I recently ran across this quote about worship from author Annie Dillard:
"Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews" (in Teaching a Stone to Talk).
Indeed is that how you feel as you enter worship? Like it’s an amusement park ride that you don’t know where it’s going? Or is it all tame and calm and that’s just how you like it?
Well we know what side David, by this point King of the Israelites, would fall on. David is exuberant in his worship during today’s Hebrew Bible reading. And exuberant he should be. Because the ark is coming to Jerusalem.
The ark, which contained the tablets on which Moses received the ten commandments, had been living elsewhere. David, in this move, merged together the religious and political centers of his country. No wonder he was excited.
Up to recently, Israel had been a loose confederation of the various tribes. Each had its own border skirmishes and they relied on each other for help. There was no central leader but rather a series of judges who ruled as needed.
As the country came together to form a more cohesive political unit, there was the need for a king. At first, Saul ruled over the newly united kingdom. But he fell out of favor with God and lost his kingship. Eventually he lost his life in a battle with the Philistines. Last week we heard David’s lament over the death of Saul and his son Jonathan.
David had been anointed as king and strove to unite the kingdom while fighting against the Philistines, who were the Israelite’s neighbors to the south. David chose Jerusalem as his capital, which was smart as it sat on the border between the northern tribes and the southern tribes.
And then David decided to further unite his kingdom by bringing the ancient Ark of the Covenant, holding those holy tablets, to his capital. Now David’s Jerusalem would be both the political and religious center of his kingdom’s life. David was no dummy.
So no wonder he was excited about the coming of the Ark to Jerusalem. So excited in fact that he, the king of Israel, danced in front of the ark as it came into the city. Danced only in a linen ephod. I’ve read two varying accounts of what an ephod is. Some say that David was basically dancing in his underwear—that a linen ephod was an undergarment. The other interpretation, which was more likely, is that an ephod is a garment worn only by a priest. It was an apron-like garment and worn with other priestly garments. In any case, it wasn’t the whole outfit of a priest and David must have made an impression wearing only it as he danced in front of the ark.
His excitement was high. And his wife, Michal, Saul’s daughter, was disgusted at the show he was putting on. We’re told that she looked down from her window and saw her husband dancing and twirling in the scantiest of outfits and “despised him in her heart.”
As a group, we’re fairly used to being fairly complacent in our worship. We too might have looked askance on David as he led the procession into Jerusalem. As white protestants, we don’t normally find the opportunities to express the joy of our worship, in our worship. The most movement we do is to stand up to sing hymns and then to come forward during communion.
But sometimes we need to be reminded of the joy that worship brings. Which brings us back to the quote with which I began this sermon. David knew the power of God that he was invoking. He not only danced but sacrificed in front of the ark as they went along. In our worship, as we call upon God to send the Spirit among us and be a part of us, we are invoking that same power that David recognized. We should be issued life preservers and signal flares! Who knows where our worship of God will take us. Lash us to our seats; we’re going to ask God to be among us and take us to God only knows where.
Worship should be filled with the joy that David experienced as he brought the ark in the kingdom. But aren’t we more often like Michal as we peer down on the party and frown our disgust? Isn’t our worship more often like fancy hats rather than crash helmets? Don’t we find that we would rather sit back and enjoy the ride or the view while someone else does the dancing?
Yes, worship can be an exciting event. We needn’t be complacent in our approach to worship. Yes, there is need for quietude and for calm relaxing meditation. But worship is invoking the Spirit of God to be among us and you just never know what will happen what you do that. Be prepared to be moved as you worship God.
And in being moved be prepared for what the Spirit may lead you to do outside these walls once you’ve hooked into the power of worship.
Posts
