Just Keep Dancing

2 Samuel 6:1-19

¹David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. ² David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. ³ They carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio,^[a] the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart ⁴ with the ark of God,^[b] and Ahio^[c] went in front of the ark. ⁵ David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs^[d] and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen lurched. ⁷ The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there, and he died there beside the ark of God. ⁸ David was angry because the Lord had burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah, so that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. ⁹ David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?” ¹⁰ So David was unwilling to take the ark of the Lord into his care in the city of David; instead, David took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.

¹² It was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing, ¹³ and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatted calf. ¹⁴ David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. ¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.

¹⁶ As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷ They brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. ¹⁸ When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts ¹⁹ and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat,^[g] and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

Just Keep Dancing

We’re often puzzled when bad things happen despite our best intentions. How many parents have presented new cars to their sons and daughters upon graduation only to lose their sons and daughters to some horrible accident because they did not have the maturity of judgment to drive carefully? How many parents have bought their children firearms – for hunting – only to lose those children to hunting accidents? How many doctors and nurses have died or been killed treating patients in war-torn lands? We wonder why God allowed these things to happen.

And I cannot answer. I believe God cries with us when we suffer loss. I believe that God mourns when lives are cut short for whatever reason.

But how do we make sense of Uzzah’s death? The man is concerned that the ark, this very special sacred object, is about to fall off the oxcart, and when he touches the ark he is killed instantly. It just doesn’t seem right.

On the one hand today’s story is a cautionary tale of how we attempt to possess God. On the other hand, today’s story is a lesson on how to worship God with the right mind and the right heart.

If you’re not familiar with the ark of the covenant you can read about it in the Old Testament. It was an object that God instructed the Hebrews to construct, an ornate throne for God to sit on, and inside the seat of the throne were the Ten Commandments. It was carried by the Hebrews throughout their wilderness experience, then into the land of Canaan, and eventually made it’s way to the sanctuary of Shiloh. The movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” plays on the mystery of the ark: where is it now? No one really knows though there are many conspiracy theories as you might imagine.

But in today’s reading we find the ark being transported from the land of the Philistines who were Israel’s neighbors with whom they often fought, to Jerusalem, a city that King David had recently conquered and the city that David wanted to make the capital of the Nation of Israel – and the city would eventually be known as “The City of David.”

And David seems to respect the sacred character of the ark; he is careful about transporting it, and he and his entourage were dancing before the Lord with all their might. That says a lot. I don’t know how many people these days approach Sunday worship as a time to really dance before the Lord with all their might, but that is the character of true worship. Worship is all about expressing our love to the One who’s very essence is Love. It’s our effort to express our joy to the best of our ability, and dancing is the best way I know how to do that. And if you can’t dance with your feet or your body, dance with your heart; dance with your mind; dance with your soul. But dance in celebration of who God truly is.

That’s what King David was doing to the best of his ability at the time. But his heart was not ready to fully receive God’s presence. My friends, there are billions of people in this world who believe that they are praising and worshiping God but who are in fact worshiping an image of God that they have fashioned to suit their own needs and their own desires. It’s so easy to do, because it’s so difficult for us to open ourselves completely to God. We fashion a God who serves us, who smites our enemies and who justifies our greed and our hatred, our violence and our injustice. And we claim that this is the true God.

And we should be thankful to God when he exposes our sin of idolatry, our tendency to make God bow to our ways.

That’s what David was doing as he transported the ark to his new capital city. Had he read his Bible and listened to his Sunday School teachers he might have known that God was very particular about how this ark – his throne – was to be handled. God went into great detail with Moses about how the ark was to be constructed, what ornaments to place on it, and God designed it with rings along the sides through which special poles were to be inserted, and those poles were intended to lift the ark, and those who lifted the ark and transported the ark were to be priests.

And instead of doing any research on this, David has the ark placed on a cart and carried not by priests but by oxen. Sure, he and the whole are dancing with all their might, but you have wonder if David is really focused on worshiping the true God or getting this sacred object to Jerusalem. Is he dancing in celebration of God, or is this just a precaution he’s taking to assuage the of God? Is he intent upon bringing God glory, or is he more concerned about consolidating his own power as king and being recognized by religious folks as a true man of

And when Uzzah touched the ark to steady it, God sends out a reminder that worship is not something to take lightly or with the wrong heart or wrong attitude.

