When
the odds are against you
Rev. Colin S. Marshall
21st June
2009
St. John’s
Presbyterian Church, Mt. Roskill
Readings:
Psalm 9, 1 Samuel 17:4-16 and 17:26-48, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Last week we spoke about faith. This
week we continue the theme dealing with one of faith’s most practical
applications: how do you cope when you feel the odds are against you, when
things seem to conspire against your best efforts, when things seem completely
out of your control?
If we to the Old Testament and that very well known record of the first
man in the Bible getting stoned, we see a depiction of seeing life differently.
We deal with two nations at war with each other. The battle can be used
as a metaphor for so many battles: between our conscience and our will, between
our oppressor and our ability to fight, between our courage and our cowardness,
between light and darkness.
If
the Philistines can be taken as a metaphor for life’s problems Goliath
appeared on the scene like the things that threaten to overwhelm us: a colossus
of unimaginable power. And like
things that are too much for us Goliath stood and roared out his challenge day
after day mocking the Israelites faith and courage.
You are not good enough. You
don’t have what it takes. I’ll
pull you down when I’m ready. You’ll
never be in control. You can’t
cope with me. I defy you to cope.
You God and faith is worthless.
The
Israelites acted like we do when we act only within our own resources, out of
our own strength, out of human wisdom. They
scurried back and forward, wondering what to do, frightened and afraid as the
taunts grew louder. Saul, though he
knew God failed to turn to him. He
wanted to be in control all by himself ... but he wasn’t.
Day after day the insults grew and the sense of shame became
debilitating. All the resources of a
nation seemed as naught. The problem
in front of them seemed too big, too impossible, too overwhelming.
They simply wondered when everything was going to come tumbling down and
they would be crushed and obliterated.
But
the story doesn’t end there. Out
of immediate view was one small part of the nation, one small cell of faith, one
person that did know and trust God, who had faith in his power.
And who was willing to be obedient and faithful.
Young David was sent by his father to see how the war was going.
And when this young man of faith saw what was happening he was stunned.
Why had the whole body ceased to function?
Why was it sleeping and cowering when it should be standing tall in the
power of God and dealing with this imposter?
It is God that has control of all life.
God who knows the destiny of each person.
God, who empowers His people to greatness well beyond what can be
imagined. Even those closest to
David, his brothers, had been overcome by the same gloom and depression and all
their fine talk was so much hot air.
Young
David, kindled by the spark within, determined to take on the problem head on.
Goliath might be big but God is bigger.
David’s weakness would reveal God’s strength – all it took was a
bit of faith and courage to step forward. So
step forward David did.
And
then in stepped the experts. You
need to do it this way. You need to
wear this armour. You need to ...
and for a while David listened. But
he knew that the way of the world really didn’t fit to well.
The world with all its counsellors and prescriptions and latest toys
actually didn’t deal with the critical issues.
God had already provided what was necessary – it simply needed to be
applied. A small exercise of faith
and stepping out David would see what God would do.
So
into battle went David. Not with the
accruements of the world but simply with the small tools of faith and practice
that he had learnt to use so far, and filled with a faith that God wouldn’t
let him down. It wasn’t that the
problems weren’t big, it was simply God was so much bigger.
And Goliath mocked what he saw coming toward him.
But then he couldn’t see within could He.
He couldn’t see the Lion of Judah of David waiting to pounce.
He couldn’t see the Ancient of Days with
wisdom far beyond his own guiding David in what he had to do.
He couldn’t see because the world cannot see inside the person of faith
because the world only looks on the outward.
It doesn’t know the power, the greatness, we have within. So Goliath
ranted and roared and mocked and scoffed as David calmly walked forward stated
truth. “You come against me with
all your might, your tools, your mockery but I come in the Name of the Lord
Almighty. This day the Lord will
hand you over to me.” And as
Goliath moved in for the kill David ran quickly at his opponent and dispatched
him with a quickly cast stone to the forehead.
Then, stepping forward, he cut off Goliath’s head and held it up for
everyone to see. Getting stoned is
not good for you.
This
is the dramatic power of God exercised in faith in action.
Only a little courage, a little faith is needed and God provides an
outcome both simpler and easier, and sometimes, but not always, quicker than one
might expect. All the wisdom and
armour of the world, all that the world held up as powerful was useless to
Goliath. All his taunts and mocking
fell to the ground worthless. And
when Goliaths de-bodied head was held up it wasn’t so fearful after all.
Saul and all his men had chosen to walk away from God.
God expects obedience and he isn’t interested in our excuses.
Some of Saul’s men recognised their error and repented and followed
David but many wanted their own way, their own excuses and they would perish in
their sin.
Turning now to the New Testament after Jesus death and resurrection we
encounter Paul writing to the Corinthians. In
the epistle we call 2 Corinthians Paul might have felt that things were
spiralling out of his control. When
we read the New Testament epistles it is helpful to remember that what we are
reading is frequently the instructions of a pastor helping out a church that has
problems. And the Corinthians church
certainly had it opportunities. While
the church had started off well under Paul’s tutelage, in his absence things
had gone badly wrong as some individuals began to assert their own opinions and
practices. To make things worse some
of the Christian folk began going back to old habits and practices that were
certainly not Christian. They could
not humble themselves but had decided they knew best and could act outside of
the order of the church. This is not
God’s way it an abomination of man’s corrupt will. Some
of the church had formed factions and divisions around different house church
leaders and prominent individuals and the church was starting to tear itself
apart. It’s always sad when this
sort of thing happens. It is almost
always because some individual, or individuals, believe they are more important
than anyone else and because they lack critical Christian character traits like
humility that are essential to real Christian growth.
