Good day dear friends. The actual day of balloting for the election of bishops begins on Thursday, the 19th of July. Several have emailed prayers and best wishes, and for that I am thankful. May God's will be done.
Our text for today comes from 2 Samuel 5: 1 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 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. 3 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 4 with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. 5 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. 12 "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;13 and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 14 David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod.15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. 16 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. 17 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. 18 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, 19 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. (NRSV)
Worship is not about us, it is about God. Yes, I know, try telling that to some folks. Worship is about praising and thanking God. It is a time when we turn our full and complete attention to God. Praise comes in many forms. In this passage we see that the praise of God took the form of many instruments (see verse 5 again), and the form of dance. There was excitement present in this worship because of God. King David, as worship leader, took the lead in letting the Spirit of God and an attitude of thankfulness, to jump and dance and sing as this procession took to the streets (That's something we rarely see either, for we hope no one sees us going into church , let alone the church coming out of our buildings!). David knew that the ark of God represented many things to God and to God's people. It was built as a throne to God and it also housed the tablets that contained the 10 Commandments, the Law given by God to Moses. It was a big deal! And to have it present represented the presence of God. Yes, God is everywhere and this throne (ark) was built as a way of saying, God, you can rest here if you like. And there are special places of worship in our lives, and the ark was a way of saying, God is everywhere and everywhere you see this ark, think of God, for God is here. The ark brought great blessing to those who received it in the correct, worshipful manner of God; and this procession is a celebration of the movement of this special worship symbol.
David, in the opinion of his wife, the daughter of Saul, got carried away a little too much. Given his dress for the day, every leap and jump he did for God, revealed something of David, that Michal thought should stay at home. "Don't take our business from home to church!" she was in effect saying. David, to defend his actions, was not thinking about that; he was in the presence of God and he was thankful about that and he gave his all in that praise. David did what was proper before God and the worship of God and here's the interesting thing: David in this worship, also provided for the physical needs of the people. The spiritual needs were taken care of, but no one went home hungry, for food was distributed to those who were in need. This was a church on the move. It knew its spiritual obligations before God and it knew about its role in helping the people of God outside of worship. Does your church do that?
The church of God exists to worship God. But worship is not the end-all of its life. The church is called to serve among the people to show God's care for all people, and if it means sharing a loaf of bread with someone, then do it. I have tried to get churches to see this. A large church of ours in a northern state, grew to mega-church size because it was willing to share a loaf of bread with someone outside of worship, who might not have something to eat. In profile meetings I have held with churches I have taken 10 loaves and asked the members present at those meetings to distribute it to those in the community who might need them. At the first meeting, one person automatically said, "There's no hunger in this community because they're on food stamps!" Thankfully, the person next to her said, "Can I have two loaves? I know a large family that might not have any food at all."
PRAYER: Loving God, may all churches, starting with me, realize what an important role we have in all of the world. May we strive for worship that pleases You and moves us to action. May we see beyond our needs to the needs of the world. We are not clubs that exist to provide and care only for ourselves; we exist for You and for Yours. Guide us and lead us to faithfulness and fruitfulness will follow. In Jesus' precious and powerful name we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