You know, when we serve holy communion, we invite everyone to the table to partake of the bread and of the cup, but we do urge you to examine your heart out of respect for the sacrament. It’s not simply eating a piece of bread soaked in grape juice; it’s opening yourself to God’s full presence within you, and if there is something that is bothering you, if you are holding another person in anger or hatred, if you are holding back forgiveness from someone, or if you are intentionally defying God, you shouldn’t take communion. I respect those who are intentional about refusing communion, because they have acknowledged that something is wrong, and they need to adjust their attitude before coming to Christ’s table. These people are humble, and that is a good way to approach God.

And I wonder how humble David was during this ceremony. When Uzzah was killed, the whole procession stops, the ark is stored at the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, and David is angry!

Why God, did you rain on my parade – MY parade? Why did you kill this man and turn this celebration into a tragedy? This is not going to look good to the people, and it calls into question my relationship with you!

Yes, David’s anger betrays his own sin of idolatry; moving the ark was never about God, it was about David’s public image.

And so everything is put on hold as the ark is stored at the home of Obed-edom the Gittite. By the way, Obed-edom was a Philistine. A Gittite was a person from Gath which was a major city of the Philistines. That’s right, David leaves the ark in the land of the Philistines rather than bring this dangerous object into Israel. And what happens?

Obed-edom the Gittite and his entire household are blessed! That must have really confused David.

“These people are heathen; they don’t worship the right god! How can the true God bless such people? It’s not fair!” 

Such is our tendency to claim God as our own and deny God to those who don’t believe exactly what we believe. Such is our tendency to place so much weight on our own sacred heritage and traditions and doctrines and so little weight on understanding and loving our neighbors.

And David could have remained angry. He could have given up the limited faith he had in God, assuming that if there was a God that this God was inconsistent, unfair, or simply working against him.

John Wesley, years after he had been ordained  as an Anglica priest, confessed to a  Moravian friend of his that he had no faith. That’s right; years after he had been made a priest and had led hundreds of worship services and conducted holy communion and baptisms, he confesses that he has no faith and therefore should not preach. Wesley had reason to be discouraged; he had come to North America years earlier thinking he was going to save all the Native Americans and fortify the faith of all the English colonists in Georgia. Instead he was driven back to England by the very people he thought he would inspire to great faith. And reflecting upon his own failure, he went though a serious crisis: He didn’t lose his faith in God; he believed that he never actually HAD faith in God. He confessed this to a Moravian friend who told told him, “Preach until you have faith. Then preach because you have faith.”

David went through a similar crisis of faith I believe. He could have walked away from this God of Israel. He could have abandoned the ark to the Philistines and still been king of Israel. But David decided to give it one more shot.

This time, David and his assembly dance with their whole hearts and strength as they did before, but this time there’s no oxcart mentioned. Furthermore, David offered sacrifices and offerings to God after every six paces that were taken. He still didn’t get it completely right – priests, not kings, are supposed to make all the sacrifices and offerings – but God recognized that David had changed and offered grace.

No doubt there are people who come to church every week who don’t come because they have faith but for any number of other reasons. And I’m very glad they come, because if you go through the motions of worshiping God, of praying to God, of singing praised to God – even if your heart is not into it, even if you’re praying for the wrong things – I believe that eventually you will come to know the love of God, the glory of God, and you will worship because you truly love God and are in awe of God!

And you may not get everything right, as far as the ceremony of organized religion goes. You may drink water from the baptismal font. You may drop the bread before you dip it in the grape juice. I’ve gone through entire worship services before realizing that I never lit the altar candles. And you know what? God didn’t  seem to mind.

There’s something to be said for a religious zeal even as it disregards the rules of religion. If your heart is truly shaped toward worship, God will indeed honor that. David danced, and he danced with all his might. Maybe his motives weren’t pure, but he learned from his mistake and he gave all that he could, and God honored that.  

So just keep dancing. Give God all that can offer from the place that you are. Even if your faith is smaller than a mustard seed, put forth your full energy into worshiping God as best you can. There are times when God will disappoint you, but it’s usually because there’s a lesson is trying to teach you.

And don’t lose track of God’s laws. We’ve just witnessed yet another violent act, a man who tried to kill an ex-president of the United States who succeeded to killing or wounding a few other innocent people. And now anger is growing, people are blaming each other for it, and more violence seems to be in the forecast. We’re called to bear witness to a God who takes on human suffering rather than inflicting it. We’re called to bear witness to a God who, while suffering violence at the hands of humans, prays for our forgiveness. We cannot yield to the temptation to hate and hurt and kill. We need to keep dancing, in worship, in prayer, and in our daily walk with Jesus.