2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
July 12, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the Chinese Congregational Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most popular semi-reality shows is Dancing With the Stars<\/em>. I know it\u2019s popular because my wife, Joy watches it. The idea for the show is to have celebrity people who are not dancers to partner with professional dancers to come up with dance moves to compete with other such couples. And of course, there are judges that make all kinds of unkind comments but what makes this a reality show is that you also get to register your votes by calling in to express your approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dancing With the Stars<\/em> has spawn spin-offs and movies that focus on dance moves. But what is surprising is that there\u2019s a genuine dancing sensation sweeping the nation. Americans are not just watching these shows; they are actually doing it on the dance floor. I know this because almost every wedding that I attend these days, there\u2019s always time set aside for ballroom dancing. We are not just doing the electric slide or YMCA anymore, but people today know how to tango, swing and all kinds of fancy moves. How many of you go dancing on a regular basis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dancing in the Bible<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2 Samuel, we see that King David is dancing in the streets of Jerusalem. The event is a pivotal part of ancient Israel\u2019s religious and political history because King David was installing the ark of the covenant in Jerusalem. By centralizing religious and political authority in Jerusalem, David was laying the foundation for the Golden Age of Israelite history under his son and successor, Solomon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our lesson for today, David and his people bring the ark of God to Jerusalem. As they make their way to the city, David and all the house of Israel are \u201cdancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals\u201d (v. 5). It\u2019s an incredibly joyful worship experience, full of music and shouting and enthusiastic movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Presbyterian author, Frederick Buechner writes, \u201cHow they cut loose together whirling around before the ark in such a passion that they caught fire from each other and blazed up in a single flame\u201d of magnificence. If David and his people were competing in Dancing With the Stars<\/em>, they would have won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the text doesn\u2019t use this word, David was \u201centhusiastic\u201d in his dancing. Enthusiastic originally meant \u201cin God\u201d (en theos, in God).<\/p>\n\n\n\n While all of this enthusiastic dancing was going on, we see that David\u2019s wife, Michal, the daughter of Saul, his rival for the throne and the first king of Israel\u2014absolutely hates it. According to 2 Samuel, \u201cShe despised him in her heart.\u201d It feels awkward to her, as dancing often does. Embarrassing. Inappropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can sympathize with Michal, can\u2019t we? She wasn\u2019t an evil woman; she just had a hard time with David\u2019s enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shall We Dance?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I want to be honest with you. I don\u2019t dance! Now if any of you had a chance to read my story in the first Chinatown book that our church published, I wrote about dancing in the church and how I made my youth advisor cry when I challenged her decision to prevent us from dancing in the church. But that was a long, long time ago when I was trying to dance to the Beach Boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When our two children were about to get married, my wife dragged me to take some dance lessons so that I can swing dance. I kept on looking at my feet while stepping on her toes! It was pretty bad, but I got an \u201cA\u201d for effort but voted off Dancing with the Stars<\/em>. But in the end, I was able to dance with my new daughter-in-law and then with my own daughter at their weddings. I think I\u2019m just too stiff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But putting all that aside, some churches do frown on dancing in the church. At our Baptist church, we call it folk dances or square dancing. But rarely, do we have or our young people ask for dancing in our church. You would think that at a Baptist church, we would have more movement than we actually have!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us don\u2019t want dancing in worship. It feels awkward, embarrassing, inappropriate. One time I remember at a Baptist youth convention, there was a girl who danced to the Lord\u2019s Prayer down the center aisle. As one woman said, \u201cDon\u2019t bring it into my sanctuary.\u201d NIMS. Not in my sanctuary!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of us would rather not dance or see dancing in the church. We prefer simply standing still, not moving a muscle like some of those statue street art we sometimes see at Fisherman\u2019s Wharf. Our worship of God involves our minds, our hearts and our tongues, but rarely our whole bodies. Michal, David\u2019s wife, would certainly approve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a serious problem with this, and it has nothing to do with whether we actually allow dancing in worship or not. The dancing question is a distraction; the real issue is much deeper. Our main problem today is a lack of enthusiasm. We have become so concerned with feeling awkward, embarrassed and inappropriate as Christians that we have choked much of the enthusiasm out of our service to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s the real tragedy: If we aren\u2019t enthusiastic, we aren\u2019t en theos, in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do we get back into God? How can we re-ignite that flaming enthusiasm in our whole bodies in our service to God? An excellent start is to learn the steps to good dancing and apply them to Christian discipleship. These include teamwork, breathing, studying and being willing to have fun. Perhaps by being more faithful disciples, I can also learn how to be a better dancer along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step One: Teamwork<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our youth every August at their weeklong Youth Camp do the o si funi mungu<\/em> which is a Ghanaian folk dance. It takes teamwork to get everyone moving at the same way to see a beautiful group dance. The same is true of our service to God. Notice that King David didn\u2019t perform a solo in front of the ark, but \u201cDavid and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord\u201d (v. 5). That\u2019s teamwork, and it\u2019s essential to real success\u2014whether you\u2019re dancing in a group, singing in the choir, serving at Day Camp, participating in a small group Bible study, or envisioning where God is calling you to service in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you are working as a team, there\u2019s very little chance of awkwardness or embarrassment. It\u2019s like when everyone is on the dance floor, the way you are dancing makes no difference. No one notices\u2014it\u2019s not embarrassing. In 2 Samuel, the only one who despises David is Michal\u2014and notice that she is all alone, looking out her window, outside the circle of dancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step Two: Breathing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our oldest granddaughter, Evi takes ballet lessons and her teacher tells her that breathing is an essential part of dancing and that you\u2019ll never make it through a performance unless you learn how to breathe. Hold your breath and you\u2019ll tire out quickly because your muscles won\u2019t get the oxygen they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Christians we need the breath of God to fill us if we are going to do the work that God wants us to do. Remember that Adam was lifeless until the Lord \u201cbreathed into his nostrils the breath of life\u201d (Gen. 2:7), and the people of Israel were dead bones until \u201cthe breath came into them, and they lived\u201d (Ezekiel 37:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same way, our historic churches in Chinatown, yours and ours cannot serve God well unless we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and breathe deeply in prayer. It is only when we ask for the Lord to fill us that we will be inspired\u2014to be inspired means \u201cto breathe into\u201d or \u201cfill with spirit.\u201d David was breathing deeply as he \u201cdanced before the Lord with all his might\u201d (vs. 14), and God gave him the energy to bring the ark all the way from Baalejudah to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I understand from Pastor Ong that you are participating in a discerning process to envision your mission and vision. This is how you are taking the necessary time to breathe in deeply the Holy Spirit to have the energy to dance before the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3: Studying or Practicing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like in Dancing With the Stars<\/em>, we all know there are good dances and bad ones. But to discern the difference, we have to study and look carefully to know the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gospel lesson for this Sunday from Mark 6:14-29, tells the story of how a certain dance was used not to praise God but to put John the Baptist to death. King Herod is throwing himself a birthday party, and he is so pleased by the dance of his daughter that he says to the girl, \u201cAsk for whatever you wish, and I will give it\u201d (Mark 6:22). After consulting with her mother, the little girl rushes back to Herod and requests, \u201cI want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter\u201d (v. 25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Herod is deeply grieved by this request, yet he doesn\u2019t want to refuse the girl. He loses his head while watching this beautiful dance, and now\u2014to keep a promise\u2014John the Baptist is going to have to lose his. So Herod sends a soldier of the guard, and in short order John is killed and his head is place on a platter for the girl and her mother (vv.26-28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the question \u201cShall we dance?\u201d cannot be answered with an easy yes or no. Study of Scripture reveals that dance is good if it\u2019s truly enthusiastic, truly \u201cin God.\u201d Our Lord certainly wants us to feel passion, as David did, and to be willing to demonstrate that in joyful praise and thanksgiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But dance can be dangerous if it becomes a human-centered form of entertainment, cut off from God\u2014one that causes us to \u201close our heads.\u201d Herod was so captivated by the beauty and passion of his daughter\u2019s dance that he lost his connection to God, and in the end, he participated in the killing of an innocent man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n King David was God-centered, and his dance was heavenly. King Herod was human-centered, and his daughter\u2019s dance created hell on earth. The critical choice is to keep God at the center of whatever we say, think, do and feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 4: Have Fun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our last dance step is to have fun. We cannot dance well without having fun and the same is true in our lives of Christian discipleship. \u201cAs the Father has loved me, so I have loved you,\u201d says Jesus to his disciples. \u201cI have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete\u201d (John 15:9, 11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n As people who are secure in the love of Christ, we can step out in faith and have some fun\u2014Jesus wants our joy to be complete. Sometimes we worry about whether we are doing enough to help the world. We look outside the doors and windows of our churches and become overwhelmed by the daunting challenges facing us. But we don\u2019t have to worry about being superhuman to save the world because we serve a Savior who has already saved the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it\u2019s time to dance with God. I may never become the relaxed and smooth dancer that my wife wishes me to be. But by combining teamwork, good breathing, careful study, and a willingness to have fun, we\u2019re able to serve the Lord with the enthusiasm of King David. When we are en theos, \u201cin God,\u201d no one will despise us. When we are en theos, \u201cin God,\u201d the saints of Chinese Congregational Church and the saints of First Chinese Baptist Church, will share God\u2019s love, feel God\u2019s joy, and dance with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord, we rejoice in you because you have given us new life in the forgiveness of sins and the renewal of hearts. As your dancing partners, we pray that you will lead us to faithful discipleship to proclaim the Good News to all the world. Show us how to work together. Send us the Holy Spirit. Engage us to discern your word in study. And grant us the willingness to have fun in what we do. We pray enthusiastically in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19 July 12, 2009 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the Chinese Congregational Church in San Francisco. One of the most popular semi-reality shows is Dancing