Materials
The
David Series: Our Lives Before God
Sweet Music Man
II Samuel 22
by R. Todd Bouldin
As our sermon series on David draws to a close this month, we begin to get a sense of his whole life before God. We are able to soar with him on the heights, experience the deep shame of his sin, feel the grief over lost children, find meaning in his suffering, and praise the God of his deliverance. David looks back on his life with God, and He causes him to write a song that is remarkable in capturing all the themes of David’s life – and even though the song occasionally speaks of David’s greatness, he is careful to say that it is God who wrote the song, and it is the sovereignty and greatness of God that surpasses any of his own. As we sing, “You are the words and the music, You are the song that I sing.” Today we reflect on David as a worshiper and creator. God was the song and prayer of David’s life, and the diversity and beauty of God led David to write and sing songs that gave Israel and the church a song to sing forever. That is what art in the service of God always does.
Prayer - O God, our Sovereign Lord, our Deliverer, and our Redeemer. We praise Your Name. You have created the world and called it good. You have created us to be creators with You. It is in worship that we seek You and find You. In our seeking and finding, we see and hear and speak what we see now in part, but one day will know fully, even as we are fully known. Bless the creation of our hands, our minds, and our imaginations. Infuse our imaginations with Your beauty, holiness and love. Set the church free to create new worlds that all may see Your works. In the Name of Christ. Amen.
The sermon this morning will be in two movements. It is my hope this morning that we experience the life and work of David more than we read and understand it, so I am going to keep my sermon comments fairly brief today. As we look back on the life of David, I want us to join him as he looks back on his own life, and in doing so, he turns to worship and art to express what he knows to be true. First, I would like for us to consider David as a worshiper.
It takes some reading between the lines to be able to see how almost every event of David’s life became worship for him. It requires moving beyond just the texts of I and II Samuel to the Psalms where we see David in prayer and song at every major turn and event of his life. The worship in the Psalms are diverse because life is diverse – it is made up of twists and turns, highs and lows, victory and defeat, shame and cleansing, bondage and freedom. David sometimes questions God, sometimes cries in his pain and shame, sometimes expresses his doubt. Other times, he meditates in silence. Silence sometimes gives way to jubilant celebration. The worship of David is so honest, so full of life, so full of imagination.
More importantly, The God that David came to experience in the twists and turns of life also is diverse. He is holy, He is loving, He is a provider, a great deliverer, the sovereign Lord. He brings terror when He speaks and acts, but He also comforts the fallen and loves the sinner. He hates injustice, and lifts up the poor. He casts down the wicked, but He lifts up the person who trusts Him. He is beautiful and majestic. The diversity of David’s life led him to experience the diversity of the life of God. Thus, every event of life comes to honor and reflect something of the character of God.
Every moment of life becomes an opportunity to worship or despair. Every place and every time is infused with the sacred. God may be found anywhere, anytime, anyplace. But worship takes imagination. I heard one preacher this week say that he tells his congregation to stay home if they are coming to “attend worship.” You do not “attend” worship. You come to actively worship. That requires brains, heart, and imagination. Worship also has to be honest about life – it should not be filled with cheesey clichés and worn out phrases. David’s psalm is alive with imagery, beauty, and experience.
Worship demands that we allow the diversity of God and the diversity of life to intersect when we worship alone or corporately. Worship should never look the same because our God and our lives are never the same. Worship then is adventuresome, sometimes surprising, sometimes peaceful, sometimes unsettling, sometimes full of pain, sometimes mournful, sometimes jubilant. If you are expecting worship to be the one predictable thing in your life every week, you either are not in touch with God or you are not in touch with your own life. Worship expresses the dynamic life of God at the intersection of our lives, and that means our worship always will be changing, fresh and diverse. It is not because we should change things to change things – it is not about leaving the past behind. In fact, David’s worship draws on the ancient stories of Israel often to give it shape and meaning and truth. We can repeat the stories of our past, honor our traditions, and worship in diverse and changing ways when we free our worship to express our experience with God.
