How to Praise

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 16, 2006

Heritage Congregational Church, Madison, WI

In 2 Samuel we find David. He is King, both a political and spiritual leader, for he has been anointed by God. We also find ourselves in Jerusalem, the city of David. It is the new capital, and it too is both a political and spiritual center. Jerusalem is God’s city, the place where the Temple will be built

But before the Temple is a reality, David brings a symbol of God to the city, something the people of Israel are able to identify with. It is, of course, the Ark. For twenty years the Ark has been with Abinadab, kept in his house. Remember, the Ark had been captured by the Philistines, but following their defeat it was returned. And now David brings the Ark to God’s city. It will serve as a visual aid to keep God’s people focused on God.

The scene we find is one of celebration. The people have much reason to celebrate, to praise God. David is King, the tormented reign of Saul is over. All is right with God again. The Ark is back, symbolizing victory of the God of Israel and the happy state for God’s people. In other words, God is triumphant! And so, they celebrate.

Much planning goes into this celebration. There are many aspects of the celebration to coordinate. First, 30,000 chosen men are called together to be a part of the procession. Imagine, 30,000, just for the celebration. That’s quite a parade! And then, there were the people on the sides of the procession, women, children, the other men. This was a huge crowd—a whole city decked out to celebrate the return of the Ark!

A new cart is built for the ark, just for this celebration. And Abinadab’s sons. Ahio and Uzzah are in the lead, keeping watch over the Ark, ensuring its safety during the procession. There is music of all kinds. The people are raising their voices in song. And there are instruments as well; lyres and harps (stringed instruments), tambourines, castanets, cymbals (percussion instruments), and of course, a trumpet (brass instrument).

David then offers a sacrifice to God as a part of the celebration, an ox and a fatling, only the best for God. David offers a blessing to the people on behalf of God, and then a great meal is served. Bread, meat and cake with raisins are given to all. It is a rich feast!

Throughout the celebration, David wears the ceremonial cloth, a linen ephod, worn traditionally by the priests and other religious leaders. David is the leader of this ceremony, though, so he dons this sacred attire.

That is not the end of what has been planned, though. There is dancing! Imagine 30,000 men dancing down the road (if there was a road), filled with joy at the triumph of God, led by the new king that has made it all possible. I think it was probably natural for them to dance with joy. I would imagine that everyone, whether an official participant in the procession or an observer on the side, was so filled with joy that they couldn’t help but move to the music and respond to the spectacle by moving their bodies.

Dancing was a part of the plan. And dancing was an accepted part of worship—remember Miriam at the other side of the Red Sea? But something unique happens during this time of dancing. The joy, the celebration, takes over. David, perhaps all of the chosen men, dance with freedom, with all their might. The dance began as part of a plan, but the experience that emerges was emotionally and spiritually overwhelming. Some have suggested that it was a state of prophetic ecstasy. We do not know for sure, but whatever happened, David, the men of the procession, the spectators, all feel God’s presence. What was intended as ceremonial ritual evolves into an act of pure worship. The participants let go of the self and turn themselves over to God. They can feel God’s presence, and willingly they lose themselves in it.

All but one, that is. We find David’s wife, Michal, looking out at the celebration from the inside. You remember Michal, Saul’s daughter. She has quite a history with David. She has saved his life, and was given, then taken, then given back again as David’s wife. Michal does not lose herself from the worship. She is separate. She stands and looks out from a window. Michal has a bad reaction. She despises David in her heart—from the center of her being. This is a strong response. We do not know what offends her, if her reasons are personal (some speculate she is upset that she has not been given a place of importance in the celebration, or that she is jealous of David’s other wives) or religious (she thinks that David’s garment is too revealing, or that the dancing is an inappropriate way to praise God).

The result of her disapproval is that David and Michal argue, a barrier is created that day between Michal and David that will rule the remainder of their relationship, and Michal is barren for life. Whatever the reasons for her intense reaction, Michal cannot accept David’s participation in this spectacle of worship, and she is unable to worship with the rest of the chosen people.

I’d like us to think about worship today, about what we consider to be appropriate and what we might experience that would keep us from worshiping. In our world, we share many worship practices. There are many opinions and differing tastes, as well as many traditions. So the first question of the day is this: What are the basics (in your mind) that are necessary for worship to occur? Does there need to be prayer? Scripture? Music? A sermon? An offering?

In the past several years I have spoken to many people about this very question, with my work on the new hymnal. And though we were talking specifically about music in worship, I think what they shared with me applies to the total worship experience. I’d like you to think now of a slightly different approach. Instead of thinking about the elements of worship (the parts listed in your bulletin), I’d like you to think of these two basic ideas: First, almost everyone stated in one way or another, that in order for them to have a worshipful experience, there must be a feeling of reverence, the aura of holiness, a sense of the sacred. Secondly, people said that they wanted to worship with those who expected to meet God in worship. In our Call to Worship we invite God to be with us, but do we expect God to show up?

