Go with what you know…! I Samuel 17:31-40

Remarks by The Rev. Stephen W. Camp, Conference Minister of the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ

at the recent House of Delegates Meeting, North Carolina Council of Churches

I have believed for some time that the nation’s well-being is significantly influenced by the southern region of the United States. I also believe that southern churches have a great deal to do with where our nation as a whole is going. Our most recent election may be a telling barometer as we week to make sense of the state of affairs, even religious affairs present today. The pendulum still moves to the right, while it felt for a fleeting brief time over the last several months, that a momentary swing to the left might come. That notion seems all but gone in today’s society, I suspect. We move closer to war. The headline could read, “Bush gets his way!” Our nation’s debt increases without much comment and corporate greed escalates, while the poor get poorer, jobs get more scarce, and few it seems, actively care.

Our times are tough for a person like me and my denomination and perhaps for many of you, given the sense that we are told that we must batten down the hatches, rather than open ourselves up to new possibility. The stability and creatively of southern culture though, is still driven by the church, still informed by the rhetoric that leadership offers in our churches in today’s world. Yet the drive is not in religious leadership’s favor, but rather in favor of those who covet cultural isolation and keeping things the way they are or going back to the way they were. This regional faith is one that is stuck, I believe, between what was and what can be held on to at all cost.

The result of this “holding on to at all cost, this traditional even reactionary mindset, keep it as it was notion” of religion in our southern culture has driven us to struggle to realize that a new and authentic vision of the future will be difficult to dream and imagine. The rhetoric of too many is absolutism rather than reason; it is, get what you can, because tomorrow it may be gone, rather than share or lift the least of these among us. We will be treading water more often in the future, I suspect, rather than swimming as we once did. We will reactors rather than actors in the marketplace of ideas. If we are not careful, diversity may be a threat to many, something to be fought openly by many, rather than a good thing to be embraced. The generosity of those who gave to our churches in the past will just have to carry us in our future, unless things change. Given the trends, we might as well realize that we will be smaller, leaner than we once were. Our culture called into being this conservative social order and to question it in these days may create a giant that some of us may fear to fight, that may consume a few of us, drive some of us into sub-cultures, even submission. We will be ill prepared to deal with the alarming trends we see and the prevailing religious ordering that is emerging today.

I don’t see a pretty picture, my friends. I see the numbers in our culture who are disinherited growing, those who are clamoring for a seat at the table, being denied, those who have fought for rights, even some of those, now thinking that they must take on the role of the oppressor, if only to protect their own possessions and the ground they have gained. It is growing in our culture today, and in the church, at least the mainline and Catholic Church will be ill prepared to deal with the movement that is underfoot and before, us, given our denial.

The scripture sheds light and hope though, as we ponder our present day challenges. It’s the story of the Philistines who stood on one side of the mountain and the people of Israel who stood on the other. All that separated the two was a valley in between. One side was represented by a giant whose power and might was legendary, and the other a shepherd boy who possessed only a sling and five smooth stones. After convincing Saul, the leader, that he could slay the giant forces before them, after having slayed a few lions and a bear or tow, Saul allowed this youth to stand for the, to face the giant. What is interesting to me about this story, is that after Saul decided to allow David to fight for them, he ordered them to give to David the strongest armor they had available, to give him a fighting chance, it seemed. To place upon him a helmet of bronze, to place upon him a coat of mail, and provide him with the best sword they had for the fight, was about all they thought they could do for their own freedom and liberation.

It was then that David said to Saul, “I can not go with these; for I am not used to them.” And the scripture says that David “put them off…” and took his own shepherd’s staff, chose five smooth stones from the nearby brook, placed them in his shepherd’s bag, grabbed his sling in his hand and went off to battle the giant. The point is…he used what he knew and who he knew to get this challenging work done.

