English Language Sermon – July 12, 2009

“Dance Naked?” (II Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19, Psalm 24)

July 12, 2009

Justin Thornburgh, Guest Preacher

Let me continue reading the lesson a little further (2 Sam. 6:20-22):

David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, ‘How the king of Israel honoured himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!’ 21David said to Michal, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, that I have danced before the Lord. 22I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes; but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honour.’

Let me give a little context to what is going on in the passage we just heard. In 2 Samuel 5, David has been anointed the king of all Israel. And in a move that is mocked by her inhabitants, David decides to make Jerusalem the capital. It is said that David is too weak to make this happen, but alas, he was successful. He also has defended the land against a Philistine attack. This is where today’s reading picks up.

David has gathered the chosen men of Israel to come with him to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant. This is a move to let the people know that even though there is a new leader and a new government and a new capital Israel will still honor the old traditions. They receive the Ark from Abin-a-dab and it begins it trip to Jerusalem. It is a grand procession with singing and dancing and music. An ecstatic journey. Until (and this is what is left out of today’s reading) Uzzah tries to balance an unsteady ark and is struck dead. One of the commentators I read mentions that this is not divine punishment, but because Uzzah was not ritually prepared to deal with the situation. Whatever the reason (another sermon of another day) this incident literally puts the fear of God into David, and David is mad. Afraid and angry David leaves the ark in the care of O-bed-e-dom for three months. When David hears that O-bed-e-dom has been greatly blessed during this interim time, he decides to go get the Ark and restart the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Taking care to make sure Uzzah’s death was not in vain David offers sacrifice after moving the ark six paces. Some think this is every six paces. They journey of ecstasy resumes. Shouting and dancing and singing and music and all of Israel are rejoicing praising the LORD. David is only girded in a linen ephod. This is a garment worn by the priests, but as the text mentions he is only girding himself. It is believed that David is naked except for the wearing the ephod a belt. This is supported by the fact that Micahl, David’s wife and Saul’s daughter, looks upon this display and despises David for it.

At long last the ark is brought to its place and David continues to offer sacrifice and blesses Israel and his own house. Michal, though, chastises him saying, “How the King of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eye of his servants’ maids as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!” David respnds, “It was before the LORD, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD, that I have danced before the LORD.” I want us to look at this today. How can we dance naked, stripped of everything that keeps us from the LORD?

***

Let us pray: May it be, O Lord, that the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be acceptable to your purposes of grace. Amen.

Have you ever been walking down the street and been hit with such joy that it is a total surprise and you can do nothing but say, “Thank you God!”?

I had that happen to me recently. Every Tuesday I go to the farmers’ market located in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art just off Michigan Ave. I was walking back to the office with an arm full of freshly baked bread, asparagus, home made peanut butter and jelly. I was walking along watching the people, listening to the urban symphony (the percussion of the jackhammers, the staccato rhythm of a giddy child, soaring flute of the birds filling the trees while waiting for someone to drop a piece of lunch, the low cello countermelody of wind blowing through my ears), watching the pigeons going after the remains of a lunch at one of the outdoor seating areas of a local shop, smelling the humidity in the air, touching the trunk of a tree as I passed by and WHAM I can do nothing by smile with tears in my eyes and thank God for this moment. I had what John Prine calls the Illegal Smile on my face for the next several blocks. I worshiped God in that moment. I lived in to the mystery that is grace. I was so overwhelmed by the gifts around me that I lost myself.

It was a moment where I was totally open to and responding to the Holy Spirit. I was stripped of all the garbage that had been going on. The pressures of work, the thoughts of moving, the cloud of things outside of my control: they were all gone. I was there. Stripped of everything. Dancing naked before the LORD. In the glory of Eden.

It was a moment and it passed, but it will come again and I will be ready.

