1
Samuel 17:1-11, 32-37
September 8, 2013
Now 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. Saul and the
Israelites gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, and formed ranks
against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and
Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
And there came out from
the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was
six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was
armored with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels
of bronze. He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung
between his shoulders. The 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.
He 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. If 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.’ And the Philistine said, ‘Today I defy the
ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together.’
When Saul and all
Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid. David said to Saul, ‘Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your
servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ Saul 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.’
But 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, I 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. Your 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.’ David 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!’
You know, over the years I’ve heard an interesting
criticism of many preachers. Maybe you’ve criticized me for this. This
criticism of preachers is fairly persistent, and I especially hear it from
people who obviously like their sermons be “biblical” or “theological.” The
criticism is, “That pastor’s sermons are too much about psychology, and not
enough about the Bible.”
I’ve heard people across the board say this stuff. I’ve
heard it from members of pastor search committees, criticizing candidates. I’ve
heard it from theology professors in their criticism of modern preaching. I’ve
heard it from more conservative Christians who like sermons about salvation and
morality, and I’ve heard it from liberal Christians who want sermons to be more
about social justice.
I find this criticism of “psychological” preaching to be
a bit odd, though, because it’s not as though psychology is foreign to the
Bible. In fact, the Bible is filled with lessons of basic psychology. No matter
what part of the Bible you read, you find it focusing on how people think, how
people behave, and how people should change their thinking and behaving. Isn’t
that what psychology is basically about? It’s about understanding people’s
attitudes, how they influence their thought processes, and how these influence
people’s behavior. Psychology is about how to change attitudes, thinking, and
behavior. And the Bible cares about these things, too.
For instance, look at the story of Joseph in the Old
Testament. It is filled with psychology. The story begins with Joseph, who has a
huge EGO, telling his brothers of his dreams that they would all bow down
before him one day. Makes you want to shout out to Joseph, “It’s okay to think
it, Joseph, but you don’t have to say it!” His brothers get sick of his
attitude and behaviors, so they first throw him in a pit to kill him, and then
sell him into slavery. From there Joseph goes through a major attitude
adjustment as he suffers a major ego blow, first in slavery, then in prison.
The basic humility that comes about from these two experiences allows him to
eventually ascend to a position of prominence, and to succeed. They also lead
him to forgive his brothers.
The story of Moses and the Israelites has a similar
psychology. Moses is on top of the world as a special person in Pharaoh’s
house, but after killing an Egyptian guard who was beating an Israelite slave,
Moses has to spend the next 40 years in the desert. The whole psychology is a
desert one of learning to let go of ego in order to become responsible and
responsive to God and others. The Israelite 40-year journey through the desert
matches Moses’ psychological journey.
The Book of Proverbs is a book of pithy, self-help-ish,
psychology statements meant to lead a person to better life. Jesus’ parables
almost always deal with psychological issues, as does much of Paul’s writing.
In essence, you can’t read the Bible without getting a healthy dose of
psychology. Whenever I hear the criticism that someone preaches psychology, not
Bible, I wonder what parts of the Bible don’t deal with psychology, sociology,
anthropology, philosophy, biology, economics, and so much more. In fact, part
of what makes the Bible so powerful is that it dealt with all of these topics
before there were these topics.
So, with this little self-protective intro, I want to
introduce our new sermon series for the Fall, which is “How Do We Find Happiness?” It’s an exploration of the spirituality
and psychology of happiness, culled from the Bible.
I’ve been fascinated with this topic for a long time
because the idea of the pursuit of happiness is so ingrained in our culture. It
was a founding idea seen first in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We are a
culture that places the drive to be happy at the core of our beliefs, yet if
that’s the case, why do so few people seem to find happiness? Why do so many
people pursue it, but don’t catch it? The reality is that in our culture so many of the people who get so much of what’s
supposed to make them happy end up unhappy, while so many who have so little of
what’s supposed to make them happy end up happy.
What really cemented my awareness of this fact was a
conversation I had with an African priest at Duquesne University, while
studying for my doctorate. The program I studied in had Catholic and Protestant
students from all over the world. And one student, Father Stephen from Kenya,
once made a piercing comment over lunch. I had asked him what stood out most
about having come to America for two years to get his masters degree. He said
that two things stood out. First was how hard it was to decide on what cereal
to buy. He said that in his country, Kenya, there were only about three or four
choices, but here there were over 200. He said he could spend 30 minutes in a
cereal aisle choosing cereal. His comment was that Americans have too much
choice that it’s paralyzing. It was his second comment, though, that really
struck me: “In our country, we are
materially poor, but spiritually rich. In this country you are materially rich,
but spiritually poor.” He mentioned that in most the churches here, people
seem so offended when offerings are taken up. He said that we have so much
money, but we make it seem like being asked to give is a terrible burden.
Meanwhile, in his country the people have so little to give, but the offering typically
takes 30 minutes because people dance up the aisles with their offerings of
money, chickens, pigs, corn, and everything else. His take: Americans have so much to give, but hate to
give. Kenyans have so little to give, but love to give.
