A slingful of stones (2)

Then he [David] took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:40

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. 1 Corinthians 10:4

Last time I wrote about the “five smooth stones” that David took from the brook with which to defeat the giant Goliath, and how preachers are often inclined to give these stones deep spiritual significance which doesn’t belong strictly in the text.

Such treatment may be all right to a certain extent in order to find ways of applying such details to our lives today. But my point was how careful we need to be not to misuse the Bible by reading into it things which aren’t there. Let the Bible say what it wants to say, not what we think it ought to say! Take it in its most natural sense!

But I suggested at the end that perhaps David’s stones can in fact be used, without straining the meaning, to help us in living the Christian life, and in exercising Christian ministry.

The point can be summed up: You can’t fight God’s battles with the world’s weapons.

1 Samuel 17 tells us that after King Saul – poor, burnt out, defeated King Saul, the king who himself not so many years before had won a great victory over the Philistines (chapter 14), but who was now a spent force – after this King Saul had reluctantly agreed to let David face Goliath, he tried to kit him out with the best battle equipment Israel could muster: his own royal tunic, a coat of armour, a bronze helmet and, of course, a sword.

But David rejected them: “I cannot go in these… because I am not used to them” (verses 38-39). His sling and his stones (of which in fact he used only one) were all he needed.

In the childlike simplicity of his faith, David knew two vital things…

First, he had to be true to himself.

There’s a slightly comical touch in verse 39: “he tried walking around”. Can you see him?

David would certainly have been a fit young man, but he knew that he would only ever be clumsy and clunky in this get-up. And he also knew that – well, he knew from long experience how to wield a sling!

When I was a boy we used sometimes to play with catapults – a bit like a sling - though not (fortunately!) with much success. It was hard to imagine how anybody could inflict damage with such a primitive weapon. But since then probably most of us have seen those sad television news items of rioting crowds in some middle-eastern city – including young men ferociously whirling slings with deadly power and accuracy. This was a skill David the shepherd boy must have perfected as he dealt with the wild animals that came after the family’s sheep (verses 34-37).

David knew he must be true to himself.

And this prompts for us the question: Do I ever try, or perhaps pretend, to be something I’m not? Do I ever put on a show or try to impress?

Let’s make no mistake: this world detests nothing more than the “religious” person whose way of talking, living and acting is manifestly false. They have a word for it, don’t they? Hypocrite.

But they will show respect – even if only grudgingly – to the man or woman of whom it can be said “What you see is what you get”. Honesty, integrity and transparency are hard to dismiss.

“Be like Christ – and be yourself” isn’t a bad summary of what it means to be a Christian, is it?

The other thing David knew, an even more important thing, was that he had to be true to God.

From its early days the church has always been tempted to ape the ways of the world... leaders dressed up in magnificent robes; buildings which make people gasp with admiration; impressive hierarchies of power. And you look on and ask, “What has all this to do with Jesus, the Galilean carpenter, crucified and risen from the dead?”

Even if we ourselves don’t belong to churches of that kind, let’s not be smug. We live in a world where many more “ordinary” churches have adopted the techniques of the world: management-speak, where pastors (shepherds, that is!) have become like managing directors or CEOs, where slick advertising and professionally modelled training courses (“Five steps to grow your church!”) are held up as guarantees of “success”.

Paul tells us that “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (1 Corinthians 10:4). If we feel like replying, “All right, Paul, can you be a little more explicit about what our weapons should be”, I think he would simply direct us to some words he wrote to Christians living out their lives in one of the most multi-cultural, multi-religious, corrupt, depraved cities in the ancient world, Ephesus.

Is it time to revisit Ephesians 6:10-20…? - for surely it’s no misuse of scripture to draw a clear, solid line all the way from David’s “five stones” to Paul’s “full armour of God”.

Lord God, in a world where there is so much emphasis on image and presentation, where there is so much deception and dishonesty, and where it’s so easy to get sucked into the world’s way of doing things, please help me to make it my single aim to be like Christ and be myself. Amen.