Title: Cutting Loose for God
Text: II Samuel 6:1-5 and 12-19
Thesis: A healthy enthusiasm for serving God will encompass both reverence and celebration.
Introduction
This text is both one of the most intriguing and off-putting stories in the bible. In my reading this week I happened upon the musings of a professor from Princeton Theological Seminary who questioned whether every text in the bible can be preached. He concluded that there are a few that fall into the category of “un-preachable.”
Our text today falls into the category of “strongly questionable.” If for no other reason, the fact that at the center of the story we find David dancing with absolute abandonment before God and the world makes it a controversial text.
Many here today were raised in a church culture in which dancing is forbidden anytime and anyplace… especially in church. What David did would have gotten him censured in many Christian congregations.
If we look the Merriam-Webster to help us understand the nature of the enthusiasm with which David danced we find that “enthusiasm” is sometimes defined as religious fanaticism. “Enthusiasm” is strong excitement of feeling. And to be enthusiastic means to be a person who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit or one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest.
The key word seems to be “ardent” which is characterized by warmth of feeling typically expressed in eager zealous support or activity. “Impassioned” is a synonym for ardent.
You might be wondering why the word “enthusiasm” would initially be linked with things religious in nature.
“En theos” is the English equivalent of the Greek words which mean “in God.” And the word “enthusiasm is derived from the Greek work “enthusia” which comes from the word “en theos.” So when we say that we feel enthusiasm it literally means we feel like we are in God or have God inside us. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_En_theos)
People whose enthusiasm is expressed with great ardor tend toward behavior we think of as “fanatical.” A “fanatical” person is an “enthusiastic devotee” whose behavior is marked by excessive enthusiasm.
How many among us today are feeling so “en theos” that your behavior is marked by excessive enthusiasm?
My suspicion is that there are some of us who are wired to be enthusiastic and others of us who are not. Enthusiasm is a pre-disposition for some people and for those folks there is nothing that does not interest and excite them. Others of us can be enthused if there is reason to be enthused… and we can actually behave in excessive enthusiastic behavior on occasions that warrant it.
I have friends who are enthusiastic and sometimes fanatical about their passions. I have a friend who is a wine maker. Another is a movie buff. Many of my friends are sports fans. I have a friend, who recently on Facebook, asked his friends for suggestions for light reading for his vacation. He is a literary enthusiast. These people, like all other people, are selectively enthusiastic. In other words, they aren’t enthusiastic about everything and they aren’t enthusiastic all the time.
I don’t think David was enthusiastic about everything all the time either. However, I do believe that David is a model for us in recognizing the goodness of God and celebrating those occasions. In other words, everyone who looks for the goodness of God will be enthusiastic in his or her response to that goodness.
Some occasions compel us to celebrate.
I. Sometimes God’s goodness makes us cut-loose in celebration.
David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all their might, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments – lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. II Samuel 6:1-5
Indiana Jones enthusiasts among us will recall the story of The Raiders of the Lost Ark in which Indiana Jones is pitted against the Nazis who have found the Lost Ark of God. They believe that in possessing the Ark, they have captured the presence and power of Almighty God, which will make their army invincible.
Historically the Ark of God or the Ark of the Covenant began in Exodus 25 with the instructions God gave to Moses for its making. Specific instructions were given for its size and design. They were to place the tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. God told Moses that the Ark was the place God would meet with him and the Ark was the place God would give his people instructions. The Ark of God represented the presence, power, protection and blessing of God and it was to be carried by two poles slid through rings on either side and never to be touched.
The Ark really existed and many to this day believe it exists still… but meanwhile it is lost.
There was another time when the Ark of God was lost. The story unfolds in I Samuel chapters 4 – 7. The Philistine army captured the Ark from the Israelite army and took it home where they displayed it in the Temple of Dragon. However, God was not pleased with the arrangement and afflicted the Philistine people with tumors so they insisted that the Ark be returned to the Israelites.
The Ark was placed on a new cart drawn by two oxen which delivered the Ark to Israelite territory where the oxen stopped in a field. When they found the Ark the men of the community were apparently overcome with curiosity and were struck dead when they opened the Ark to see what was inside. So it was taken to the hillside home of a man named Abinadab where it remained for twenty years. During this twenty year period the people of Israel felt that God had abandoned them.
