Civilized

There is a great scene in Rocky III, where Rocky is confused about Mick's refusal to sign a fight between the World Champion, Rocky Balboa, and a mouthy challenger, Clubber Lang (the role that brought Mr. T to our attention). Clubber is a tough street fighter, who is just destroying everyone he fights. Rocky has been fighting cream-puffs and even "fights" wrestling star Hulk Hogan (again a role that made him famous). Rocky is angry at Mick for refusing to fight Lang and keeps questioning why he refuses the bout. Mick gives a great line, “...the worst thing happened that could happen to any fighter. You got civilized!”


That is not only true about fighters, that is true about worship! In the gospels, the only civilized people that are mentioned are the Pharisees, and Jesus was never very impressed with them. In fact, He is consistently lambasting the Pharisees. Yet He praises a prostitute who doesn’t know any better than to crash a dinner party, wash His feet with her tears and her hair, and break open an Alabaster jar of perfume an anoint His feetas an act of worship.

You kind of get the idea that God cares about outward appearance. As Mark Batterson says, God is looking for is people who are desperate enough to climb sycamore trees, desperate enough to cut holes in ceilings, desperate enough to push through crowds and yell at the top of their voices, and desperate enough to jump out of boats to get to him!

David says, “I will become even more undignified than this....” (2 Samuel 6:22)

One of the words for worship in Hebrew is hallal. It has a lot of meanings, but one means clamorously foolish. What that means is, if you aren’t willing to look foolish you can’t worship!

I mean worship, in a strictly human sense, is foolish isn’t it? We are singing to someone we can’t see! We are raising your hands to someone we can’t touch.

Have you ever seen someone singing, or even better, dancing in their car? You see their mouth moving, their hands tapping the steering column, or their body swaying. They look sort of foolish don’t they? Why? Because you can’t hear the music! There is an old proverb: “Those who hear not the music think the dancer is mad.” 

That’s what is happening in 2 Samuel 6.  David hears the music. Michal doesn’t. If we set our spiritual ears on heaven’s frequency and hear the music, it would cause us to sing and dance. We might even dance like David danced in 2 Samuel 6.