The strange ways of God
Commentary
The sight of David and his entourage singing and dancing before the ark to the accompaniment of lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals catches the attention along with the wet blanket response of Michal who frowned on such unkingly behavior. This scene has inspired a good many sermons encouraging congregations to loosen up and put some "joie de vie" into their worship. Lord knows, we need such encouraging, especially some of us New England church folk who have often been called "God's frozen people."
If you wish to follow this tack, here is an apochryphal story for you. A visitor to a church where solemnity reigned startled worshipers by shouting a loud amen after a prayer. A few moments later after the anthem he shouted out "Praise the Lord." The ushers began to watch him carefully. When he shouted out "Hallelujah," an usher approached and quietly asked him to remain silent or leave. The man replied, "I've got a religion." "Sir," said the usher, "I do not know what you have, but you certainly did not get it here."
If, however, you want to break some intriguing ground focus on the ark, journey back through the pages of scripture and trace its history. You'll not face the dangers Indiana Jones encountered in the film, The Raiders of the Lost Ark. You will come across some subtle Hebrew humor and profound reflection about the strange ways of God in history.
Puritan preachers in colonial America called any reading of the scriptures without comment a dumb reading. One may read all the lessons for the day in the service but draw the sermon from only one. One practice that would take some preparation would be to prepare an insert for the bulletin with brief commentary on the passages of the day. The epistle reading for this day has a hymnodic quality to it. References to predestination and the plan of God will raise perplexing questions in the hearer's mind and could well be dealt with.
At first glance the only tie between the Old Testament and Gospel lessons seems to be that in each someone is dancing: David before the ark and Herodias before the court of Herod. In terms, however, of the ways of God in history there may be a subtle and profound tie between the two narratives.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
The ark was actually a rectangular wooden box roughly 6'x3'x3'. See Exodus 25:10-22 for a description. When the Israelites marched through the wilderness en route to Canaan, the ark was carried at the head of the column. At night the ark rested in the camp. The ark was the great symbol of God's presence with his people. When the Israelites became a settled people the ark was placed in the shrine at Shiloh under tender care.
1 Samuel 4:1--7:2 is essential background reading. The Hebrews had suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Philistines. To restore shattered morale the ark was brought from Shiloh and into the Hebrew camp where the troops greeted its arrival with shouts of joy. The Philistine observers were struck with fear. But the Philistines fought well, the Hebrews were defeated, and the ark captured, a devastating event. Was this a defeat of God, or just a defeat of God's people?
The Philistines set the ark as a trophy in the house of Dagon, their god. But the next day Dagon is found face down in a position of homage before the ark. They set him back upright. The next day he is not only on the ground but his head and hands have been chopped off. Then the people of Ashdod begin to be afflicted by boils in embarrassing places and hordes of hungry mice begin to show up in their grain fields. The same things happen when the ark is moved to Gath and then to Ekron. What to do with the ark is something like the problem of storing radioactive waste.
There is a raw kind of humor and ridicule at work in this story. God is confounding and confusing everybody. A profound insight is being birthed here in a primitive way: an insight forged in the crucible of defeat. The Israelites had marched into war with the ark, but was God's blessing on their regiments? And the Philistines, how did they make out? Do we have here an emerging insight into the ways of a God who refuses to be either bound, programmed, or captured; kept in some private box; domesticated in some private chapel? The ark makes its way back to Israel unexpectedly and surprisingly without any rescue operation being mounted. It just appeared in a cart laden with golden mice and tumors and drawn by milk cows.
Whoever wrote this story was writing for posterity, for a people who would lose their shrines to Assyrian invasion and see their temple burned once by Babylonians and once by Romans. God is greater than any shrine or symbol. In this story God takes the field of history by delivering himself up. Of the capture of the ark, the Psalmist had this to say: "He delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe" (Psalm 78:61). By foregoing his power God shows that he is Lord. Isn't this the puzzling mystery that finds its embodiment in the story of Jesus? "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive" (Ephesians 4:8). The principalities and powers take Jesus captive and write finished to his story. But before long rumors of a defeated God still alive begin to circulate. Reports begin to come in, "Those who have turned the world upside down have come here also." Shades of the Philistines, there are mice in the fields, vexatious boils in the social body.
Well, David brought the old ark up to Jerusalem and Solomon built a temple around it. It was destroyed in 568 B.C. when the Babylonians levelled Jerusalem. It disappears from history. There is just one last mention of it in the Bible. John the captive on Patmos catches a vision of the far-flung victory of God. "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple ..." (Revelation 10:19). We have a lot of reasons to sing, and dance, and make joyful music.