These moments, though, happen quite rarely…at least for me. There are many, many times when my life is not focused like it should be. I am focused on work. I am focused on making sure our bank account is ok. I am focused on pleasing everyone around me instead of focusing on the one who gave me all these things. I am wearing the cloak of the pressures of the world. Life gets in the way. Life shrouds us with the things that prevent us from giving God the worship and praise our Creator deserves. We are human. It happens to all of us, but do not fret. Our reality is one of brokenness. But it is also a reality of grace. A reality of constant reminders that even when we are broken there is the promise of a new day. We just need to go to God as we are.

Look at the Psalms for proof that this disconnect happened to folks we look up to and admire from the Bible. Psalm 51, one of my favorites, is a confession of brokenness and sin. The psalmist is laying all their troubles before the LORD. Going to God warts and all. Psalm 39 is plea from a confused leader for wisdom and forgiveness. A plea for God to “hear my prayer.” Psalm 140 is a cry from a person being overwhelmed by their enemies. A prayer for deliverance from those enemies. In these examples, and many many more, the psalmists are just like us. People living living, working, grieving, searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. People buried under the strain of work. People whose children are going away to camp for the first time. People who have recently lost their jobs. People who are dealing with the passing of a loved one. The Psalms are for us and about us.

The thing about the Psalmists though is that they, even in their darkest hour, go to God. They go to God with tears rolling down their cheeks. They go to God. The act of going to God frees them to begin the process of unburdening themselves. It allows them to begin to transform.

I look at the psalms and say to myself, yeah, but… I am too busy to sit down to pray. Too much to do…I can not give God the worship deserved. I try. I go in spurts. I will be good for a while of setting aside time in the morning to pray, but then the snooze alarm looks better and better. I try to set aside time at lunch hour to go to the chapel at the hospital across the street from the office and pray, but then I have an important project due and then I have a lunch meeting and soon I am back eating lunch at my desk. I try to make time at night, but I need to fix supper or I am too tired from the day at work to focus on anything by CSI reruns. I do not think I am the only one here today that is going trough this. How can I make the time to go to God? Again the Psalms help with this.

Hear today’s Psalm. Psalm 24 (read):

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it;

2for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.

3Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?

4Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.

5They will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of their salvation.

6Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.* Selah

7Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.

8Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.

9Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.

10Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah

“The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it.” Look around you. These trees are the LORD’s. The grass is the LORD’s. The squirrels chasing each other through your lawn are the LORD’s. Psalm 148 talks about the very earth praising God. This is where I find the time and the ability to respond to God’s works in my life. I watch the birds going for worms in the morning. I look at the trees raising their leaves in praise on sunny days and bowing in reverence on raining one.

I love trees. I love the stories they tell. Have you ever stopped and looked at a tree and tried to hear its story? One of my favorite trees is just over on Magnoila, directly across from where we are now. It is on the west side of the street. It is a tree that tells me a story of a very rough life. This tree is a short squatty one. The trunk is twisted, badly. It has fought to get to where it is today. But there is a split in the trunk and there is part of this tree that is clean and straight. It is a limb that says “I am going to make it.” It is a limb that literally shows new life in this old tree. This tree is praising God. This tree is a witness to me that in all things God creates new life. God is present. Looking at this tree I am able to let my guard down and go to God. Nature is God’s way of reminding me that I am not alone. I can always go to God anywhere, anytime. I just need the reminder.

One of my favorite contemporary blues singers is a guy named Keb Mo. I first saw him at a special event at Chicago Shakespeare. He and Barbara Gaines, the artistic director, went though and looked at the musicality of the Bard’s works. Through that event I became a fan. On his album “Just Like You” there is a song that I look at as a modern day psalm. It is called “Hand is Over.” Here is a sample of the lyrics:

If your problems

won’t go away

and you’re worried

both night and day

hand it over

get on your knees and pray…

Ain’t no mountain

you can’t climb

ain’t no answer

you can’t find

All you need is a hand to hold

It’ll heal you body

and feed your soul…

Hand it over

Hand it over

Give it up,

Give it over

Hand it over

Get on your knees and pray

This song frequently pops into my head when I am overwhelmed. I use it as a reminder, like watching the trees, that no matter how busy or how tired, God is there. All I need do is hand it over.

