A heart for people, the Arts and for God

“Disgusting!” That was Michal’s comment on King David’s dancing (2 Samuel 6. 1 - 20). If it had been Craig Revel Horwood critiquing my two left feet I would have understood but this was David’s wife criticising his contribution to the sacred dance.

“Disgusting!” That is how some Christians have responded to dance, and even the Arts generally, at certain times and places in Church history. For example, the Rev. Increase Mather, an influential Puritan leader in Boston in the 17^th century, wrote, in a book entitled An Arrow Against Profane and Promiscuous Dancing Drawn Out of the Quiver of the Scriptures (1684), that "A Dance is the Devils Procession. He that enters into a Dance, enters into his Possession. The Devil is the Guide, the middle and the end of the Dance."

Why was Michal disgusted? She thought that David had demeaned himself in front of their servants. She said that he had “exposed himself like a fool in the sight of the servant women of his officials” (v. 20). David had led all the Israelites in dancing and singing with all their might to honour God with their playing of harps, lyres, drums, rattles, and cymbals. Michal criticises both what David has done – exposing himself like a fool through his dancing – and his having crossed boundaries and taken on roles that were inappropriate for a King – having done it in all in front of the servant women of his officials.

If we were to translate what Michal says into today’s slang we might say that he by dancing he had looked a prat in front of the plebs. To put it that way brings out the inherent snobbery in Michal’s critique. As the daughter of King Saul, she is suggesting that there is an appropriate way for a King to behave in front of his people and that there are also appropriate roles which people play in society which should not be altered or varied. It is not the job of the King to lead the people in worship, as the King has priests and Levites a-plenty to do that for him.

David, though, has a heart for the people, a heart for the Arts, and, most importantly, a heart for God and so he both instinctively and deliberately crosses social and cultural boundaries to lead his people in worship and is clearly commended by God for doing so.

David didn’t forget his origins. He was not born into a royal family instead he was the one that his father left looking after the sheep because he considered him too young to meet the prophet who had come to anoint the next King of Israel (1 Samuel 16). David knows, therefore, that the place for a King is among the people even if that means he demeans himself in the eyes of some and acts in ways that are inappropriate. The fact that he has a heart for the people means that he is loved by the people.

David was also a musician before he was a King, playing his harp to soothe King Saul’s spirits. He is credited with writing many of the Psalms – songs which speak of praising God with trumpets, harps, lyres, drums, dancing, flutes and cymbals. So, David is a lyricist, musician and dancer who values the role that the Arts play in the worship of God and, not only appoints those who will use the Arts in that way, but actively uses his own God-given artistic abilities to lead worship himself.

Central to all this, however, is his heart for God. It was this that led to his being anointed by Samuel as the future King of Israel. It was on the occasion of his anointing that God said, “People look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.” In Sirach 47. 8, one of the books of the Apocrypha we read, “In everything David did, he gave thanks and praise to the Holy Lord, the Most High. He loved his Creator and sang praises to him with all his heart.” David’s heart was, as we say, in the right place and this can be clearly seen in this story through the way in which he risks ridicule in order to lead worship.

In this he is similar to the prophets who also cross cultural and social boundaries in order to speak and visualise God’s message, often attracting ridicule as they do so. “On one occasion, God told Ezekiel to shave his beard and to cut the hair of his head with a razor and a knife and divide the cut hair into three parts.” Then he was told to burn a third of it, chop a third up with his sword, and scatter the remaining third to the winds (Ezekiel 5:2). Ezekiel was also commanded to draw a picture of Jerusalem on a tile (Ezekiel 4:1–3); lie on his left and right side (4:4–8); bake bread that contained dung (4:9–17); tremble as he ate and drank (12:17–20); sigh, groan, and beat his breast (21:6–7); and make sweeping movements with a sword (21:8–17). All these actions prophesied impending doom, destruction, and hardship upon various groups in the region.

In Hosea 12. 10 we read this, "I have also spoken to you by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions for you and have appealed to you through parables acted out by the prophets.” The Hebrew phrase translated as "acted out" means "a silent mime, an enactment, or judgment". The prophets used drama rather than the lyrics, music and dance used by David but their impulse was the same to point the people to God through the Arts even if they looked ridiculous in the process.

Today, St John’s Seven Kings has been visited by a prophet who uses the Arts with the same heart for God that we have seen in David and the prophets.

Bishop David, the Bishop of Barking, is well known for his visualisations of the Gospel message which remain in people’s memories and hearts long after his visits. Over the years in church at various confirmation services we have seen him release live doves, wash and iron clothes, pitch a tent and boil a kettle on a camping gaz stove, use a leaf blower to fill the sails of a full-size sailing dinghy, bake a cake, build a wall and burn straw. At my first training weekend as a curate he did a handstand to demonstrate the way in which Jesus, through his teaching in the beatitudes, turns our understanding of life upside down. Through these acted parables we remember not only the visual image but also the point that was being made. Yet there are some who feel that this is not an appropriate way for a Bishop to behave and who criticise, in private, his actions and approach.

Bishop David has said that he loves to use surprise, shock, mirth and amusement in order to make what are hopefully memorable spiritual and theological points because our insistence on using far too many words often goes right over people’s heads and a picture can say more than a thousand words. Jesus also used visuals in his very concrete teaching, so he feels he’s in good company in using everyday objects to make connections for others.

The relationship between Church life and music has sustained through the centuries but the connection been Church and theatre has suffered. There is also great scope for dance and drama in Church, as well as the visual arts. There is great scope for recovering those connections that have fallen into decline.

So, he agrees with Rowan Williams that the Church needs more artists and “that artists are not special people but every person is a special kind of artist.” He thinks that there is great scope in the Church encouraging creative expression in everyone as this is a way of helping us to be fully human. Where appropriate that flowering of artistic expression can be expressed - as we have seen King David, the prophets, and the Bishop himself doing - in Church as, for example, an outflow of worship. We are fellow-creators with God and need to remember that He is creator as well as redeemer.

What David shows us is that all this stems from having our heart in the right place - in everything we do, to give thanks and praise to the Holy Lord, the Most High loving our Creator and singing praises to him with all our heart.

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J. Moss - Psalm 150.