July 12, 2009
“Dancing for God with all of our might”
2 Samuel 6:1-19
Ephesians 1:3-14
Year B
6th Sunday after Pentecost
The story of David
This summer, we have been following the life of David. We have learned about his anointing as the King. And now we learn more about his life. What is it that makes him so special. Why is it that the people love him so much, that they follow him. We learn about his personal life. His first wife is Saul’s daughter Michal. They grew up together, and eventually got married.
The Story of Michal
In the story, David is the hero. But Michal is depicted as a bitter woman. She didn’t seem to understand David. And may have mourned her father’s role as the first king of Isreal. She scolds david in this story – and later it says that she never had kids because she could not accept David as the king of Isreal.
But I think Michal is getting a bad wrap- as many women in the bible usually do.
Imagine this – you have been sitting home all day cleaning house and waiting for your husband to come home after a long day at work. You hear a commotion outside, and you look out the curtain of the front window to see what is going on. You see your husband dancing – You notice that there is nothing under his outgarment – so his private parts are showing as he is dancing all over the place. If that is not bad enough – you notice that three young girls are standing on the corner - with their eyes glued to his groin area. All of these young girls are from your neighborhood – you have known them all since they were born, and today they are all staring at your husband’s private parts. When he finally comes in the house – what do you say to him? How was your day? Or why were you dancing like that in front of all of the neighborhood? Given the circumstance, that would seem like a very likely question. Not a sign of bitterness at all.
Some even say that Michal was actually a very wise woman, concerned about what others would think of her husband and protective of his reputation.
We will never know – because the story depicts her otherwise.
David’s point – dancing with all of your might
The story is not about Michal, but about David. More importantly about David’s faith, and the point of the story is that David was willing to worship God with all of his might.
David was not the best of persons, did some pretty bad things.
The bible is a very vulnerable story about David. It doesn’t depict him in a very good light. David did some pretty bad things. And the bible even admits that he did not pay as much attention to his family as he should have. Not only did he not listen to Michal, he never seemed to care about his wives, and he let his children do whatever they wanted. With no discipline.
This was a political story – he claimed the kinghood, not only over the past, but also the future.
There is also the fair accusation that the only thing David really cared about was becoming King. Marrying Saul’s daughter in the first place could have been a political move. He united Israel and Judah, and established Jerusalem as his capital. He did not want anyone to question him – or his ancestors behind them.
But he loved God – he devoted his life to God both the good and the bad.
But the one thing the Bible wants to make clear – David was not the best of persons – but he loved God. He worshipped God and he devoted his life to God. He was not the best of persons – but he bought God with him wherever he went.
The center of the story is not David, but the presence of God – the ark of convenant.
As a matter of fact, the center of this story is not Michal of David, it is the presence of God in the Ark of Covenent. The isrealites took the ark with them in every battle. It helped them to win.
What was in the ark of convanent?
The ark was a wooden box with angels on top of it. It was believed to have to tablets of the ten commandements inside, along with a lot of others things, which contained the power of God. Today there is a legend that the ark is in South Africa. A group of people who say there were descendents of the keepers of the ark, took it there and they keep it inside of a church – no one is allowed to come near them inside of the church so there is no way to verify if it is really the ark.
The presence of God represented both promise and danger - Uzzah was killed for touching the Ark, but Obed prospered.
The point is that the ark is thought to be very powerful presence. On the one hand, Uzzah was killed just for touching the ark to save it from falling. David asked another family to keep the ark for safekeeping. David noticed that for three months Obed and his family did very well while keeping the ark. One the one hand the presence of God is dangerous to handle, something to be feared, and yet on the other hand God is wonderful and someone to depend on. God is promise and danger – isn’t that a lot like our thought s on God. Someone to fear, yet someone to depend on?
David had reached a point in his life when he realized that he could not serve without God – He realized that he needed God in his life.
Weighing both sides of God – promise ad danger, David realized that he could not go forward as King, without the blessing of God. There was no way he could serve the people – without God’s presence.
