Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 10, 14 July 2024: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19; Psalm 24; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29
Two of today’s readings talk about dancing, not exactly the subject you expect in the Bible. And they are very different dances. In our reading from the Hebrew scriptures, we hear the story of the Ark of the Covenant being moved from the house of Abinadab to Jerusalem, the city of David, where David had prepared a new tent for it. The Ark was the holiest item for the Israelites, containting the tablets with the Ten Commandments, and maybe Aaron’s rod and a bowl of manna. It is precious.
The Ark is carried in a new cart, with “the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand” following led by David. We are told that David and “all the house of Israel” were dancing “with all their might”. We think of dancing as pleasure, but the phrase “with all their might” is repeated later, so it means something important. This is dancing as work, as service, to celebrate the coming of the ark to Jerusalem. They were not dancing in a void: they were accompanied by “lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals”. This was noisy. But dancing here was a form of worship and respect, as this was what was due to the Lord.
In the gospel we have a different dance, with a less joyous ending. Mark’s gospel is retrospective: Herod is hearing the news of Jesus’s ministry, and he thinks that John the Baptist has come back to life. And so we hear, in retrospect, the story of John’s death.
John had been Herod’s prisoner, because Herodias, Herod’s wife, is angry that John has told Herod he should not have married her, his brother’s wife. But Herod likes listening to John, and knows “he was a righteous and holy man”. So John is imprisoned, but not executed.
On his birthday, Herod gives a banquet, and his daughter danced for the company. He was so pleased with her performance that he promised her anything she asked. On her mother’s advice, she asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And so John is executed, and his head is delivered to her on a platter.
David danced to celebrate and honor; Herodias uses her daughter’s dance of entertainment as a way to achieve the death of John the Baptist. Dancing is not good or bad, but it can be used in good and bad ways. The same is true of much of what we do. What is the use we put our activities to? Do we do things to praise God? Or to serve our own? Are we acting out of love?
As always, the Bible does not provide a simple message. We cannot say dancing is bad because it led to the death of John the Baptist. But we can say that living with grudges is not good, and acting on them even worse.
As we move forward with the week ahead, may we dance to honor God.