Today I want to do something that I have always wanted to try. I have thought about doing it before, but the time just never seemed right. But after reading in our lesson from 2 Samuel how David “danced before the LORD with all his might” I figure it is now or never. Today I would like to perform for you an interpretive dance I call “jubilation”. Now, I’m a little nervous. I’ve never done this before. I’ve only had two days practice so be patient with me. O.k. here we go…. Yeah, I’m not doing that.
No one here actually thought I was going to dance, right. I didn’t think so. Maybe some of you were hoping I would; maybe you were hoping to see me attempt to recreate David’s “leaping and dancing before the LORD”, not so much for the spiritual edification it might bring but rather in the way one gawks at an accident on the highway with morbid curiosity. I think most of you knew I was never going to dance. We don’t do that kind of thing in the Lutheran church. Last Wednesday when we were going through this text for our midweek bible study Michael Peirce said, “the day I see Lutherans dancing in the isle at church is the day I expect to see the second coming”.
I tend to agree with Michael on this point. Though I am not sure even the second coming could make a Lutheran dance. Growing up in yankee-land I rarely saw a Lutheran smile in church let alone dance. It wasn’t till I was a vicar at a church south of the Mason-Dixon line that I heard clapping in a Lutheran church, and though such raucous behavior offended my northern sensibilities at least they didn’t dance. The closest I have ever seen to dancing in a Lutheran church is when I invited Koiné, the Lutheran church band, to perform at my former church. They rocked the Bach out of the hymnal, and I thought maybe, just maybe I saw a few Lutheran toes tapping, but it was so subtle, so subdued to this day I can’t be sure it actually happened. Dancing in church is just not something Lutherans do, and personally I am more than O.K. with that. But it is kind of surprising how reserved we are when you consider how Martin Luther reformed worship 500 years ago.
500 years ago, there was no dancing in the church, in truth there was no anything in the church. The service had become so cluttered with rites and rituals that it was difficult for the average worshiper to follow along. Even if they managed to mimic the motions of worship most of them could not understand what was being said because services were conducted in Latin, a language used among scholars of academia but not among the people of the community. For all practical purposes worship 500 years ago had become a spectator’s sport in which the people observed the priest’s performance. As a result, and quite understandably a meh attitude concerning worship spread rapidly among the people.
Something similar once occurred among the Israelites. Under the reign of King Saul, the people had become disinterested in worship. Their meh attitude concerning worship can be observed in the way they treated the Ark of the Covenant; so named because it was a visual reminder of the agreement the LORD had made with His people that as long as they obeyed Him fully and kept His covenant then out of all nations they would be His treasured possession.[1] Sadly, due to the carelessness of the king, the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines. When the ark brought the Philistines nothing but pain and suffering, they sent it back to the Israelites. But instead of restoring the Ark to a place of prominence among the people they stored it at Abinidab’s house. There it sat for many years. The once celebrated and revered vessel that for generations had reminded the people of the special relationship that they enjoyed with the LORD, that same vessel was thrown aside as a neglected thing.
In our current COVID world it is not difficult to imagine a similar thing happening among us. One of the rarely spoken of symptoms of the coronavirus is its ability to infect us with a meh attitude. Originally, I had hoped that the disruption to public worship due to the coronavirus was going to spark another spiritual revival in America, but lately I am becoming increasingly concerned that the opposite is happening. We have been divided by this disease, physically divided. And I am concerned what the inability to meet together and encourage one another might do. I can imagine how easy it would be for those of you who are isolated in your homes watching services on a screen to become disinterested in worship. Likewise, I can see how easy it would be for those of us who have gathered in this half empty church listening to the sound of our own voice bounce off the walls to become disinterested in worship. Whether you are sitting on your couch at home or sitting socially distant here at church, worship just isn’t the same these days. As a result, we are all at risk of meh.