Twenty years later, after David had established his reign as King and designated Jerusalem as the City of David, he decided to bring the Ark home.
It is the occasion of returning the Ark of God to the city of Jerusalem where it would rest as a symbol of the real presence and power of God in their midst, that compels David and all of the people of Israel to celebrate before the Lord with all their might.
We cannot quite relate to that experience though there are times when we do gather to celebrate the goodness of God. Hopefully our gathering from week to week is an occasion for celebrating the goodness of God. I was not here when this building was completed and everyone gathered to celebrate and dedicate this facility to the glory of God and the good of all people. We mark occasions like conversions and baptisms as celebratory times. We probably cut-loose in our enthusiasm most when we celebrate the goodness of God in the joining of a couple in marriage. I think the closest thing I have ever seen that might be compared to dancing before the Lord with all one’s might was at the reception following our son’s wedding. Our son, who is normally a rather restrained person, danced with absolute abandonment. It was a fun to see such unrestrained exuberance and joy.
The Ark was placed on a cart and was being pulled by oxen for the eight mile trip from Baalah to Jerusalem. About halfway along the journey, an ox stumbled and one of the men helping transport the Ark, reached up to steady it and was struck dead. The bible says, “The anger of the Lord blazed out against Uzziah for doing this.”
Here in the midst of all the revelry and excitement about the goodness of God… God’s anger blazed out and killed a man who was trying to do a good thing.
Unfortunately not everything feels like the goodness of God.
II. Sometimes the God does or allows things that make us angry.
…the ox stumbled and Uzziah put out his hand to steady the Ark of God. Then the Lord’s anger blazed out against Uzziah for doing this, and God struck him dead beside the Ark of God. David was angry because the Lord’s anger had blazed out against Uzziah. II Samuel 6:6-8
This part of the story in another reason the text is nearly “un-preachable.” Here in the middle of a huge celebration of the goodness of God, an ox stumbles and to keep the Ark from falling onto the ground, a guy reaches up to steady it and God blazes out in anger at the poor, well-meaning transporter who was just trying to prevent a disaster.
Most of us, along with those at the scene, would think that God was a little harsh on this one. David didn’t think God was a little harsh, he thought God was a lot harsh and he was angry at God for the severity of his anger. David was angry at God for being angry.
Over the years I have often toyed with being angry at God for the things God has done or allowed to happen. I don’t know that any of them were actually instances when God “blazed out in anger” but non-the-less, the fact that God would allow such things is perplexing and at times maddening. And in this case, it is particularly confusing when a good God goes off in anger over what seems to be a rather innocent reaction over something any one of us would have done had we been in Uzziah’s place.
When Bonnie and I were in college we had a classmate from Omaha, Nebraska whose father, along with several other men in their church, drove to a bible camp built on the Platte River near Fremont nearly every Saturday. They were among the most devoted of volunteers who sacrificed to make the camp a great camp for kids. One Saturday, our friend received word that her father was among those killed in a head-on collision while on their way to work at the camp that day.
It seemed then and it seems now that someone who is trying to do such a good thing would be protected and praised for their actions.
Theologians remind us that the Ark was meant to be carried by the poles inserted through the rings on either side of the cabinet and that it was never intended to be transported on a cart. So the Ark should never have been on the wagon in the first place… and everyone knew that no one, absolutely no one was to touch the Ark and anyone who did would die. So what happened was the natural consequence of disobeying God.
It seems we cannot make God behave. It seems God cannot be tamed. It seems that God, being God, will act however God wants to act.
An undomesticated God is a maddening and frightening God.
III. Sometimes the actions of God make us afraid.
David was now afraid of the Lord and asked, “How can I bring the ark of God back into my care?” So David decided not to move the Ark of the Lord into the city of David. II Samuel 6:9-11
When I was in high school, my best friend’s dad bought two horses. They were big and kind of dappled in color. I thought they were handsome horses. They were broke for riding so one afternoon we saddled them up to go for a ride. The minute I mounted my horse, he bolted for the gate and galloped full-speed down the road for about a mile, whirled around in the road and galloped back, through the gate and tried to scrape me off his back by running under a low barn door. When he stopped, I got off and I don’t recall riding a horse since… if it doesn’t have a key to turn it on and off and a brake to stop it, I don’t ride it.
