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Sermon for July 16, 2006
Judith Davis, Rector
©
Christ Church + Washington Parish
+In the Name
of God, loving Creator, redeeming Savior and empowering Spirit.
Amen.
Today we
continue the story of King David of the Hebrew Bible. No, I’m not
going to preach about John the Baptist’s head on a platter. I’m
sticking with the Hebrew Bible. In the passage we heard from 2nd
Samuel, David brings up the Ark of the Covenant or the ark of God to
the house of Abinadab. As the ark came up, David and all the house
of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, the
Scripture tells us, “with song and lyres and harps and tambourines
and castanets and cymbals” (2 Samuel 6). David danced again when the
ark came to the city of David.
So, why all
the dancing in Church, after all!? So, let’s look at this story.
This story told in 2nd Samuel is also told in 1st
Chronicles. Many years earlier, the Ark of the Covenant had been
captured from Israel by the Philistines. The Ark had huge, symbolic
value for the people of Israel—it was tangible evidence of God’s
ongoing presence in their lives. It was a constant, visible reminder
that God had acted in their lives, that God did things for God’s
people. The presence of the Ark kept God from being an abstract
concept or a remote, austere legislator of laws. It gave the worship
of the Hebrew people a real, historical focus, much the same way
that the Scrolls of the Torah give that focus to our contemporary
Jewish neighbors at Hill Havurah. The Ark, like the Torah, was
material evidence of not only what had happened in the past, but
also of what was still going on in their everyday lives and would
continue, in the future.
I understand
this so much better after having gone to the dedication of the Torah
a year or so ago at Hill Havurah, the new Hebrew community on the
Hill. The Torah was covered with a heavy cloth decorated with fringe
and symbols. The scroll itself was handled with great reverence and
with gloves. The reader of Torah pointed to the words with a pointer
and did not touch the scroll itself. Those of us who attended the
service were invited to come close to see the Torah, which was 100
years old and brought from The Czech Republic. I witnessed such
respect for the Torah and realized that in the Jewish tradition,
that God is incarnate in the Torah, which then is treated with great
respect.
The Ark
of the Covenant (ארון הברית in
Hebrew: aron habrit) is
described in the
Hebrew Bible as a sacred container,
wherein rested the
stone tablets containing the
Ten Commandments. The Ark was built
at the command of God, in accord with Moses's prophetic vision on
Mount Sinai (Exodus
25:9-10). Its primary function was for God to communicate with
Moses, "from between the two
cherubim" on the Ark's cover (Exodus
25:22). The Ark and its sanctuary were "the beauty of Israel" (Lamentations
2:1).
During the
journeys of the Israelites, the Ark was carried by the priests in
advance of the host (Numbers
4:5, 6; 10:33-36;
Psalms 68:1; 132:8). The Ark was
borne by priests into the bed of the
Jordan, which separated, opening a
pathway for the whole of the host to pass over (Joshua
3:15, 16; 4:7, 10, 11, 17, 18). The Ark was moreover borne in the
procession round
Jericho (Josh. 6:4, 6, 8, 11, 12).
When carried, the Ark was always wrapped in a veil, in badger skins,
a blue cloth, and was carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the
Levites who carried it.
The Ark of
the Covenant was the focus of the highly popular 1981 adventure film
Raiders of the Lost Ark. The
plot suggests that
Adolf Hitler, deeply interested in
supernatural power and the
occult, wants to acquire the Ark in
order to rule the world. The Ark's location in the movie is
Tanis, Egypt. Intrepid
archaeologist
Indiana Jones opposes the Nazis and
succeeds in keeping it from them. The Ark is shown to be extremely
powerful and dangerous to those who do not understand it. It is last
seen being boxed up and stored in a vast U.S.
government warehouse - presumably
never to be seen again. Thankfully, we don’t need to lose sleep over
wondering if the Ark lives in a government warehouse.
Back in the
time of David when the Ark was in the possession of the Philisitnes,
who had captured it in war, it became dangerous to them and they
returned it after seven months. he Bible describes the Ark as made
of
acacia or
shittah-tree wood. It was a
cubit and a half broad and high and
two cubits long (about 4 ft × 3ft × 3ft cm). The Ark was covered all
over with the purest
gold. Its upper surface or lid, the
mercy seat, was surrounded with a
rim of gold.
