Saga: The Story of David: For Whom Do You Dance?
July 24, 2016
Dr. Tom Pace
II Samuel 6:20-22

David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!”David said to Michal, “It was before theLord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of theLord, that I have danced before theLord.I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes; but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.”
Did you ever miss an episode of your favorite show, and when you come back to the newest episode you can't figure out what's going on because a bunch of stuff has happened that you've missed? Well, that's kind of where we are right now with the story of David. We had to skip some stuff, and it'll take me a little bit, but I want you to hang in there with me so you can know how the story went.
If you remember in our last episode Saul is pursuing David. David has the opportunity to take Saul's life, to kill Saul but he chooses not to do that. Then he learns some peacemaking skills from Abigail. But Saul is still pursuing him, the spirit continues to take over Saul, and there are lots of problems.
And David was hiding out with a king in a town called Ziklag. Now here's the deal. There are many different tribes that are still around. It's after the conquest of Canaan by Israel, but there are still many tribes. You have the Philistines. Goliath was a Philistine. They were a people of the coast; they lived near what is today Gaza, and even all the way up the coast to Tel Aviv, if you know the geography of Israel. There were Moabites, Jebusites, there were Amalekites who were a fierce nomadic warrior people. And so what was happening was that David was hiding with the king of Ziklag who was a Philistine.
Now remember that David had killed Goliath and that the Philistines were the enemy. But he's hiding there because he says, "I'm no longer loyal to Saul." And he would take his men out on these raiding parties, and he would tell the king of Ziklag, "I'm going to raid the Israelitevillages." But what he would do in reality was to raid the Philistine and Amalekite villages and get the booty from those villages and leave it with the Israelites.

So as time went on and he is living this deception, he began too build loyalty with each of these Israelite villages. And finally there came a time when Saul and Jonathan were in battle against the Philistines. They were both killed in battle. David had no part of that. They were killed in the battle against the Philistines.And David grieved, he wept, he was so sad when he heard that his best friend Jonathan and in many ways his first mentor Saul had been killed in battle.
Well they proclaimed him because he'd built this loyalty king over Judah. Now at thistime Israel has two different kingdoms. One is the Northern Kingdom and the other is the Southern Kingdom.The Southern Kingdom was called Judah and the Northern Kingdom was called Israel.It gets confusing because together they're both called Israel. The Northern Kingdom is Israel and the Southern Kingdom is Judah.And David was made king over Judah, and he set himself up in the town of Hebron which is about 20 miles outside Jerusalem, and that was the capital ofJudah, and he reigned there over Judah.
But the Northern Kingdom was still claimed by one ofSaul's sons, a man named Ish-bosheth, sometimes Ishbael, depends on which translation you use. And Ish-bosheth had a general named Abner, and I know there are a lot of names, hang in there. And David's general was named Joab.
Abner decided that Ish-bosheth wasn't going to last, and he was kind of wimpy, so he defected and went and joined David's army.And when he came down to meet with David, Joab wandered in and saw Abner there and thought he was going to kill David. Joab remembered that Abner was the general of Ish-bosheth, so Joab killed Abner. This was really a "Game of Thrones" stuff right here.

So Joab kills Abner and then Ish-bosheth - remember he's the king in the northern part of Israel - he hears about this and the Scripture says, "He loses all his courage," and he goes to bed. He just gives up and goes to bed. And two marauders come in and kill him in the middle of the night and cut off his head. See? Good stuff, right?They take the head back to David thinking that David's going to be so happy that his rival king has been killed, but David wasn't happy at all. It's still the son of Saul, his mentor. So he grieves over Ish-bosheth's death, and he kills the two marauders who had killed Ish-bosheth.
So as a result of all of this David is made king over the northern kingdom and they had a united kingdom of Israel. It's not many years, actually less than 100 years that the Kingdom of Israel is united as one. David and Solomon were the only kings who reigned over a united kingdom. David gathers his men from Hebron, and he attacks Jerusalem, a fortified city that was held by the Jebusites. They are victorious over Jerusalem, and they move into Jerusalem, and he sets it up as his capital, and it's called the City of David. And from there he reigns over this united kingdom.
Now that's kind of where we get to in this story. Now in our story for today David gets the Ark of the Covenant. You guys remember the Ark of the Covenant? You've seen "Raiders of the Lost Ark?”You know about the Ark? That's about the only way that most people know about it is from the movie "Raidersof the Lost Ark."So they've got the Ark of the Covenant.
Now the Ark has been hiding in a different town, and it's been in the house of a man named Obed Edom. Do you really think I remember all this stuff? I really have to study it right before I do it or I'll forget it tomorrow.

The Ark is hiding in the house of a man named Obed-edom and because the Ark is there the guy who owns the house, Obed-edom, gets rich, rich, rich. God blesses him enormously. A funny part of the story is that the way it got into house of Obed-edom is that the Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant and every place they put it to hide it from the Israelites, something terrible happened to them. So they finally said, "Okay, we give up. Just take it." So they gave it back to the Israelites who hid it in the home of Obed-edom.
