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Sunday July 16, 2006 - Proper 10, Year B

The story of King David
is a long
and convoluted
one.
It begins way back
when Saul was the king,
and things weren't going so well.
And so God said to the prophet Samuel,
"Go to Jesse, from Bethlehem,
and I will show you one of his sons
who will be king."
And so Samuel went to Jesse, who paraded his sons
in front of the prophet, all except little David, the youngest,
who was out in the fields,
but after all the other brothers
had been passed over, they finally called him in, the most unlikely one,
and it was him who was chosen
to be anointed as king.
Samuel poured oil on his head, and then headed out the door;
David
went back to his sheep.
A little while later
Saul called for David
to come serve him
and so David went to the palace
serving as Saul's armor bearer,
and when Saul had his crazy spells
David comforted him
by playing his harp.

There are so many stories about David. How he killed the giant Goliath, how he became best friends with Saul's son Jonathan, how he had great success in wars, how Saul became jealous of him and tried to kill him,
how Saul's daughter fell in love with him and married him,
how he escaped Saul's murderous rage
and eventually went into exile, living in the land of his former enemies, the Philistines.

Two weeks ago
we heard the story of the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, which meant David could come back to his home country;
last week
it was
his ascension to the throne. Now we come to the climax of his career.

David has made the city of Jerusalem
the new capital, the political heart
of his nation.
And then suddenly he remembers
that God's involved in this somehow.
Maybe he remembers
that the problems with Saul
really began
when Saul began to forget about God.

And he figures out
that Jerusalem
needs to be not just the political heart of his nation
but the spiritual heart
as well.

And he remembers
the stories he was told as a child,
how the people of Israel
were rescued from Egypt,
and how they wandered in the desert
for 40 years, led by a pillar of cloud in the daytime
and a pillar of fire
at night,
and he remembers that they knew
that God was with them
because they carried with them
the ark of the covenant,
a sacred box carried on two long poles,
that held the two stone tablets
of the ten commandments.
It was built
at the command of God
not just as a museum piece, a display case for the law
but was the place
where God
communicated with Moses,
the place
that people could come
and know
that God was there.

The ark got captured by the Philistines
in the time of the prophet Samuel,
but everywhere they took it
there was bad luck. Statues of gods were inexplicably smashed,
plagues of mice overran their homes, people came out in boils. Pretty soon
the Philistines decided
that it was more trouble
than it was worth, and sent it back to the people of Israel.
But it was no better there. People crowded round to see it,
and were suddenly struck down dead;
in a panic
it was sent to the home of Abinadab
where his son Eleazar cared for it
for twenty years.

Until David remembered it.
And figured that there would be nothing better
than to bring the ark, the traditional symbol of the presence of God,
and place it
in the center of his city,
the heart of his new capital,
cementing his authority
as not just political
but spiritual
as well.

And so he went to the place where it was stored,
and began to accompany it in its journey
back to Jerusalem.
Which is what is happening
in today's reading.

The journey wasn't without incident. We skipped the verses that tell about the accident: one of the people
carrying the ark
stumbled,
and another man put out his hand
to steady the precious box.
And dropped dead.
This thing was too holy, to powerful
for human hands to touch.
God is too holy, too powerful
for human hands to touch.

And so they abandoned the journey,
left the ark at the next house,
and it wasn't until a few months later
that they got the courage together
to bring it the rest of the way
into Jerusalem.

And David led the way,
dressed not in the robes of royalty,
but the simpler clothes of a priest,
and the wonderful procession wound its way into the city
complete with trumpets and shouting and dancing.

At last
they could rejoice.
They had a new king, a new capital city,
and God
was there in the middle of it all.

Three thousand years later
and we don't have an ark of the covenant
in our capital city.
We think of God
a little bit differently.
Most of us expect
that God is with us, one way or another, or at least could be.
We don't have to rely on a wooden box
or limit ourselves to a single place
to encounter God.

Remember how Jesus said,
"where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."
God is present whenever we pray,
no matter where we are.

But on the other hand,
remember how Jesus broke the bread and shared the cup?
We know God is with us whenever we pray, wherever we are,
but we also believe
that Christ is present to us in a special way in the Eucharist,
that as we eat the bread and drink the wine
we encounter God.
We meet God
as close as we can get this side of death
here when we worship.

So we have a kind of different perspective
from King David.
But I think there are two things
that we can learn from him
and the story of the ark of the covenant.

First of all,
it's dangerous to take the presence of God for granted.
When people weren't careful enough with the ark, when they acted like
it was any old box,
bad things happened.

It's easy for us to take God for granted, to kind of slop our way through church out of habit.
But when we're in church
it's as if the most powerful being in the universe
is sitting right there in the pew beside you.
Think of how you would behave if the president,
or a famous actor,
or a sports star
were sitting beside you
at a special event in their honor.
You'd probably sit up, pay attention,
do everything you can
to honor them.
It's the same thing with God.
When we come to worship, we come to honor God,
the one, holy, living God.
And that means taking care of what we are doing, paying attention.
I don't think
that God os going to zap us if we fail, strike us dead if our mind wanders,
but I do think
that was Christians we're called
to honor and respect our God.
It's not about being afraid;
it's about paying attention, listening
to God.

Second, if we really believe that God is here
then we should act like it!
What an honor! Here we are in little old Swedesboro
and God is here!

David's response
to the presence of God
was to dance and shout.
He made a fool of himself, enough that his wife got mad at him.

We Episcopalians
are sometimes known
as the frozen chosen. We could do with a little of that dancing and shouting.
This is amazing.
We are here, and God is with us!

One of the things I love
is when sometimes
small children here at Trinity
stand up in their pews or sneak out into the aisles
during a hymn, and begin to dance.
It's a wonderful expression of joy and worship.

But sometimes I look out at you all in a hymn,
I see an awful lot of people standing with their books and their mouths closed.
If you can't sing, or don't know the tune, just read the words.
We're called to make a joyful noise to God, to celebrate
the God we worship. Doesn't say anywhere
that it has to be beautiful!

David dancing, leading the ark into the city of Jerusalem.
It reminds us that as we worship together we need to remember three things.
God is here.
Be careful.
And celebrate!

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2006