Slingers

We’re going to play a game of guessing the outcome of the battle today. The game is time-sensitive, and you have to answer the first question as if it’s the afternoon of June 15, 2024. The Edmonton Oilers are about to play the Florida Panthers in the final series of the Stanley Cup. The Panthers are ahead three games to zero, and all they have to do is win tonight to win the Stanley Cup. So, who do you guess will win the Stanley Cup – you have to be honest! You know the odds of a team coming back from a three-game deficit. Who will win?

The response of the people – “Oilers!”

Come on! You know that’s not possible! The correct answer is the Panthers!

The response of the people – “Oilers!”

Okay, you failed the first question. Let’s try another. It’s the afternoon of June 24. By some miracle, the Oilers have won three games straight to tie up the series. Now, who is going to win the Stanley Cup?

The response of the people – “Oilers!”

All right, now it is reasonable to say the Oilers. They have come back from a three-game deficit. They have all the momentum. They are on fire, so you are allowed to say, Oilers! Of course, no one knows what went wrong, but it would have made sense to predict an Oilers win at that point. And my last hockey question, “Who will win the Stanley Cup in 2025?”

The response of the people – “Oilers”

No! Stop saying Oilers! The only correct answer to that question is, “The Leafs! The Leafs in 2025!”

The response of the people – “Oilers!”

(I didn’t find out until after the service that the rowdy and disruptive faction in the crowd was a group from Edmonton! I suppose they can be forgiven for their misplaced enthusiasm.)

Here is the next question about the outcome of a contest. It’s about one thousand BC, in the Valley of Elah, near Beth Shemesh, between Ashkelon and Jerusalem. Two men are about to do battle. Who do you think will win? And you have to be honest. You don’t know the outcome of the battle. You have never heard the story before. Who is going to win?

The first combatant is a seasoned fighter called Goliath. He is nine and a half feet tall. He is covered in bronze armour weighing one hundred and twenty-five pounds and has a bronze helmet, bronze grieves on his legs, a shield, a sword, and a spear that is twelve feet long with a razor-sharp head weighing fifteen pounds. He has been a soldier his whole life. He has fought and killed many men before. Now, he has come out to challenge the soldiers of King Saul. For forty days and forty nights, he has stood before the army of Israel and taunted them, “Is there not one man among you who will fight me? Come on, send your best fighter. If he wins, we will be your slaves. If I win, you will be our slaves.” You have to give the Philistines credit for this civilized approach to war. Rather than having thousands die, just one man would have to die. But no soldier from the ranks of Israel would dare stand against Goliath.

But then a strange thing happened. Jesse, a shepherd from the region of Judah, sent his youngest son, David, to the field of battle to take a basket of cheese sandwiches to his soldier brothers. When David arrived at the battlefield, he saw that there was no action and asked his older brothers what was happening. They told him to mind his own business and go home. But then Goliath came out with his evening offer, “Is there not one man among you?” David asked his brothers why they weren’t responding to Goliath’s challenge. They replied, “Have you seen him? He’s nine feet tall. He’s a monster. No one stands a chance against him.” David could not understand why no one would fight Goliath. King Saul should have stepped up if no one else would. Saul was a giant, too. 1 Samuel 9:2 states that Saul was a full head taller than anyone else in Israel. He must have been seven feet tall but was afraid to face Goliath.

Imagine the surprise among the armies of Israel when David said, “I will fight him.” I am not sure why Saul and the soldiers of Israel allowed David to stand for them, to risk their freedom on such a young and inexperienced man. David spoke of his faith in God. He said he was not afraid, and somehow, Saul and the soldiers said, “Go ahead.” Saul gave David his armour, but when David put it on, it was so heavy he couldn’t stand up. David shrugged off the armour and went to the river to pick up five smooth stones for his sling.