David takes the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Obed-edom.He brings it into Jerusalem, and brings it in through the Eastern Gate, the same gate that Jesus rode through. The Ark is brought into the city with singing, and dancing, with tambourines and lyres, and cymbals with David dancing in front of it half naked.
He comes into the city, they have a great celebration. He gives all the people raisin cakes as a way of celebrating. He blesses all the people but his wife isn't happy.
One more little piece of the story about his wife.I don't know if you remember his wife Michal. She showed up way back at the beginning when David was living in the house of Saul.And she is Saul's daughter, and they were married. When David escaped she helped him and Saul gave Michal, David's wife, to a different man in marriage. So all this time she's been married to somebody else.
And once David becomes victorious and Jonathan and Saul are dead David goes and says, "I want my wife back. Give me my wife back." But she says, "I don't want to go with you." And her husband says, "I don't want her to go with you. She's awesome!" And he grieves, and they grieve but David takes her anyway.He's saying, "I paid good Philistines for her."I won't go into the details, but that's what he says.
So she's not happy being with David, and he kind of locks her up in her room.She's looking out the window at this celebration. She's not in it, she's not involved, she's not joining in, she’s just looking out. And when he comes in dancing, she despises him, and says, "Look at you. Look at you. Is this who you want to be?"
Okay, what can we learn from this story?I'll just very quickly lift up four things. The first is that sometimes you've got to dance. Sometimes you have to just let it go.
The first wedding in our family was when one of my daughters got married, and she had a conversation with my wife some months before the wedding. She said, "Mom, I want you and Dad to dance at the wedding. And I don't just want that dance where you dance with the bride. It's not just the father of the bride dance. We're going to have a wonderful party. This is going to be a celebration. We've been working hard at this. I'm not going to have you just sitting on the side just looking in."
So Dee looked at me and said, "Tom, we're going to dance."
Now here's what I'll tell you. I don't like to dance. I'm not a dancer. I guess I danced in high school, but as I've gotten older I've become more self-conscious and inhibited. I prefer to be the person who sits at the table on the side and watches the dancers and makes snide remarks about them. So that's what I had become.But my wife said that we were going to dance.
So we went just next door to the Fred Astaire Studios, and we took dance lessons. It was kind of fun. We got some friends to take them with us. But they are of absolutely no value whatsoever. If you want to really learn to dance you can do it for years and really get good at it, and maybe you can become some of those people who spin around on the floor. But four dance lessons before your daughter gets married - not of any value. So when it comes time for the wedding, and my anxiety is growing because of how much it costs, and my anxiety is growing because I know I'll have to dance.And we danced. And we danced and we danced and we danced. And we had the best time. So much fun.
And I kept wondering the whole time "Why am I like this when I do this? Why am I afraid to let her rip? Why am I worried about what people are going to think or how silly I'm going to look?"
I think there's a metaphor in there. How do you live your life? How do you worship God? Do you sit here and worry about what people think of you as you worship? Do you set your heart free and let it go and celebrate?
Maybe you've gone to a church that has a more spirited form of worship than we do. Sometimes we're referred to as the "Frozen Chosen." But you go to it and you’re in there and you think, "This is kind of fun." But you're always kind of holding back, because you just aren't sure. It's not that you're worried about what other people think, it's just that there's a part of you that just refuses to dance, to let your life be free.
Part of this Scripture is about an approach to living that is a dance before the Lord. A dance before God as an offering.It's deeper than that and I want you to really take a second look at this whole story. Because one of the things that I love about the story of David is that it is very complex. It's not simple. It's not pure "good guys, bad guys" stuff. David is not just a good guy here.
Why did he bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem? Because he wanted the people to think that God had made him king. He wanted to be the divine prince. Did you hear how he said it in here? Why did he give people raisin cakes and bless them? How do you gain loyalty? How do you cement, guarantee your authority. Think about it – every time you turn around someone's conquering someone to try to take the throne. Saul's still got some sons alive. "How can I have all these people on my side? And keep them here?”
I want you to listen again to what he said to Michal, and I'm going to read it with a little different emphasis because it makes a difference. "David said to Michal, 'It was before the Lord who chose me in place of your father and all his households. To appoint me as prince over Israel. The people of the Lord that I have danced before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this. I will be abased in my own eyes but by the maids of whom you have spoken by them I will be held in honor.' You may not like me but they love me."
John Holmberg, the Old Testament scholar, said that David clearly loved the Lord but he loved himself just a little bit more.
We all have mixed motives. It's political season, and we have to ask ourselves, "Why do people go into politics?" It's not an easy ride. I mean I can't imagine being in a position where if you're wildly successful 55% of the people like you and 45% of the people can't stand you. Why do people do that? Well, on the one hand I do believe it's the case that the vast majority of people who choose to go into that kind of public life do it because they believe God has called them to that place, because they really do want to make a difference in the world, because they really do want to serve the public. I believe that.
And on the other hand I also believe that in every one of them there is a sense in which they want control. And they want their side to win. The truth is that every time we hear a political discussions it's not the issues that are involved at all. It's just who wins. Like it's some kind of game.
