Big Little: 1 Samuel 16:1-18 - Harvest Home Sunday

Earlier this week, I attended the annual Wee-Kirk Small Church Conference in Laurelville, near Mt. Pleasant.  A quick survey at the opening session revealed that I was one of four Lutherans (and the only cross-denominational minister). I introduced myself to one of the Lutheran ministers, a female pastor roughly my parents’ age, and to my surprise, she is the pastor of the congregation where I served my internship. 

St. Paul (Lebanon) Lutheran Church - Felton, PA. Photo by author.

I loved that congregation. They were among the most loving, most faithful, and most fun Christians I’ve ever known. I remember thinking, it’s going to be tough to find a first call that tops this. Thankfully, God has led me to two.

Nevertheless, I’ve worried for that congregation, because it’s small, with an aging membership, limited financial resources, with fierce competition from nearby megachurches. It’s had to deal with the same challenges and threats we’ve faced.

But I was delighted to learn that while attendance had declined to between 20-25 persons, the congregation is persevering. “They are small, but mighty,” she said; the very same words I use to describe our congregations.

Still, what does it mean to be in a small church in a society that’s obsessed with bigness: big houses, big trucks, big TVs, big stores, big muscles, big guns, big hamburgers? Bigness is power. Bigness is might. Bigness is American.

If you are to judge a king solely based on size, Saul was perfection. He was rich, he was handsome, and he was big. The bible says that there was no one who was as tall and as good-looking as he.  

When God’s people asked for a king, it seemed like God had given them everything they could’ve wanted. But inside that statuesque body lived a very small man. He was proud. He was impulsive. He was petty. He was jealous. He was paranoid. Ultimately, God regretted having anointed him as king—and had someone better in mind. 

Unlike Saul, he wasn’t rich, and he wasn’t big. He was a shepherd boy, with red hair and youthful good looks. He was the one God chose to be king. He’s not going to become king for quite some time, but soon, David will show everyone what it means to be small but mighty. 

The Philistines had come to wage war against Israel. With them was the mighty Goliath, a gigantic man close to seven feet tall, wearing nearly 200 pounds of armor, wielding a sixteen-pound spear. 

When everyone else trembled in fear before the giant, David did not. On many occasions, David rescued his sheep from the mouths of lions and bears. But David’s confidence came not from his skill but from his trust in God. Sure enough, he took down the giant with a single stone from his slingshot. Ultimately, this little man will be the one to establish Israel as the greatest kingdom on earth.

David was not without his faults, of course. As someone who showed everyone that he could do everything, he committed many violent and disgusting acts against innocent people. But his ego wasn’t so big that he couldn’t see his need for God’s forgiveness. 

Still, this shows that size doesn’t matter to God as much as it matters to us. In fact, God has a way of using little people and little things to reveal his awesome power and might. One little thing God uses is the small church.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make about ourselves is to see our smallness as a church and as people as signs that God’s not with us. If God was with us, then we’d have a big, fancy building, packed with young families, with professional musicians, rockstar pastors, and programs for every possible need and interest. One of the reasons why megachurches grow is because people are drawn to big things. Bigness is exciting, and there is something truly powerful about worshiping Almighty God with hundreds if not thousands of people.

You see a small church, on the other hand, especially one that used to be big, you see decline. You see decay. You see death. One of the reasons people shy away from small churches is because people don’t want to be part of a dying church. But is that fair? More importantly, is that true?

Nobody needed to tell David he was small and Goliath was huge and dangerous. But David knew how to take on predators. He had the skills and the guts. Most importantly, he trusted God. The little boy did what the mighty king could not. 

Today, Goliath roams our world not as a lumbering giant with a spear. Goliath is cancer. Goliath is addiction. Goliath is poverty. Goliath is violence and hate. Goliath is fear, hopelessness, and despair. But God is bigger, and churches even smaller than ours can take on these giants and prevail against them—and not with giant buildings, smoke machines, rock bands, and a catalog of programs. People take on the giants—people who love, people who give, people who forgive, people who serve, people who pray, people share their faith, people who trust God. 

Big churches can do a lot of things we can’t, but we can do a lot of things the big ones can’t. And the struggles and challenges of being a small don’t church don’t get in God’s way; if anything, the struggles and challenges keep us humble, they keep us focused, they keep us ever dependent on God’s providing grace. Life is a struggle, and if the church isn’t struggling in some way, how can we know what it’s like to be helped by Jesus?

We need not fear of Goliath, if we but trust in God to be big in us. We do not need any of the big and shiny things of this world to live faithfully. Just Jesus, the son of a carpenter, who took on sin and death and prevailed.

1 Samuel 16:1-13
16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” ² Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” ⁴ Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” ⁵ He said, “Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
⁶ When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely his anointed is now before the Lord.” ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” ⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ⁹ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ¹⁰ Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” ¹¹ Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.” ¹² He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.” ¹³ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.