Where's your Tūrangawaewae?

There is an old truth that our language deeply affirms our cultural values. The words we use, and the words from which we find meaning, come from our cultural surroundings and our aspirations as a culture. For example, we can find within the English language an appreciation for the literal meanings of words. When English is spoken, words have clearly defined meanings; in the main, they do not symbolise deeper more abstract concepts. In English, we can also find a real complexity, so that while our words must mean what we say they mean, we can, just as I am now attempting to do, say things in such a way that we confuse those listening and they simply don’t know what we have been saying.

But we are privileged here in Aotearoa New Zealand in that we are not confined to words which spring from the dominant Germanic Languages of the Northern hemisphere. We have two other official languages, one of which is more symbolic and rich in meaning and application. This is the language of the Tangata Whenua – te reo Maori. And within te reo, we find words that can help give meaning to the scriptures in ways that English can’t. You see, te reo, like Hebrew, is a symbolic and figurative language. While the words can describe what can be seen in a moment, words also call upon deeper concepts that are way more spiritual in nature. These words can give us a sense of who we are in the moment and in relationship with God.

One such word is tūrangawaewae. In English, it means a space to place your feet upon. But this should not be understood in the literal sense. To say I have tūrangawaewae now does not mean that I have a stage upon which I can stand and speak. To have tūrangawaewae is when you have a deep and embedded foundation for your own identity. It is the space in which you feel empowered and, essentially, at home in yourself. To have a strong tūrangawaewae is to have a core to yourself and your being that is so steadfast that no adversity, no adventure or even opportunity will shake you from this foundation. 

And there is one thing about David and his rise to kingship in the Bible. David is a man who had tūrangawaewae. He knew that his identity and every aspect of his being were rooted in God. He knew it to such an extent that he held fast to it. He saw no reason to press ahead of God; he saw no reason to give up. He knew who he was and he knew where he stood. 

And, the question is, do we really know ourselves? Do we really have a strong sense of our tūrangawaewae? When life hits us with adventures, do we see these as affirming the glory and grace of our God? When life hits us with adversities, do we see these as affirming our need for God and his mercy? When life hits us with opportunities, do we see these as moments in time in which we can allow our God to show himself in our lives and our world?

By the time we get to Chapter 26 of 1 Samuel, we find a man who is so rooted in God, that he can trust God without reservation. His tūrangawaewae is so deeply found within his God that he cannot help but focus on the light, when others look to the shadows of missed opportunity. 

This concept of David being so rooted in God that he could trust God whether it was opportunity or adversity is key to Chapter 26. After all, the chapter, in itself, seems to strangely echo another chapter. It is as if we are being told the story twice. And, it could be that we are. But most likely, whether the story is a repeat or not – the point to be made is not historical. The point to be made refers to the character of David and how he stood strong in, and with, God – even in times of opportunity.

We will read Chapter 26 from The Voice translation:

Then the Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and told him David was hiding on the heights of Hachilah ... Saul again gathered 3,000 seasoned Israelite soldiers, and he went down to the wilderness of Ziph to find David. They camped by the road on the hill of Hachilah … but David and his men were hidden in the wilderness. When he learned that Saul was coming after him, David sent out some spies who discovered Saul was certainly at it again. Then David went to Saul’s camp and found where Saul slept, as well as Abner … general of the army, surrounded by their men. David looked over the situation and spoke to … Abishai.

David: Who will follow me into the center of Saul’s camp?

Abishai: I’m right there with you.

So David and Abishai snuck into the encampment under the cover of darkness, and at last they found Saul sleeping in the middle of the camp, his spear stuck into the ground near his head, with Abner and the other soldiers lying around him asleep.

Abishai (to David): This is your chance! God has placed your enemy at your mercy. Let me take his spear and pin him to the ground. I only need one try.

David: No. Don’t kill him. Who can legitimately strike the Eternal’s anointed king without consequences? As the Eternal One lives, his time will come. The Eternal will strike him down; either he will die, or he will go into battle one day and be slain. God forbid that I would be the one to harm the Eternal’s anointed king. But please, take his spear next to his head and that water jug, and let’s go.