So we spend our time in political campaigns trying to paint the other side with bad motives and claim the good motives for ourselves. And the other side does exactly the same thing. Then we go on for a while and everyone votes. But I will tell you that almost all - I can't say "all" - I would if I could - but almost all have mixed motives, good and bad and it's all mixed up in there together.
When you come to the offering in worship and you give an offering to God you have mixed motives.Part of you wants to honor and praise God and part of you is doing it because you think you're supposed to. You should. You might be thinking as you do it, "I wish I didn't have to do this."
When you pray and when we're praying together maybe you pray or you may be closing your eyes so peoplewill think you're praying while you're working on your grocery list. Let's just be honest about that. So when we get to that place how do we deal with that?
Every time I read the newspapers I realize that it doesn't seem that there are any real good guys. It seems like there are all sorts of different motivations, and I'm convinced that it's not as simple as we make it all out to be.
Sigmund Freud said that all behavior - every one of our behaviors - is over determined - that's the technical term. Over determined.What that means is that every behavior we do is driven by multiple motivations. It's not just to please our mom or our dad or just because of sex or just because of power. Everything we do has multiple motivations. It's “over determined.”
So what we have to do is take a look at our hearts. We have to be willing to really look inside and take a look at our motivations and try and listen to that voice of God in there that's calling us forward for the right reasons.
It's why we pray. When you pray by yourself nobody's watching. It's just you and God. There's nobody else telling you this or that, one thing or another. It's just an attempt to open our hearts and let God in and sort through those motivations. So we can follow that one voice that calls us forward.See, motive does matter - Jesus makes that clear. In the Sermon on the Mount it says "You have heard it said not to kill, but I tell you don't be angry." What matters is the motive. When you pray don't be like the hypocriteswho pray out on the streets where others will see them. Go into your closet and pray. When you give alms don't give your alms on the street. But when you give your alms - I like this one - "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."Even hide it from yourself so you won't use that hand to pat yourself on the back.Motivation really does matter.
But what we have to do then is work hard in prayer to try and align our actions and our lives with that motivation of worship that we might have an audience of just one.
We did a sermon series a few years ago called "Everyday Worship" and we used as our theme verse Romans 12:1 from the Message translation which goes like this. Paul's writing and it says, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering.” Make everything you do about that audience of one. Work hard on the motivations in your heart that everything you do would be an offering to God alone.
I don't know how many of you are Star Wars fans, but there's a character in one of the early movies called Jar Jar. I don't know if you remember him. The ones who are smiling know about him, and the other ones are puzzled.... SoI think Jar Jar was in "The Phantom Menace," and he was not popular. The critics just ate him alive. It was a computer-generated character. They said he was obnoxious, moderately racist and said all the stuff that just made you mad. But the kids 12 and under loved Jar Jar. In fact he was one of the most popular Halloween costumes for that year.
So there was an interview with Rob Coleman who was the computer animator who had created this character. He said that when he read the script the first time he had the same reaction many of usdo - he couldn't stand him. But then he realized that there was only one person he had to please, and that was George Lucas. He didn't need to make anybody happy. George Lucas was the creator of this character and he was the only that needed to be pleased.
What would it be like if you really got to that place where theonly one you were trying to please was your creator? Was the one who made you?
Well, I suspect that you'll never get to that place. We keep trying and we keep working. John Wesley said that we are to be made perfect in love. To have our motivations be only love. We keep trying and moving on toward perfection, but we won't get there.So where does that leave us?
Well, we can't let it stop us. We still have to step out and trust that the grace of God will make up the difference.
There isa verse in the Old Testament in Genesis where Joseph... You know the story of Joseph where he gets sold into slaveryin Egypt by his brothers. Partly because he was a little bit like David, the type to kind of pat himself on the back. And the brothers threw him into slavery, and he ends up being the prime minister, and his brothers have to come and beg food from him. And when they realize who he is they're afraid that he'll kill them. His response is an incredible verse.
He says, "Don't be afraid. What you have intended for evil God has used for good."
He's saying, "I was ableto save Egypt and in fact you because you sold me into slavery. Not that your motivation was right, but God took what we intended for evil andused it for good.” God can take even our worst efforts and use them to work miracles. We are covered by the grace of God.
Martin Luther has a famous quote that is sometimes controversial but I think it's really powerful. It's this: "Sin but sin boldly."What does he mean by that? Well, here's the actual wording from Letter 99 from Luther so you can understand what he's saying. It says, "Be a sinner and let your sins be strong." That's often translated as "Sin boldly." “Let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death and the world."
That we choose to live our lives trusting not being afraid, but having this incredible freedom to live fully and abundantly. John 10:10 says, "I came that you might have life and have it in abundance.” Have it fully, have that kind of bold life that's willing to dance before the Ark even with your mixed motives. Go for it. Don't be afraid.
I love the anthem today. If you go to a wedding one of the most fun parts is watching the children dance. They go out and they spin. Our grandkids they love to dance. You just put on the music, and they make their moves. And it's just so heartwarming.
Why is it so heartwarming? Because they are so free. That's what God has called us to, that kind of life that even with our mixed motives is incredibly and totally free.
So take a look at your life. Sort through those motives, and see if you can focus only on that audience of one. But then dance before the Lord with all your heart.