On each of
the two sides were two gold rings, wherein were placed
two wooden poles (with a decorative
sheathing of gold), with which the ark could be carried (Num. 7:9;
10:21; 4:5,19, 20; 1 Kings 8:3, 6). Over the Ark, at the two
extremities, were two
cherubim, with their faces turned
toward one another (Leviticus
16:2; Num. 7:89). Their outspread wings over the top of the ark
formed the throne of God, while the ark itself was God’s footstool
(Ex. 25:10-22; 37:1-9). The Ark was deposited in the "Holy
of Holies," and was placed so that one end of the
carrying poles touched the veil separating the two compartments of
the tabernacle (1 Kings 8:8).
And so, when
the ark was brought into David’s community, he and the others danced
and shouted for joy, for God had come to dwell with them in their
tent. Later, you remember, when Jesus is born, he is given the name
“Emmanuel,” which really is translated to mean, “God, as Jesus, has
come to dwell with us in our tent.”
David, the
anointed king of all tribes, recognized God’s power and captured
Jerusalem, putting an end to the Philistine threat. This
accomplishment is significant because without it, Israel never could
have developed as an independent state. This established Jerusalem
as a political center. When David retrieved the ark from the
Philistines and brought it to Jerusalem, it established a center for
worship. God’s power in the ark -- and in David’s reign as a king --
are brought together in a place still identified as holy today—a
place today that especially needs our prayers for peace.
God’s power
is awesome, and in the ark God’s power seemed so dangerous that the
Philistines let it go. God is king, and God’s authority is over all
of creation. God’s power is so awesome that being too close to it,
coming toward it unintentionally, may be dangerous.
Psalm 24
describes in liturgical form how the power of God must be seen. Our
path toward God must be ethically sound, which involves three
things: first, purity of outward deeds or having clean hands;
second, purity of thought and inward truthfulness, having a pure
heart; and finally purity of religious practice or unadulterated
faith, not pledging to falsehood or swearing by what is fraud.
Being close
to the power of God, being prophetic, and being truth-telling
advocates for the Gospel message can be a euphoric experience. As
Christians we ritualize the experience of approaching God through
prayer and song. In Native American traditions, dance is a
significant part of that _expression. The procession that brought
the ark into Jerusalem was ecstatic with singing, playing
instruments, and dancing. David lost himself in the feeling of
approaching God and sensing the power of God. Others may despise us
for expressing our encounters with the holy, with our whole selves,
bodies, minds, and souls, but that cannot discourage our joy. Some
of us have worshipped in places like St. Gregory Nyssa in San
Francisco, where liturgical movement and dance area part of every
service and where the Gospel Book is processed around (under the
liturgical umbrella) and is revered by all, reminding the people of
the history of God’s people revering the Ark of the Covenant. Don’t
worry, we’re not dancing today. We tried that one summer when we
worshipped in the parish hall and lost a few members. Sometimes what
works in San Francisco doesn’t work in Washington.
Nevertheless, in our Christian tradition, the liturgy brings us
close to God and feeds us to go out into the world to live as God
intended. David shared the blessings with offerings and then
distributed food to the people just as we gather to share the
blessings in the Eucharist. The way in which we live our lives and
the way we celebrate our joy and connection to God is what unites us
as people of faith. We are also united as living members of the Body
of Christ, people who live in accordance with the gospel message.
The prophets
of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Testament and the prophets of
modern day demand justice and a life lived according to the Gospel.
We must strive to live lives that are evidence of the power of God
as we become truth-telling advocates for justice and peace. And,
when this brings us close to God, let us be moved to celebrate
ecstatically with our whole selves.
May God
empower us as a congregation to be fully alive and passionate to God
as David was. Let us worship God with abandon, and ponder how our
acts of worship affect our decisions and actions this week. In so
doing we will meet God in a new way and our friends and neighbors
might discover the reality of our God. Dancing is welcome, of
course. Amen.
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