When the Experts Are Right
When the Experts Are Right
June 22, 2003
by Donald Hoffman

Mark 4: 35-41, 1 Samuel 17: 32-49

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." -Arthur C. Clarke, inventor of the geo-synchronous orbiting satellite, and writer for the classic movie, 2001: Space Odyssey.

I used to be a member of a Toastmasters Club. It was very helpful to have instant feedback on every speech I made, something I don't always get in church. And I learned how to deliver secular sermons. A secular sermon is pretty much like a Christian sermon, except you leave God out.

It's interesting that both of today's scripture passages could give ideas for a great speech for a Toastmasters Club. The motto would be the quotation from Arthur C. Clarke, which I just told you. And the title would be "When the Experts Are Wrong." I would talk about how fear and self-doubt make you weak, and how self-confidence makes you strong. I would talk about how experts can be blinded into hopelessness by their own expertise, and how the talented amateur could set things right. I would mention the Power of Positive Thinking. I would talk about FAITH with a capital "F" and define it as believing in yourself.

And I would tell lots of David vs. Goliath stories: how the little guy went up against the big guy and won anyway. For instance there is the movie Hoosiers of about fifteen years ago, where a small-town Indiana high school basketball team goes up against all the big city teams, and wins the state championship. Or Tug McGraw telling the New York Mets, "Ya gotta believe!" Or the Rocky movies or The Karate Kid.

Or maybe I would tell standing-up-to-the-storm stories, with lots of brave heroism during the crisis and dogged determination to rebuild afterwards. Remember that old Mariners bumper sticker, "Refuse to Lose!"?

You see, you can tell the whole story of David and Goliath, and leave out God completely; and it's still a good story. And with a little bit of twist, you can do the same thing with Jesus and the storm on the lake.

[Here's the twist. Jesus may be only an amateur at boating and fishing, but he's lived in the area long enough to recognize weather patterns. He knows that Galilee squalls blow up quickly and move on quickly, and if the fishermen don't lose their nerve and do something stupid, everything will probably be all right pretty soon. Do you see how easily I dropped out everything Godly or miraculous? Yet it still makes a good story.]

We love stories where the experts turn out to be wrong. We love stories where the talented amateur with nothing but a sling and a rock beats the professional inside the General Abrams tank. We want to believe in the power of belief. We want Luke Skywalker to turn off his computerized bomb sight and use nothing but blind faith in some amorphous "Force" to destroy the Deathstar. We want the experts to be wrong.

You know I like to read science fiction stories. Well many of these stories require spaceships traveling to other stars, at incredible speeds. Otherwise the heroes all die of old age before they get there. But the experts are telling us that the universe has a speed limit, and that limit is 300,000 kilometers per second, the speed of light.

So for most of these science fiction stories to work, the experts have to be wrong. We want the experts to be wrong. We need the experts to be wrong.

And in real life, too, we want the experts to be wrong. We want to be able to have our cake and eat it too. We want to burn all the gasoline we can and never run out. We want to have promiscuous sex without getting AIDS. We want the doctor's diagnosis to be mistaken. We want to believe the technician accidentally switched the X-rays. We want to believe in cancers that miraculously shrink without chemotherapy.

And every now and then, it does work out that the little guy beats the giant. Just often enough to make the rest of us think we'll luck out in the same way. That's why the casino operators love it when a little guy breaks the bank. Because it will encourage a host of other little guys to tempt fate, and bet everything they've got. When it comes to gambling, the experts are right, even - when - they're - wrong.

Most of the time, in the vast majority of cases, the experts turn out to have been right all along. Most of the Davids do get stomped by the Goliaths. Most of the fishing boats caught in a great storm do get swamped. Yes, the experts know what they're talking about. That's how they became experts.

Now get ready: I'm about to change the subject.

I'm about to divide Christians into two groups. What can I call them? Conservatives and liberals? Naw, that doesn't work. Mainliners and fundamentalists? Don't like that either. But now I remember how my second grade teacher divided the class. I'll divide all Christians into redbirds and bluebirds!

Redbirds believe God will solve all their problems. All they need do is have faith in God-the-problem-solver. Give it all to God in prayer, sit back, relax, God will take care of you.

That's the redbird view.

Bluebirds, on the other hand, believe God expects them to solve most of their own problems. All they need do is have faith in themselves as problem-solvers. Work hard; do you best. You can take care of God. Or at least, you can take care of yourself.

"God has no hands but our hands to do his work today." (I was raised on that poem!) Get out there, you bluebirds, and pass some more resolutions in the General Assembly.