These two basics are great to talk and think and pray about, but how do we evaluate them? They seem a little difficult to measure. And besides, don’t our personal experiences and tastes still enter into it? Of course they do! And, is there any way to really know the intent of our worship leaders, or for that matter, of the gathered congregation? Can we see into people’s hearts?

From my research and all I have learned from other pastors and members of congregations, it appears that it is a sense of openness that assesses the two abovementioned basics. In her book, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, author Marva Dawn reminds us that God is both the subject and object of worship. In other words, worship is about God and for God. We are there to give ourselves to God, and need to be open to how God would do that.

Marjorie Thompson, author of Soul Feast, says much the same thing. “The audience is God,” says Thompson, “ but we are served by God as well… in worship we offer ourselves to God, responding to God’s glory and love with our entire being.” She urges us to take responsibility for our own worship experience by entering into three practices: preparing for the service, engaging in worship with a heightened awareness, taking the initiative to speak about how we experience worship.

In other words, worship is not something that happens to us, it is what we give to God, in community. In worship we are focused on God’s goodness, love and deeds, we have a celebration like that found in 2 Samuel. Think of it, in that celebration from the Old Testament, David is not the star of the passage—the Ark is! The Ark of God is the focal point, the main character. The celebration is all about God.

In May, I wrote a paper on the role of music in worship. I found in my study, some interesting observations about how to look at music that is not what we would choose. I think this applies to all of worship, not just the musical portion. Jim Courson, a missionary in Taiwan, in his paper Making a People of Praise: Music Ministry and the Power of Worship, says it this way when confronted with a person who was complaining about music at a conference, “It’s not the kind of music I would have chosen…but it has ministered to me. I believe it ministered to me because I was willing to participate, to take the words of those songs and make them the expression of my heart to God. To say that we are unable to worship through some particular style of music is to say more about ourselves than about the music. Certainly we all have preferences, but if our heart’s desire is to worship, we will find there are a variety of forms in which to worship.”

The question asked of us by Mr. Coruson is this, are we willing to respect and participate in what others find worshipful or do our differences keep us from worshiping? How tied are we to what we are used to in worship order, music and sermons (length, style, place). Is worship a completely personal experience for us or is it corporate? Do we let what others find worshipful speak to us in new ways, revealing new things about the God we are gathered to worship?

Making room in our experience for worship that is different than the norm is difficult. We have emotional memories associated with worship. Those memories become our faith memories, offering us comfort, and a connection with God and with church. We want to repeat those memories over and over. Yet we need to remember that worship itself does not make meaning happen, it reveals a meaning which already exists.

The more I think about this topic, the more I believe that worship is all about the Great Commandment. We love God through worship. We love each other through learning to sing their song. Randy Oliver, in his article Beyond Style: A Manifesto On A Reformed Worship Music Aesthetic For the 21^st Century challenges us who worship in this way, “We should not confuse unity to which we have been called with uniformity. Just as there are differences in spoken languages, there are differences in musical languages. These differences are to be embraced rather than spurned. It is through the embracing of these differences that each in the body learns to submit to the other, to serve one another…Rather than demanding that our brothers and sisters sing their song as we sing our song, let us strive to learn to sing each other’s song, for in our striving and our singing all of us will come to maturity and unity in the faith.”

Mr. Oliver says that it is our Christian responsibility to appreciate, respect and participate in the way God speaks to our brothers and sisters through various worship styles, and that when we do we it connects us to the larger body, and makes the existing body stronger.

I’d like to share the story of a worship experience with you I had on my first visit to Mexico. It was December of 1998, and I visited Mission Mazahua with a group of youth from Wisconsin right after Christmas. It was immediately following my first semester of seminary. We had already been there several days and were nearing the end of our trip. We were divided into a number of groups and then visited various village churches surrounding the mission. At first the experience was difficult. We didn’t share the language, and the worship was foreign in style. But as the worship continued (it was about two hours long) I couldn’t help but feel that something beautiful was happening, that I was experiencing true worship. The gathered people seemed to abandon the self, and were giving themselves to the worship of God.

Still, I could not figure out what made the worship so special. I continued to think about it for the next several weeks. Also, I had to write a paper about my experience for my mission professor, so I figured this was important and I’d better be able to put some language to what I was feeling! What I was finally able to discern was that in the worship no one was worried about what was right or wrong with the worship. There was no evaluation going on, much less any criticism. I realized I had never been in that situation before. All I felt in that little village church in the mountains of Mexico was worship filled with open hearts, people who were seeking God in Spirit and in truth, offering themselves. They truly expectedGod to show up! For me, it took the idea of reverence to a whole new level. God was both the subject and the object of worship, and like David dancing with the ark, everything pointed to God. Amen.