We all have to reach the point in our lives – when we see that God’s power never serves us and our person power and plans – We come to understand that our power and our plansis to to serve God and God’s purpose.
Ephesians speaks to that point
Ephesians is a Lots of words – but basically it makes three points: God adopts us; God redeems us; God unites us
We are given a purpose in life – to praise God
We should Praise God in everything
Dancing on the chips
A friend of mine tells a story of a day in her life. She had had a long week at work, and she was having friends over for the weekend. Of course on Saturday morning, she had a lot that needed to be done before her friends arrived. She went to the bank – and the teller made a mistake. She went to the store and realized that she had forgot half of what was on her list. She had 45 minutes to fix lunch for her friends. She thought of soup – but realized she had forgot milk. She thought of leftover bake beans only to see they had been in the refrigerator too long and had molded. She thought she would have potato chips and hot dogs. She went to open the bag of potato chips that she had just bought. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t open them, when she got them opened them, she did not realize that she opened the wrong side. All of the potato chips fell on the ground. That was the last straw. She started to scream and cry. Her husband immediately came in to see what was wrong. She expected that he would at least help her clean them up. Instead he laughed at her, and then started to dance on the chips – grinding them into her floor. All she could do was laugh – laugh at herself, laugh at the situation. She had expected her husband to clean up her mess and make it all better, instead, he have her the moment of gladness that broke her mood and helped her to take her day in stride and keep on going forward.
How many times in life does God do that for us. We are waiting for God to come in an clean things up and make things better, and instead God comes into our lives and dances. Giving us a moment to stop and to think about the important things in life, and to realize that messes come and go, but we have to take it all into perspective. And just dance along with the situation. And with God.
Our purpose is not only to be aware of the presence, but to also respond to it – to dance to the rhythm of life.
Life flows, life comes and goes, there are ups and downs. Seasons of life
Question to you – what dance do you do? Foxtrot, the moon walk Just dance Where is your ark of convenant – the presence of God to keep you centered? What is God’s purpose for your life?
Lee Ann Womacks song – I hope you dance is one of my favorite songs – because it reminds us to dance like full out, without no regard for who is watching or what they think, no matter what.
She says….I hope you never lose your sense of wonder You get your fill to eat But always keep that hunger May you never take one single breath for granted God forbid love ever leave you empty handed I hope you still feel small When you stand by the ocean Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance I hope you dance I hope you dance
Live, love, serve, cry, pray with all of your might.
Showing posts with label determination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label determination. Show all posts
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Threatened with Resurrection
April 26, 2009
Preached for the Third Sunday of Easter
Threatened with Resurrection
Reproached and rewritten from May 3, 1998 (there are other versions)
Revelation 7:9-17
Luke 24:36-48
For year B
It’s been what – 4 years now and I am still a Grey’s anatomy fan. It is my dream to one day write my sermons that way Shondra Rhymes writes her episodes. She always starts out with a theme in every day life, something that all of the characters are dealing with. They start their days off dealing with this issue, and then on to the hospital to see if come full blast. And at the end of the episode – there is always some resolution to the situation, but the issue still there. There is some comment about the issue and the introduction of some cool song – that everyone will go out and buy to think more about how that issue plays out in our lives.
The first episode this Thursday was a rerun – on how Izzy, one of the original medical students was recovering from an operation to remove a brain tumor - the whole cast – most of whom were her classmates stood around the operating room to see if she would be alright. The theme for the night was trauma – Trauma in our lives always leaves a scar no matter how much we heal – it follows us around in our lives. But the good thing is that it moves us forward. It edges us to go on, to move forward to something deeper in our lives.
That is the theme of my sermon this morning – trauma- and how it affects us and gets us going. That is the theme of Easter – the Sunday’s after Easter – dealing with the trauma of death, and betrayal, and misunderstanding. And yet still witnessing the beauty of God’s presence - and creating a beautiful life in the midst of it.