So now the stage is set, and we are ready to see the battle. On one side, Goliath, a giant with sword, spear, shield, helmet, grieves, armour, and a lifetime of battle experience. On the other side, David, a young shepherd with a sling and five stones. Now, be honest: who is going to win? And you have never heard the story before. Who is going to win? And if you say, “Oilers!” I will be profoundly disappointed! Of course, Goliath is going to win. The odds are in his favour. David doesn’t have a chance.

But wait a minute. I have to give you one more piece of information before you give your final answer. It’s only fair that I tell you about the weapon that David was using. You need to know about the sling. Most of the information I have about the sling comes from an article by a historian of warfare and weaponry named Chris Harrison. The full article is available here if you are interested – https://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/Sling

The sling has been in use for ten thousand years. By the time of David’s battle with Goliath, the sling had been perfected through seven thousand years of use. It had been the decisive weapon in military victories by the Greeks, Persians, Mesopotamians and Romans. It was a brutal and deadly weapon of war. At the time of the battle in the Valley of Elah, it was a far superior weapon to the bow and arrow by virtue of its superior accuracy and speed. An arrow released from a bow travels at sixty metres per second, and the unreliable nature of the arrow made it inaccurate beyond a short range. A stone released from a sling travels at ninety metres per second, a little over two hundred miles per hour, and its accuracy would be unsurpassed for another twenty-eight centuries when gunsmiths learned how to rifle the barrel of a long gun. The stones that were slung from a sling were not pebbles. They were rocks weighing between one pound and one and a half pounds. In the early days, armourers would create round projectiles from clay or carve rocks until they were round but later discovered that an ovoid projectile would fly further, faster, and with greater accuracy. A skilled slinger could release the stone in such a way as to make it spin like a spiralling football. Such an ovoid released by a well-practised slinger could fly up to seven hundred yards and was deadly at two hundred yards, even against a well-armoured opponent. Remember that Goliath’s spear had an effective killing range of fifteen yards.

There are many accounts of the deadly effectiveness of the sling. In the fourth century AD, the Roman historian Vegetius stated that a solid strike by a slung stone could kill even an armoured opponent by sending such a terrible shock through the armour to the internal organs. In the first century AD, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus recounted how slingers from the Balearic Islands defeated the Greek army. In nine AD, the Roman historian Livy told of another decisive battle won by slingers, “A hundred slingers were recruited from Aegium and Patrae and Dymae. These people were trained from boyhood. Having been trained to shoot through rings of moderated circumference from long distances, they would strike not merely the heads of their enemies but any part of the face at which they might have aimed.”

Chris Harrison, a historian of weaponry, states that the sling was more accurate and deadly than a handgun right up until the 1800s when gunsmiths learned how to rifle the barrel of a gun. Only then would a bullet spin in flight, like a stone slung from a sling. So, in one thousand BC, David had a weapon that was superior to a gun nearly two thousand eight hundred years later!

Judges 20:16 tells of the Benjaminites who were skilled slingers, “Everyone one of them could sling a stone at a strand of hair, and never miss!” We have thought about the sling practically as a child’s toy. But it was a deadly weapon of war with range, speed, accuracy and killing power that would not be matched by any other weapon for another twenty-eight centuries!

But what about the user? A weapon is only as good as the soldier who is using it. Was David a qualified slinger? This is how good David is with the sling. He was likely sixteen when he faced Goliath. As a shepherd charged with guarding his father’s sheep, he has been practising with the sling for hours every day since he was five years old. Malcolm Gladwell says that if a person has practised a skill properly for ten thousand hours, they are an expert. David far exceeds that requirement. He is beyond an expert. He has already killed bears and lions. His skill exceeds those of slingers who could choose which part of their opponent’s face they would strike or who could split a hair. With this weapon, he is deadly, an unstoppable opponent.

So, now that you are better informed, who will win this battle? There is Goliath, a giant with a shield, a sword, a helmet, armour, and a spear with a fifteen-yard range. A formidable opponent.
But now David is starting to spin his sling. Whoop, whoop, whoop (You have to make the sound in your head as the sling starts to spin faster and faster). David has a killing range of two hundred yards, compared to Goliath’s fifteen-yard range. Whoop, whoop, whoop. When he releases his stone, it will leave the sling at over two hundred miles per hour. He can strike any part of Goliath’s face. He can split a hair. He has practised this shot a quarter of a million times. Whoop, whoop, whoop. The stone will be in the air for one-quarter of one second, and then it will be deeply embedded in Goliath’s forehead. Whoop, whoop, whoop.

