"Dance Like No One’s Watching"

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Deana Dudley

at Christos Metropolitan Community Church, Toronto, ON

Sunday July 13, 2003

David danced before God with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before God; and she despised him in her heart. They brought in the ark of God, 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. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of God, 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 returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!" David said to Michal, "It was before God, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of God, that I have danced. I 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 honor." II Samuel 6:1-5 & 12-22

Last Sunday night about this time, Anne and I were on a dance floor in Dallas, Texas. General Conference had just finished with a fabulous worship service, with the Rev. Elder Don Eastman preaching. And I’ve gotta tell you, it was a really good conference. You’ll be hearing more about it in coming weeks from the folks who were there, me and Heather and Anne and Bonnie. We all got to go to some terrific workshops, on topics ranging from music to activism to a queer reading of the scriptures, to leadership impact.... and we hope to be able to bring some of the resources we got there here, to the local church, which is why we went. We also went to conduct the business of our global fellowship, which fortunately only took one day, and left more time for workshops and worship. And we were able to meet with MCC’ers from all over the world, and I bring you greetings from a host of folks.

Anyhow, when Anne and I dance, I’m reminded of a couple of things. One, how much I really enjoy it. And two, that I’m 46 years, 7 months, and 14 days old. And when I dance anymore, afterwards, I feel every day of it. I feel it in my knees, in my feet, in my hips, in my back.... I’m getting to an age when I really appreciate slow dancing a whole lot more. Which brings me back to point one, how much I really enjoy it. Did I mention that tomorrow is our anniversary? Did I also mention that we’re getting married in October? I like slow dancing. Part of the reason for that is that I just don’t have rhythm for fast dances. I have to keep counting, and that gets embarrassing when I’m dancing with Anne, as she loves to dance, and does it quite beautifully. For me, it’s not so beautiful, and it’s also sad, and probably painful for Anne. I mean, how many times can you say, "I’m sorry, honey," in a single song? The other problem is that notwithstanding that I can’t dance, I still try to lead, and that just doesn’t work. I’ve informed Anne that before we dance at our wedding in October, there’s going to be a little trip to Arthur Murray’s.

But dancing is a wonderful thing. You know how sometimes when we sing a song here in church, with a great beat, I try to get folks up and dancing? But you know, I think sometimes people think you can’t dance in church. You’d think we were all Baptists! Baptists don’t dance. You know why Baptists won’t kiss standing up? They’re afraid it might lead to dancing! They don’t dance anywhere. Not in church, and not anywhere else. And I’m here to tell you that you CAN dance in church. We’ve been blessed so many times to have Perry Augustine dance for us here at Christos. And there’s good precedent for dancing in church, and it’s right here in this scripture passage that was read this evening.

This passage describes a defining moment in the life of King David. It’s the story of passionate worship. It’s the story of unbridled praise. It’s a song of thanksgiving. See, David was dancing because the Ark of the Covenant had been stolen away by the enemies of Israel, and after nearly a generation, had finally been returned. This was such a big deal that they basically had a parade with it – think back to the Pride Parade last month, and you’ll be about right – and brought it back to Jerusalem. And as they did, David was so overcome with thanks and joy, that he danced before it, the scripture says "girded with a linen ephod." "Ephod" is basically Hebrew for "the royal underwear." So, again, think back to the Pride Parade, and to those handsome young men on some of the floats in their short shorts. Or if that doesn’t do it for you, think of Michelangelo’s heroic – and barely clad – sculpture of David. A few years ago, there was a movie about the life of David, and David was played by Richard Gere, and I’m told by those who appreciate such things, that when they did this scene, he was HOT. I wouldn’t know, myself.

