Thomas J Parlette
“Back to Basics”
2nd Samuel 6: 1-15, 12-19
7/14/24
Before Caitlin Clark, before Kevin Durant, before LeBron James, before Kobe Bryant, before Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Larry Bird – there were two other basketball players that dominated the conversation when sports fans began talking about who was the best ever. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
One big advantage that Russell always had over Chamberlain was the fact that he led his team, the Boston Celtics, to 11 championships in 13 years – a record that will probably never be equaled.
Once, in the deciding game of the NBA Championship, the Boston big man stepped to the line for a pair of crucial free throws. The crowd went silent. If Russell made the two shots, the Celtics would once again be on their way to another championship.
As he was about to shoot, one of his teammates, Larry Siegfried came over and whispered something to the giant center. Russell grinned, then sank both shots, and once again the Celtics were champions. After the game, a reporter asked Siegfried what he said to Bill Russell at the free throw line. The Celtic guard replied, “Well, sometimes Russ forgets to bend his knees. I just gave him a quick reminder.”
There is nothing more basic to shooting free throws than bending your knees. Even one of the greatest basketball players of all time needed to be reminded of one of the basics of the game.
Back to basics. Not a bad strategy. It worked for Bill Russell, and it worked for King David as well, as he tried to work through a crucial time in the establishment of his dynasty. David had been anointed, he had defeated the great warrior Goliath of Gath, and now he has been rightfully installed as the King of the Israelites. He has made Jerusalem his capital and established it as the center of his young nation’s spiritual life.
David’s problem now was – how do you unify a people that have never been unified before? How do you bring a nomadic people, loosely bound in a scattered tribal governmental system, into a people bound together and unified, with one King, one capital, one government and one worship center? It was the emerging and clashing of two ages. Out with the old and in with the new. As history shows, when one age bumps up against another, when one era begins to crowd another out – there is almost always hostility and chaos.
For example, when our own nation made the transition from an agricultural, agrarian society, represented by the South – to an industrial culture, like the North, look what happened. We had the Civil War. David faces a similar problem. How do you unify a people who are not unified? How do you make the transition from one era to another with a minimum of discomfort?
In response, David had a stroke of pure genius. He brought back the long neglected Ark of the Covenant. The Ark, a symbol of the power and presence of God, was the symbol that helped unify God’s people during their wilderness wanderings in the desert. In bringing back the Ark, David sought to avoid the chaos and conflict that often occurs when one era bumps into another.
The church is no stranger to these sort of clashes. When it comes to worship style, one era has definitely been banging into another. Traditional, liturgical, organ-led worship is slowly being crowded out by praise-oriented services led by contemporary rock bands and large screens set up in worship centers that look more like theaters than traditional sanctuaries. In our post-modern era, denominationalism has been slowly declining for years. “Brand loyalty” – identifying oneself as a Presbyterian, or a Methodist, or an Episcopalian, is getting to be a thing of the past as denominational lines become more and more blurry. Mainline denominations are on the decline, while independent, evangelical and charismatic groups continue to grow. And more and more people identify themselves as “Nones” – not belonging to any faith tradition. They describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” For many people, church was something they did as a kid, but they participate as an adult.
This is really nothing new. The church and Christianity itself has gone through transition before. Even the early church wrestled with growth and change. We see the questions throughout the Book of Acts. “Do you have to become a Jew first in order to become a Christian? Is it by grace or obedience to the law of Moses that we are saved? The move from Jewish to Gentile Christianity was a painful and chaotic time for the early church, but they lived through it.
Then for over 1,00 years the Gospel was the exclusive property of the church. One was a Christian because of membership in the Church. Then the printing press came along and voices like Martin Luther and John Calvin began saying, “We are saved by grace,” and that the essence of Christianity was not the Church as an institution, but faith in Jesus Christ. That’s what made you a Christian. One era overlapping into another – we call it the Reformation.
History has its cyclical nature and certainly David’s problems were not unique to him. But overcoming the problem of unity was crucial to David, and to God’s overall long range purposes. How could David make a more peaceful transition from one era to another and establish Jerusalem as the spiritual heart and center of this new nation? Do his methods have any implications for us as we seek to navigate through these fast flowing transitional waters? How did David do it? How can we do it, since we do live in rapidly changing times.
