“David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might. . .” (2 Samuel 6:5) It must have been quite a party! David has recently been anointed as king and is now bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, after rescuing it from the Philistines who had earlier captured it. This was an occasion for great celebration and rejoicing, which included energetic dancing and lots of loud music. There was nothing about it which was reserved, refined, or even very dignified. It was pure exuberance and excess.

Such behavior was not well received by everyone. When David’s wife, Michal, saw the processional being led by David leaping and dancing and carrying on, “she despised him in her heart.” (2 Samuel 6:16) Later we learn that she had taken offense at what she perceived to be his shameless vulgarity. I suspect she was not alone in her assessment. But David responded by declaring that it was his gratitude for what God had done for him which prompted him to dance. And it was before the Lord that he danced, not to impress any human audience. Indeed, David goes so far as to declare, “I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes...” (2 Samuel 6:22) For David, his relationship with God sometimes called forth responses which others might perceive as unseemly or even offensive. You can almost hear the prim and proper folks standing in the shadows whispering among themselves in disgust, “Just look at him, prancing around like that. He is supposed to be king. Has he no shame? Has he no decency?” To which David might well have replied, “No, as a matter of fact, I don’t. At least not when it comes to praising God.”

Now, to be sure, this text from 2 Samuel is not without its difficulties. It contains several issues which are cause for some concern. The heart of the matter is that the text represents an earlier, and in many ways more primitive, understanding of God and God’s relationship with the world. The whole idea of the Ark of the Covenant illustrates an understanding of God as one who can be kept in a box. And we find that God’s holiness is seen as being terrifying and dangerous. The reason the Philistines were willing to let David take back the Ark was because it represented too much dangerous power. This is played out in a portion of the text which we did not read this morning. At one point the Ark is being transported on an ox cart. The cart hits a bump and the Ark shifts and begins to fall. A man named Uzzah tries to steady the Ark by grabbing hold of it. The text then declares, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God.” (2 Samuel 6:7) I find no way in which this understanding can be made to fit into our own concept of who God is and how God relates to us. I simply do not believe such a description represents the God whom we worship and seek to follow. But it was very much in keeping with how David and the people of David’s time saw God.

Which actually serves to magnify the central point I find illustrated in this passage from 2 Samuel. David and “all the people of Israel” are dancing and celebrating and generally carrying on, with no concern for what kind of fools they are making of themselves. And they are doing so in response to their faith in God. The God in whom they had faith, and before whom they were celebrating, is the God who has done great things for the people of Israel down through their history. But it is also the God whom they understand to dwell in the Ark and whose holiness kills people when they come too close. Their God gave as much cause to be feared as to be worshiped. And it is before this God that they were dancing with all their might. If they could be inspired to show that kind of faithful exuberance with such an understanding of God, then what are we waiting for? The God whom we worship is the God of love and acceptance and understanding and compassion. The God whom we seek to follow is the God of abundant life and joy. And yet, we don’t do much dancing before the Lord. Even in worship our responses tend to be subdued and reserved. And out in public, with our friends, at our jobs, in front of our neighbors, most of us would be aghast at the very idea of making a spectacle of ourselves out of faithful exuberance. We might scream and shout at a football game. We might let down our hair a little bit at a party. We might cut loose and kick up our heels at a folk dance. But to be openly and energetically enthusiastic about celebrating our faith and our relationship with God falls well outside of our comfort zone. Perhaps it is time to expand the boundaries of our comfort zone.

I’m not suggesting that we make a regular practice of dancing half naked through the streets like David did. But we might try letting down our guard just a little bit and occasionally allowing ourselves to actually get excited about what God is doing in our lives. I suspect it would improve the quality of our own faith experience as well as the attractiveness of faith in the eyes of those around us. Of course, this is going to look different for every individual. For some, getting wild and crazy might mean clapping once in a while during worship or saying “Amen” during some particularly meaningful moment. For others, faithful exuberance might mean having animated and excited conversations with friends and acquaintances about the difference God is making in their lives. It will even be different for the same individual, depending on the circumstances. I remember once several years ago at camp, when I was having a particularly positive day. It was near the end of the week and everything was coming together in exciting and powerful ways. At one point my small group was walking across the playfield to our small group meeting area and I simply couldn’t contain myself. I was literally dancing and singing across the field. The high school youth in my small group thought perhaps I had lost my mind. I certainly had not made a conscious decision to behave that way. It was one of those experiences (unfortunately rare for most of us) when the joy of being in relationship with God came bubbling to the surface in unexpected ways.

I expect we will probably not become known in our community as the congregation which dances in the streets. And that’s OK. Faithful exuberance is not something which can be forced. But perhaps we can work at simply not suppressing it. Wouldn’t it be exciting if word began to spread that we are a group of people who are enthusiastic about our relationship with God and not afraid to show it!