. And we are certainly faced with some Goliaths. We have fewer people, and older people, and less money than we have ever had before. In many ways, we are the underdog.
But what I hope we will see from this passage of Scripture is that winning isn’t about being the top dog. And it’s not about beating out all our competitors. Winning is about the glorification of God in the eyes of the world. That is what we are called to do, no matter how big the Goliaths in our life. And even though it may be tempting for us to conform and take the easy way out when we get scared about the challenges that face us, let’s remember that it is not the armor of Saul that will save us. It is only by trusting in God that we will be saved. And that’s a victory we can all root for. AMEN