So now, what is your best guess if you have to say who will win the battle? Yes, you can see it now. We’ve gotten this story all wrong! Poor helpless shepherd boy against the mighty giant! What a joke. Goliath never have a snowball’s chance! Next time you read this story, you should cheer for Goliath; he needs all the help he can get. When you understand what was really happening the story takes on a whole new meaning.

I should add two additional points here. I said earlier that Saul should have fought Goliath because Saul was also a giant, but there is another reason why Saul should have fought Goliath. Earlier, I quoted Judges 20:16 which says that the Benjaminites were such good slingers that they could split a hair and never miss. There is a Benjaminite in this story, and it’s not David. David belonged to the house of Judah. Saul was the Benjaminite! He was as good a slinger as David or at least close. He should have gone out to meet Goliath. No wonder Saul grew to hate David. Every time Saul looked at David, he was reminded of his own cowardice and lack of faith.

If David was so accurate, you may wonder why he gathered five stones from the river instead of just one. That’s an easy question. Goliath had four brothers, who were all taller than Goliath, and David fully intended to kill them as well.

For the most part, we have been taught that the meaning of this story is that a weak person can overcome a stronger person if they are righteous and have faith in God. That’s a good lesson, but there is more to this story than that. David was never the weaker person in this battle. He was the stronger combatant by far. Apart from faith and courage, David had something else. He understood what he had. He knew what resources were available to him and what those resources were capable of doing. And we should learn from that. Sometimes, we stand around saying, “If only I had the proper resources, I would do something about this problem.” That would be like David saying, “If only I had a sword, shield, or a spear, then I would fight Goliath.” David didn’t do that. He saw that what he had was a sling, but he understood the value of his resource, and he used it wisely. How can we apply that lesson to our churches and our individual lives? Do we have great resources that we are not using?

I can give you an example of a congregation that lost most of its resources and was ready to give up when it discovered that the meagre resources it still had were enough to do great things for the Kingdom of God.

I was appointed Interim Moderator of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, in March 2020. St. Paul’s was once a mighty congregation with a thousand members and substantial trust funds, but by 2020, its weekly attendance was only forty people, and the trust funds were long gone. For four consecutive annual meetings, the congregation had predicted its closure in 2022. But then a strange thing happened. The congregation stopped asking for things it did not have. The people stopped saying, “We need more members and more money,” and started saying, “What can we do with the resources God has given us?” They realized that they had some interesting resources. They didn’t have a great army of people, and they didn’t have a big pile of money. What they had was a location, a building, and a handful of faithful and compassionate people. They began to say, “What can we do with our location, our building and our small group of people? Who needs our help that no one else is helping?” They became like David, saying, “I don’t have a sword, a spear, a shield, a helmet or a suit of armour, but I do have this slingshot!”

Some might laugh…or cry when I say that St. Paul’s location is a blessing or a resource. Downtown Hamilton is a disaster area. We are in the middle of an opioid addiction crisis. Two hundred people die of an opioid overdose on the streets of Hamilton every year. Unhomed persons live in tents and cardboard boxes and shuttle their worldly possessions about in shopping carts and wheelie bins. It is a heartbreaking scene. The compassionate people of St. Paul’s were distressed by the suffering around them, but rather than being discouraged, they began to think that perhaps God had put them in this location for a purpose. When Hamilton Urban Core lost the building where it housed its safe injection site, they began to look for a new home, but no one would take them in until they came to St. Paul’s. We did not have a lot of resources, but we had a location right in the middle of a crisis, and we had a building that was hardly used. After much discussion, we decided that God was calling us to stand up against the giant of opioid addiction and fight against it. We took in the safe injection site. Last year, the site received twenty-one thousand five hundred visits. Every person was offered counselling for addiction, psychiatric struggles, family guidance, and employment. The people of St. Paul’s began to provide food, clothing and toiletries to the people using the site. We had just three meagre resources: a location, a building and a few compassionate people, but we knew how to use those resources. We had the courage to step up against a mighty foe, and now we are saving and changing lives on a daily basis.