I am always amazed at how the writer of Grey’s anatomy is able to put all of life’s issues into one concise word – and then she says one or two sentences about that issue – and she has said all that needs to be said. How does she do that?
I am not there yet – I still have to preach a whole sermon to get my point across. But believe me I am working on it. But I also don’t have the luxury of thousands of actors to tell my story for me.
But anyway – back to the theme of trauma – and Easter. In the Luke passage for today – The disciples are devastated at the death of Jesus. They don’t know what they are going to do – until he appears to them and brings them peace and then sends them out into the world to witness to what they know about God. After the resurrection, there are several stories of Jesus appearance. They are so caught up in grief, they don’t recognize Jesus. But he doesn’t come to continue life as it has been, but to shake them up to realize this things have changed. Resurrection is the beauty of life, after the scars of trauma. Resurrection is the message that it is time to move forward.
The power of God came to earth- through the life of Jesus, but it was after the resurrection that power was let out into the world – to make an appearance at any time in any situation.
The Buddhist have reincarnation – which says that it it doesn’t matter if you die – because you will come back again to correct all of the mistakes that you made in this life. The Hindu’s have rebirth – which says that when you die, you will come back in another form based on the way that you lived your life. The Jews have stories of rescitation – there are even plenty of stories of people who have died, whom Jesus himself bought back to life – Resurrection the concept of experiencing death and decay – and then completely coming back to life as the person you always were - is a concept that is unique to Christianity . It is a special concept – because it stresses that we are all special and unique people to God. That life is precious and intended for a purpose. We only get one chance at life, and it is important for us to make the most of that one chance.
There is a human part of us and there is a divine part of us. There is a part of us that disappears when we die, and there is a part of us that lives on.
Resurrection acknowledges the trauma of life – and the push forward for us to heal and move on.
One of my most powerful examples of the definition of resurrection, and the power that it has for our lives – comes from a book that we had to read in seminary called - Threatened with Resurrection.
That seems like a strange title - threatened with resurrection. Threatened – resurrection is a promise not a threat. It is what Jesus promises us if we are good and we behave nicely. At the end of the world – we too will be resurrected like him.
Actually resurrection is not a promise of the future - but it is a promise of now. Of dealing with the trauma that we experience in our lives.
Threatened with Resurrection is a poem written by Julia Esquivel from Guatamala. In the 1950’s Guatamala was a country which was very oppressive and apparently very paranoid. They killed hundreds of thousands of their own people – because they thought they were conspiring against them. Soldiers would go through whole neighborhoods and ill everybody – even 3 month old babies. For many years – people were afraid of speaking out of this injustice.
Why do I tell you that story for Easter – because these people have one of the most powerful Easter faiths that have ever heard of. They realized that the soldiers and this dire situation had just threatened them with resurrection. They realized that no matter how many of them were killed that the soldiers could not kill the spirit of the community. They realized that no matter how much devastation that they had to face, that they would not become resentful. They would continue to love peace, to love God, and to love their enemies. They truly came to represent what it means to be resurrected. It means that you cannot destroy their soul – which was never a part of this world. What the world did not give them, the world could not take away. They came to realize that they were children of God – who would always prevail.
I tell you that story because there are still many communities which are being devastated in much that same way – every day. And we never hear about it, it we hear romantic stories about it. We hear the stories of pirates in Somalia – because it is romantic for Americans to hear that our Navy are protecting people from the bad guys – but we never hear that their country Somalia has been lawless and without proper government for years. We never hear about all of the people in Darfur who are still being persecuted, or that the Congo and Liberia have been in a civil war for years.
Even the missionary Janet Lehr Lewis talks of the Palestinians who are depending on their faith in an oppressive situation. There are many times when she will send an email to tell us the real story behind what we hear about in the news. There are many times when she will say in her email – that it is not safe for her to tell the truth about what she is going through - because she is not safe yet.
