David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem
David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.
It was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
They brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.
David wanted something to unify Israel after their subservience to the Philistines had come to an end. The late, great Ark of the Covenant had been warehoused at the home of Abinadab, and David and thirty-thousand of his “besties” set out to retrieve it and bring it to Jerusalem. The various commentators say these thirty-thousand men were not an army, but a carefully-selected bunch of “politicians” friendly to David’s objectives. And while this must have made for one of the largest group of “strange bedfellows” in history, they must have certainly seemed like an army to any bystanders. Try to get the overall image of this story: thirty-thousand “escorts,” the mysterious, and long-time hidden gold-covered Ark riding on an oxcart, and David, dancing like a frenzied fool before it. This would have made the news even in ancient Israel. Just a few paces into the processional, they stopped and offered an animal sacrifice, too, which added to the puzzling pageantry of the pious parade.
And if all of that wasn’t enough to pepper the story with journalistic interest, the lection reading from II Samuel cuts out the part about Uzzah trying to steady the Ark on the oxcart when it hits a prehistoric Pennsylvania pothole. He dies, instantly, upon touching the magic Box of God, thus proving it hasn’t lost any of its mystique nor potence while stored in Abinadab’s attic. This little anecdote brings an important question to mind: why, when historically the Ark was only man-carried by members of the Levitical priesthood while being transported, was the Ark now being ferried on a common oxcart? This may be meant as a commentary on David’s desire to “use” the Ark as a “tool” of political unification. Did David not respect the Ark’s heritage as the very presence of Yahweh among God’s people? Did David’s little “moving company” lose track of the importance of the Ark of the Covenant and the tablets of law contained within, in his haste to transport it to Jerusalem, his new center of power? Uzzah’s death may have been a “sign” to remind Mr. David that God is in charge, not he, and that disrespecting the Ark by throwing it onto an old oxcart was a warning to anyone who may want to turn God into a political tool, or use faith as a leverage to get people to vote the way you want them to.
Then there is the question of David’s dancing. In biblical history, dancing before the Lord as an act of praise to celebrate God’s presence and God’s favor, was not uncommon. But since this whole scene in II Samuel may be a bit fishy, smelling more of political provenance than proper praise, his dancing could have been more of an act, sort of like how the evil archeologist/nemesis of Indiana Jones dons liturgical vestments and priest’s mitre to “ceremonially” open the Ark in the popular movie.
Why are we asking these critical questions about what appears on the surface to be a celebratory story of a good guy—David—bringing back an important artifact—the Ark of the Covenant—to Israel? Maybe because modern events in the church have given birth to all kinds of rhetoric, that while on the surface appear to be authentic, have too often been about masked power-plays.
Take the church’s struggle with and now emergence from the threat of the global COVID-19 pandemic. When the “great shutdown” occurred the weekend of March 15 of 2020, many in the church cried foul, decried the Coronavirus to be a hoax, and acted out their grief in various ways. Some refused to close their churches and curtail their activities, and a spate of news accounts ensued of people infected by the potentially deadly virus while attending church to worship God! The irony of this “rebellion” sounds a bit like Uzzah’s “death touch” in today’s story. The deadly “power” was real, and unfortunately, some who played loosely with the official warnings paid with their health, and in some cases, their lives. As the pandemic wore on, the church continued to be striated by varying medical and political “opinions” about how to be safe and yet “be” the church. In II Samuel, David seemed to have very specific views about how to unite the nation and “restore” God’s rule to the people. So it was in the church, as some leaders resisted the counsel of the “real” infectious disease experts, and either contrived their own, which they often professed as being rooted in “trusting God,” while others bought into the political chicanery perpetrated by those in power.
Over the course of the many months of curtailed activities in communities of faith, most folk eventually accepted the reality of the pandemic and found creative ways to “meet” and “do ministry.” A great variety of faith communities, including the congregation I was serving at the time, dipped their toes into “livestreaming” on the Internet for the first time. This turned out to be a generally good thing with several novel discoveries. Anyone could “join” your church service, and in many cases, “anyone” did! Out of state church members tuned in as did “new” people who had a fresh spiritual hunger brought on by questions raised by the pandemic and millions dying around the world. And it wasn’t just churches, by the way, as several times I was able to tune in to watch the Friday family observance in our nearby synagogue, led by a Rabbi friend. “Livestreaming” is now here to stay for most of these bodies, which could be both a blessing and a curse. While the Internet has become a new addition to the "parish,” personally piped-in services may also entice long-time church members to “watch church” on Sundays while relaxing in their “jammies” and munching on a donut, in the comfort of their family rooms.
As the church emerges from the pandemic, ever cautiously in most cases, answering the question of how to do it effectively and whether it is more important to “reactivate” or better to “reinvent” the church, going forward, will become most crucial. Most every active pastor, priest, rabbi, or other religious leader will be doing pretty much what King David was doing in the story today—dancing her or his backside off, trying to “please God” and whip up the interest of God’s people again. It is a dance of praise, to some degree that the church (the Ark) is back, but mostly it is a dance of “hope so” prayer and political purpose.
David’s raiding of the stored Ark worked out pretty well for him and for Israel, although the tenuous relationship between legitimate faith and political power would never dissipate. It still hasn’t--for Israel, and for the “New Israel” of the Christian church. Every pastor finds her or himself “gambling” about how to “resurrect” the community of faith. A new phrase has been born—“in-person worship”—and how it plays out in its new-found tussle with “virtual worship” remains to be seen. Maybe we all should dance a little harder…
And some skeptical “Michals” will most assuredly be watching from the cheap seats, waiting for a stumbling Uzzah, or for us “Davids” to suddenly lurch into a version of the Elaine Benes two-step instead of the graceful “bless God” dance, either of which could halt the procession of the reentry into religious prosperity.
As is often true of narratives from the Hebrew Bible, the overarching truth is that God loves, forgives, redeems, and restarts the stumbling, lurching community of faith because that is who God IS, and this is what a reconciling God does. Today’s story is case-in-point. This should be encouraging to the Body of Christ as it exits the exile of COVID-19. Maybe now we truly can do something we’ve talked much about: Discern where GOD is leading and follow that lead, “dancing” along the way! Maybe we can shed the trappings of “we never did it that way before,” or the heavy anchor of eschewing change, just because that’s what WE do!
The Ark dragged from Abinadab’s attic was a symbol of getting back to core values but with new leadership and new ideas. The church that arises from the dust and death of a global pandemic may be “the Ark” for our time. After all, Christianity is a faith that emerged from a tomb in the first place. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment