Pentecost 19 (NL2) John B. Valentine
2 Samuel 5:1-5; 6:1-5 / Psalm 150 October 22, 2023

“SHALL WE DANCE?”

I’m back! (Actually ... I should say “We’re back” ... because I know that some of you missed Bethany more than you missed me ... .)

It was good to be away to be sure ...

But it’s also good to be back.

• Back with you folks at worship ...

• Back amid some beautiful fall days ...

• Back to a place where I’m not constantly worried about whether I have enough of the right kind of money and whether or not I speak the language.

But the pulpit isn’t the place for you to hear about our three-week sojourn in Switzerland and France and Germany ... no ... the pulpit is a place for us to ponder together the words of Holy Writ ... so let’s get on with it.

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Actually ... I need to begin with a confession.

Well ... not exactly a ‘confession’ ... because that would imply that I’d done something wrong ...

It’s more an ‘admission’ ... an acknowledgment of something of which I’m not particularly proud.

You see ... this morning’s scripture readings ... taken together ... tell the story of the coronation of King David.

• The piece we heard read from 2nd Samuel recounts how David is appointed and anointed king ... and how David ... having captured Jerusalem ... he makes Jerusalem his capital.

• And the piece we heard read as Psalm 150 is the lyrics to just the sort of song that would have been sung at just such an event.

But at the end of that reading from 2nd Samuel ... we delve into a subject which I know absolutely NOTHING about!

What was it that the text said?

• David again gathered all Israel ...
• And they brought up the ark of God ...
• And there was this parade of sorts ...

“And David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.”

Now ... don’t get me wrong ....

I DO know a little something about music and instrumentation and all ...

That “songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals” stuff ...

But when it comes to “dancing before the Lord with all one’s might” ... I have NO CLUE .

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Any of you watch those dancing shows they have on TV?

I just don’t get them ... I don’t get them at all!

It’s not so much that I don’t ‘like’ dancing ... it’s that I don’t ‘get’ dancing.

To be sure ... back in the day ... I drove our daughters to countless dance classes ... twenty some minutes each way ... there and back and there and back again ... at least a couple of times a week.

So I know that there’s:

• tap and tango ...
• and ballet and ballroom ...
• and hip-hop and hula and the like.

But my feet don’t get dancing ... and my body doesn’t much get dancing ... and my mind doesn’t much get it either.

Truth be told ... if I were to “dance before the Lord with all my might” here in this space ... I suspect you’d think the same sorts of things about me that King David’s wife Michal thought about him:

• that I’m an embarrassment to public decency and propriety ...
• that I’m an embarrassment to the whole of the community ...
• and particularly that I’m an embarrassment to you!

So ... given all that ... I’m NOT going to preach about dancing this morning!

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But ... you know ... as little as some of us may know about dancing ... I suspect many of us know something about the words that come next.

That part that declares that David and the whole house of Israel “danced before the Lord with all their might.”

I mean ... what does it mean to do something ... anything ... even dancing ... “with all your might”???

Doesn’t it mean to be “fully invested”???

Doesn’t it mean to be “all in”???

I mean ... next Sunday is going to be being Reformation Sunday around here ... and we’ll recall the life and ministry of one Doctor Martin Luther ...

So ... as a run up to Reformation Sunday ... it might not be all bad for us to consider what it meant to be “all in” to the instigator of the Church’s “Reformation”.

The year was 1521.

And those principalities and duchies and free cities that we now collectively know as Germany were in an uproar ... because this one hot-headed Augustinian monk and university professor ... Martin Luther ... had dared to challenge the authorities ... both political and religious ... and speak his mind about ways in which the church and state had misconstrued the meaning of Scripture and bent it to their own ends.

And while many of the locals deemed Luther heroic ... the powers at be deemed him a devil.

And so Luther was summoned to face his accusers ... including the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope’s personal envoy ... at a meeting in the city of Worms.

And on the day when Luther’s hearing took place ... he was escorted into the room and presented with copies of his writings set out on a table and asked two questions:

• if the books were in fact his ...
• and whether or not he stood by their contents.

And ... that day ... Luther confirmed the first question ... he owned that he was in fact their author ... but he requested time to think about his answer to the second.

Well ... Luther spent a sleepless night talking to his friends and praying and cogitating.

And ... the next day ... when asked the second question again ... replied:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

And when ... having made his speech ... was told that he was acting like a heretic ... allegedly answered:

“Hier stehe ich und kann nicht anders!” ....

“Here I stand. I can do nothing else.”

But ... as memorable and familiar as that part of the story may be ... what you may not realize is that Luther ... standing before the Emperor as he was that day ... assumed he was pronouncing his own death sentence.

That he was ‘theologizing before the Lord’ with ALL his might ...

That he was fully committed ...

That he was ALL IN!

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You know ... a couple of weeks ago ... I was hiking the fields and hills in Burgundy ... in eastern France ... and I found myself thinking about the Gauls who ruled that place ‘back in the day’.

Now there’s some debate about whether the following story is historically factual or the medieval version of an urban legend ... but be it fact or legend ... the point is too good to pass up.

You see ... the Gauls were a warlike people who spoke a Celtic language and were Druids as pertains to their religion.

And by the third century A.D. they had been conquered by the Roman Empire and were supposedly under its control.

But the historical record reveals that the Gauls didn’t take too well to being conquered and the word “control” would best be understood very loosely ... though any one of a number of Christian missionaries ventured into Gallic territory and ... over time ... many of the Gauls became Christians.

But it seems as though there was a curious baptismal custom among the Gauls.

For when a male Gaul was baptized in a river or stream ... he would hold his right arm high in the air as the missionary dunked him under the water.

This seemed a peculiar custom to the missionaries ... but soon enough they learned the reason for it.

When the next battle or skirmish or rebellion broke out ... the war-like Gaul could proclaim “This arm is not baptized!” ... grab up his club or sword or ax or whatever was his weapon of choice ... and storm off to destroy his enemy in a most unchristian manner.

Now I certainly don’t intend to cast any aspersions on the Gauls or their descendants ...

But I find that image fascinating ....

The picture of somebody ... anybody ... trying to keep one part of their body ... one aspect of their identity ... free from the influence of baptism.

Because ... for the life of me ... I can’t help but suspect that ... in today’s world ... there are any one of a number of things that we’d like to keep free from the influence of faith.

I mean ...

Could you not imagine a modern Christian going into the waters of Baptism with that outstretched arm clutching ... not a sword or a war-hammer or a battle axe ... but a purse or wallet.

As in “You can have me, Jesus, but don’t you dare touch my finances.”

Or maybe could you imagine someone going into the waters of Baptism with that outstretched arm holding their ballot.

As in “You can have me, Jesus, but don’t you dare touch my politics.”

Heck ... I find it fairly easy to imagine someone going into the waters of Baptism with that outstretched arm holding their brain.

As in “You can have me, Jesus, but don’t you dare touch how I think about people and my work and the world in which we live.”

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You know how I told you that this sermon wasn’t going to be about dancing?

Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe there’s a certain dance that maybe fits this context particularly well.

Anybody remember “The Hokey-Pokey”???

You start by putting a part of you into the dance ... and shaking it all about.

But ... by the end of that tune ... you put your whole self in .... and shake it all about.

And maybe THAT’S what David and the whole house of Israel were doing when they danced before the Lord “with all their might”.

Putting their whole selves in to the dance of faith and the dance of life.

You see ... when God leads the Hokey-Pokey ... we’re invited to skip the part where you put your right hand in ... or your left hip in ... and ... instead ... go directly to the “put your whole self in” part.

For that’s called faith .... and that’s what it’s all about.