Let’s quickly look at this story in light of today’s challenges and the giants that face us today. First, I would suggest to you that I believe that part of the reason that we are in the places that we are in today, is because we put away the tools that we used to use in our past, the very things that got us to realize the success and genuine growth that we have enjoyed in our past. Walk into many of our churches today and preaching is an art that is losing in many of today’s pulpits. We have given way to a wishy-washy theology that is soft on sin, quiet on justice and void of any notion of peace. There is almost a syrupy-sugary goo that pervades our worship and lingers over our people today in many paces. The clear notion in some of our churches is that all are welcome, has been replaced with an unspoken proclamation that hopes that diversity in some of its forms, will simply pass us by. The numbers in many of our churches are dwindling to prove this point. We are high in style and low on substance, up on “you’re OK and I’m Ok” but low on what we uniquely believe, still lower on what we believe “thus says the Lord,” in these days, and in these times. We place all this armor upon us, all these symbols of our earthy might, and when the battle rages, we have no energy to fight, we are weighted down. David said, “let me take what I am used too, to fight this giant, my sling and these stones.”

My friends and colleagues, you have probably heard it preached that the stones were each named. You have probably preached yourselves that one was named faith and another stone was named perseverance, and another stone that David carried was named integrity and a fourth was name d reconciliation and a fifth may have been named the stone of ecumenism, but none of it matters, if we are weighted down with the armor of Saul, with the weight of Saul’s fear, feat that David was simply a youth and could not make a difference anyway. In these times our faith, our work, our hope does us no good unless we have the stuff we are used to carrying, that which has sustained us in our struggles all these years. We have a story to tell, a message that is valid and rich with history and accomplishments that authenticate our journey. Let us accept the challenges that loom, and fight the giants that are before us.

Second, David carried that things he was used too, but he was also armed with faith that could slay any giant that might appear before him and before us. It’s a matter of will. It’s a matter of do we want to change our present reality, lift ourselves, run toward the battle line to meet the giants, put money where pour mouth is, put our hands in our bag and sling our stones, thus meeting the challenges we face, right between the eyes.

There is the story told from one of my colleagues that I share with you in closing. It is the story about a girl who complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose. It was a challenging and adverse time for her.

The story says that here Father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and in the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to his daughter, he asked, “Darling, what do you see?”

“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” she replied.

He then brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked, “What does it mean, Father?”

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrots went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but after subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its insides became hardened.

The coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the billing water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” he asked his daughter. When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you carrots, an egg, or coffee beans?”

It is a question for all. It is for all of us in the Ecumenical community. How about you? Are you carrots that seem hard, but with pain and adversity, do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg, does your church or even you start off with a gentle heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a time of controversy, even death and decline, a break-up or national disaster, some kind of divorce, a church flight or layoff or an insult, do you become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain, is moved to its peak flavor when it reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better. If you are like the coffee bean my friends, when things are at their worst, do you get better and make things better around you?

These are the times when our praises to the Lord ought to increase! When the trials are the toughest, does your worship and service elevate to another level? When the outlook seems dim, does your church match the test? Are you contributing to this ecumenical body out of generosity or an outlook of scarcity that you see? Do you care for the “all” as we seek to have all be one? Does our collective service match the test? How do you handle adversity my friends, how are you handling your own corporate and unique human struggle these days? In these difficult days and times are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

My friends, it’s not my words that I echo, but it is the words of Jesus, the call is to love one another that really matters ion these times. It is David’s struggle with giants that is our struggle today. Jesus placed no condition upon that love notion, nor did David hesitate to fight for his beloved Israel. Jesus simply said that if you want to be my disciple, then love one another. David said to the giant, “You come to me with sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of host, the God of the armies of Israel.” “This day,” David said, “the Lord will deliver you into my hand.” David changed the water…

I believe that we must continue to in these days to understand that the struggle for justice for our people, the struggle for equality still rages on. It is our struggle still, one handed to us by the blood, sweat and tears of so many, the lives of too many found dangling from trees, even from the outskirts of this city, so many who wore out shoe rather than ride buses, so many who said no to the outlook and yes to looking up. Let us use what we have, my friends and colleagues, it is our special and unique notion that Jesus Christ is alive and the knowledge that God is with us, in these days of challenge and change. When the religious history of this period is scanned, when the religious record of the south is revealed, will they say that the North Carolina council of Churches was there in the battle, they battled giants in their midst.

For your work, praise be to God!