Ephesians 1:3-14
Someone who had heard a lecture by Ralph Waldo Emerson was asked by a friend what Emerson had to say. "I am not sure," replied the man, "but at the end I felt as if something beautiful had just passed by." One feels just like that after reading this passage from Ephesians. There is a hymnodic quality to it and it probably comes out of the liturgical tradition of the early church. It is a burst of confession and praise that spans the ages. One had better live with it and brood over it prior to preaching from it. The comprehensive commentary by Markus Barth in the Anchor Bible series will be an indispensable resource.
Mark 6:14-29
The beginnings of the Jesus movement catch the attention of the unsavory Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peria. Herod carries a load of guilt as evidenced by his conclusion that John the Baptist had come back from the dead. Well might Herod feel uneasy. The ensuing story of the death of John explains why. It is a story reminiscent of the narrative concerning Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 21. But Mark's reason for inserting the story here goes far beyond the desire to inform us of the reason for Herod's uneasiness.
The disciples of Jesus had just returned from a rather successful mission. Lest the reader think these successes mark the start of a winning streak, Mark gives a dose of reality orientation. The execution of John casts an ominous shadow over the future of Jesus. For Mark John is not only the historic predecessor to Jesus, he is also the existential predecessor. Like the disciples of John, those of Jesus will one day experience the traumatic loss of their leader. The lions control the playing field.
Herod is a weak braggart. His expansive offer to his stepdaughter is pure bravado. He is a Roman toady who has no right to transfer any part of his kingdom. Herod's offer is like the offer made to Esther by King Ahasuerus (Esther 5:2, 7:2). Herodias, however, is cut from different cloth than Esther and instructs her dancing daughter to request the head of John the Baptist. Up to this point some vestige of conscience had kept Herod from harming John (Mark 6:20). When the head of John was requested Herod cast conscience aside in order to save face before his courtiers. He is a study in conscience. The only bright spot in the whole story is the tender last offices the disciples of John render to their teacher.
But informed imagination roams at this point. Luke reports that one of the women who followed Jesus and helped fund the movement was Joanna, the wife of an officer in Herod's court (Luke 8:3). Was Joanna a witness to this grisly transaction? She would certainly have known about the event. Her departure from the court and perhaps even her husband could not have gone unnoticed. In fact it would have been a subject of court gossip and an embarrassment to Herod. Shades of the ark of old. Mice are running through the fields again.
If you wish to follow this tack, here is an apochryphal story for you. A visitor to a church where solemnity reigned startled worshipers by shouting a loud amen after a prayer. A few moments later after the anthem he shouted out "Praise the Lord." The ushers began to watch him carefully. When he shouted out "Hallelujah," an usher approached and quietly asked him to remain silent or leave. The man replied, "I've got a religion." "Sir," said the usher, "I do not know what you have, but you certainly did not get it here."
If, however, you want to break some intriguing ground focus on the ark, journey back through the pages of scripture and trace its history. You'll not face the dangers Indiana Jones encountered in the film, The Raiders of the Lost Ark. You will come across some subtle Hebrew humor and profound reflection about the strange ways of God in history.
Puritan preachers in colonial America called any reading of the scriptures without comment a dumb reading. One may read all the lessons for the day in the service but draw the sermon from only one. One practice that would take some preparation would be to prepare an insert for the bulletin with brief commentary on the passages of the day. The epistle reading for this day has a hymnodic quality to it. References to predestination and the plan of God will raise perplexing questions in the hearer's mind and could well be dealt with.
At first glance the only tie between the Old Testament and Gospel lessons seems to be that in each someone is dancing: David before the ark and Herodias before the court of Herod. In terms, however, of the ways of God in history there may be a subtle and profound tie between the two narratives.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
The ark was actually a rectangular wooden box roughly 6'x3'x3'. See Exodus 25:10-22 for a description. When the Israelites marched through the wilderness en route to Canaan, the ark was carried at the head of the column. At night the ark rested in the camp. The ark was the great symbol of God's presence with his people. When the Israelites became a settled people the ark was placed in the shrine at Shiloh under tender care.
1 Samuel 4:1--7:2 is essential background reading. The Hebrews had suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Philistines. To restore shattered morale the ark was brought from Shiloh and into the Hebrew camp where the troops greeted its arrival with shouts of joy. The Philistine observers were struck with fear. But the Philistines fought well, the Hebrews were defeated, and the ark captured, a devastating event. Was this a defeat of God, or just a defeat of God's people?
