Gaining Your Spoil

1 Samuel 30:16-25, Taught by Tom Lacey at Church on the Hill, May 26, 2024

We were put on earth to contribute, not just consume. What a narrow existence it is to reduce this gift to eat, breathe, and drive cars. Scripture says, “We are … created for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” These good works are your service to the world. Whenever you serve others in any way, you become what you are created for.

I like what the poet Mary Oliver said, “I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” When everything is finished, we should have gained spoil. We aren’t supposed to finish empty-handed, without contributions to our names and legacy. Where’s your spoil?

The apostle John taught that our loving service to others shows that we are in synch with God’s gracious will to save us. John said, “Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life.” We follow God’s will when we serve others. We take on Christ’s grace when we take on others’ needs. If we have no love for others, no desire to serve others, and are only concerned about our own needs, we should question how much we have of Christ in us.

We should have gained some spoil when everything is finished. We ought to have the feeling that we’re rich in having done good when we’re done and gone. This is what scripture means when it says we’re created for good works. When we don’t fulfill what we’re made for we get that lacking feeling. We get that I’m-not-reaching-my-peak, not-really-doing-what-I-could-be-doing, sense of ourselves. It’s like a hunger pain.

Don’t accept that about yourself. Fill yourselves with spiritual food. When we’re physically hungry, we eat. If you’re spiritually hungry, the same thing: Serve. Lift another up. Produce some good. It’s no good and no fun to go about hungry and underfed.  

Have you ever heard of “the man with the golden arm?” On the surface, James Harrison is just an average guy. He loves his daughter and grandchildren, collects stamps, and goes for walks near his home on Australia's central coast. But it's what's under the surface that makes him extraordinary, specifically, what's flowing in his veins. Nearly every week for the past 60 years he has donated blood plasma from his right arm. The reasons can be traced back to a serious medical procedure he underwent as a child.

"In 1951, I had a chest operation where they removed a lung, and I was 14," recalls Harrison. "When I came out of the operation…my father was explaining what had happened. He said I had (received) 13 units (liters) of blood and my life had been saved by unknown people. He was a donor himself, so I said when I'm old enough, I'll become a blood donor."

Soon after Harrison became a donor, doctors called him in. His blood, they said, could be the answer to a deadly problem. "In Australia, up until about 1967, there were literally thousands of babies dying each year, doctors didn't know why, and it was awful," explains Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. "Women were having numerous miscarriages and babies were being born with brain damage."

It was the result of rhesus disease, a condition where a pregnant woman's blood starts attacking her unborn baby's blood cells. In the worst cases it can result in brain damage, or death for the babies. Harrison was discovered to have an unusual antibody in his blood and in the 1960s he worked with doctors to use the antibodies to develop an injection called Anti-D.

Harrison's blood is precious. He and Anti-D are credited with saving the lives of more than 2 million babies, according to the Australian Red Cross blood service: That's 2 million lives saved by one man's blood. "Every bag of blood is precious, but James' blood is particularly extraordinary," says Falkenmire. "Every batch of Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from James' blood.”

 He's now donated his plasma more than 1,100 times, but no matter how many times he's given blood there's one thing that will never change: "Never once have I watched the needle go in my arm," he says. "I look at the ceiling or the nurses, maybe talk to them a bit, but never once have I watched the needle go in my arm. I can't stand the sight of blood, and I can't stand pain."

Two million babies, two million lives, is more spoil than we will ever have. But each of us needs to collect what we can, even if it’s not always the most fun thing to do.

As the background to our story, David and his band of 600 warriors had been living in a town called Ziklag in Philistine territory, under King Achish. They now faced the difficult predicament of having to fight as part of the Philistine army against their own Israeli brothers. However, they were released from the battle by the Philistine elders, worried that David and his men might betray them.

Relieved, I’m sure, David’s men marched home to Ziklag, hoping most probably to rest and relax with their families. To their horror however, the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag, ransacked and set fire to the city and kidnapped their wives and children. It is little comfort that their families are still alive. At best, they will become slaves, to be worked hard and cruelly treated.

Even though it seems like there’s little chance of finding them, David and his men must do something. They set off in the direction of their best estimation, double time. As the heat of the sun works on David and his men, they grow exhausted. When they come to the brook Besor, a third of the men simply cannot go on. They have plenty of motivation, but they simply don’t have the strength to continue. Two hundred men collapse by the brook, unable to press on. David and the other 400 men press on, leaving much of their gear behind with the 200 so that they can move faster and expend less energy.

Thanks to the Egyptian slave whom they revived, they would now be guided to the Amalekite camp. David and his men arrive at the raiders’ camp to find the Amalekites totally vulnerable. They’re enjoying the fruits of their victories and not in fighting condition.

David and his men attack and win the day. Everything and everyone the Amalekites had taken from Ziklag is recovered. David and his men suffer no losses. David’s two wives are among the hostages rescued. The author is very specific. Nothing is missing. David brings it all back. This is David’s spoil.

This may very well have been the turning point in David’s eventual ascension to the throne. David would have been no good if he hadn’t done something. If he couldn’t accomplish the return of his own wives and children, and those of the people who trusted him, what good would he have been? If this hadn’t turned out well, we may never have heard of King David. But he did do what he had to do when he had to do it. David returned home with spoil.

The truth is we are what we do. At some point, we aren’t what we think. We are what we do. We must go beyond thoughts by putting actions to our beliefs. At some point, we aren’t what we feel. We need to turn feelings into doings. 

We are to do what we’re to do. Then we receive the spoils of a well-lived life. Like David, strengthen yourself in the Lord. Get up and get going. Don’t accept losses you can turn around. Make a difference. Contribute to make good things happen.

A church needs to have spoil. We need to have something to show for our faith. Our faith should make contributions. Our church ought to make a difference. The more a church contributes, the more it helps, the more spoil it gets, the more it grows. Helping is essential, like when a man was walking in the street one day and was beaten and robbed. As he lay hurt and bleeding, a psychologist, who happened to be passing by, rushed up to him and exclaimed, “My Gosh! Whoever did this really needs help!” Someone needs help but it’s not that one right then.

 The last part of the story tells us something we wouldn’t have normally thought but David is more than a warrior. He’s brilliant, far-sighted, and has  heart for the Lord and what’s best. When the victory is won and the spoil is theirs, a dispute arises as to who should get it. Some of the 400 men who defeated the Amalekites refuse to share spoil with the 200 men who stayed behind. They didn’t fight, so they don’t get.

What David says turns everything around: The spoil isn’t theirs. It’s the Lord’s. It was given to them. More than this, to refuse to share would be to refuse to share with brothers, one’s family. So powerful was this argument that it becomes a statute for all time that those who stay behind in support receive what those who fought receive.

 If you want a growing church, a spoil-rich community of faith, then we need to understand that this isn’t our church. This is the Lord’s church, not ours. Here there’s no front line and back line. There is no lesser or better. There is no one more worthy or less worthy. There is nobody more perfect or less perfect. Nobody is lord of this church, that is, except the Lord.

Our roof should shelter anyone. Our pews fit everyone. Our fellowship should include all. Our serving should serve whoever needs to be served. We are sisters and brothers of Christ, trying to keep goodness in our lives and in the world, hoping to fulfill the Lord’s love for us as we love others better and better, keeping faith with God’s call for us to reach for what seems unreachable, to be a part of God’s miracles every day.

There’s a place for each and all at this church, this faithful, helping and healing church on the hill