Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2011, Page 18

your people’s lives, and the life of the church. I’m not sure they can grasp
it, yet. But they will. All it takes is looking in the eyes of one preacher
who’s given up, and stopped believing that grace is real, and it is for them,
too; even them.
I know this has been something of a downer of a lecture. So let me close
with a story we know backwards and forwards, about a boy who deals rather
neatly with the likes of Rick Warren, Charlemagne and Survivorman. It’s
from I Samuel, the 17th chapter. Listen for the Word of God:
[•••]
Here’s my prayer for you. When you’re striving over your next sermon, and
someone offers you a suit of armor that doesn’t fit you, don’t wear it. Don’t
wear it, if you’re not used to it. Especially don’t wear the emperor’s armor.
And don’t preach the emperor’s sermon, if it isn’t yours. No, go talk to
your friends and take them down to the wadi with you and let them help
you hunt for some smooth stones, stones that fit comfortably into your
own slingshot. That’s enough to take down a giant. Really. You know what
people will say? “Inquire whose child the stripling is!” So tell them. Tell
them, “I am a preacher, and I am a child of God.”
Amen.
I Samuel 17
Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; they were gathered at
Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah,
in Ephes-dammim. 2Saul and the Israelites gathered and encamped in the
valley of Elah, and formed ranks a gainst the Philistines. 3The Philistines
stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain
on the other side, with a valley between them.
4And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named
Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a helmet
of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of
the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6He had greaves of bronze on
his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7The shaft of
his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred
shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him.
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