RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - July 12, 2009

“Just Dance”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19

Many of you know that later this summer, I will be participating in my 5th Komen for the Cure 60 mile walk for breast cancer. My sister and I will be walking in the Detroit suburbs in August along with 3000 other walkers, and together we will likely raise over $6 million for breast cancer research, early detection and community education programs.

The whole experience of the 3 Day Walk from the Opening Ceremonies at 6:00 A.M. on Friday to the Closing late Sunday afternoon is one of the most inspiring events I have ever been a part of. In addition to inspiring, it is just downright fun. Take, for instance, the dance band that traditionally plays Saturday evening for a couple of hours after dinner. The good bands play a mix of ‘60s oldies as well as more recent music – a little something for everyone.

Now, one would think that after walking 40 miles in two days with 20 more to go that any sane person would not be up for dancing. However, I can personally attest that shaking it up a bit is really wonderful for loosing tight muscles, particularly in the hips!

Now - I have to pace myself, and so my dancing is done after a few songs. However, many of the younger walkers rock out until the band goes home. They are dancing on the stage, on the dance floor, and doing conga lines in and amongst the tables in the enormous dining tent.

The energy we generate is quite amazing – and perhaps not at all unlike King David when he rock and rolled in the middle of Jerusalem, in not much more than his Fruit of the Looms, round and round the Ark of the Covenant. Surely those who were there (with the exception of David’s wife, Michal, who watched in horror and disdain as her husband pranced about in his ritual underwear), the common folk could not help but tap their toes and clap their hands to the rhythm of passion, abandonment, and joy as the young king danced his heart out before God.

No longer did David need to rouse the Israelites to conjure up a vision of hope for the future because David himself was the hope. He was the one who was binding together the fractured pieces of a people and unifying a Jewish nation. David was fulfilling the longstanding promises of God before the very eyes of the men and women who watched him prance around.

In the years leading up to this moment of joy, David had defeated longstanding enemies of the Hebrew people. He had sent the Philistines packing, conquered the Jebusites, and gained control of Jerusalem. Not surprisingly, David had chosen to make the sacred city his capital city, and in order to centralize both political and religious power, he knew he needs to bring home the Ark of the Covenant.

You may recall that the Ark was a large wooden box containing the broken stone fragments of the Ten Commandments and a bit of the manna God provided to the Hebrews in the desert after they escaped from Egypt. The Ark had come to represent the living presence of God. Where the Ark was, God was also. And for many years, the Ark had been hidden away in a little town called Ba-ale.

But now the Ark was coming to Jerusalem. It was coming home. However, getting it there was not as easy as David supposed it would be. Presbyterian pastor, Mindy Adams, described the journey like this:

David “brings 30,000 of his best soldiers, puts the ark on a shiny new cart and all the processional begins to dance before the Lord, singing and playing instruments and making a big to-do. David knows how to make a spectacle, a celebration, no holes barred. All goes well until the wagon hits a pot-hole, shakes a bit, and one of the drivers instinctively reaches out to steady it. As his hand touches the Ark, he keels over dead.

A hush comes over the crowd. No one moves. All eyes turn to David. After a moment he speaks: Go home.

The day of great festival ends in tragedy and confusion. David realizes that this Lord, Yahweh, is a force to be reckoned with, not just an idle superstition. He is afraid. He finds the house of a good man who lives nearby and, in an act of great courage, David takes the Ark to the man’s house himself. He asks the man to care for it for three months and returns to Jerusalem.

(The three months pass, and) David decides to try again, a bold move in light of the embarrassing failure of the first attempt. But this time he does his homework. He discovers clear instructions regarding the transport of the Ark. Now he knows that it is to be carried by four men holding its ancient poles. Never is it to ride on a cart.

This time he knows what he’s doing. So he sends a proclamation to all the people and once again all the citizens of Jerusalem gather in the countryside to bring home the Ark. The men lift it upon their shoulders and take six steps toward Jerusalem. David calls the procession to a halt and makes an offering to God right there. And apparently, for safe measure perhaps…David makes a new offering every six paces.

As the Ark moves forward toward its destination, a great celebration takes place. Music plays, the people sing, the children skip and play. Out front, leading the parade is David, so overtaken with joy that he doesn’t walk a step toward Jerusalem, he dances. With unrestrained joy he claps his hands and dances through the streets, throwing his arms and legs into the air, celebrating with all his might, putting every part of himself into this amazing movement of the seat of the Lord.”

What a day of jubilation for the Jewish people! The Ark was home, symbolizing that God had returned and was again in their midst – and so there was dancing in the streets.

Picture it. The dust of the roadways was swirling up in little joyous eddies and twirls. The sun overhead was beating down with a new rhythm of promise and great high hope. And David, a calculating politician but also a man of passion and exuberance, was leading the way in his skivvies, dancing himself into God’s arms and losing himself in the embrace of the Almighty. Leave it to David. He never did anything half way!

You know, maybe we should take a lesson from him and his wild and crazy day of joyful celebration. Maybe we need to learn something from David’s marvelous dance of life. Maybe each one of us – known by some as the Frozen Chosen while we sit immobile in our pews each Sunday and by Monday feel our hearts as heavy and loaded down with our own business of living as they ever were – maybe we need to take a lesson from David and from his joyful dance of passion and abandon.

David was on fire for God. There was nothing half-hearted about his display – and nothing lukewarm about him. When was the last time we danced with the gusto of David? When was the last time we expressed the same joy in God? When was the last time God’s faithfulness and love moved us to do anything close to dancing?

As Episcopal young adult worker, Jason Sierra, wrote: “How are we, like David, expressing what we know of God, what we have seen of God, and God’s relationship to us?” How are we dancing, and what does that dancing look like?

You know, of course, that this church, this community right here, is our dance floor. And so my challenge to you – each one of you – is this: Do not be a wallflower. Get out on the floor and dance. Get involved. Have a positive answer to the question that the Mock Turtle asks in a song from a scene in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: ‘Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?’"

How do you dance around here? There are lots of ways. Every Sunday this summer, Polly has stood up during the announcements and said she needs help with the suppers – people to peel, serve, carve, and clean up. That is an invitation to dance. Go for it. Accept it. Dance with Polly. Dance with one another because, when you dance, you are expressing your relationship with God.

Brian too has stood up and talked about the Good Apple Project and our Produce Exchange. That is an invitation to dance. Sign up at the mission table, and take the Good Apple Pledge. Share some recipes. Both give from your gardens and also receive from your neighbor’s bounty. Dance with the mission efforts of this church. Dance with one another because, when you dance, you are expressing your relationship with God.

In the words of Christopher Grundy’s Christian song, “The Fisherman’s Daughter”, "she has been to the ball and seen her sweet Jesus and all that he wants them to do is dance.....dance with the lonely, dance with the lost, dance with the ones who to dance with will cost you, and when you’re worn out by the weight of that cross just dance..."

Dance like David, with joy and passion and total abandonment. Do not be a wallflower, but rather dance before God. Dance with each other – right here, on this very dance floor. It may look ridiculous – and maybe it is! But as David surely thought to himself as he danced in his undies – who cares! This is a dance that can transform the world, so just dance!

Sermon - July 12, 2009

“Just Dance”

By Rev. Nancy Foran 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19

By Rev. Nancy Foran
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19