A sermon by the Rev. Dr. Ray Pickett, LSPS Associate Professor of New Testament and Associate Academic Dean, given at All Saints' Episcopal Church on May 14,2005, during the Celebration and Thanksgiving Service for the Ministries of Michael and April Floyd

2 Samuel 6:12-22; Luke 1:26-38:

We gather around Word and Table today to give thanks for Michael and April Floyd, and to celebrate more than twenty years of ministry in and with this community. We are here to express our gratitude to God and to Michael and April for the many ways they have touched and enriched our lives. Individually and collectively we have been blessed by their presence and work among us, so on the one hand it a good, and right, and joyous and easy thing for us to rejoice in our partnership with them in ministry. On the other hand, it is also hard. But we will glorify God here today, even as Michael and April have glorified God through their teaching, cooking, dancing, leadership, friendship and witness.

I don't know of any better way to honor Michael and April than by honoring these texts from the Scriptures which Michael has taught and April danced with integrity and passion. However, this presents its own challenges because Michael and April have selected the readings for this service, and for the first time in 8 years I finally understand and empathize with students who have had to interpret texts for Michael. He gave me these texts. I know that I am supposed to see something, and indeed I see many things. I am just not sure that I am seeing what I am supposed to see. For all these years I have been working with the cliff notes. But you know what? I am not going to play "guess what teacher is thinking" because all of Michael's penetrating insight notwithstanding, he has always encouraged and equipped his students to think for themselves.

Of course, the first task in reflecting on this passage from 2 Samuel is to re-read the entire Deuteronomistic History at least two or three times and see how it fits into the larger literary context. However, since I have had the privilege of hearing Michael teach the Deuteronomistic History for a few years, I didn't have to do this, or at least I didn't. You know, I have no idea who wrote Hebrews or who the "beloved disciple" is, but I am pretty sure that Michael Floyd is the (reincarnation of the) Deuteronomistic Historian! I can't prove it, but I think that is one of the lesser-known reasons he and April were in India. Okay, maybe he is not the Deuteronomistic Historian, but he has taught and modeled for hundreds of students, including Cynthia and I, the sort of critical self-awareness required for real faithfulness.

2 Samuel 6 recounts the transfer of the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem. The Ark was, of course, the most sacred object in Israel's worship, and its presence in Jerusalem would seem to underwrite David's rule and link it forever with the kingship of YHWH. David is a complex and flawed character; too human to be a religious super-hero. We could analyze his political motives for bringing the Ark to Jerusalem or the cold distance between him and his wife Michal who is here referred to only as "Saul's daughter". But what is most striking about this passage in my mind is David dancing before the Lord with all his might.

Whatever shortcomings David has are exceeded by his genuine love for God. Is it possible that the real David is the one who dances with abandon before YHWH? You may think that a naïve perspective on David, but I know people who are guided preeminently in life as in work by their love of God. And this is no temperate little waltz with the inner circle of the royal court. Rather, this is David whirling before the Lord with all the House of Israel. This is a party in which food is distributed among all the people, men and women, slave and free. But his ecstatic behavior is an embarrassment to his wife Michal, who stands inside looking on from a window as a non-participant in the festivities. "Didn't the king of Israel do himself honor today -- exposing himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects, as one of the riffraff might expose himself!" she exclaims sarcastically pitting her sense of royal dignity against his reckless self-abandonment. David, who acknowledges that his behavior may have been undignified, is unapologetic: "I will dance before the Lord and dishonor myself even more, and be low in my own esteem but among the slave girls that you speak of I will be honored".

In more ways than one, this picture of David dancing with all his might before the Lord illuminates the ministries of April and Michael about as well as any we could muster, from the Bible or anywhere else for that matter. Teaching with Michael has been something of a dance with students, with colleagues, with anyone and everyone who has been willing to dance. Make no mistake about it; Michael has always been leading in this dance. Indeed, like the Ark of the Lord that was carried before the people, Michael has often danced out in front of us, and we have often had to work to catch up because it has been as if he knew before us where God was leading. Occasionally toes are stepped on. Sometimes the dance has been elegant and graceful and other times it may have been less so, but it has always been en conjunto, and everyone was always invited.

Moreover, Michael and April have always danced with each other in their respective ministries among us. In some ways, April's job may have been even more difficult because her task was to teach rhythmically challenged folks like us, mostly Anglo's (to use Michael's term "Honkies"), how to dance together, en conjunto, to the glory of God. Perhaps most impressive of all is that whether in teaching, in liturgical dance, or in preparing food, in their ministries they have always invited and included the whole community, and shown special concern for those who for whatever reasons may have found themselves at some distance from the center.

Our reading from 2 Samuel 6 is followed immediately by Nathan's oracle, which captured Israel's imagination for centuries. The oracle contains good news and bad news. The bad news is that God has been accustomed to moving out and about among the people and is not all that enthused about settling down in a sedentary abode. "From the day that I brought the people of Israel out of Egypt to this day I have not dwelt in a house, but have moved about in Tent and Tabernacle … did I ever approach any of the tribal leaders whom I appointed to care for My people Israel saying: Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?" God never asked for a dwelling place, and David never really asked God whether a temple was a good idea. We ought to be careful before attempting to build something for God without discerning in community whether it is in accordance with God's purposes. We ought also to be cautious about assuming God has taken up residence in any institution because God clearly prefers to move out and about among the people.

But the good news Nathan announces is that there is a special place in God's heart for David, and so God makes a promise to him: "Your house and your kingship shall ever be secure before you; your throne shall be established forever". That's a promise that captured the imagination of Israel for centuries and fostered the hope that God would again establish Israel as a great dynasty. Although imagination can be a source of creativity, it is also that faculty that feeds our egos and illusions of grandeur. We are inclined to an exaggerated sense our own importance in the big scheme of things. In our imaginings the line between fantasy and reality is often blurred, but when we sober up we realize that life seldom turns out the way we have imagined it. Perhaps that is because our dreams are more often than not organized around a spurious sense of self-importance.

It's not until more than a thousand years later that God's promise to David is fulfilled in a small and ostensibly insignificant village far away from the majestic temple in Jerusalem. This time it is a young woman who has found favor with God. Contrary to expectations, it is through this unpretentious young woman that God will restore David's house. Mary unreservedly embraces God's call, without regard to its cost to her personally: "here am I, the servant (dou,lh) of the Lord; let it be according to your word". In entering into partnership with God she portends the joy with which "the little people" will receive Divine favor.

In everything they have done Michael and April Floyd have devoted themselves to "the little people", and have reminded us that theirs is the kingdom of God. By "little people" I simply mean those people who know deep within their soul that the only dignity we have is predicated on that fact that we are created in God's image. Whether in Michael's steadfast commitment to show us how to read the Bible on behalf of the vanquished and those hidden from view, or in April's cooking, or in their dancing together with us, they have been among us as "servants of the Lord" whose sense of value is derived only from their participation in God's ongoing work of redemption and new creation! They have been for us an embodiment of God's glory and grace, and all we can do is add our voices to that of the Psalmist:
"Praise the Lord! Praise God in God's sanctuary; praise God in God's mighty firmament! Praise God for God's mighty deeds; praise God according to God's surpassing greatness!"

Praise God for Michael and April Floyd who have danced and will continue to dance with all their might before the Lord!

Michael and April I know that I speak for everyone here when I tell you that we love you and we thank you for all that you have been for us!