Gathering for Worship

July 14, 2024 homily on 2 Samuel 6:1-19 by Pastor Galen

Celebrate!

Celebrations are wonderful opportunities to gather with friends and loved ones. We gather to celebrate special events in our lives and to celebrate the people we love. We celebrate weddings, graduations, and anniversaries. We celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed on to glory. And we gather to celebrate milestone birthdays, such as the 100th birthday of Susan King, who has honored us here today with her presence on this tremendous milestone in her life. Many of you have come today to celebrate her birthday, and we’re so honored to have you here!

King David, and The Return of the Ark of the Covenant

In 2 Samuel 6, King David and all of the people were having a huge celebration. They weren’t celebrating a birthday, or a wedding, or an anniversary. Rather, they were celebrating the return of the Ark of the Covenant, which had been stolen from them by their enemies, the Philistine army. 

The Ark of the Covenant was a wooden chest coated in gold that contained some of the most important relics of the Israelite people. It contained the stone tablets on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments, given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The ark also held Aaron’s rod, which had been endowed with miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt that preceded the Israelite’s Exodus from Egypt. And, the ark contained a jar of manna, the bread that God miraculously provided to the Israelites when they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. 

But the Ark of the Covenant was not just a box holding the sacred relics of the Israelite people. Rather, the Ark of the Covenant symbolized the presence and the favor of God among them. The Israelites believed that God was physically present in the Ark of the Covenant. And so when the ark had been stolen from them, the Israelites believed too that God’s presence was no longer with them. To the Isrealites it must have felt that God had abandoned them. They no longer felt the peace and security of God’s presence with them.

No wonder the Israelites celebrated when the ark was returned! They rejoiced because once again they believed that God was with them, and that God was looking out for them and protecting them. And so they held a massive celebration as they transported the ark. The Bible says “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” (2 Samuel 6:5).

But their celebration was short-lived, because while they were transporting the ark, Uzzah, one of the priests tasked with safeguarding the Ark of the Covenant, reached out to grab the Ark when he thought that it was about to topple off of the cart, and he was instantly struck dead. Why this happened, I don’t know. Whether God was indeed angry with Uzzah, as the author of 2nd Samuel believed, or whether the physical manifestation of God’s presence was just so strong that Uzzah could not stand in God’s presence (sort of like receiving an electric shock), or whether it was for some other reason, I don’t know. But we see in verse 8 that King David’s response was that of anger. And rightly so! After all, Uzzah was just trying to protect their national treasure! And then in verse 9, we see that David grew afraid, and was hesitant to transport the Ark any further, no doubt for fear that others might get hurt in the process. And so the celebration was temporarily put on pause.

Great Power, Great Responsibility

As I was thining about how David must have felt, and why he was afraid to transport the ark, I was reminded of when I got my driver’s license at the age of 16. It felt so empowering and freeing to be able to get behind the wheel of the car, and drive wherever I wanted to go. I was “over the moon” with joy! But I didn’t begin to comprehend the inherent risks involved in driving until I had my first car accident. Fortunately, that accident wasn’t my fault, and no one got seriously injured. But it shook me up a bit, and for a while after that, I was hesitant to get behind the wheel of the car. Eventually, I learned to enjoy driving again, but I was a bit more cautious and mature, a bit more aware of the weight of the responsibility that driving entails.

Similarly, after 3 months, David finally felt that it was safe to continue on with the transportation of the ark, and David and all of the people resumed their celebration and their transportation of the ark to Jerusalem. The Bible tells us that “David danced before the LORD with all his might…” (2 Samuel 6:14). But this time, along with their music and dancing, David and the people also offered sacrifices to the Lord. Every few paces, the Bible says, they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and when the Ark reached the final destination, David again offered sacrifices to the Lord, and he blessed the people in the name of the Lord, and David and all the people ate and feasted together.

The contrast between this celebration and the first celebration could not be greater. No longer was the Ark of the Covenant merely a “good luck” charm for the Isrealites. No longer was their joy and celebration simply because they believed that God was on their side and would help them defeat their enemies. Now their celebration was no less jubilant, but now it involved praise and worship. They recognized that worship is costly, that we honor God not just with singing, but with our lives, as we give all of what we have and all of what we are and we lay it at the feet of Jesus. We cannot just praise God with our lips on Sundays and then turn around and do whatever we want on Mondays. True worship is giving our very lives in worship to God. It is submitting ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus. Yes, we celebrate when we come together in worship, but our celebration is that of praise and worship to the Lord.

