How Bazaar!

Having finished my small dipped soft serve ice cream at the Frosty Treat in Kensington this summer, I wandered into How Bazaar! And peering around at all the colourful items knowing that I will leave without purchasing a thing, I noticed a basket of things that made me audibly say, “How bazaar?”

It was a basket of slingshots. Holidaying with my folks at age 10 I am sure I would have nagged them to get me one. Just as I had (at age 10) when I saw a bow and arrow. It had a blunt rather than sharp tip so I guess it was CSA approved. But a slingshot? Just about anything could be projected from a slingshot.

As a parent I thought, who, in their right mind would buy a slingshot? But as a former kid I thought, who could go a lifetime without trying to master the weapon? Before I could work my way out of this conundrum my mind (as only a preacher’s mind could) drifted towards scripture and King David. After all, he took down the mighty giant Goliath with one well aimed slingshot.

I confess, many years ago, I tried my hand at the slingshot. Nothing I aimed at needed to fear being hit, nor anything in near proximity. Things way off to the side, and once even something behind me, had a great deal to fear.

Despite what we might think, David was not just a simple shepherd boy, he was a master at one of the deadliest forms of warfare, the slingshot. It was said that a master sling-shooter could hit a small bird in flight at 100 yards. At hand-to-hand combat, the sort of fighting Goliath knew, David would surely have lost, down for the count with one mighty blow.

The smaller, weaker David won because he didn’t play Goliath’s game. The Church will likely lose if we try and play the game of the world. Our game is not a game of might and power, ours is a game of love and justice. That’s how the God’s will wins in this world.