The Philistines set the ark as a trophy in the house of Dagon, their god. But the next day Dagon is found face down in a position of homage before the ark. They set him back upright. The next day he is not only on the ground but his head and hands have been chopped off. Then the people of Ashdod begin to be afflicted by boils in embarrassing places and hordes of hungry mice begin to show up in their grain fields. The same things happen when the ark is moved to Gath and then to Ekron. What to do with the ark is something like the problem of storing radioactive waste.
There is a raw kind of humor and ridicule at work in this story. God is confounding and confusing everybody. A profound insight is being birthed here in a primitive way: an insight forged in the crucible of defeat. The Israelites had marched into war with the ark, but was God's blessing on their regiments? And the Philistines, how did they make out? Do we have here an emerging insight into the ways of a God who refuses to be either bound, programmed, or captured; kept in some private box; domesticated in some private chapel? The ark makes its way back to Israel unexpectedly and surprisingly without any rescue operation being mounted. It just appeared in a cart laden with golden mice and tumors and drawn by milk cows.
Whoever wrote this story was writing for posterity, for a people who would lose their shrines to Assyrian invasion and see their temple burned once by Babylonians and once by Romans. God is greater than any shrine or symbol. In this story God takes the field of history by delivering himself up. Of the capture of the ark, the Psalmist had this to say: "He delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe" (Psalm 78:61). By foregoing his power God shows that he is Lord. Isn't this the puzzling mystery that finds its embodiment in the story of Jesus? "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive" (Ephesians 4:8). The principalities and powers take Jesus captive and write finished to his story. But before long rumors of a defeated God still alive begin to circulate. Reports begin to come in, "Those who have turned the world upside down have come here also." Shades of the Philistines, there are mice in the fields, vexatious boils in the social body.
Well, David brought the old ark up to Jerusalem and Solomon built a temple around it. It was destroyed in 568 B.C. when the Babylonians levelled Jerusalem. It disappears from history. There is just one last mention of it in the Bible. John the captive on Patmos catches a vision of the far-flung victory of God. "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple ..." (Revelation 10:19). We have a lot of reasons to sing, and dance, and make joyful music.
Ephesians 1:3-14
Someone who had heard a lecture by Ralph Waldo Emerson was asked by a friend what Emerson had to say. "I am not sure," replied the man, "but at the end I felt as if something beautiful had just passed by." One feels just like that after reading this passage from Ephesians. There is a hymnodic quality to it and it probably comes out of the liturgical tradition of the early church. It is a burst of confession and praise that spans the ages. One had better live with it and brood over it prior to preaching from it. The comprehensive commentary by Markus Barth in the Anchor Bible series will be an indispensable resource.
Mark 6:14-29
The beginnings of the Jesus movement catch the attention of the unsavory Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peria. Herod carries a load of guilt as evidenced by his conclusion that John the Baptist had come back from the dead. Well might Herod feel uneasy. The ensuing story of the death of John explains why. It is a story reminiscent of the narrative concerning Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 21. But Mark's reason for inserting the story here goes far beyond the desire to inform us of the reason for Herod's uneasiness.
The disciples of Jesus had just returned from a rather successful mission. Lest the reader think these successes mark the start of a winning streak, Mark gives a dose of reality orientation. The execution of John casts an ominous shadow over the future of Jesus. For Mark John is not only the historic predecessor to Jesus, he is also the existential predecessor. Like the disciples of John, those of Jesus will one day experience the traumatic loss of their leader. The lions control the playing field.
Herod is a weak braggart. His expansive offer to his stepdaughter is pure bravado. He is a Roman toady who has no right to transfer any part of his kingdom. Herod's offer is like the offer made to Esther by King Ahasuerus (Esther 5:2, 7:2). Herodias, however, is cut from different cloth than Esther and instructs her dancing daughter to request the head of John the Baptist. Up to this point some vestige of conscience had kept Herod from harming John (Mark 6:20). When the head of John was requested Herod cast conscience aside in order to save face before his courtiers. He is a study in conscience. The only bright spot in the whole story is the tender last offices the disciples of John render to their teacher.
But informed imagination roams at this point. Luke reports that one of the women who followed Jesus and helped fund the movement was Joanna, the wife of an officer in Herod's court (Luke 8:3). Was Joanna a witness to this grisly transaction? She would certainly have known about the event. Her departure from the court and perhaps even her husband could not have gone unnoticed. In fact it would have been a subject of court gossip and an embarrassment to Herod. Shades of the ark of old. Mice are running through the fields again.