King David saw the meh attitude that infected his people and decided something had to be done about it. David assembled an orchestra of musicians, enlisted the services of the best vocalist available to him, and they, along with some very carefully chosen Levites set out to return the Ark of the Covenant to a place of prominence among the people. Listen as I re-read 2 Samuel 6:12-15, “12… David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.” David did what no Lutheran has ever dared to do. David danced, and when I say he danced, I mean he got downright funky. David whirled and twirled with the excitement of a soccer mom at a Justin Timberlake concert. David leapt into the air like he had just scored a touchdown for the Green Bay Packers. David jumped up and down like he was in a Kriss Koss video. As the orchestra played, the vocalists sang, and the people celebrated, “David danced before the LORD with all his might”.
What do you think came over him? This type of spirited behavior was not what many considered appropriate behavior for a king. Among such people was David’s wife. When Michal saw her husband leaping and dancing before the LORD “16… she despised him in her heart.” Michal ridiculed David saying, “20… How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” You see, Michal was o.k. with her husband loving the LORD, she just didn’t think that he should love the LORD so much. She thought he should be more restrained and reserved in his revelry. (She sounds like she would make a fine Lutheran.) Despite the harsh criticism from his wife, listen to how David responded to Michal. He said, “21… I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” It seems like it would be easier to stop Kevin Bacon from dancing than it would be to stop King David. Why do you think that is?
I think it is easy enough to answer our own question when we remember that David was dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant is often depicted as an ominous object and understandably so, it was where the glory of the LORD was revealed and failure to show due reverence the LORD’s glory was punishable by death. But David did not see the Ark of the Covenant as an ominous object. To King David, more than anything, the Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of the LORD’s grace and mercy. It reminded him how the LORD delivered His people from the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. David and the entire house of Israel stood before an object that symbolized God’s promise to deliver His people from their enemies and dwell among them as their provider, protector, and preserver and it caused at least one of them to dance.
500 years ago, Martin Luther did what King David had done; he didn’t dance, but he re-exposed his people to the grace and mercy of the LORD. Instead of Latin, Luther conducted services in a language the people could understand, instead of preaching past them, Luther preached the simple truths of scripture and made them relevant to their lives, instead of performing for them, Luther invited the people to participate by writing songs that were deep in theology yet simple to sing. With these reforms, it was as if Luther had brought the Ark of the Covenant out of hiding and placed it before the people. Once again, the grace and mercy of the LORD had a prominent place among the people. It may not have caused those Germans to polka in the pews, but it chased away the meh.
I don’t have the ability to place Ark of the Covenant before you. The last I knew Indiana Jones had it hidden away in a government warehouse. But I have something better than the Ark. I have the cross. Because of Luther’s reforms we don’t see the cross as only an instrument of torture we see it as a symbol of grace and mercy. We see it as a symbol of LORD’s New Testament covenant; a one-sided covenant where the LORD fulfills all the demands and the LORD keeps all the promises. This covenant of the cross was established in the sending of the one and only Son, this covenant of the cross was upheld by that Son’s perfect obedience to the law, and this covenant of the cross has been sealed with the shedding of our Savior’s holy blood. In this covenant of the cross the Lord promises to deliver you from your enemies like sin death and the devil. In this covenant of the cross the Lord promises to dwell among you as your provider, protector, and preserver. Before us hangs the Cross of the Covenant, a symbol of the LORD’s grace and mercy. It may not cause you to whirl and twirl, leap into the air, or jump up and down but it should at the very least chase away the meh and cause you to “celebrate before the LORD”.
It is possible that somewhere someday some Lutheran will perform an interpretive dance as a part of a worship service, but I am fairly certain that Lutheran will not be me. But with the grace and mercy of the LORD always before me I pray the LORD fills me with an eager excitement to celebrate before the LORD. I pray it for myself, I pray it for those of you who are isolated in your homes, and I pray it for you who have gathered in a half empty church. May the grace and mercy of the LORD that is ours through the covenant of the cross, cause our hearts, if not our feet, to dance like David. Amen.
Exodus 19:5-6