Despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, Goliath usually wins. One contemporary proverb, "The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running," is countered by another, "The race is not always to the swift, but that's the way to bet." Just look at the recent war in Iraq, where vastly superior U.S. and British forces mopped up the hapless Iraqi army. Or consider the Soviet Union's subjugation of the war-torn nations of Eastern Europe after World War II, or the efforts of mom and pop stores to confront the encroachments of Wal-Mart or McDonald's. For every Erin Brockovich, there are a thousand people who stand up to big government, big oil, or big money, and get crushed. Why, then, do we continue to read the story of David and Goliath? I see three reasons for doing so. First, the story of David and Goliath gives us hope. David was the youngest son from an inauspicious family. Unlike King Saul, he was nondescript in appearance. He was too small and inexperienced to wear the armor that Saul offered to him. The only thing he had going for him was his faith in God and his determination to prevail. Goliath made the mistake of taking him for granted, and he was defeated. When we face difficulties in our lives, the story of David's victory gives us hope that we, too, can defeat that which stands in our path. A second reason for reading the story of David and Goliath today is that it fulfills our expectation of justice. Even a cursory glance at the world around us reveals injustice on every side. People who are born into poverty usually die there as well. Those whose parents were poorly educated are often relatively uneducated themselves. Children die of terrible diseases, many of them preventable. The Israelites in the story were oppressed by the Philistines, who were technologically superior to them, having a virtual monopoly on the supply of iron in the region. Though Saul and the rest of the army despaired, David had a secret weapon: faith in God. He believed that God would not let the people of God perish at the hands of an "uncircumcised" oppressor. He believed that no matter what the apparent mismatch in power, God was more powerful still. People of God today also believe in a God who brings about justice in the world. The fact that we see so much injustice doesn't dissuade us from believing that justice will ultimately prevail. A third reason for reading the story of David and Goliath is that it is instructive in teaching the weak how to fight the strong. David was unable to wear the armor of a warrior, and despite his adventures with wild carnivores, he was not really a soldier at all. If he was to win this battle, it would have to be by means of weapons and strategies that were completely different from those of his opponent. David eschewed hand to hand combat for a projectile weapon, he rejected heavy armor for mobility, and he relied on truth rather than abusive and haughty rhetoric. When we're faced with our own Goliaths, we must remember that we have resources and strength to face the situation. We can make use of different strategies than those used by our opponents. Most of all, if we have the truth on our side, we have a good chance of winning. One more thing to keep in mind: defeats will come, and if we're cast in the role of David, they'll probably come more often than victories. However, we can still follow the example of David and stand firm in our faith, believing in a God of justice, and acting on the hope that truth will ultimately prevail.
In the 1980s the U.S. experimented with trickle-down economics. The theory was that if those on top of the heap economically had more money, they would spend more money, thus stimulating economic growth, and they would pay their employees more, thus increasing wealth for all. After several years, economists declared the trickle-down theory a failure. It turned out that when the super-rich were given more money, they mostly spent it on themselves, or else they enriched their friends and families with it. A small amount of money actually trickled down to the middle class, but the poor were just out of luck. In the 1990s, the government returned to more reasonable spending procedures, gradually whittling down deficits and reducing spending on "defense," but massive corporations took up where the government had left off. Soon, corporate executives were making hundreds of times as much as entry-level workers, and when the companies they led went broke, they were rewarded with golden parachutes. The reward for low-wage workers? The unemployment line, without their pensions. The U.S. government has now returned to the trickle-down approach, rewarding the rich with tax breaks, running up huge budget deficits, and watching jobs disappear. CEOs, of course, are still making hundreds of times as much as the low-wage workers they employ. Psalm 9 uses four different Hebrew words to describe those on the fringes of society: the oppressed, the afflicted, the needy, the poor. The psalmist envisions a world in which God reigns with justice, avenging the oppressed and meeting the needs of the poor. The wicked--that is, those whose actions hurt those whom God is upholding--will be "snared in the works of their own hands." Too many of our elected leaders--indeed, too many of us--seem to want a world that is advantageous to American interests, especially the interests of big corporations, regardless of the fallout (perhaps literally) to the poor of the world. To pick just one item among many, it is outrageous that our nation can spend almost $400 billion on the military, an amount roughly equal to that of the rest of the world's combined military spending, while ignoring the plight of the hundreds of millions of desperately poor people around the world, including many in our own country. A budget is a vision statement, and this vision of the U.S. is perverse. As a nation, we would do well to observe the actions of recently elected Brazilian president Lula da Silva, who has pledged to forego military buildups until everyone in the country has food to eat. Some will continue to argue that current policies that favor the rich will indeed result in benefits trickling down to the lowest members of society. But that's not good enough. The prophet Amos had a different idea concerning the flow of benefits: "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Christians should stand for roll-down economics rather than trickle-down economics. When we stand firm for the prophetic vision of the world and against a selfish, nationalistic, materialistic vision of the world, we will see realized the dream of the psalmist, "For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever."