I tell you that story – because I am grateful to groups like the United Methodist Women – who are willing to uncover the truth about the world that we live in. Every year, they provide studies for us to look at a country or situation in a new and different way. The School of Christian Mission has been a profound part of my faith development. This year they are doing a study on Darfur – to tell people what it really going on. They tell us what we can do to help and to pray even when we are far removed from the situation. I had someone from another denomination, say that the United Methodist Women are the best kept secret of the denomination. If people were aware of what they were doing, they would definitely listen.
I tell you that story - because if they can be threatened with resurrection in such dire circumstance – that surely we too can become awakened to realize the role that resurrection plays in our lives.
A man went to a psychologist to complain about his brother in law who thought he was a chicken. The psychologist said it should be no problem to cure the brother in law of his delusion. The man refused, said no I don’t think I will be bringing him in – we really need the eggs.
There is a story that the disciple Peter was able to heal a man of his blindness. After being healed, the man gouged his eyes out-he had been making a lot of money as a blind man, and he wanted to continue to play his game.
In life, Jesus realized that many of us are just like that. The resurrection shows us that there is a better way of doing things, a healthier way to live. And want to go back to the old way of doing things. It makes sense to us. And in a lot of ways – we were so glad to have the eggs- they pay off – that we were no willing to think differently. Resurrection is truly a threat to us.
Things can change – things will change- things are intended to change. We have to accept it- but we also have to have faith that God will give us the strength to adapt to new ways. In spite of our resistance. We can give up bad habits, we can think about the future.
It is usually our fear of death that keeps us locked in our lives before resurrection. It is the fear of death that forces others to be oppressive and to kill others, it is fear of death that keeps us thinking about scarcity instead of abundance.
Jesus made a point to come to us to show us that death does indeed happen, but so does resurrection. Always. So there is nothing that we have to be afraid of.
The poem threatened with resurrection is a very long poem – not suitable for reading the whole thing in worship. But I wanted to read some lines of it.
There is something here within us, which doesn’t let us sleep, which doesn’t let us rest, which doesn’t stop pounding deep inside, it is the silent, warm weeping Indian woman without her husband, it is the sad gaze of the children, fixed there beyond memory, in the very pupil of our eyes which during sleep, though closed, keep watch, with each contraction of the heart in every wakening, what keeps us from sleeping is they have threatened us with resurrection. Because at each nightfall, though exhausted from the endless inventory of killings since 1954, yet we continue to love life, and do not accept death. Because in this marathon of hope, there is always others to relieve us, in bearing the courage necessary to arrive at the goal which lies beyond death.. Accompany us then on this vigil and you will know what it is to dream. You will then know how marvelous it is to live threatened with resurrection, to dream awake, to keep watch asleep, to live while dying, and to already know oneself resurrected. (reread the last paragraph)
None of us probably will ever know the feeling of living as persecuted people. That is not the point. That all of us should know the significance of living as resurrected people. People with the power to go on and move forward. People with the power to heal and to be healed. People with the power to know that life will always go on in any circumstance.
Trauma – trauma always leaves a scar on us- But it is that scar that can either hold us down – or move us forward. Depending on what we believe about the resurrection. God’s power to overcome it all.
Finally the quatamalan have a national bird – the quetzal – it looks like a small parrot. When caged – it dies. But when allowed to be free it lives for a very long time. But he is special, because even in the toughest of circumstances – it rises above and recreated itself and flies away to a new life.
What will the power of resurrection do for us?
Preached for the Third Sunday of Easter
Threatened with Resurrection
Reproached and rewritten from May 3, 1998 (there are other versions)
Revelation 7:9-17
Luke 24:36-48
For year B
It’s been what – 4 years now and I am still a Grey’s anatomy fan. It is my dream to one day write my sermons that way Shondra Rhymes writes her episodes. She always starts out with a theme in every day life, something that all of the characters are dealing with. They start their days off dealing with this issue, and then on to the hospital to see if come full blast. And at the end of the episode – there is always some resolution to the situation, but the issue still there. There is some comment about the issue and the introduction of some cool song – that everyone will go out and buy to think more about how that issue plays out in our lives.
