2 Samuel 5:1-5; 6:1-5; Psalm 150 “Let this be a place of worship”

“O Worship the King, all glorious above and graciously sing of his power and his love.” This old hymn kept playing through my mind as I prepared for this week’s sermon. You would think that this week topic and accompanying story about worship, would be easy to talk about, but I’m not so sure that’s the case. As the song reminds us, worship is about recognizing both God’s power and love, and I fear that we rarely look at them in tandem in our lives today. If David was like the rest of us he probably found himself wondering about some of life’s big questions as he sat out in the field tending the sheep day after day. Tending the sheep was not a fun job. It was, instead, not well respected in ancient societies. Only the lowest of the low were shepherds. Yet, it was a much needed job, and each day men would go out into the fields and risk their very lives for their sheep. No respect and putting one’s life in danger, not for another human being, but for an animal. I have to believe this would have lead David somewhere along the line to ask the big “why am I even here?” question. Yet, David had no way when he was out in that field to know what was to come. No way of knowing that the God of Israel would lead the prophet Samuel to his father’s house to anoint him to be the future king of Israel. A scrappy boy with a disregarded job, whom God had chosen to be King. But even after he was anointed King, his life was far from easy. He would be hunted down and threatened by the current King, Saul, who would reign over Israel for several more years after the anointing of David, until the moment when God chose for Saul’s reign to end. Which is where we pick up in our story today - David is now officially King, not just in Samuel’s eyes or God’s eyes, but in the eyes and hearts of the nation of Israel. Now, the people declare, David is not a shepherd over sheep, but a shepherd of the people of Israel. He has moved from being looked down upon and ignored to being adored. But then the hard work began. For David felt in his heart that he was not only tasked in leading the people military, but also to lead them to worship a Holy God. The God of his call. The God of his anointing. The God of his Kingship and this nation. He, more than any other King in Israel’s history, believed in the power and love that could be found in the ark of the covenant - the ornate box that contained the 10 commandments and marks for the people of Israel to remember who they are and whose they are. Each time there was a battle to enter, the ark of the covenant went forth. In times of peace, it rested at a holy place as a reminder of God’s presence. In today’s passage we are told that David and all of Israel celebrated with all of their might before the ark of the covenant - before their God.I have to wonder if we have the same zeal and passion for our worship today. Do we have holy places in our lives, places where we can come before God and worship authentically, with our whole hearts. We can get so caught up in the busyness of our daily lives, that we don’t take the time to be in an attitude of worship, sometimes even on Sundays, a day set apart for rest and worship. Worship pastor at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, Kim Miller, states that worship is of the highest worth because it is for God. The God of power and love. The God of our stories. The God that walks beside us in life. The God that hears our prayers and responds. The God of our hearts. But then she also asks a gut-wrenchingly honest question - do we act like that? Do we act like God is worthy of our praise? Do we enter into worship, be in privately or corporately, acting like it not only matters but is of the highest worth because it is for God? Can we express to other people why worship matters and how it can transform their life, because we praise the God of transformation? Just like David we need to worship in order to remember who we are and whose we are. Worship today is a reminder that we are the Church, the body of Christ with a God-sized mission to go and make disciples for the transformation of the world, just as when the people of Israel came before the ark of the covenant, they remembered their story as people God freed from slavery and oppression. Worship should shape our calling, define us, and even change us. But I have to ask, are we looking for worship to change us today? Or are we looking to make worship into something we evaluate on a “were my needs met” basis? Do you walk out of this sanctuary on Sunday’s thinking about how you communed with the Holy God or do you walk out griping that you didn’t know the hymn that was sung? We need to move away from the individualism of worship. Worship is about so much more then me or you - its about giving God the honor and worth that God is due for God s the source of our worship - not just a topic that makes us feel good. Do you find yourself preparing for Sunday worship? Do you pray before you enter this sanctuary? Do you quiet your heart before God so that you can give Christ all of your attention? For I truly believe that the attitude that we bring into worship at the beginning and leave worship with at the end of our time together says a lot about where our attention lie - on ourselves and our circumstances or on God? Worship takes the ordinary and transforms it into the sacred. Worship takes our circumstances and says that it isn’t about us, but about the God we can worship in the face of any circumstances. Worship is a matter of the heat - and I have to ask, where is your heart at today? The Psalmist expresses what worship is about with deep passion when he writes that we can praise God in the sanctuary or under the Heavens. We can praise God with the sounding of the trumpet or with dancing. But everything that has breath is to praise the Lord. When we give ourselves over to worship we are saying that we are dependent upon God, and I think that is why David gave himself over to worship in front of the ark of the covenant the way he did - not because of what God had done, but because he was dependent upon God. For even though he was King of Israel he acknowledged that he would have nothing at all without God. How is your worship life doing this morning? Do you find yourself like David and Israel, expressing how worthy God is or is your heart not quite there yet? Is your worship authentic - leading you to repent and know God more fully? Is worship changing your life as you commune with a Holy God and the people of God known as the church? Folks, I have been in many different churches for worship services. From evensong services in Anglican cathedrals to stadiums full of people singing Hillsong choruses. I’ve been in churches of five people and churches of thousands. And I’m standing before you this morning and saying that size of the church and what style of worship or whether or not I knew the words to everything did not matter. What mattered was the state of my heart and if I entered into worship wanting to praise God who is worthy simply because he is God. Let us not look to worship to meet our needs, but instead look to praise God in acts of worship that are pleasing to a Holy and gracious, powerful and loving God - the beginning and end and in between of all of our worship. Amen.