 So David took the spear and the water jug from right beside Saul’s head and crept back through the camp. No one saw or knew they were there. No one woke up because the Eternal had caused the entire camp to fall into a deep sleep. David went up a hill, standing a safe distance away. Then he shouted to Abner and the army.

David: Abner! Can you hear me?

Abner: Who hails the king’s camp?

David: What kind of man are you? Is anyone your equal in all Israel? So why haven’t you done a better job guarding your lord and master, the anointed king? After all, one of the people who crept into your camp tonight could have murdered your lord. This is not a good thing that you have done, because you failed to protect your lord, the anointed of the Eternal. As the Eternal One lives, you deserve to die. Where is his spear? Where is the water jug that was at his head?

Saul recognized David’s voice.

Saul: Is that you, David my son?

David: Yes, you are hearing my voice, my lord, my king. Why does my lord continue to chase his servant? What have I done? Am I guilty of something?  Now then, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Eternal has stirred you to try and kill me, may He be appeased by an offering. Now I ask you, don’t kill me here, so far from the Eternal’s presence. The king of Israel and his army have come after a single flea, as one goes to hunt a partridge in the mountains.

Saul: David! I was remiss. Come back, my son. I will never try to hurt you again because today you treated my life as precious and preserved it. I have been a fool and made a big mistake.

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Here’s a story that echoes Chapter 24. David has a change to kill Saul. In Chapter 24, it was at a moment of real possibility – Saul goes to the toilet in a cave where David is hiding and instead of killing him, David takes a piece of his robe. Now in Chapter 26, David has another chance in the dead of the night. Again, instead of killing Saul he takes his weapon and water. In both instances, he demonstrates that Saul’s life was in his hands. However, he also recognised that both their lives were in God’s hands and it was God’s divine authority to take life or give life. Both are stories of opportunity, but to those with David at the time, both are stories of missed opportunity.

I believe this is why we find two similar stories. These stories do demonstrate moments of opportunity for David. But he doesn’t take it. And part of me knows that many of us, even I, are often grabbing opportunities left, right and centre. It is like we see every opportunity as an opportunity from God. 

And when we walk this sort of walk, we are like a dandelion seed blowing in the wind. We bounce around everywhere, finally stopping when we become trapped in some soil, rocks or rubbish. We fail to learn this important lesson. Just because it’s an opportunity, doesn’t mean that it comes from God. And if our tūrangawaewae is firmly implanted in God in the first place, the Spirit of God which dwells within all believers would raise a check. We would be more discerning and only take the opportunities which allow God to reveal himself.

And having his identity strongly implanted in God would keep both David’s heart and actions in check. David would have known, yes this is an opportunity, but he would also know that to take matters into his own hands would be a deep sin against God. You see when we jump ahead and seize opportunities because we know that the outcomes will be inherently good for us, or even just inherently good for our family or even God, we are sinning. This is because we dethrone God in our lives. When we seize an opportunity, not given by God, we are sending God a very real message. We are telling him that he has got things wrong. We are telling him that we know better. We are telling him that he doesn’t know how to do his job. We are essentially telling him that we are better than him. 

And in this instance, we are not a floating daffodil seed with no real sense of tūrangawaewae. We do have a sense of tūrangawaewae, our identity is firmly planted in ourselves and our own desires – stuff God and stuff everything else. And in this instance, we may feel that our foundations are firm. We think we are planted in ‘rich’ soil. But in reality, this soil is full of corruption, sin, death and darkness. We are poisoning ourselves in this position with sin upon sin. Our lives on the outside may seem positive in that we are opportunity takers not breakers. But the foundation for our lives poisons our being. 