The first episode this Thursday was a rerun – on how Izzy, one of the original medical students was recovering from an operation to remove a brain tumor - the whole cast – most of whom were her classmates stood around the operating room to see if she would be alright. The theme for the night was trauma – Trauma in our lives always leaves a scar no matter how much we heal – it follows us around in our lives. But the good thing is that it moves us forward. It edges us to go on, to move forward to something deeper in our lives.
That is the theme of my sermon this morning – trauma- and how it affects us and gets us going. That is the theme of Easter – the Sunday’s after Easter – dealing with the trauma of death, and betrayal, and misunderstanding. And yet still witnessing the beauty of God’s presence - and creating a beautiful life in the midst of it.
I am always amazed at how the writer of Grey’s anatomy is able to put all of life’s issues into one concise word – and then she says one or two sentences about that issue – and she has said all that needs to be said. How does she do that?
I am not there yet – I still have to preach a whole sermon to get my point across. But believe me I am working on it. But I also don’t have the luxury of thousands of actors to tell my story for me.
But anyway – back to the theme of trauma – and Easter. In the Luke passage for today – The disciples are devastated at the death of Jesus. They don’t know what they are going to do – until he appears to them and brings them peace and then sends them out into the world to witness to what they know about God. After the resurrection, there are several stories of Jesus appearance. They are so caught up in grief, they don’t recognize Jesus. But he doesn’t come to continue life as it has been, but to shake them up to realize this things have changed. Resurrection is the beauty of life, after the scars of trauma. Resurrection is the message that it is time to move forward.
The power of God came to earth- through the life of Jesus, but it was after the resurrection that power was let out into the world – to make an appearance at any time in any situation.
The Buddhist have reincarnation – which says that it it doesn’t matter if you die – because you will come back again to correct all of the mistakes that you made in this life. The Hindu’s have rebirth – which says that when you die, you will come back in another form based on the way that you lived your life. The Jews have stories of rescitation – there are even plenty of stories of people who have died, whom Jesus himself bought back to life – Resurrection the concept of experiencing death and decay – and then completely coming back to life as the person you always were - is a concept that is unique to Christianity . It is a special concept – because it stresses that we are all special and unique people to God. That life is precious and intended for a purpose. We only get one chance at life, and it is important for us to make the most of that one chance.
There is a human part of us and there is a divine part of us. There is a part of us that disappears when we die, and there is a part of us that lives on.
Resurrection acknowledges the trauma of life – and the push forward for us to heal and move on.
One of my most powerful examples of the definition of resurrection, and the power that it has for our lives – comes from a book that we had to read in seminary called - Threatened with Resurrection.
That seems like a strange title - threatened with resurrection. Threatened – resurrection is a promise not a threat. It is what Jesus promises us if we are good and we behave nicely. At the end of the world – we too will be resurrected like him.
Actually resurrection is not a promise of the future - but it is a promise of now. Of dealing with the trauma that we experience in our lives.
Threatened with Resurrection is a poem written by Julia Esquivel from Guatamala. In the 1950’s Guatamala was a country which was very oppressive and apparently very paranoid. They killed hundreds of thousands of their own people – because they thought they were conspiring against them. Soldiers would go through whole neighborhoods and ill everybody – even 3 month old babies. For many years – people were afraid of speaking out of this injustice.
Why do I tell you that story for Easter – because these people have one of the most powerful Easter faiths that have ever heard of. They realized that the soldiers and this dire situation had just threatened them with resurrection. They realized that no matter how many of them were killed that the soldiers could not kill the spirit of the community. They realized that no matter how much devastation that they had to face, that they would not become resentful. They would continue to love peace, to love God, and to love their enemies. They truly came to represent what it means to be resurrected. It means that you cannot destroy their soul – which was never a part of this world. What the world did not give them, the world could not take away. They came to realize that they were children of God – who would always prevail.