To me, Father Stephen was the epitome of what makes
someone happy. Basically, happy people
seek risks and challenges that stretch them, not rewards that enrich them.
What does that mean for us, who live in a culture that pursues rewards for
their own sake. The happiest people
pursue challenges, without considering whether they will lead to great reward. Simply put, the happiest people aren’t
the ones who get great rewards for what they do, but the ones who take risks
that lead to great experiences of life. These are people who seek a calling,
not comfort. They are curious, and follow that curiosity to take on challenges
that come with following callings in life.
They are people like David, who was willing to risk battling Goliath,
without expecting a reward. They are
people like Abraham, a city-dweller who was wiling to follow God into the
wilderness and become a nomad. They are
people like Jesus, who was willing to walk and preach, teach, and heal,
regardless of reward or threat.
I want to close with two stories that I believe
capture this idea of happiness coming from risk and challenge rather than
reward. The first is about a man named Blake Mycoskie. You may have actually
seen Blake Mycoskie before, but there’s a better chance that you wear something
that he makes.
Mycoskie became somewhat well-known after appearing on
the 2003 television show, The Amazing
Race. He finished third that year, but made a promise to himself that he
would return to visit one of the countries the race ran through: Argentina. It
was on a follow-up vacation trip to Buenos Aries that he had an epiphany. While
in the city, he decided to spend a day helping the poor. He latched onto a
local charity that handed out shoes to the poor of the city. Mycoskie was
floored by how many of the poor didn’t even have shoes—something he took for
granted. He wondered what he could do to improve the situation.
Returning to the U.S., and taking money from a previous
business he had sold, he started Tom’s Shoes. You may know of the company, and
even be wearing a pair. The shoes are well made, but very pricey for basic
shoes. This is a for-profit company that has as its motto “One-to-One.” The
idea is that every time you buy one pair of shoes, you not only buy a pair of
shoes for yourself, but one new pair for someone who is poor. The shoe company
has been such a great success that he started Tom’s Eyewear, which has a
similar one-to-one philosophy. Each time you purchase a pair of Tom’s glasses,
you either buy glasses for someone who is impoverished, or pay for an operation
that restores sight.
Blake Mycoskie is a person who has received great reward,
but it’s not the reward that drove him. It was the risk and challenge of
following his call.
Another man who has sought out the risk of God’s calling
is George McDonald. McDonald had to overcome a very difficult life to make a
difference in the world. His parents divorced before he was a one-year-old. He
never really knew his father. Then his mother died when he was thirteen,
meaning that he was left under the care of a local Roman Catholic school and
orphanage. It was there that he learned values that would come back later to guide
his life, such as caring about the poor and the homeless. Yet it was also there
that he decided he never wanted to be poor again, and dedicated himself to a
life of acquiring rewards: i.e. wealth.
Graduating from the orphanage high school, he entered
college, but he wasn’t a student. After one year, he dropped out to work for
McGregor Sportswear. He quickly rose up the ranks and became wealthy, eating
out most nights in very expensive restaurants, partying at Club 21, and
counting Joe Namath as one of his friends. He was getting all the rewards he
felt he deserved, after having grown up in such a hard life. Then something
happened to spark a change in his thinking. It was 1968, and tragedy hit the nation
again when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. McDonald’s whole perspective was
challenged and changed. He kept thinking about how the world’s priorities were
skewed. The change wasn’t immediately apparent, but he increasingly thought
more about the poor and the disadvantaged, and what he could do to help them. He
noticed the disparity when he would go out to dinner and spend $200, only to
have to step around a homeless man lying on the sidewalk while leaving the
restaurant. It gnawed at him.
Trying to do something about the problem, he decided to
run for Congress. Three times he ran and three times he lost. Risk taken, but
no reward. Still, he had made valuable connections in the political world that
would come in handy as he looked for ways to help the poor. Wanting to make a more
tangible difference, he spent 700 straight nights handing out sandwiches to the
poor. Still he realized that more could be done. Eventually he developed a
vision. He would create a program to train the homeless to work, and to give
them lives off the street. That’s how he came up with the idea for the “Ready,
Willing, and Able” program—a program to get the homeless off the street, train
them for work, and get them jobs and homes. It’s also how he decided to start a
charitable fund, the “Doe Fund,” which would fund efforts to reach out to the
homeless. It got its name from a homeless woman, Mama Doe, who was locked out
of Grand Central Station by police one subzero night, a place where she
regularly slept on freezing nights. She froze to death. He recognized her from
her picture in the paper, wearing a scarf he had given her three weeks before,
while also realizing that he had regularly given her sandwiches.
Sparked by her death he found the drive to do something for
the homeless. Since then he has committed his life to getting people off the
streets and back into a responsible life. He found his life work as a servant,
serving the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. He is a David, fighting a
Goliath, seeking the risks and challenges put in front of him, rather than
seeking reward.
The simple point that both men’s lives have shown is
that it’s not life in pursuit of rewards that matters—whether wealth, power, or
prestige—but life in pursuit of the risk of calling that matters.
Amen.