Something begins to happen when we are able to hand our burdens over to God. We begin to open ourselves up to the transformative power that is Grace.

Worship is not for us, but for God. However; that does not mean we do not get anything out of it. When we go to the LORD and begin to hand over our problems; they are accepted and turned into seeds that help us to grow. As we allow ourselves to transform and be transformed, our worship of God fertilizes us and our roots grow deeper and our leaves turn greener and we begin to loose ourselves to our Creator.

As we loose ourselves to our Creator others begin to see the Creator in us.

As other see the Creator in us we can help them to begin to unburden themselves.

We give God our troubles.

We listen to the music of creation.

We open ourselves up for transformation.

We strip ourselves of the burdens and worries and stress that keeps us from God.

We hear the music of creation. We begin to dance in praise of our God.

We dance unashamed because the Grace of God is what sustains us and protects us from all that will try to bury us.

We dance. We dance. We dance.

English Language Sermon – July 20, 2008

“Blow the Trumpet” (Joel 1:8-10, 17-20)

July 20, 2008 – Creation Sunday

Justin Thornburgh, NSBC church member

Prayer: May it be, oh Lord, that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you and useful to your purposes of Grace. – Rev. Joanna Adams

So, this passage is probably not one you were expecting to hear on a Sunday labeled as Celebrating God’s Creation. I don’t blame you. When I first came across it as I was looking for something to preach on, I quickly turned to the next passage and hoped this one would stop speaking to me. Well, I have been meditating and praying and stewing over this passage for the last month, so obviously it did not stop speaking.

The resource I used to find creation centered Bible passages is a website called Season of Creation. They have a 3-year cycle of readings – each of which lasts about 6 weeks culminating on St. Francis of Assisi Sunday. These cycles focus on different aspects of creation.

One of the Sundays in the series is called Wilderness Sunday and that is where I found today’s passage.

I think part of the reason this passage would not leave me alone is because when I initially read it it was during the first round of wildfires in California – followed a week later by the horrid flooding in the Midwest. News about the world wide food shortages were making above the fold headlines.

These past few weekends Mae and I have done a lot of traveling through Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. While we were not near the worst of the damage we did see an empty Lake Delton. We did see farms with massive barren patches where standing water destroyed the crops. We did see several farms totally annihilated. The most powerful thing I saw was a farm that was half submerged by a river that moved well beyond the flood plain, and the other half of the farm, that was once submerged, now dry and cracking…looking like pictures I have seen of Oklahoma during the dust bowl. This field that was damaged so much by the unyielding rains was now dying because of lack of those life giving rains.

I heard the ground mourn. I could see the animals crying. I saw fire devouring the pastures of the wilderness.

***

Joel is living in or near Jerusalem at the time which this reading takes place. The land was destroyed by a plague of locust. The people of Judah and Jerusalem had turned away from God. They had let material pleasures steal their focus. Joel in Chapter 2 exhorts:

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near.

He tells the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah that it is because of their sin that this plague is upon them. He calls for the elders to:

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.

The blowing of the trumpet is a warning call. Sounding the alarm from God’s holy mountain is intended to be a wake up call for those who are slumbering.

Today’s passage stuck with me because I see parallels between us and the people of Jerusalem in Joel’s time.

We have become a society run by greed. A society run by gluttony. A society nearing the edge of a catastrophic moment. A society not inclined to listen to the blowing of the trumpet.

The earth is speaking to us. Calling us to listen to the trumpet.

I believe that God is present in every microbe of this world.