II Samuel 22 is David’s final song -- the farewell tour – and in one glorious sweep, he encapsules his whole life before God. Like the song of Hannah that begins this narrative in I Samuel 2, the song of David provides a conclusion to this story. It is a fitting conclusion to a story that was never about Samuel, or Saul, or David alone. This story was about Israel’s experience of God, and that historical experience continued to play itself out over and over again in the life of Samuel, Saul and David. It is still playing out in your life too. When you are running away from the people and things that haunt you, remember: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.” (22:2). When death seems near, “In my distress I called upon The Lord; to my God I called. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry came to His ears.” (22:7). When God’s mystery overwhelms you, “Smoke went up from His nostrils, and devouring fire from His mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from Him.” (22:9). When God’s grace has delivered you from the snares of the enemy, or from those who desire your defeat, “He reached from on high, He took me, He drew me out of the mighty waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. He brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.” (22:18). When you feel that wickedness has overcome the world around you: “You deliver a humble people, but your eyes are upon the haughty to bring them down.” (22:28). When you are tempted to believe that you deserved the good life you have been given, “He made my feet like the feet of deer, and set me secure on the heights. You have given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your help has made me great.” (22:36). And when all of your life becomes lived in the presence of God, in all of its humanity and diversity -- in all of its pain, in all of its victory and greatness -- you can shout out in worship, “The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation.” (22:47). Let’s worship.
Songs of Praise
David’s worship expressed itself in creative imagination that gave birth to art – in this case the art of poetry and song. Last words are important, and David’s last words begin with an epitath of sorts: “The oracle of the man anointed by The God of Jacob, Israel’s singer of songs.” (II Samuel 23:1). When Israel remembered David, it wasn’t just his kingship they honored. They honored David for his art – for giving them a song to sing.
We don’t speak too often about art or artists in the church. The relationship between art and faith has often been an uneasy one. While artists once painted, sculpted and performed under the patronage of the church, in more recent history their endeavors have been relegated to spaces (outside the church's walls).
There are a lot of reasons for the separation of art and faith. Some of the blame belongs to the unbiblical dualism that Christians often have expressed which led to seeing all things spiritual as sacred and all things material as evil. Some of the blame belongs to certain groups of Christians who have criticized art and artists as secularists and anti-Christian but have failed to embrace art as a potential vessel of faith. Some Christians find themselves unable to accept some artists because their temperament or personalities or dress do not fit the clean cut image they think befits a Christian. Others, like our own tradition, in an effort to simplify congregational life and rid itself of earlier church abuses, have eradicated art, musical expression and symbolism from worship and community life. Influenced by modern philosophical assumptions, most modern Christianity has emphasized word over image – and some even argue that what is written or spoken is superior to that which is seen or imaged.
Unfortunately, the postmodern world presents new realities for a church that has no room for artists. Philosopher Richard Rorty has argued that the twin models of science and philosophy that shaped our aspirations in the modern world are now being displaced by the twin models of politics and art. Imagination seems closer to the center of the mind’s most important and most determining work in a world shaped by pluralism and mystery. In this world, the ways people represent the world they experience and what they see matters more than genes or jobs or beliefs. Rather than resist this philosophical and cultural movement, and thus become irrelevant, I think Christians must reach out and welcome the new opportunities for the gospel to be seen and not just heard. After all, John says that the word which once was words on a page has now become a Person in the incarnated Christ – In I John 1, he puts it this way, “What we have heard, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life . . . this Life was revealed and we have seen it . . . we declare to you what we have seen and heard . . . .” (I John. 1:1-4). What we hear or read is not superior to what we see after the Incarnation -- God can become enfleshed in words but also in every work of our hands and every thing we behold if we have eyes to see it.
Currently, artists and the church are finding each other again and asking important questions about the relationship between art and spirituality, and between imagination and faith. The written and/or spoken word is undeniably an effective means of communicating spiritual ideas and truths, yet there are times when images, color, shape and form may better speak to the mysteries of God and His creation. David certainly found his whole world alive with the reality and beauty of God, and it came to expression when he played his harp, or wrote a song, or danced in the street, or sang for joy.
