It may have escaped your attention, but over in Europe, the European Football Championships are taking place. Of special interest, to me at least, is the fact that Scotland has qualified for them after an absence of participating in international competitions since 1998! It is fair to say that Scotland is therefore not considered to be the favourites to win a competition which also contains the footballing giants of France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and another country that shares a border with Scotland. At least it gives the commentators a chance to trot out the well-worn cliché when Scotland play of it being a real “David v Goliath” contest which happens to be our reading this week.
While the reading is more commonly known as “David v Goliath”, for me, the real battle going in is between David and Saul. Saul, as leader of Israel’s army, sees Goliath as an unbeatable enemy. A massive man who is clad in armour and bristling with weapons, there is no one that the Israelites can produce that will match this. David sees Goliath as someone who dares oppose the living God and, as a result, Goliath is no different to a dumb animal who does not know better. Saul can only see one outcome, the defeat of Israel. David can also only see one outcome, the defeat of Goliath. Saul looks at Goliath with the world’s eyes while David looks at Goliath with God’s eyes. It is this difference in views that means David has faith in God while Saul does not. While the violence in this story is off putting, one lesson from it is to try and see things not as the world sees them but rather, as God sees them.
When we look at the issues around us, we tend to be more like Saul. We can look at people who are struggling with poverty, homelessness or addiction and blame them for simply not working hard enough. We can see those in need as drains on the system. We can see the size of need in our community and only think of the lack of resources we have to meet this. What if we were more like David and saw things as God sees them? What if we saw the image of God in everyone we met regardless of their status, sexuality or political affiliation? What if we met the hatred of the world with the love of God? What if we faced the darkness of poverty and hunger with the light of the gospel? We are sent by Jesus into the world on His mission, what if we trusted that God will resource us for this instead of trying to do things in our own strength? Saul saw Goliath as someone to aspire to, confident, strong, and with material possessions to envy. David saw real strength as being a humble servant of God. Will we see Saul or David when we look in the mirror?