Sunday, July 12, 2009

I Hope You Dance

This morning's sermon at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Text: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

I remember incidents when I was young and again when my children were little where we were in the church sanctuary rehearsing for a Christmas pageant or some other event with kids participating in worship. Naturally, there was noise and running around and excitement and enthusiasm. Invariably, some adult would give a lecture on being quiet and respectful and not running or making noise “in God’s house.”

Now, I’m all for respect—for God, you, me, elders and children and people who aren’t like us as well as people who are—but what came across to me in those incidents was children being told that God is stern and serious and doesn’t like laughter, playing, running, dancing or any of the things children do naturally because they are filled with joy.

I don’t think God wants us to be “the frozen chosen” or a bunch of down-in-the-mouth, scowling folks who can’t ever laugh, clap or dance in church. Children can and will learn about respect just by being in worship and participating as part of the congregation. And we’re not afraid to laugh or clap when the Spirit moves us, but I’m not sure we’re prepared to dance in church the way David danced before the Lord!

Joy is contagious and it is good to share joy. Life is tough enough without trying to be serious all the time. In the midst of the trials of our daily lives, when there is pain and grief in families… when we or people we know are seriously ill… when our church or our community struggles to find ways to bring new people into the fold… when good friends die or move away… when tragedies happen to us or people we know… we need to be able to come together as a dancing, sharing, joyful, celebrating community. In the dancing, sharing and joyful celebration, we are reminded that in spite of everything, life has this persistent tendency to go on and God is ever-present with us through it all.

God’s love and presence are worth celebrating because that’s how we get through the bad stuff—by knowing and trusting that God loves us and is with us. So, even in our sorrow, I hope we dance. It doesn’t always need to be a rollicking, kick-up-your heels dance. It can be a slow, deliberate and mournful kind of dance. Just dance!

We’re mostly aware of David in the Hebrew Scriptures as hero and king, and his memory was a bright, sustaining source of hope for the people of Israel. But when we think of his humanness, we tend to focus on his flaws, especially his tragic affair with Bathsheba. However, David—who, according to tradition, composed the psalms—was obviously a person of deep feeling, and today’s passage about his joy gives us insight into another side of his passion; his profound gratitude and praise for God’s work in the life of Israel—bringing the people together, strengthening them in common cause against the Philistines, establishing the people and their land and the Davidic dynasty to the glory of God and fulfilling the promises of God right before their eyes, in their own lifetime.

The ark—which was said to house God—had been returned by the Philistines (after they captured it) because of its awesome power which frightened the foreigners. But for awhile it rested in the house of Abinadab. David is establishing Jerusalem as his seat of power. He wants to restore the ark to the center of the people’s shared life, so he goes to fetch the ark from its temporary home. Technically, the ark had always had a temporary home, because it moved with the people on their journeys and rested only for a time in Shiloh. So it’s likely that David felt the ark was coming home, even though that home was a new one.[i]

In a ritual celebration of bringing the ark home, David expressed his joy by dancing. Right now that may be the last thing most of us feel like doing. It’s been a hard week. For our congregation it’s been a hard couple of years. We’ve lost so many people who truly loved our church and supported it in every way they could. On July 3rd I joined Mary Johnson and her family at Big Falls cemetery for Arden’s committal service. Yesterday we celebrated Bob’s life and grieved our own loss

It can definitely feel overwhelming, and when we lose a loved one it’s easy to wonder how the sun can possibly come up again for another day?

But the sun does come up again, so I hope you dance—like David—because God loves Arden and Bob and all the others and gave them new life, and God loves us and journeys with us in this life.

As members of the United Church of Christ, we are the people who profess that God is still speaking, and because that is true, we are allowed—in fact we are called—to dance! We can express our feelings, no matter what they are, because we know God loves us and God understands our feelings, no matter what they are. God calls us to BE, not just to observe; to live life, not just look on from the sidelines.

The song says, “And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance/I hope you dance/I hope you dance.”[ii] In the life we’re given, I bet God says, “I hope you live. I hope you live.”

Our life is God’s gift to us. How we live it is our gift to God. So remember David—dance and sing and make a joyful noise to the Lord! That energy and enthusiasm will keep us fresh and vital! AMEN.

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