David is not a floating daffodil seed, nor is he planted in the poisoned soil of his own desires. David stands firm in his God and his identity in God. He knows that taking the opportunity now would destabilise his foundations. He knows that to seize God’s promise in his timing, not God’s, would break his relationship with God. And he knew that the promises given to him by Samuel, Jonathan and even Saul himself, were promises from God. He had to be in relationship with God for that promise to come through. To break that relationship would effectively make the promise null and void.

In a sense, David knew that he had to have faith in the promise-giver. And in a sense, he knew what it was to have faith. A Christian theologian with a fantastic name Elton Trueblood said:

 ‘Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation’. 

I think that this definition is true and is well suited to David. You see, many of us fall into the trap of finding proofs to justify our faith or God’s calling for our lives.  For each belief we have, we search for evidence. ‘If you really mean for me to do this God, then you will give me a sign.’

If David was embedded in a faith fed by evidence, he would see every opportunity as proof that God was with him. And he most probably would have also seized the opportunity. After all, it can be concluded that if God really wanted David to be king, then God would provide an opportunity for David to take the kingship. He would provide proof through opportunity. But David didn’t believe in God, because God could prove himself. David just trusted God without reservation. This meant that David had to trust God right to the point of kingship. If God really wanted him to be king, then David would simply trust in God that this would occur. He wouldn’t push God for proof and he wouldn’t seize the opportunity. He would focus on keeping his foundation, his tūrangawaewae, strong.

And this must have been hard, in both Chapters 24 and 26, we hear that David had others with him. He had friends and colleagues. In both situations, he would be encouraged – seize the moment, take the opportunity. Carpe Diem!! After all, surely God has given the opportunity? In both situations, David’s sense of tūrangawaewae is so strong that he knows that he doesn’t have to push ahead into his future. He can stand firm in the present, because he is standing with God.

But what did David see when his foundation was with God? What did he see that his companions didn’t.  Mathematician Blaise Pascal once said: 

‘In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t’ 

David’s foundations in God meant that he could see God in the situation. Even if he was having difficulty, he would be able to pick up his harp and worship with God.  He knew just how strongly God was there and he kept himself grounded in this truth. He could see the light. But his companions focused on the shadows. Even if those shadows were opportunities, they would speak into them. They would encourage David, ‘here is your moment to take matters into your own hands. Why trust in the light, focus on the shadows present, on Saul laying on the floor who is out to kill you (and just might); focus on him and you will have success in future leadership.’

And I think that shadow watching is a problem that continues today in our Christian walk. There are times that we look at the shadows in our own situation and we let the shadows blind us from the light. But there are also times that we speak the shadows into the lives of others. There are times when we may encourage others to seize an opportunity out of God’s timing. Our meaning in this is good and sometimes we think we are speaking for God. But we are not on that person’s journey and it may be that God wants to really show that the outcomes have been achieved only through his fulfilment in all completeness rather than the actions and abilities of any single person. 

And this is what it comes down to – to have an established tūrangawaewae in God is to know that your identity is with him to such a point that you want to glorify him in all that you do. To have an established tūrangawaewae in God, is to know that if God has placed a promise on your life, God’s challenge to you, is to allow God to fulfil the promise so that in the end, all you can say is … the only reason why I stand here today in this promise is because of my God. With my God, I know I have tūrangawaewae, I have a place to stand, I have an identity – but most of all I have him.

When it comes to the story of David, as I wrote this sermon, God continuously reminded me of one person in our church family who has had a similar journey. I know that part of the reason why this person’s name would come to my mind again and again was that I was one of those ‘shadow talkers’. I felt that this person could have come to God’s promise a lot quicker if they took some simple shortcuts. I now know that there was a reason for this person’s journey. They have ONLY achieved what they have today because they allowed God to glorify and reveal himself.

You know Church, life is hard. But being human is harder. We often look for the shortcuts, the way out of our times of struggle. When we look down, we look at our feet and we think about how tired we are. But let each of us look inside ourselves and take the David step. When we look down at our feet, let’s re-focus to look at where our feet are planted. Let each of us think of the cross and plant our feet firmly into the space it has created for each of us to have a relationship with God.