Dance Like No One (but God) Is Watching

This is the third of a three-week sermon series on homecoming. The Bible often gives us the good and the bad of its characters, and that is certainly true with David, one of the greatest figures in Israel’s history. In today’s reading, David brings the ark, believed to be the very presence of God, to Jerusalem. David is dressed in a linen ephod and dancing, and Michal, his wife, is horrified. It is reminiscent of the story of Jesus, reclining and eating with friends, when a woman comes in and anoints his feet with costly ointment and uses her hair. Is it embarrassing and contemptible, or is it celebration in the extreme? John Wesley, too, broke the rules when he broke away and preached in the outer reaches. How do these examples challenge us?