The psalm Val read was written by David…the same boy with the stones who trusted God in the face of Goliath. David knew well how terrifying and threatening life could be…how evildoers could assail us and devour our flesh…how war so often rises up against us….but yet he was confident. Because he trusted in God as his stronghold…his safety. David trusted he had a space in God’s tent and was sheltered in God’s love and so no matter how ugly things looked…no matter how big the giants may seem…he could rely on God’s goodness. He trusted he would see God’s goodness in the world…so he looked for it …and he found it.
Instead of being paralyzed by fear…David stepped forward with courage. And with hope.
But that’s not always easy to do, is it? Because the giants are everywhere…and they can be downright terrifying.
So…how many of you have giants in your life that are paralyzing you with fear?
Whose voice is thundering from the next hill, keeping you from moving forward? Keeping you from living? Keeping you from hope? From joy?
I hear one of those giants often when I sit in waiting rooms or visit folks in their homes….it booms from their television sets. You know what I’m talking about, I bet — that 24 hour news cycle spewing a constant barrage of anger…of distrust…of suspicion and fear. When I read that psalm…about the enemies breathing violence…assailing us…I can’t help but think that today, David’s giants are the voices on our tvs and social media. Over and over and over again…enemy voices all around us, mocking and derisive…encouraging us to look at one another with disdain…to despise and hate one another based on our nationality or religion or political affiliation. Or the color of our skin or who we love or the gender we express or the jobs we hold. That giant booming his powerful voice and twisted truths and outright lies over the incessant media seems so pervasive at times that I feel hopeless. Really, how can our small acts of human kindness make a difference against a Goliath like that? Any fool can see the giant is winning, right?
But then I witness someone picking up little stones…someone refusing to believe the lies…and I am in awe. I watch a police officer playing basketball with kids after they were called by a neighbor complaining that those kids were ‘disorderly’…and I have hope. Maybe the ugliness doesn’t win after all.
Or I listen to grandparents trip over the pronouns of their beloved trans grandchildren as they try so hard to get it right…and see them stand up to others who would belittle their loved ones…even when sometimes they may not fully understand…and I have hope. Goliath falls before their love.
Love wins, you see. God’s goodness and love for every single person…of every nation and every religion and every political affiliation and every color and gender and sexuality. Love wins. Because God is love. And it is the small smooth stones of love that can slay the giants we fear.
And that’s true even for the giants we can’t see so clearly. Because there are other giants keeping us from living our lives, aren’t’ there? Other fears? Not just fear of our neighbors….of those who are not “like us”….but fear of failure, perhaps? So afraid of being rejected…so afraid of coming up short we give up before we start. Feeling like we don’t have enough…aren’t good enough. Or maybe fear of what others might think? Fear of being thought a fool. Fear of being ridiculed or mocked. It is paralyzing. But when I see someone pick up those stones anyway…I’m in awe of the power of it. People who refuse to let my disapproval dictate their lives. People who fail spectacularly and get up again afterwards and don’t hate themselves for it. People who forgive themselves…and others.
You’ve seen it…I know you have. It’s beautiful. And a little terrifying…because they fly in the face of all the world says we should be. But that’s how Jesus lived, after all, isn’t it? In the face of the giants of his world. The giants of religious expectations. The giants of cultural prejudice. Their voices were booming all around him…telling him he was wrong..he was a failure…that he was a disappointment to God in what he taught and who he associated with and how he lived. But you know what? Jesus just picked up his stones…and hurled his love into the world…trusting God …Trusting God’s love for the world…and trusting that God’s love for him was enough. He trusted that love wins.
So what other giants are you facing? Illness? Mortality? If ever there was a giant…death is one, to be sure. Our fear of the unknown…our fear of the end. It’s overwhelming and exhausting. What smooth stones do we pick up to face that giant? The stones of gratitude for the glimpses of goodness we still see in the land of the living….gratitude for breath. For companions. For ordinary holy moments in the midst of pain and suffering. The small smooth stone of prayer that begs that this cup might be taken from us…but trusts God to hear us…to be with us …to love us even when we are still holding the cup. That trusts, even in the face of death…that God is the ruler of all. That death is but a breath caught in God’s eternity because God raises the dead.
There are giants all around…it’s true. But David and his little stones call us to trust God’s power in the face of it all…in the face of war and famine, fire and flood, death and evil…..to trust God’s power that is love.
You each have been given a glass stone this morning. Small. Insignificant. But I invite you to hold on to it and let it be a reminder of that in the face of all that we fear….we can trust in God. Maybe you’ll put it in your pocket…maybe on your bedside table…maybe on your kitchen counter. But wherever it may be…May that small smooth stone remind you that you are not insignificant…your small acts of love are not insignificant. May it remind you that love wins. That God is love…and every stone and every person and every atom in this cosmos belongs to God. This is God’s world…it does not belong to the giants. You have nothing to fear. This is God’s world…and if we look we will see God’s goodness all around. We will see God’s goodness here…in the land of the living. Amen.
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