Sermon, 31 May 2015: Songs of praise service

A huge 'thank you' to Leadhills Silver Band and to 'Junction 13' Community Choir
for sharing in our Songs of Praise service of worship this morning.
The music was fairly bouncing from the rafters of our wee church.

For those unable to make it to worship today, here's the sermon.

1st reading 2 Samuel 6:1-5. 13-22
2nd reading Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon ‘Dance as if nobody’s watching’

David.
What can we say about King David?
David… danced.
David danced… as if nobody was watching.
David, I suspect, was probably not a Presbyterian.

The scene of celebration and dance we heard about in our reading, gives the impression that David was perhaps the kind of person who wouldn’t have had much time for our cherished Presbyterian concept of ‘doing things decently and in good order’!

David wore skimpy outfits in public – an ‘ephod’ –
which according to some of the commentators I’ve been reading,
left very little to the imagination.
Not only did David dance, and wear skimpy, revealing outfits,
it appears at first glance that he was a bit of an exhibitionist:
he was exuberantly leaping about half naked in front of all the assembled people…
Now, David had a reputation for being rather handsome,
and I have a hunch that some of the women in the crowd
were looking on … rather… thoughtfully...

At second glance, however, was David an exhibitionist?
Why was he dancing about in the first place?  What was happening here?
Well, we need to go back a little in his story:

David has finally managed to bring together the tribes of Israel
into one united kingdom.
As a united group, under David, they defeat the group
known as the Jebusites
and take Jerusalem, where David decides to create his capital.
Then the Philistines appear, ready to attack,
and David and his united nation of Israel defeat them.
Having achieved victory, they go and reclaim the Ark of the Covenant
and, rejoicing, bring it back home.
So, the setting for our bible reading is at a time of celebration,
a time of national victory,
of national pride,
of thanksgiving and recognition that God was with them,
was on their side.
It was like one huge praise party to God…
And in the middle of all of that, David danced –
joyfully, unselfconsciously, before God,
placing God at the centre of the celebration.

Cynics could say it was a very politically shrewd move -
and yes, David could be a very shrewd operator at times politically –
though sometimes personally it was a little hit and miss...
let's not mention Bathsheba...

And there are all sorts of questions around this text –
the issue of God singling out and favouring one particular nation for starters…
But I want us to focus more positively today:
To focus on joy, on worship…
And on walking a little on the wilder side of worship with King David.

As we noted earlier, caught up in the midst of the amazing God he worships,
David dances as if nobody's watching:
unselfconsciously, joyfully, exuberantly.
We’ve already established that David is not really wearing much
as he dances before God.
In a sense, he's allowing himself to be quite vulnerable:
no weapons or armour here,
just himself, trusting in the God he worships.
He’s also exposed to potential ridicule –
just look at the reaction of his wife, Michal:
she is not at all delighted by what David’s doing – and she despises him...
for her, this is not the way a king should behave.

And yet, totally oblivious,
David worships,
he delights in God and dances before God…
celebrating in a loud and rowdy uncontained way,
because underpinning his act of worship
is a sense of awe for the untamed, uncontainable God he worships.

The ‘uncontainable God’...
As I was thinking about this,
I was reminded again of  the C.S. Lewis Narnia stories
and of one of the Narnian mantras about the lion, Aslan, who’s the creator of Narnia:
Aslan is not a tame lion.
Lewis’s depiction of Aslan captures the wildness of God –
God beyond our boxes… wild, uncontainable.. awesome.
God, who is both ground of our being, and the Lord of the dance

Now, I’m not advocating that we all need to worship God
in exactly the same way as David did – after all, this is Scotland!
Apart from it being just too cold,
there are certain societal and legal niceties we also have to take into consideration.
But what I am advocating is that we remember:
while there are times to be solemn,
there are also times
when it’s appropriate to be exuberant,
times when we can allow ourselves to get caught up in the wonder and awe
of the God who we worship.

As the writer of Ephesians observed,
God has lavished his grace on us…
We are his …    
and he is ours…
And it is right that we celebrate and give thanks
for God’s rich and free and awesome love…
And, as we give thanks,
that we allow ourselves to be open, vulnerable…
opening ourselves to the potential of being shockingly, utterly
transformed by the boundless, amazing, wonderful, known-yet-unknown God,
who is closer to us than our breathing….
And that we continue to make
our lives an offering,
in the expectation that the wild God who is always with us,
may want to dance with us.

Worshipping God can be dangerous:
The writer, Annie Dillard summed it up this way:
“Does anyone have the foggiest idea
what sort of power we so blithely invoke?
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.
For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense,
or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”

Are our dance cards already filled,
or, have we left some space where we can wait,
with eager anticipation, to dance with God – the Lord of the dance -
allowing ourselves to be drawn, in that dance,
to a place beyond our wildest imagining?  Amen.