I have always been afraid of horses… just when you think you have a horse all reigned in and gentled to your liking, he turns into the wild mustang from whence he came. So it is with God!
David’s response to a frightening God was to park the Ark and leave it rather than risk another outbreak of God’s anger.
It seems there are two emotional swings in our story:
• One is unrestrained joy and celebration over the goodness of God.
• The other is unrestrained fear over the anger of God.
I think it is interesting to observe how our basic understanding of the nature of God works itself out in the way we practice our faith. Those who have a loving and gracious God are given to joy and celebration while those with an angry and judging God are given to fear and restraint. The celebrators cannot understand or appreciate the restraint of the restrained and the restrained cannot understand or appreciate the abandon of the celebrators.
But David found that celebration and fear with regard to God are not either / or options.
IV. Balance in worship is the weaving together of reverence and celebration.
After the men who were carrying the Ark had gone six steps, they stopped and waited so David could sacrifice an ox and a fattened calf. Then as the procession resumed, David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly tunic. So David and all Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with much shouting and blowing of trumpets. II Samuel 6:12-15
The bible tells us that after three months it became known that the family where the Ark was being stored was experiencing God’s blessing, so David decided to complete the task of bringing the Ark of God to Jerusalem but this time he did it differently.
This time:
1. Men carried the Ark.
2. After every six steps they stopped while David sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf to God as an expression of reverence.
3. And David danced before the Lord with all his might as all of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with much shouting and blowing of trumpets.
In this way David managed to both celebrate the goodness of God and reverence the holiness of God. His reverence for God was extravagant and unrestrained… do you not think that slaughtering an ox and a fattened calf as a sacrificial offerings to God every six steps is not a bit excessive? Do you not think that dancing like a maniac for 8 miles out of sheer joy over the goodness of God is not a bit excessive?
In our culture the music of our faith often moves us in varied ways. God speaks to one person in the words of a hymn or praise song and that person weeps in reverence before God. God speaks to another person in the words of that same hymn or praise song and that person dances before God. Reverence and celebration are not opposing tensions… they are supporting or balancing tensions that make our worship complete.
David finally got it right.
However this is not the end of the story. There is an epilogue and in the epilogue there is a caveat.
V. Not everyone gets enthused about celebrating the goodness of God and some are critical of those who do. (David and all of Israel danced before the Lord. The only one who despised David was alone, looking out her window, outside the circle of dancers.)
As the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him. [Later, David said to Michal] I was dancing before the Lord… so I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord.” II Samuel 6:16-23
I don’t know what to say about this other than that David’s wife did not get it. She did not understand that David’s behavior was not at all about dancing or how he danced. David’s behavior was about celebrating the presence of the living God. David could not just walk along with the procession… he had to dance and dance he did.
I’ve danced before the Lord on a few occasions and once or twice in front of other people. I have also been broken in reverence before God and once or twice in front of people. I’m not sure those who observed me approved on any of those occasions. We are proponents of public worship and public service but we are not big proponents of things that make us feel awkward or embarrassed.
In David’s case his wife was an onlooker. She was not part of the parade. She was not in the least enthusiastic about the goodness of God. Rather, she was embarrassed by what she considered the inappropriateness of the way David expressed his joy. And her snide and critical comments were intended to deflate David’s joy and to tame and restrain his enthusiasm for God.
Had she been able to look for the goodness of God and had she joined the parade and had she allowed herself the pleasures of reverence and revelry and had she seen the dancing for what it was, she may have lived out her days basking in the blessing of God. But that was not to be her end…
Conclusion
Two weeks ago for our Family Night Mini – Theater we viewed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Toward the end of the story Mr. and Mrs. Beaver take the children to meet Aslan, who is a great lion and the king of Narnia and as such, a type of Christ.
The children are surprised when they learned that Aslan is a lion. Lucy says, “Oh, I’d thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without the knees knocking, they’re either braver than most, or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’ good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Perhaps if we were summarize the message of this story it would be just that.
Our God is good, but he is not safe! That is why we worship with rejoicing and reverence. That is why we are both unrestrained in our celebration of the goodness of God and unrestrained in our reverence of a holy God.
