Author: CCW

“For he loved him as he loved his own soul” (1 Samuel 20. 17)

One of the disciplines of Lent is the idea of “reading and meditat[ing] upon God’s Holy Word.” It is to that end that we have embarked upon a brief look at parts of the wonderful narrative of the story of David. It belongs to the further idea of “self-examination and repentance” that is part of the spiritual discipline of Lent as it is in other religions traditions as well. In one sense, the Chapel readings in this last week before the March break speak to an ancient question raised by Plotinus. “But we … who are we?” Or to put it in another way, where are our hearts?

In the story of David, we see the heart of David which God sees. But that connects to what we see in one another’s hearts as well as to the project of self-knowing, knowing even as we are known. Thus in the great narrative arc of David’s story, there is the powerful story of the friendship between Jonathan and David. This places the David narrative within the larger spiritual and intellectual traditions of reflection about the power and nature of friendship and to the idea of our friendship with the Good.

It looks back to the Epic of Gilgamesh, to the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Enkidu is created to be Gilgamesh’s second self such that Gilgamesh learns to see others not as things to be abused and exploited but as persons to be respected and honoured. The death of Enkidu awakens Gilgamesh to wisdom and to a deeper form of self-awareness. It sets him on the quest for wisdom. Homer’s Iliad presents us with the profound friendship between Patroclus and Achilleus. Aristotle will write in the Nicomachean Ethics about the power of friendship. Later, Cicero will write an important treatise, de Amicitia, Of Friendship, offering the idea that “friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual goodwill and affection”. In the early 12th century, Aelred of Rievaulx in northern England wrote his famous de Spirituali Amicitia, On Spiritual Friendship, translating the more familiar phrase “God is love” as “God is friendship”.  Friendship is a gift of God. The friend is “the companion of your soul, to whom you can entrust yourself as to another self,” an echo of the Epic of Gilgamesh. A true friend, he says “sees nothing in his/her friend but their heart”, echoing explicitly the story of Jonathan and David.

(more…)

Print this entry

What’s in the heart?

The story of David and Goliath is perhaps somewhat familiar even in our post-Christian world of diminished biblical literacy. It is commonly treated as an image and metaphor for the underdog especially in the sports world but sometimes spills over into politics and international affairs. Already we see the way it is used in terms of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; the big guy, Russia, over and against the little guy, Ukraine. But then those polarities get reversed by those who view things from the perspective of Russia, the little guy against the big Western world under American domination. Yet in all of these conflicting viewpoints, the image of David and Goliath always functions in terms of what is big and physically imposing against what is viewed as small and weak. And while there may be discrepancies of power, it is not always the case that things can be measured simply in such terms.

I am struck by how much the story is almost completely misread. It really follows directly upon what we saw last week about the anointing of David where the strong point is made that “the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance”, upon matters of strength and number, but “the Lord looks on the heart”. The story of David and Goliath makes exactly the same point.

In the context of a struggle between the Philistines and the Israelites, the giant Goliath challenges the armies of the Lord. He is a giant figure, to be sure, but what is greater than his bulk and strength, we might say, is his ego and arrogance, his presumption and boastfulness. It is not really about the underdog taking on the top dog. It is more about a clash of principles. What defines you? The braggadocio of a Goliath beating his chest or the Lord God of all reality who sees into your heart? The story is not simply about the little guy who takes down the big guy. It is about the spirit of the Lord in the heart of David. He has a hold of something far greater than himself.

The story is not without its amusement, especially with David putting on the armour of Saul and then not being able to move! Instead, he takes up his sling-shot along with five smooth stones. What moves him is at once a kind of courage born of his life as a shepherd protecting the sheep from bear and lion and of a confidence in the truth of God which Goliath has mocked and derided. David goes out against Goliath not “with a spear and a sword and a javelin” but, as he says, “in the  name of the Lord of hosts.” He is armed from within. It is a contest of principles.

(more…)

Print this entry