Gathering for Worship

Toady, and for our sermon series over the next 6 weeks, we’re going to be looking at each aspect of our worship service. Today we’re focused on the gathering for worship. Next week on the Call to Worship, then the Call to Confession/Passing of the Peace, then Hearing the Word, Prayers of the People, the Benediction, and the Sending Forth. And each week we’ll look at a different event in King David’s life, and what we can learn about that particular aspect of our worship service.

And so how does this event in the life of King David and the Israelites inform how and why we gather together for worship?

1. Some people think of going to church as sort of a good luck charm, or a “quid pro quo.” If I go to church, then God will bless me and give me everything I want. Or they think of church like a “get out of jail free” card. If I go to church, then I can do whatever I want with the rest of my life and God will give me a free pass.

But this event in the life of King David demonstrates that the true purpose of gathering for worship is to worship God. We are not the focus of the attention! Worship is not about us, it’s about God. This also means that worship is not just about singing our favorite songs, or about everything being just the way we like it. Rather, we gather together to worship God, and to give God the praise and honor that God is due.

2. We learn that celebration and awe and reverence go hand in hand. We don’t just come together to have fun. We come together to recognize that there is Someone greater than us, more powerful than us, who is worthy of our joy and admiration. We come to experience God’s presence in a powerful and profound way, and to grow in our knowledge and understanding of God. The more we get to know who God is, the more joy we should experience as we see God’s power at work in our lives. And the more we grow to experience God’s presence, the more we should grow in reverence.

3. We also learn that we should not be so concerned about what others think about us. David was the king, and yet he was willing to look foolish in the eyes of others because he knew that God is worthy of our praise. We needn’t be so concerned with how we look, or what others think of us. David certainly didn’t! The most important thing when we come together in worship is that we are willing to humble ourselves and give God the glory that God is due.

God is Present Wherever We Go

Now, like David and the Israelites, many of us have no doubt gone through seasons of our lives when we struggled to feel God’s presence. Maybe you were going through a difficult time, and you wondered whether God was even there? Did God even care? 

Other times, we might wonder if God is angry or disappointed with us. Perhaps we fail or mess up, and we feel shame. We wonder if God could ever forgive us. We long to feel the peace and the presence of God. We long to feel God’s warm and loving embrace. We long to know that we are loved and accepted by God. Like David and the Israelite people, we long for some physical evidence or proof that God is with us.

The truth of the matter is that God cannot be contained in a relic or box, or any other physical object. God is vast, and so far beyond our comprehension, and yet God is also right here with us, no matter where we go. David himself realized this at some point in his life, when he penned the words to Psalm 139, saying, 

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. — Psalm 139:7-10.

David eventually learned that God is with us, no matter where we are, and that just because we cannot feel God’s presence doesn’t mean that God is not there. The fact of God’s presence with us no matter where we go should lead us to joyful celebration.

Worship with Celebration and Reverence

But God’s presence with us is not something to be taken lightly. Rather, the more we grow in our understanding of God’s presence and power in our lives, the more we should grow too in our awe and reverence of the Lord.

In the same way, the more we learn to know God, the more we experience God’s presence with us, the more we worship God in joy and in celebration.

And so what are some practical ways we can prepare ourselves for worship when we gather together? 

For some, this might involve getting hear a few minutes early to quiet our hearts before the worship service officially starts. For others, this might mean getting here early to help set up, or to make sure that new folks feel welcome. For all of us, this means laying aside our expectations of what we want, or what we think makes a good worship service or what we want to get out of it, and coming with expectancy in our hearts for what God may want to do in and through us.

So as we gather for worship and throughout the week as we make time and some in our lives to give God the honor and praise that God is due, may God open our hearts and minds for what God may want to do in and through us. May we come to worship with a sense of celebration and reverence, and may we experience the awesome and wonderful power and presence of our God.

Amen!