B, Post Pentecost 5 Proper 7 - 2 Corinthians 6:1–13 "Big Problems & Narrow Hearts"
Nine foot six is a problem.
The Israelite army closes ranks. No
one wants to go out and face this enemy.
The problem seems too big to handle, let alone defeat! So much so, King Saul and his army fall on their
faces in fear, frozen and unable to find someone to fight Goliath.
The terms were simple.
Send someone to fight and if Goliath wins, and his opponent dies, then
Israel becomes a servant to the Philistines, and if the one whom Israel sends kills
Goliath, then the Philistines will become servants of Israel.
Like the advertisement says on television, “Chances are you’re
about to lose!” Goliath was a monster of
a man. He was a military machine! Just shy of three metres tall, two hundred
and eighty-nine centimetres in height! That’s
nine foot six inches of muscle covered in metal. It’s no wonder all of Israel fell flat on their
faces, prostrate in fear. To say, “the
odds weren’t good” was the understatement of all understatements!
Unbeknown to Jesse, he sends David from shepherding his
flock to visit his brothers with the Israelites who are cowering before Goliath
and the Philistines at the front line. David
goes to the battlefront and hears Goliath, the champion of the Philistines,
taunt Israel. Even despite the reward of
riches, the king’s daughter in marriage, and freedom for his father’s household
from Saul’s leadership, no one steps forward to fight Goliath.
To the shame of David’s oldest brother Eliab, which angers
him, David says, “What shall be done for
the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For
who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the
living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26 ESV)
The youthful David, fresh faced and handsome, full of the Holy
Spirit, says to King Saul, “Let no man’s
heart fail because of him. Your servant
will go and fight with this Philistine.”
(1 Samuel 17:32 ESV)
But this young boy who previously had been made Saul’s
armour bearer, through his playing of the lyre, could not even bear the weight
of Saul’s armour for battle. So, he
faces Goliath without anything but trust in God and five smooth stones. But he does not face Goliath in fear!
Picture it! David
wearing his shepherd clothes facing off against the three-metre giant with a
brass helmet, wearing a vest weighing fifty-five kilograms, that’s one hundred
and twenty-one pounds. Probably more than
what David weighed! Goliath bears a javelin
slung across his back and brandishes a spear with a head weighing six and a
half kilograms, that’s fourteen and a half pounds. Verses a boy with a sling and a shepherd pouch
holding five smooth stones!
David runs to the battle without shield or sword. Before David stood Goliath, but he did not
see the threat. He saw victory in the Lord
saying, “You come to me with a sword and
with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of
hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand,
and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead
bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to
the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God
in Israel, and that all this assembly
may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the
LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45–47 ESV)
For all intentions and purposes, it seemed that Saul was
putting David forward for defeat, but the chance David would die was nil. As a result, David stood over the headless
body of the pagan thug that once tormented Israel.
Trouble also appeared to brew on Lake Galilee, as Jesus slept
on a cushion in the back of the boat. The
feeling of impending death filled the disciples as waves surged into the boat. It was Jesus’ idea to go to the other side,
and now it looked like they weren’t going to get there. They woke Jesus thinking he did not care for their
circumstances.
But they were less aware of their circumstances than was Jesus. They saw the problem, but they did not see
the answer, Jesus Christ in their midst. Jesus knew his death was coming, but
not through the chaos of a watery grave. With a couple of words, he stills the storm,
and with a couple more, he puts the fear and faithlessness of the disciples in
front of them!
The disciples learn a lesson! The power invested in Jesus by God the Father
calls them to faith. But it wasn’t the
kind of power we would expect from the Son of God, who put his divine power
aside to be the person you and I were meant to be. Jesus’ power was that of complete trust in
God the Father who carried Jesus along by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was this power in which they were called to
trust! And so too us!
Jesus’ earthly forebear, David, similarly was carried along
by the Holy Spirit, to face the problem that Saul and the entire Israelite army
couldn’t conquer. David too trusted in
God the Father to deliver him from the heathen henchman, despite being overshadowed
by this military monster.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians;
our heart is wide open.” (2 Corinthians 6:11 ESV)
Prior to this Paul gives quite an extensive list of problems
one endures as a faithful servant of God, of which three times he seeks to open
wide the hearts of the Corinthians with his Holy Spirit inspired words saying
that, “Working together with him
(that is Jesus Christ), then, we appeal
to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favourable time I
listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is
the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that
no fault may be found with our ministry.
(2 Corinthians 6:1–3 ESV)
Paul calls them to
graciously receive the grace of God, for at a gracious time God
has listen and gives salvation, therefore now is the time to graciously
receive salvation. There is no time like
the present to allow the Holy Spirit to grow one’s faith in God. To make one’s heart wide in the Lord!
What causes a narrow
heart? What causes a lack of faith? Paul
tells the Corinthians, “You are not restricted by us, but you are
restricted in your own affections.” (2 Corinthians 6:12 ESV)
Literally Paul
says they are restricted by their own spleen, their own intestines, their own
indwelling! To put it in today’s language,
one’s own feelings!
All people are challenged today, for their narrowness of
heart in putting individualism, emotionalism, and one’s own affections before
God, his word, and his will in his word.
To many Christians it seems there are many goliath problems. Waves are coming into the boat, threatening the
life of the boat and its occupants.
We are called not to lay prostrate in fear, nor be overcome
by the fierceness of those who seek to subvert the narrative of God’s church by
watering down his word. God calls you to
open wide your heart, to trust what he says in his word as Jesus’ way forward.
As people of the church, each one of us will have to face spiritual
problems and work out what is the heart of the matter. There are only two people who know what a
person believes, yourself and Jesus Christ.
You owe it to yourself and Jesus Christ, to allow the Holy Spirit to expose
and make your heart wide through repentance.
A deeper love of Jesus Christ comes only through allowing him to forgive
your sin. So, you allow the Holy Spirit
to show you in the word, when your emotions and individualism are the Goliath
problem. The Holy Spirit seeks to widen your
heart, so you do not sink in yourself! The only way forward is Jesus’ way in
submission to his word! The way of
affections or one’s own feelings imposed onto the word of God is contrary to
God’s way.
Many issues come to our attention as Christians living in a
pagan society. As Christians we are called
to trust God works in his church through his word. His will is being done through the processes
faithful to him and his word in his church!
There are impasses in the church, not in what we might
suspect though! Rather most deadlocks
occur because faith is misplaced with the deception of sight or emotions! It’s not an impasse, so to speak, but rather faithlessness
in Jesus’ way in the word of God, in the processes given in the life of the church
for eternal life, and the effective way of the Holy Spirit in the baptised
priesthood of all believers to make disciples of all nations.
It is both a big problem, but it’s not a problem at all!
When we allow the Holy Spirit to work the reception of the word
of God in us, the problem is no problem at all.
He will cause to make our hearts wide, to repent of our affections and return
to Jesus’ word that calms the storm and brings the Goliath within to repentance.
When you allow this, you do not receive
the grace of God in vain! Amen.
