A Sermon preached on Sunday, July 11, 2021 at St. Augustine’s
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19, Ephesians 1:3-14, Mark 6:14-29
Two of our readings today are about parties or celebrations, but not necessarily ones I want to be invited to. Herod’s party ends fatally for John the Baptist, who wasn’t even invited – he was languishing in the dungeons. It was clearly a great feast, a banquet, and it included music and dancing, at least by Herod’s stepdaughter Salome – the translation is simply wrong here by the way. But if I were a guest and considering the Herod family history – Herod’s father was Herod the Great – the one responsible for the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem - I would still be worried about surviving the night, however good the food and entertainment. And I would soon lose my appetite when instead of the next course of food, a platter appears with John’s head on it.
David’s party sounds a little better, at least the reason for it is. The occasion is David bringing the Ark of the Covenant, the symbolic seat of God, to Jerusalem, his new capital. He also has two recent victories over the Philistines to celebrate. And so, we have dancing with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And food, lots of it: whenever the procession had gone six paces, David sacrificed an ox and a fatling and after the Ark is safely ensconced in its tent, David distributes food to the whole multitude of Israel, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins.
But what we didn’t hear about, those verses (6-12a) were left out, is the death of poor Uzzah who was killed when he reached out his hand and touched the ark of God, to stabilise it. Nor do we hear how David was then so afraid of the Lord that he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?’ So he left it in the house of Obed-edom for three months, presumably to see if Obed-edom and his family survive the experience. Why did Uzzah die? The text says that “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark.” We knew that the Ark was dangerous, when the Philistines still held it, many of them became ill. I think the real message of the episode is not to try and constrain God in a box, and that God is not to be tamed or controlled.
The other cloud over the festivities is Michal’s reaction, David’s trophy wife, symbol of his victory over her father Saul: When “she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; she despised him in her heart.” This is another sign of trouble to come. David is not strong on relationships, and they will prove to be his downfall.
The problem is that both of these parties or celebrations are motivated primarily by human emotions and desires, and not by our best ones. Power, fear, insecurity, and jealousy are the dominating desires. David and Herod want to appear strong but are shown up as weak. Bringing the Ark into Jerusalem, the new capital city, is intended to give divine legitimacy to David’s rule as king and successor to Saul. But David is afraid of the Ark, he does not seem to completely trust in God’s promise – what we call the Davidic Covenant – that David’s house and kingdom will endure forever. In fact, most of David’s problems, some of which we will hear of as we continue to work our way through the books of Samuel and Kings over the next months, occur when he doesn’t trust in God and tries to help or hurry things along himself – when he is impulsive. David’s big mistake is to try and force God’s hand. Herod’s is to try and stand in God’s place as Lord over life and death.
Herod is also very impulsive and insecure. He fears John the Baptist, and what he stands for, yet at the same time “he likes to listen to him.” But when tricked by wife and daughter, his fear of what others might say if he doesn’t do what he promised is more important than a man’s life. Constrained by his oath, he has John beheaded. That reminds us of another leader, also more willing to sacrifice a life rather than lose face and out of fear for his power: Pontius Pilate who, despite having found no fault in Jesus, handed him over to be executed.
It is not the partying that is a problem, but the reason for the party. Parties, feasts, celebrations are not intrinsically bad, on the contrary. Part of our faith is to look forward to a party, what we call the eschatological banquet, the feast at the end of times when, according to the prophet Isaiah (25:6-8): “… the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever.” This party is all good news: It is for all peoples, not just for a select group or nation or class or colour. It is marked by generosity: rich foods, well-matured wines, and it signifies victory over death and evil.
I know it does not always look like it, but we party, we celebrate each week at church. The Eucharist looks forward to that heavenly banquet, it also looks back to the last supper, connecting us to the moment of Christ’s victory over sin and death, and it connects us through Christ with all other Christians who have celebrated, who are celebrating, or who will celebrate Holy Communion, holy connection, holy community.
The Eucharist is a meal whose purpose is to help us overcome those human weaknesses that so marred the other feasts we heard about. There is a death at the centre of this feast, Christ’s death for us on the cross, but out of that death comes the promise of new and unending life. The Ark of the Covenant is gone, lost when Jerusalem fell to Babylon. But we have received something much better than a box, first God’s presence among us as a fully human being and now the divine presence in bread and wine made holy. This divine presence is not a danger to those who draw near, it brings life. The only risk is that will change us, for the better.
Why do we come to this feast? Not out of a desire for power, for we know we are powerless. Not out of fear, but to overcome fear. Not out of insecurity, but because we trust in God and God’s promise. And not ever out of jealousy, for there is no reason ever to be jealous when God’s gift of true and abundant life is freely given and is meant to be freely shared.
Draw near with faith. Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you, and his blood which he shed for you. Eat and drink in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.[1]
Amen.
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