As Malone lies dying, his body riddled with bullets, in a scene from The Untouchables, he grasps Elliot Ness and pulls him down so that he can ask one final question. "What are you willing to do?" It's a question that we should all ask ourselves from time to time. To fight evil, what are you willing to do? To help your fellow human, what are you willing to do? To prove yourself a Christian, what are you willing to do? Progressive Christians have almost always labored on the fringes of the church, suffering as its step-children while serving as its conscience. Paul's mission to the Gentiles was sneered at by the Jewish-Christian establishment. St. Francis of Assisi's attempts to turn the church away from its materialism were ridiculed by his contemporaries. Fringe groups such as the Mennonites, who refused to take up arms, or Roger Williams' Baptists, who insisted on religious liberty for all, have regularly been persecuted and lambasted. As the church becomes part of the establishment, it all too often loses its prophetic spirit. Rather than making decisions based on the teaching of Jesus, it supports policies based on nationalistic or economic principles. Instead of standing with the marginalized of society, it stands with the strong. What are we as spiritual descendants of the prophets willing to do to save the witness of the church and the transform it into the body of Christ? Paul endured "afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger" to live out the gospel. He didn't preach the gospel with a spirit of hate or superiority but rather with "purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God." It made no difference to him what his circumstances were or what other people thought of him, because he was confident that what he was doing was pleasing to God: "in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything." If we believe in God and trust that we are following his leadership in our lives, what other rewards can we ask for? How will we answer the question, "What are you willing to do?" If we follow Paul's example, the answer is simple: whatever it takes.
When the Titanic sailed from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, it was billed as unsinkable. Five days later it struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, taking more than 1,500 people to a watery grave. In the book Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian, Captain Jack Aubrey, the hero of twenty O'Brian novels, is on board the Leopard in the South Atlantic and South Indian oceans. The ship, having narrowly escaped being sunk by the Dutch warship Waakzaamheid, is struck by an iceberg near the coast of Antarctica. The sailors are given the choice of remaining aboard the Leopard, where Aubrey is desperately leading repairs, or manning the lifeboats and setting sail on their own. About half of the men choose the lifeboats, and they are never seen again. Aubrey manages to effect repairs and keep the ship afloat long enough to reach a deserted island, where the ship is made "ship shape." In November 1991 the fishing boat Andrea Gale sailed from Gloucester, MA, and encountered a late-season hurricane that sank the boat, killing its crew of six. In C. S. Forester's last Horatio Hornblower book, Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, Hornblower is finally returning to England to retire, when the ship he is on sails into a hurricane. Because of his years of experience at sea, his courage, and his quick thinking, Hornblower saves himself, his wife, and several of the crew, as well as the ship, in the face of unspeakable odds. In today's reading from Mark, Jesus and his disciples encounter a storm at sea. The frightened disciples awaken Jesus, who rebukes the storm and settles it. Several common threads run through all these stories of ships in distress. In each instance the danger was life-threatening. The disasters that faced all these ships were due to forces of nature, beyond the control of the crews of the ships. In every case the potential for destruction was so great that even seasoned seamen were afraid. The most important commonality of all, however, is this: it matters who's with you in the boat. Despite the dangers inherent in the situation, the disciples were exactly where they should have been. They were following Jesus' express purpose, to sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. They were in Jesus' presence, the safest place anyone could be. Finally, they were witnesses to Jesus' power over even the elements of nature. Aubrey and Hornblower were able to survive the dangers they faced at sea, but Jesus was able to eliminate the dangers. When we face difficult times in our lives, it's good to be around people who have experienced hard times themselves and can provide guidance and comfort in dealing with our situations. It's even more important, however, to be in the center of the will of God, in the very presence of Jesus, for he alone has the power either to eliminate the problems we face or to help us weather the storms of life.