There is something right in both attitudes. But there is also something wrong. Each one ends up with people feeling guilty. Redbirds feel guilty when God doesn't answer their prayers. So they must not have enough faith, or they must not be praying hard enough. Bluebirds feel guilty because they work and organize to make the world better, but evil keeps breaking out. They must not be working hard enough.

So a redbird David feels bad because he had to use real rocks and his own muscles to defeat the giant. He should have been able to knock him over with prayer. A redbird fisherman feels bad because he couldn't let go of the oars and let God save him.

And a bluebird David wants to organize all the other shepherds and have seminars on finding stones and Wednesday night sling practice. Give a shepherd a stone, and he can kill a giant for one day. Teach him to find stones, and he can kill giants all the time.

And both end up feeling guilty when the real world doesn't work out their way.

Maybe the problem is their problem-solving mentality. The redbird wants God to solve all her problems. The bluebird thinks God wants her to solve her own problems. But maybe God doesn't think in terms of problem-solving.

Neither David nor Jesus sees life in terms of problem-solving. They see it in terms of answering God's call. Total obedience to God. If on the road of obedience a giant gets killed or a storm gets stilled, that's just a by-product. They're not in the killing or stilling business. They're not in the problem-solving business. They're in the obedience business.

It probably makes the bluebirds happy that both David and Jesus work hard. It probably makes the redbirds happy that they both trust God. But even Jesus is going to trust the experts to do their job. And even Jesus is going to knock off work to take a nap.

How many times in the Gospel story does Jesus sleep? This is the only one I could find. Most of the time he's awake all night, and complaining that his friends are always falling asleep. But here, at the one moment he has no job to do, he is able to sleep.

And this is faith. Not that God will solve all his problems for him. Not even that God will get him safely to the other side. But faith that God's purpose is working out, and that he is a part of that. Jesus does not have to work hard to solve his problems. And he does not have to pray hard to get God to solve his problems. He can go to sleep, knowing that he really doesn't have any problems, as long as he is in tune with God.

I don't care if you call them redbirds or bluebirds or something else. It seems most of the time that Christians are thinking about problems and how to get them solved. I don't think we are meant to be problem-solvers, and I don't think that God intends to be a problem solver. I think the real issue is not problems but faith.

And now back to those experts. You know all those messages that appear on your TV screen from time to time: "Children, don't try this at home!" "This car is being operated by a professional driver on a closed track." I know that if I had tried experimenting with a real sling and real rocks and found another neighborhood kid to play the part of Goliath, we would have been squelched by about a hundred adults. There are certain things that should be left up to the experts.

You'd better believe that Saul was an expert warrior. And if he was afraid of Goliath, then Goliath must have been a pretty awesome dude. He wasn't going to be beaten by an amateur, no matter how talented.

You'd better believe that Peter and James and John were experts with small boats on Lake Galilee. And if they were afraid of the storm, it must have been a doozy. It wasn't going to go away in a few minutes. You can trust the experts to know when to panic.

And I suspect Mark is using this story as another confrontation between Jesus and demons. This is no ordinary storm. It is a demonic attack, meant to destroy Jesus, or at least keep him from crossing the lake. And our boating experts, the disciples, recognize this. They are just expert enough to know they aren't experts. They are in over their heads.

That Toastmasters speech turns out to be too naive. It doesn't fit the real world. The real world seems to include demonic powers that can't be beaten by amateurs. Certain problems will not be solved by a large dose of self-confidence. Unless God intervenes, our heroes are goners.

And here's where David and Jesus turn out to be experts. Experts in faith. Not faith in themselves. Not faith in "The Force." David hasn't written "Refuse to Lose" all over his sling. Jesus didn't lean over the side of the boat and paint "Ya gotta believe."

They have faith that God's plan is working out, and that they're included. They have no idea whether their own problems will be solved or not, and they don't really care. They just want to be sure to be on God's side. That's why David won't wear Saul's armor. It just gets in the way. That's why Jesus takes the nap. He wants to be fresh and ready to do God's work when he gets to the other side. He's the expert in dealing with demons, and he wants to be ready.

That's what faith means to us. Not that God will take care of us. Not that God has no hands but our hands. But faith that God's purpose is working out, and the powers of Hell are losing ground, and we can be on God's side. We can be useful to God's plan.

And who knows? One of these days, we might be experts, too. Faith experts.

(Comments to Don at crestnch@televar.com.)

Creston Christian Church, Creston, Washington, USA