Anyhow, the scripture tells us that the reason he was dancing, was that the Ark of the Covenant had been returned to Jerusalem. You may remember that the Ark of the Covenant contained the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them and Aaron’s rod. These days, I guess most folks get their information, or misinformation, about the Ark of the Covenant from the movies. Anybody remember the old Indiana Jones movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark?" In the movie, the Nazis were trying to get the ark because they thought it contained some awesome power that they could use to win the war and dominate the world. And they were right, in a way, because the ark does represent awesome power, just not in the way they wanted at all. You see the Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of the God of Israel. It was more than just a gold box with some artifacts in it. It had no power in and of itself, but it was a symbol of the presence and the power of almighty God. And to be, once again, in the presence of God was, for David, an indescribable joy.

So when they got it back, David scheduled a huge parade, with an army of 30,000 troops leading the way. And then he really got into it, and so we have David just cutting loose, just getting down, absolutely rejoicing! You know that old saying from Satchel Paige: "Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching." What Satchel meant was, when you do something, whatever you do, do it with all the passion you can bring to it. When you work like you don’t need the money, that’s when you bring the most excellence to your task. When you love like you’ve never been hurt before, that’s when you discover the deepest, most intense, most beautiful wells of feeling. And when you dance like no one’s watching, that’s when you bring the most joy to it, and get the most joy OUT of it.

And I think that’s how David was dancing before God. Just letting that joy bubble up inside him. David never did anything by halves. So of course he danced with unselfconscious abandon! (As a matter of fact, danced with such abandon that that little ephod flew up and he inadvertently exposed himself.) This may well have been the most important day in David's life. So why not dance with exuberance and enthusiasm and ecstasy! He was extravagant, and flamboyant and free! Dance like no one’s watching!

As it turns out, though, someone WAS watching. His wife, Michal, who was the daughter of King Saul. David’s out there, footloose and breaking a sweat, and Michal’s looking down on him – literally and figuratively – from a window. She was ashamed of David. She was embarrassed by him. She regarded him as an exhibitionistic oaf whom she’d had the misfortune to be married off to. Remember, she was the daughter of the first king of Israel. David was a shepherd boy. A harp-playing shepherd boy to boot – one of those common show biz people! How would he know how to behave like a king? So she tears into him.

She was royally ticked off. Not only was David not in full royal attire, she thinks he was indecent. He was too familiar, too vulgar, too out of control, too undignified. Daddy Saul would never have approved. This is runaway gratitude. It’s worship set free. And she’s got a problem with that. And, people still have a problem with that sometimes. All those Baptists who won’t dance. Even all those MCC’ers who won’t dance in church.

Now, I love dignified worship. Give me a good high Anglican service any day. But there’s also MORE to worship. Think about it: It’s considered dignified to cheer for the Leafs, but undignified to shout for God. It’s dignified to applaud a great artistic or musical performance, but undignified to applaud the performer’s creator. It’s dignified to cry at a tear-jerker movie, but undignified to shed tears of gratitude for the overwhelming love of God. Why would we be so DISpassionate about the things that matter most?

Let’s look at our characters here. David danced passionately with God. Michal was dispassionate and remained at a distance. Does it sound like she got any joy out of her criticism? David took his joy out of knowing that God was present with him. And he moves me with his sheer, simple delight in God. On the one hand, David trembled with fear and awe – as well he might – before the awesome power of God. And yet on the other hand, David loved God, and knew himself to be beloved of God, and delighted in God with the pure joy cheer of a child for whom freshness and simplicity and merriment and exuberance are natural.

I don’t know about you, but I think knowing I’m loved is something to shout about. That song we sang at the beginning, "Pass It On," has a line in it. "I'll shout it from the mountain top, I want my world to know, The God of love has come to me, I want to pass it on." That’s a reason to sing. That’s a reason to DANCE. That’s passion. And that’s the kind of passion I want to bring to my worship.

I would love for our worship to be that way. Worship ought to be a time to celebrate. It’s a time to sing, make noise with instruments and even to dance (although I’m guessing we won’t go as far as David and dance half-naked down Bloor Street this evening.) But it’s a time for us to praise God. To take some joy in God’s presence. We don’t need the Ark of the Covenant to be God’s presence for us. Because Jesus Christ came to us, to be one of us, embodied like us, God IS in this place. We can dance with God right here in church. God is here. Shall we dance?