Well, first, David preserved the best from the past. He didn’t ditch everything. He didn’t throw out the old ways completely. In bringing back the Ark of the Covenant, David enlisted even the most conservative of Israel’s leadership in the establishment of his monarchy. How could anyone net revere and respect the sacred objects contained in the Ark? How could anyone speak against the Ten Commandments? Whether you’re the star center of the Boston Celtics or a shrewd political King, a resolve to get back to the basics is often a good move.
There is an old story told in football circles, some say it was Vince Lombardi, some say it was Herman Hickman, the coach at Yale in the 1940’s – but the story goes that one day a practice session was not going well. The timing was off, the tackling was atrocious, and the blocking was non-existent. The coach called the squad together and said, “Everything is going wrong. So we are going to start at the very bottom and work on fundamentals.” The he held up a football for everyone to see, and carefully and precisely said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” And one of the veterans was quick to respond – “Not so fast coach, not so fast.” Back to the basics – never a bad idea.
Second, in bringing back the Ark, David also helped his people to rediscover a fresh awakening of the presence and power of God. The Ark was the ancient symbol of “God with us”, as it accompanied the children of Israel from Mount Sinai. With the Ark, they had walked around the walls of Jericho and saw God’s power displayed as the walls came tumbling down and the city was conquered. The Ark was a constant reminder of God’s presence in many other battles, especially during the time of Eli, always guaranteeing success for Israel.
We have the opportunity to become Christians today because generations of believers past have preserved the best of our tradition. As John Claypool once said, “God has no grandchildren, only children.” Every generation is connected directly to God, and comes to know God personally through as awareness of God’s presence and power. By bringing back the Ark, David was reminding his generation that the very same God who had led their ancestors out of Egypt and into the Promised land, was now with them as well. That very same God speaks to us today and reminds us that God’s power is not diminished.
Third, David not only preserved the best of the past, and gave his people a fresh vision of the presence and power of Go – he also threw a party! As Walter Brueggemann writes, “David staged an event that evoked extravagance. This is a party. This is excess. This is extravagant.” David threw caution and cost to the wind. Did it really take 30,000 men to carry a small box – probably not. Was it a bit excessive to sacrifice a bull and a fatted calf every 6 steps? Yes , it was. And what about all those other burnt offerings that David sacrificed? And there’s David’s dancing. Was that appropriate for a King? His wife Michal didn’t think so – she thought he took his dance a bit too far. Was all this really necessary?
But David wasn’t finished. After all this extravagance, David gave each person a loaf of bread, a portion of meat and a cake of raisins, “And all the people went to their homes.” So, even though they were all in their homes, the people were unified around a common meal from a common source – a bit reminiscent of communion, as we gather to remember and celebrate around the Lord’s table.
So what was David trying to do here? What’s the point of all this?
David’s excess in this passage gives us a window into the nature of God – it shows us how excessive and extravagant God can be showing love for us. After all, most reasonable people would deem it terribly excessive for a father to sacrifice his son for a bunch of sinners – and yet that is exactly what God did.
There was once a young man who grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. It was a long-honored tradition within his large family that as they gathered around the table for the evening meal, his father would parade in from the barn with fresh milk drawn from one of the family’s cows. With every eye fixed on dad, he would strain the milk and first pour a glass for his wife. Then he would dance around the table and fill all the children’s glasses up to the brim. Then his father would turn his back to the family, pour what little was left into his own glass, and top it off with water so it looked like his glass was full too.
Many years later, when this man learned the truth behind his father’s elaborate dance, it dawned on the now grown man with a family of his own, just how much love and sacrifice had come through his father’s generous act.
Love’s excess and extravagance can take many forms – from an empty pitcher of milk, to a cross in a place called Golgotha.
That’s really the most basic aspect of our faith. When we “get back to the basics”, we talk about God’s excessive, limitless, generous love in sending Jesus Christ. As our church and our community changes, sometimes faster than we would like, we would do well to remember what David did here in this passage from 2nd Samuel:
He preserved the best of the past.
He put forth a fresh vision of what God might have in store.
And he celebrated God’s extravagant love for God’s people.
May God be praised. Amen.