Early in 2023, we also offered space to Hamilton Urban Core’s Prescribed Alternatives Outreach Program, extending our reach into the community. Late in 2023, we heard about a small group of people who were working with children arriving in Canada from refugee camps in Syria, Afghanistan and Palestine. The kids needed help with their schoolwork and adjusting to life in Canada. The kids were all living in downtown Hamilton because their families could not afford anywhere else. They needed a downtown location because the families could not afford transportation elsewhere. But nobody wanted them. There were fears that housing a group of Muslims might create a negative image. St. Paul’s gladly welcomed the Al Amal Learning Centre and gave them our Sunday School spaces. Now, we boast that we are the only Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, with our Sunday School rooms filled to overflowing every week. They are filled with Muslim children, but we are all children of Abraham, so that’s close enough. We provide warm clothing for the children in the winter, and in early spring, we gather school supplies for them. We recently celebrated Eid Al-Fitr with the children of the Al Amal Centre. During the meal, the leader confided in me that the most important part of the centre’s work was not helping the children with their homework but helping the children overcome the PTSD they suffered as a result of seeing their homes destroyed and family members killed. After the meal, one of the little girls came to speak with me and, after showing me her artwork and new dress, said, “Thank you for letting us be here. I feel safe here.” And I cannot think of a more powerful and effective way that a church could fight against the evil of the world than by making a little child from a refugee camp in Afghanistan feel safe.

At a church gathering last month, one member said, “I think we are doing more for mission now than we ever did when this church was at its strongest.” We have lost so many of our resources. We do not have a thousand members or a large trust fund. All we have is a location, a building, and a small group of compassionate members, but look at what we have done. We do not have a sword, a spear, a shield, a helmet or a suit of armour, but we do have a sling, and we are using it to battle the world’s evils. I don’t know about the church where you regularly attend. Your church is likely not as strong as it was in the 1960s, 1980s, or even the early 2000s, but I encourage you to stop reminiscing about what you have lost and start asking, “What resources do we still have, and who needs our help that no one else is helping?”

What about you as an individual? What resources do you have to fight the world’s evils? You do not have a sword, a shield or a spear, but you are like David; you have some resources that are sufficient to get the job done. These are the resources I know you have. Your faith in Jesus has given you compassion, grace and wisdom. Simple things, but on closer examination, they are the most effective resources of all. No enemy can stand against them.

With your compassion, you can feel the hunger of the child who doesn’t have enough food to eat. You can feel the shame and humiliation of the man or woman who has lost their home and now lives in a tent on the street. Compassion lets you feel the suffering of the people around you, and once you feel it, you must act. Compassion is one of your resources; don’t be afraid to use it.

With your grace, you understand that suffering people cannot be blamed for their suffering. In Jesus Christ, God does not blame us for the wrong things we have done. God understands and reaches out to us with grace to lift and heal us. Your grace calls you to act with kindness towards suffering people. Grace is one of your resources; don’t be afraid to use it.

With your wisdom, you understand that brute force or cruelty cannot overcome the world’s problems. The world’s problems are only overcome by kindness, faithfulness and humility. Wisdom allows you to discern the truth in a world where lies are becoming the norm. Use your wisdom to establish God’s Kingdom in this world. A kingdom where the equality and dignity of all people is honoured.

You may have learned that David was ill-equipped to fight Goliath, but today, you learned that David’s resources were more than sufficient to do the job that needed to be done. I hope you have also learned that God has given you resources that can change the world. You may think that you are ill-equipped, but look again, and ask yourself, “What resources do I have, and who needs my help that no one else is helping?”