Whether one believes that the world was created in 6 days or over millions of years, we, I think, can all agree that we began as nothing, and through a divine spark we were created. Genesis 2 says how were created from the dust…the dirt. And then God placed man in the garden to till it and keep it. We are created form the dirt and told to keep it. And we can not forget that God saw all of it and said it was good.

To take this one step farther, not only was human kind created in God’s image, but we can not forget that the Word became flesh. The God of creation inhabited this world and became part of this world. The God of creation became flesh…came from the same dirt as Adam.

Our sins against the land are sins directly against the incarnation of God. The ground mourns.

Our sins of greed and gluttony are part of the reason the flooding was so bad in the river valleys.

Because of our greed we have turned our farms into factories that produce crops that are not sustainable. We have forced farmland to move into floodplains. The monocultures – which is the same crop grown in the same spot year after year – currently used, and mandated by many of the major agra companies if you are to get any help from them or discounts on seed, do not lead to good stewardship of the earth. These monocultures do not allow for deep root growth because they need to be planted annually. These monocultures deplete the land of necessary nutrients and lead to the use of artificial, man-made, fertilizers. These monocultures become susceptible to disease and infestation and lead to the use of more artificial herbicides and pesticides. These monocultures lead to the weakening of the nutritional value of the crops. That is why the United States is one of the fattest yet undernourished countries in the industrialized world. These monocultures lead to the weakening of biodiversity in crops leading to the use of genetically modified seed…all profiting people.

There is nothing wrong with making money, but when a major agra company sues an independent farmer because some of their “brand name” seed – that was probably carried by a bird or blown by the wind – sprouts in his field then our greed has gotten out of control.

Our gluttony feeds our greed.

Because of our need for cheap food, particularly items full of high-fructose corn syrup and dollar hamburgers, we have created a market demanding that we put undo stress upon the land. As His Holiness Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch (the leader of 300 million of the world’s orthodox Christians) , says, “Human economy wastes and discards, while natural economy is cyclical and replenishes, and God’s economy is compassionate and nurturing.”

Our sin against the land is sin against the incarnation. The trumpet is blowing.

We, like the people of Judah, need to repent. Repentance is not only seeking forgiveness but then changing our ways.

We can start by reading about where our food comes from. Ask our butcher where our meat comes from. We can join Consumer Supported Agriculture co-ops. Mae and I belong to one and get a half-bushel of organic, sustainably grown produce a week. We are part of another co-op that provides us with meat raised in humane and sustainable ways. You may not be able to do that, but you should be able to look into where your food is coming from or at least how it was raised. This is only one small step.

This, though is not only a personal repentance, we as a community of faith must repent.

There are many things we can do as signs of our repentance. Simple things like making our recycling boxes more visible. Small things like using our wonderful china instead of paper plates; signing up to receive Steeple Stories via e-mail instead of a paper copy. How about we look into creating a green roof top above the gym? What if we could install solar panels to create our own energy … we have this wonderful south facing peak. Action has begun. A green task force has already been blessed by the church council, and we will begin to dream…and ACT.

We can Blow the Trumpet.

We can sound the alarm.

We can learn more about living life more carefully.

We can teach.

We can lead our neighborhood by being an example.

We can celebrate creation.

And you know what. God promises redemption. Through proper care of creation things will happen. I recently saw the movie WAL-E. If you have not seen it, go see it. It takes place in on planet earth after years of not listening to the warning from the mountain. But it is a movie where we can see what happens when we begin to care – if we, as community, heed the trumpet blast and turn from our current ways. If we ACT.

Through Joel, God promises the people of Judah “grain, wine and oil and you will be satisfied.”

Do not fear, O soil;
be glad and rejoice,
for the Lord has done great things!
22Do not fear, you animals of the field,
for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

23O children of Zion, be glad
and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain* for your vindication,
he has poured down for you abundant rain,
the early and the later rain, as before.
The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,
the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

These things are ours, but we must act. We can no longer afford to be complacent. We must repent…change our ways.

We must Blow the Trumpet. – Amen.