Readings:1 Samuel 17:32-39 & Mark 4:35-41

I was four years old the summer I learned to swim.  My father was chaplain at Artaban camp.  We were staying in the clergy cottage.  Even though I was underage for camp, I was allowed to participate in many of the camp events.  I was in the beginners’ class for swimming.  We were being taught how to float, but I would not put my face into the water.  The swimming instructor tried coaxing me, but then simply left me to paddle around in the shallow water.  There was a slide into the pond, and I longed to go whooshing down it like the older kids.  The instructor told me it was all right.  It was in the shallow end so that it would be safe for non-swimmers.   

I stood up at the top of the slide for a long time.  Finally I got up enough courage.  Down I went, splashing into the water.  Being small, it must have taken me out deeper than expected.  I couldn’t find my way up to the surface.  At first, I panicked and began to thrash around in the water.  But then I stopped struggling, and became strangely calm.  Then a strange thing occurred.  I began to rise to the top of the water.  I remember coming up toward the surface and seeing the sun shining through the water.  My head finally above water, I paddled to the edge of the pond where I could put my feet down.  I was never afraid of the water after that.  I knew that if I relaxed, the water would support me.  I learned to swim quite well that summer.  But I learned something far more important that day, something that I have carried with me throughout my life.  It is that sense that if I relax, then something else, someone else more powerful than myself, takes over and sustains me.  That learning more than anything has helped me to face many Goliaths in my life.  It has helped me to weather many storms.        

The powerful Philistine army is lined up on the hillside; the militia of Israel stands quivering on the other.  They are afraid of the secret weapon of the Philistines, the Mighty Goliath, a strong warrior, and a formidable foe.  David, the shepherd boy, too young to be in the army, is acting as gopher.  He is delivering provisions to his brothers.  He understands the situation. 

“I’ll go and fight the Philistine,” he offers.  What a ludicrous thought!  This small boy against all that might!  They deck him out in armour; it just weighs him down.  But he has a few secret weapons of his own.  A sling, a few smooth stones from the dry riverbed, skill, experience, and most important of all, faith.  David is able, through the grace of God, to face Goliath, terrifying, malevolent.  In facing the terrible Goliath, he overcomes all odds. 

Jesus and his disciples put out into a boat late one night.  They have fished on the Sea of Galilee all their lives.  They know its little quirks, it dangers.  It is a very shallow lake surrounded on every side by the gentle sloping hills of Galilee.  Storms can come up with great ferocity and little warning.  But they need to get away. 

Jesus was tired, filled with the cares of many a busy day.  He is tired of the thronging crowds, tired enough to lie down in the boat and fall into a deep sleep.