It is human nature to be creative. The basis for all creativity is found in the opening words of Genesis, where the stage is set for God's presentation of Himself as Creator. After completing His work on the seventh day, God rested. He was finished; He had created everything. But the man whom God made was created in His image; therefore man was intended to be a creator as well. The belief that man is made in the image of God emphasizes that people, like God, are creators. The image of God working through His people affirms human creativity as a good thing. We have been endowed with the image of a Creator to be creative ourselves.
When God created the world, He was like one who finds the choicest, most well-stocked art store (you know, the ones where potential oozes from the shelves and you don't know what to buy first). And whatever God created was set into motion to be used to re-create. He chose the finest materials: color, shape, texture, high pitch, low pitch, tears, sand and water. He used fragrance as sweet as a rose and pungent as a skunk. Movement, logic, shadow, symmetry, heat, cold and even an isosceles triangle were all His. He used harmony and discord, bitterness and sweet tree sap. And what He created was perfect.
The good news is that as those who have been created in the image of God, we have these materials available to us. The ultimate praise for anything we create should be reflected back onto God. And that is where faith must walk hand in hand with creativity. Faith provides us with the bridge, ladder and whittler's tool we need to capture the imprint of the hand of God and bring it into the light. It forces us to cut away, to prune, to insist on the infusion into our work of God's truth, found in His Word. Therefore, what we produce with our hands must reflect more than what simply feels good, looks good, sounds good. It must feel, look and sound true. It must reflect The God we know and the world He called good.
If the church is to recover a creative vision, let me suggest how we might do so.
1. As I stated above, we can recover a creative vision when we recover a theology of creativity. It is understandable why some of our ancestors removed artistic and symbolic expression such as stained glass pictures, art, icons and crosses from their places of worship. To them, these things represented a larger problem with Christianity that needed to return to the simplicity of New Testament faith and practice. But it is time to reexamine some of the assumptions held by those who removed the arts from faith – for some of the assumptions arose out of historical abuses and not out of sound theology. We begin with the fact that God is an artist. God created us creators and artists. He infused the world with beauty, and put a desire within every person to express and give representation to that beauty He has made. The material world is not evil – it is essentially the creation that God looked upon and called “good.” The physical is not unspiritual – with the eyes of faith, everything has the potential to be spiritual. Therefore, Christian art does not have to be “spiritual” to be Christian – it simply must honor God and be true and honest, both about life and about God. Finally, the Incarnation has shown us that the hearing of words but also the seeing of The Word is essential to New Testament faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Second, the church, and our congregation, need to welcome and affirm artists among us. Musicians, actors, playwrights, poets, songwriters, artists, dancers, folk artists – they all should find a home here where we speak and what we see both worship and honor our God. If they don’t express these gifts in the church, then it should be no surprise to us when artists are pushed to express these gifts only in the secular environment.
Let me share some of my vision for our congregation. I dream of a church that believes that aesthetics matter – where decisions about the appearance of our building consider not only cost and simplicity but also beauty. I dream of a church that recovers its artistic past – where sculpture and paintings by our members and others are displayed in our church building and around our church grounds. I dream of having a coffee house either here or in another setting on Friday or Saturday evenings where we showcase the poetry, songwriting, and instrumental gifts of our members as well as those of our community. I dream of being the kind of church that welcomes artists – the artistic gifts but also the artistic person. I dream of a church that supports those in music, theater, and the movie industries. Most importantly, I dream of a church with a praying imagination.
I want to invite you to the table and the screen in our lobby this morning to see some of the work of our artists in residence with us. You will be amazed at the gifts we have among us. You will see Patsy’s quilting, Krystin’s ballet shoes, Kathleen Malloy’s paintings, Tim Hill’s wood carving, and Heidi Hill’s art. That’s just a start. I hope this will be just the beginning of an ongoing effort we make to display and honor art and artists among us.
In one of the Psalms of David, Psalm 40, he wrote, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” What song has God given you? I hope you will bring it here, for all the art we create is for the people of God and for the honor of God. God is still giving us a song – I just hope and pray we can be a church where the song can be sung.
I have asked one of our members to speak with you just briefly today about how God works through him as a songwriter, and then we are going to sing one of his songs. I welcome one of our artists, Markus McDowell.
» Back to top
|
Bulletin
Class Materials
Resources
Sermons
Spiritual Life
 |
