A COMMUNITY OF SAFETY

David did not choose to be a fugitive, much less some kind of outlaw leader. But, driven away by Saul’s threats against him, he found safety in the wilderness.

In turn, a community started to grow around him.

“All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him” (1 Samuel 22:2). Imagine how this group would have been regarded by most of the members of the court of Saul—the “respectable” people of Israel’s society. In a sense, this is a model for the church—a community of safety and resistance against the world around us. But the church can also become part of the powerful mainstream in its own right. We should be looking to the margins and the marginalized for additional insight into understanding our faith and how to live as an alternative humanity—as the people of God in contrast to the world today. “I suspect that it is from the edges of the Church that true gospel hope is explored. Likewise, it is from the margins of society that dominant institutions and powerful ideologies must be tested.”* When Saul killed the family of priests, Abiathar found refuge with David’s band. It might not have looked like it at the time, but this band of outlaws included the surviving members of the nation’s family of priests as well as the man who had been anointed to be the next king of Israel.

When we find ourselves left out and seemingly on the margins, we should look at those around us and work to build communities of safety with them and for those who will join us.

* Tim Costello, Streets of Hope: Finding God in St Kilda (Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1998), 233.