I tell you that story because there are still many communities which are being devastated in much that same way – every day. And we never hear about it, it we hear romantic stories about it. We hear the stories of pirates in Somalia – because it is romantic for Americans to hear that our Navy are protecting people from the bad guys – but we never hear that their country Somalia has been lawless and without proper government for years. We never hear about all of the people in Darfur who are still being persecuted, or that the Congo and Liberia have been in a civil war for years.
Even the missionary Janet Lehr Lewis talks of the Palestinians who are depending on their faith in an oppressive situation. There are many times when she will send an email to tell us the real story behind what we hear about in the news. There are many times when she will say in her email – that it is not safe for her to tell the truth about what she is going through - because she is not safe yet.
I tell you that story – because I am grateful to groups like the United Methodist Women – who are willing to uncover the truth about the world that we live in. Every year, they provide studies for us to look at a country or situation in a new and different way. The School of Christian Mission has been a profound part of my faith development. This year they are doing a study on Darfur – to tell people what it really going on. They tell us what we can do to help and to pray even when we are far removed from the situation. I had someone from another denomination, say that the United Methodist Women are the best kept secret of the denomination. If people were aware of what they were doing, they would definitely listen.
I tell you that story - because if they can be threatened with resurrection in such dire circumstance – that surely we too can become awakened to realize the role that resurrection plays in our lives.
A man went to a psychologist to complain about his brother in law who thought he was a chicken. The psychologist said it should be no problem to cure the brother in law of his delusion. The man refused, said no I don’t think I will be bringing him in – we really need the eggs.
There is a story that the disciple Peter was able to heal a man of his blindness. After being healed, the man gouged his eyes out-he had been making a lot of money as a blind man, and he wanted to continue to play his game.
In life, Jesus realized that many of us are just like that. The resurrection shows us that there is a better way of doing things, a healthier way to live. And want to go back to the old way of doing things. It makes sense to us. And in a lot of ways – we were so glad to have the eggs- they pay off – that we were no willing to think differently. Resurrection is truly a threat to us.
Things can change – things will change- things are intended to change. We have to accept it- but we also have to have faith that God will give us the strength to adapt to new ways. In spite of our resistance. We can give up bad habits, we can think about the future.
It is usually our fear of death that keeps us locked in our lives before resurrection. It is the fear of death that forces others to be oppressive and to kill others, it is fear of death that keeps us thinking about scarcity instead of abundance.
Jesus made a point to come to us to show us that death does indeed happen, but so does resurrection. Always. So there is nothing that we have to be afraid of.
The poem threatened with resurrection is a very long poem – not suitable for reading the whole thing in worship. But I wanted to read some lines of it.
There is something here within us, which doesn’t let us sleep, which doesn’t let us rest, which doesn’t stop pounding deep inside, it is the silent, warm weeping Indian woman without her husband, it is the sad gaze of the children, fixed there beyond memory, in the very pupil of our eyes which during sleep, though closed, keep watch, with each contraction of the heart in every wakening, what keeps us from sleeping is they have threatened us with resurrection. Because at each nightfall, though exhausted from the endless inventory of killings since 1954, yet we continue to love life, and do not accept death. Because in this marathon of hope, there is always others to relieve us, in bearing the courage necessary to arrive at the goal which lies beyond death.. Accompany us then on this vigil and you will know what it is to dream. You will then know how marvelous it is to live threatened with resurrection, to dream awake, to keep watch asleep, to live while dying, and to already know oneself resurrected. (reread the last paragraph)
None of us probably will ever know the feeling of living as persecuted people. That is not the point. That all of us should know the significance of living as resurrected people. People with the power to go on and move forward. People with the power to heal and to be healed. People with the power to know that life will always go on in any circumstance.
Trauma – trauma always leaves a scar on us- But it is that scar that can either hold us down – or move us forward. Depending on what we believe about the resurrection. God’s power to overcome it all.
Finally the quatamalan have a national bird – the quetzal – it looks like a small parrot. When caged – it dies. But when allowed to be free it lives for a very long time. But he is special, because even in the toughest of circumstances – it rises above and recreated itself and flies away to a new life.
What will the power of resurrection do for us?
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