One wonders how Paul must have felt?
He had set things up following the Spirit’s leading.
He taken the flack from the Jewish opponents in the synagogue who
believed he was doing the wrong things and actually opposing God.
He’d spent months teaching and preaching, establishing the house
churches and educating the people. And
then in his absence it all went to custard.
Now based in Ephesus Paul was receiving letter and visitors telling him
how badly it had all gone wrong and asking for his help to sort things out.
Some of the leadership in Corinth were publically rejecting Paul.
And if that weren’t hard enough Paul had been on the mission field in
Asia in some difficult and dangerous places sharing the gospel at the risk of
his life. Exhausted he had now
returned to what he thought might be a time of respite in Ephesus only to find
chaos happening in Corinth.
In his opening response to the Corinthian situation Paul makes a positive
statement about God. Not about the
situation but about God. He points
the Corinthians to the nature and character of the God we worship.
In 1 Corinthians 1 we are told He is the God of all comfort, who comforts
us in our troubles, so that we can comfort those who are in trouble with the
comfort we have ourselves received from God.
This is so different from the comfort of the world.
God gives us comfort and anticipates our sharing this comfort and peace
with others, and not of ourselves but by His working through us.
Have you noticed what happens here? The
focus begins to be shifted away from self to others.
But that, in itself, might not seem much help.
Aren’t my problems enough? Yes
and no. Yes, they may seem so to you
right now but no, in the bigger picture, they are simply something that we are
to learn from and grow through. God
puts or allows challenges in our lives so that we can be victorious over them in
Him. If we try to do it in our own
strength we will fail because the greatest tests in life are all about faith.
Paul tells the Corinthians that “just as the sufferings of Christ flow
into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows”.
In Greek the language of this passage is complex because a complex
concept is being communicated but let me try and make it clearer.
As Christians we are united with Christ as His Spirit is alive in us.
When we suffer, Jesus suffers with us and when His body suffers so we too
suffer loss. We when rejoice He also
rejoices with us. We cannot be
separated from His love by death or life, nor angels nor demons, the past,
present, nor any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation
(Rom 8:38). Once we have given our
lives to Jesus we are His and He will never leave us.
When we face difficulty He will likely not necessarily take the
difficulty away from us. In fact,
most times we find we have to learn to cope with and overcome the situation
rather than attempt to avoid it. In doing so we are made stronger in our faith.
As I said last week – faith leans into the resource of God not to our
own ability. It places our hope and
trust in an outcome we cannot see but one we can believe in because of God.
We are comforted because He gives us His comfort.
If we are willing, obedient and patient we will wait on His direction and
act according to His will. And this
same oneness that we experience with God is what takes us beyond ourselves and
our own situation so that we can begin to see how we can bring love and comfort
to others. This is where real wisdom
and comprehension lies. Our
solutions are frequently in focussing outward rather than inward.
If Jesus had spent all His time bemoaning and decrying the situation of
the world He would never have gone to the Cross.
He probably would have died of depression!
Instead of despairing He did something positive and costly and bought the
possibility of salvation for us all.
When we turn to today’s reading in 2 Corinthians 6 we see the same
thing in what Paul writes. Paul
might have come down hard on the Corinthians and their failures to live up to
the expectations He had for them in God. They
were blessed in so many things yet they had given in to their baser desires and
character flaws. They gave into
weakness as individuals rather than standing tall as the church.
Paul
points out that he had put no stumbling block in anyone’s way.
As a good minister Paul did what God does, He lets us have our heads and
we do what we chose to do. We are
obedient to God or act out of our selfish desires. But Paul did challenge the
Corinthians to consider the witness of his own life as a Christian.
He had put up with hardship and beatings, imprisonment and riots, hard
work, sleeplessness and hunger. He
lived in fear of violent murder. Yet
he had also experienced patience and kindness, love and truthfulness of God.
And more than that Paul had experienced first-hand the presence of the
Holy Spirit and the power of God working through him into the lives of others.
Sometimes people had put him down, lied about him, mocked him, and
treated him shabbily. And how does
he sum all this up? We live on;
beaten yet not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many
rich, having nothing yet possessing everything.
Paul expounds an obvious truth that many find hard to reconcile: true
wealth increases disproportionately to what you are willing to give away.
True love responds with greater love the more it is tested. Forgiveness
is given freely but at great cost. This
is not the way of the world but it is the way of God.
Paul knew what it was to be forgiven and he learnt how to forgive.
Paul knew what it was to be loved by God and he learnt how to give that
love to the unlovable. He learnt how
to respond to situations in a Godly manner and not in a worldly manner: to see
things differently through Godly eyes. Where
there was difficulty, conflict and personal attack Paul saw the opportunity to
bring God’s light and love even if it meant great cost to himself.
In two very different stories we have seen how God calls His people to
live out faith in times of difficulty. Both
David and Paul faced their challenges directly and didn’t run away from them.
Both acted in faith, standing as men and not running away like wimps.
They trusted God to work out the outcomes as they did their best to do what God
wanted them to do. Both refused to
listen to the lies that would otherwise have been spoken into their lives.
Instead held fast to their knowledge of what God wanted them to do, and
to be, in their communities. They neither conformed to those about them nor
believed what their enemies spoke. Both
looked to God, trusting in Him regardless of what the outcome would be because
they knew Him as God, as loving and compassionate towards His people.
God is not distant in our troubles but allows us to have them for a
purpose ... to discover more about Him and His character.
If we can learn this and I mean really learn it, then like Paul we will
learn how to rejoice in God in our sufferings.
And we will learn to live and to be part of the community God.
Go figure, because this is not the way of the world.
Amen