2 Samuel 6:1-16; Mark 6:14-29 Danger! July 13, 2003

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. (Crowfoot)

What is life? One thing we know, life is dangerous. It is at the very beginning of the Winnie-the-Bear saga that we get our first clue. One day when he (Edward Bear also known as Winnie-the-Pooh) was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.

Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between his paws, and began to think.

First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee."

Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey."

And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree. He climbed and he climbed and climbed, and as he climbed he sang a little song to himself. It went like this:

Isn't it funny

How a bear likes honey?

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

I wonder why he does?

Then he climbed a little further . . .and a little further . . . and then just a little further. By that time he has thought of another song.

It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,

They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees.

And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),

We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.

He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang a Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he just stood on that branch . .CRACK!

"Oh, help!" said Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the branch below him.

"If only I hadn't --" he said, as he bounced twenty feet on to the next branch.

"You see, what I meant to do" he explained, as he turned head-over-heals, and crashed on to another branch thirty feet below, "what I meant to do --"

"O course, it was rather --" he admitted, as he slithered very quickly through the next six branches.

"It all comes, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-bye to the last branch, spun around three times, and flew gracefully into a gorse-bush, "It all comes of liking honey so much, Oh help!"

When David was King of Israel life was dangerous too. We join the story after David has been anointed King and Jerusalem has been recaptured. In the meantime David has taken on a few more wives and concubines who have borne him a number of children (see 2 Sam. 5.13ff) He has, of course, already slain the Giant Goliath and is about to end the Philistine threat for good. The Philistines had been around for a long time and were know for their strength and aggressive behavior. To put it in a word the Philistines were dangerous if you were not a Philistine yourself and maybe even if you were. As it turns out the Philistines are dangerous all right but not as dangerous as David himself who also lives dangerously. Slaying giants and all those wives and concubines should be evidence enough but David doesn't stop there. He also liked to dance.

Now everyone knows how dangerous dancing is. It says here David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might . . . They were dancing because they were happy, I think. They were bringing the ark of the covenant home to Jerusalem. For those of you who have may have missed it in Sunday School this is not Noah's Ark we are talking about here. This is the holy of holies, the description and definition of which is elusive. In short, whatever it was, it represented to them not only the covenant with God that made them a people in the first place but the very presence of God. To put this in the perspective that the modern mind can understand - bringing the ark of the covenant home to Jerusalem was even more significant than bringing a world series championship to Boston. (If you can believe that.) No wonder they were dancing.

In keeping with our theme of the day, it should be noted that the Ark was also dangerous. The big bad Philistines in earlier times had stolen it from the Israelites but brought it back after it caused a devastating drought. It was not to be trifled with. It was said that if anyone touched the Ark they would surely die. Sure enough, possibly from all the mad dancing around it, the Ark began to fall from its riding place and poor Uzzah did the natural thing. He reached out to stop it from falling and was struck dead.

This is too much for us. God, it seems, is dangerous too. It was also said in those days that no one could see God and live. God's name was so holy it could not be uttered out loud. We may have trouble identifying with such a fearsome holiness. In contrast, we would use the name of God to sell hamburgers if it would sell a lot of hamburgers. It could be that the point of a God who is feared is not the fearsomeness of God but the humility of the rest of us and a profound respect for what is holy.

Poor Uzzah only wanted to help. He meant well we presume. What are to make of this? Maybe helping God is not as obvious as we thought. Maybe it is more serious even than our good intentions. Maybe we shouldn't be so sure we know what is going on. And maybe, when it comes to God, we shouldn't take anything for granted. Maybe God is to be respected not because God is nice and has earned our respect and is amenable to our needs and meets our requirements for being God but because God is God and it we who have requirements to be met.

David was afraid, it says, and angry. So afraid that he didn't keep the Ark at his place that night. Up to now, things had been going so well for David or so it seems. He was having a great time but having a great time is dangerous too, of course. Life is like that I guess. Later David is dancing again when the Ark finally enters Jerusalem. We don't know if he is dancing for joy or if dancing is just what one does when the Ark is coming down the street to your house. We are given an intimate view of David's life when we read that Michel, the daughter of Saul and one of David's wives is watching him dance and despising him in her heart. We don't know why. There are any number of reasons a wife could hate her husband of course. Whatever the reason was, we can say that even love is dangerous and marriage. We have no end to the ways we can find to hurt ourselves and each other. I guess you could say that we human beings are dangerous, too.

John the Baptiser had his head cut off by his fellow human beings. It seems that not only is God dangerous but speaking for God is dangerous too. I won't even get into the characters involved in this plot. There isn't enough time. Suffice it to say that Herod and his lot were dangerous all right, to themselves as well as everyone else. To Herod's credit he was astute enough to fear something greater than himself. He feared the truth, especially the truth about himself. The truth is dangerous too.

Danger! We might as well accept it. Life is dangerous. Oddly enough, life is also wonderful. We can't have one without the other it would seem. God demands much of us in this life but God has given us the gifts to live, the gifts of courage and faith and hope and love most of all. (Love of course is dangerous and wonderful.)The fact that life is dangerous in no way assumes that it would be better not to live at all. We look at little Max to day and we know the danger of bringing a child into world but would we give up the joy of Max to avoid the dangers of life? Of course not.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew something about danger. He was the German theologian who was one of the few to speak out publicly in Germany against Hitler. It eventually cost him his life. He believed we should throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not only our own sufferings but that of God and the world - that, I think, is faith. Trust a dangerous God to overcome a dangerous world.

It has been written that we don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a fish. There is much for us to discover about life, our own life in fact, but this much even a Bear of Very Little Brain now knows: If we want to enjoy some honey we will have to climb a tree and we very well might fall in a gorse bush.