And she despised him in her heart

2nd Samuel 6: 1-22, pages 280-281 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baalejudah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. 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. David was angry because the Lord had burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah; so that place is called Perezuzzah, to this day. David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?” So David was unwilling to take the ark of the Lord into his care in the city of David, instead David took it to the house of Obededom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obededom and all his household. It was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obededom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. They brought in the ark of the Lord, 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 before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, 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 the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, that I have danced before the Lord. 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.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death. Sermon The Presidential campaign is picking up steam, and in addition to presenting their policies and plans for the future, each candidate is now attempting to present himself to us as a real, authentic, and normal human being. This part of the campaign shouldn’t be the most important to voters but it seems as though it is. Now the families come in, just as Mitt Romney’s sons did last month on the late night talk show, Conan, to talk, not about taxes or health care but really funny pranks that their dad pulled. One son told about a prank he had only heard about since it took place before he was born, when Mr. Romney was invited to be a groomsman in a friends wedding. The night before the wedding Mr. Romney snuck into the groom’s hotel room and painted the letters “h-e” on the sole of his left shoe and “l-p” on the other. No one would have noticed it since the letters were painted on the soles of his shoes, but it was a Catholic wedding, so the bride and groom had to kneel down for a prayer, and then bottom of the groom’s shoes were facing the congregation spelling out “H-E-L-P”. This kind of story goes a long way in lightening up the image of a candidate whom many perceive to be a stiff businessman, but when it comes to showing one’s human side it can be easy to go too far. Pranks show voters that Mr. Romney has a sense of humor, playing the saxophone made President Clinton seem cool, but do you remember when Howard Dean yelled? It was 2004 following the Iowa caucuses and Mr. Dean was rallying his supporters, only he got so caught up in what he was doing and in a message that he believed in that he let out a scream that resounded onto FOX news and every other media outlet to be criticized by every reporter until the Dean campaign was completely annihilated. What every politician needs is someone to help them figure out where the line between likable and ridiculed is, every politician needs help in knowing how far is too far and how much emotion do citizens really want their leader to show. It was Michal who took this duty upon herself for King David, and knowing that the citizens of Jerusalem had seen their king dancing through the streets wearing only a linen ephod she was concerned – or maybe more than concerned, our scripture passage says that she “despised him in her heart”. Our scripture lesson for today is the story of two strong people. Michal, the strong willed daughter of the King becomes the strong willed wife of another king. And to make things even more complicated, David, her husband, didn’t actually kill her father with his own hands, but if her father and her brother had not been killed by David’s army David would still be a shepherd out tending flocks. What makes things worse is that her shepherd-made-king husband doesn’t act properly; he embarrasses her. So she goes to her husband the King, on the day of his greatest triumph, not to congratulate him but to help him act in a way deserving of his station: “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!” I’m sure you can see why she was embarrassed – she was raised as a princess and so she knew how kings were supposed to act, how there should be refinement, how there should be control and order and sanctity, especially when the people were looking. But I’m also sure that you can see this situation from David’s perspective – that there are some events in life that deserve celebration, when one person’s joy should be public, when human emotion that we would all rather keep hidden should be out for all to see. It’s an amazing thing that this fight between two married people is preserved here in scripture – it’s easy to assume that fighting is something that only we lesser human beings deal with so when we fight it’s more comfortable for proper people to keep it behind closed doors and then to act as though everything is perfect when people are looking. But this is no typical book we are reading from, and it teaches us, not how to be respectable but how to be holy, and so the worst part of David and Michal’s relationship is out in the open for us to see. For David that is how it had to be – before God nothing could be hidden – and so this joyous occasion demanded dancing, just as every trial demanded struggle, every death demanded mourning, and every sadness demanded tears. We would keep it hidden though. Behind closed doors, out of the way of public view, and far beyond judging stares. As though Michal were here watching, we bring to church, so often not our real emotions but our best selves, and so we cover our brokenness with church clothes, shade over our sadness with make-up, and substitute restraint for joy not realizing that before the very presence of God King David cold not stop dancing. I don’t know why we do it exactly, and I’m not sure how to do anything about it. But I am convinced of this – so often it’s the shame of who they really are that keeps people out of this place as though sinners had no place here, as though the broken were not wanted, as though the divorced, the lost, the angry, the unaccepted, and the hurting were not exactly who Christ came to this earth to serve. We keep our true selves at home and show up instead looking like the people we think we are supposed to be, when truly I tell you that what is required is to come into the presence of God just as you are. Hurting, crying, losing, mourning, rejoicing, dancing. Michal is here though, and if she was so bold to say that to the King what will she say to us once she sees us for who we really are and everyone else finds out that we aren’t as perfect as we’re supposed to be? How hard it is to stand up to her and all that she demands. How hard it is to be who we really are when she is there watching. But King David said to his wife Michal who demanded proper behavior: “It was before the Lord, who chose me that I have danced.” Dance then, for the Lord has chosen you as well. Amen.