Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Lent Reading Day 13
David and Goliath
1 Samuel 17:1-54

Today's selection as we continue the Lent Challenge to read through the Bible again reveals the heart of God and the unifiying believed-in promised-reality of the people of Judeo-Christian Faith. The small overcomes the big. The seeminglly insignificant is more essential than the boasting tyrant. The humble overturns the proud. God is not seen or heard in the loud storm, the strong wind or the violent earthquake, but in the silent stirring whisper. David is the ultimate hero of the Bible, along the lines of Abraham, Moses, Debora, Ruth, and Esther.


The story is deep - granted it's a perfect made-for-tv sort of story in which the young amost-king-arthur-ish boy vanquishes the nastry and brustish giant of a man. It's a story meant to shape the people of faith, to shape the way that we envision and experience greatness, authority, faithfulness, and perseverance. It's a counter-cultural, revolutionary story that reminds us of the worldview we are shaped by and the faith community in which we are formed by our common faith in Christ. Ironic that this is our passage the day after the news about the falling of Libby. The story of David, who rises from the pastures of shepherd-om to become hero of the people in a nearly survivor-ish story, and then on to become the Hebrew Idol as the chosen king to replace Saul when the latter becomes proud, arrogant, and self-suficient, is crucial in the Hebrew Scriptures. Is it any wonder that our ancestors in faith claimed that Jesus the Messiah who overturns the proud, and lifts up the poor, was a descendent of the King David? How does this story shape you? How does it inform the way that you see the world, anticipate God to act, imagine the way in which God invites us to particpate in the kingdom-revolution in our world?