Sermon Tone Analysis

!!! *Intro *

January 9, 2011 ~ Tom VanderPloeg

In 1960 Tom Monaghan founded Dominos Pizza in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Monaghan eventually built it into a multi-billion dollar business.

Monaghan was once asked how he was so quickly able to grow his pizza business amid fierce competition from other national competitors like Little Caesars and Pizza Hut.

Monaghan replied, “I don’t sell pizzas; I sell delivery.”

Dominos’ “30 minutes or less” guarantee remains a hallmark of its business yet today.

What Monaghan had figured out is that Americans in particular have an obsessive relationship with efficiency.

If people could get their pizza more quickly and with less effort, Monahan knew they would buy it.

He’s right.

We love pretty much anything that holds the promise of saving us time and effort – we love efficiency.

!!! *I.*

I don’t mean to suggest that the ark of the Lord is analogous to a pepperoni pizza; but there is something similar going on in this story from Old Testament Israel.

It had been twenty years since the ark had been carried into battle against the Philistines in hopes God would help Israel win that day.

Ironically, even though Israel lost the battle and the ark was captured the philistines were struck by such horrible plague wherever the ark went that they eventually decided they had no choice but to return it to Israel along with a guilt offering to Israel’s God.

So the philistines built a cart and put the ark on it.

They harnessed a couple cows to the cart and sent it on its way down the road back to the Israelites.

When the ark arrived to the Israelite people it was taken to the house of a man named Abinadab.

The ark stayed there in Abinadab’s house for the next twenty years, through the entire reign of Saul.

Before David’s coronation banquet is even over David is thinking about going to retrieve the ark.

David is determined that this will not be an individual venture.

He intentionally solicits and gathers the advice of others representing all twelve tribes of Israel.

David makes sure that everybody is on the same page with him; they all know what’s going on and he sends word for all Israel to join him getting the ark from Abinadab’s house.

In all the commotion and excitement of this event—all the festivities that were being planned and prepared for—it seems that everyone overlooked a rather important detail.

They put the ark on a new cart—exactly the way it had been sent to Israel by the Philistines twenty years earlier.

Maybe they simply forgot the instructions of Moses in Exodus 25.

Or maybe they didn’t think it was really an important detail.

Either way, the ark was not carried by Levites by putting poles through the loops that were on each corner of the ark.

It was set on a cart.

And the whole carry-the-ark thing was so old fashioned anyway.

Wouldn’t it be much quicker and take so much less effort to ride it on a cart.

I mean, it’s a ten-mile hike; and all uphill!

Jerusalem is becoming the capitol city of all Israel.

It’s important that the ark—the symbol of God’s presence—be in Jerusalem.

Is it really that important /how/ we move the ark just as long as it gets done?

So the ark makes its way up the dry dusty road from the house of Abinadab toward Jerusalem.

The music and noise of the thousands of people celebrating is electrifying.

Everyone was letting loose.

It was a huge party.

Then it happens.

So imagine that one of the wheels of the cart hit a rock in the road.

The oxen that were pulling the cart jerk back—one of then slips.

The cart jolts to one side and the ark comes sliding toward the edge.

Lucky thing someone was there to catch it.

Uzzah was one of Abinadab’s sons.

Uzzah had grown up with the ark at his house.

It had become quite commonplace to him; he was pretty familiar with it.

For Uzzah, being in the presence of the ark was really no big thing.

But the moment Uzzah catches the corner of the ark to keep it steady, he collapses right there on the road.

His bother comes over, “woah, Uzzah, you alright?...Uzzah?”

Uzzah’s not responding; he’s not breathing.

There are no paramedics to call.

Nobody’s thinking massive heart attack or brain aneurysm.

No, everyone there was crystal clear on what just happened.

They messed something up big time.

Party’s over.

Who’s going to dare take the ark any farther toward Jerusalem now?

We better leave it here till we figure out what went wrong.

Was it wrong for David to want the ark in Jerusalem?

After all, the ark was a very real representation of God’s very presence on earth.

And it seems that David wanted God to be central in Israel’s life.

You see, there’s something in this story that bothers us, isn’t there?

Was Uzzah’s crime really so severe that it warranted the death penalty?

I mean, the guy was just trying to help!

The sin of David, Uzzah, and all Israel here was one of misplaced control.

In Uzzah’s case it was about how to handle the ark.

God had clearly instructed that the ark was to be carried only by Levites placing poles through the corner rings.

Moving the ark in any other manner than that was forbidden.

Instead of following the proper way of transporting the ark, it's transported in exactly the same way the Philistines had delivered it back to Israel twenty years earlier.

You see, Uzzah is treating God in exactly the same way that the pagans treat their gods.

Uzzah takes God—the almighty, holy, creator and sustainer of all that exists—and treats him according to the same values, standards, and conditions as the world would dictate.

And it's not that we need to see God here through lenses clouded by fear and anxiety.

We don't need to approach God as though we are walking on eggshells, constantly fearing his burning wrath if we take the slightest misstep.

Uzzah's mistake is something much more basic; it has to do with control.

Uzzah ignores God's standards in favor of his own set of rules.

Uzzah attempts to control God his own way.

Did you notice here that David is trying to do the exact same thing?

David has just been officially recognized and coronated as king of Israel.

The chapter in Chronicles just before the one we read tells all about the amazing warriors that David holds in his command.

David uses intricate precision to arrange the hierarchy of his political cabinet so that he can maintain absolute control in this time of transition from Saul's reign to his own.

David is setting up a chessboard arrangement here that will insure his control.

And David's sly maneuver in chapter 13 to take the ark to Jerusalem is an act that takes God himself and treats him as another pawn on the chessboard of David's kingdom.

David's attempt here to control Israel as the new king goes one step too far when David tries to control God himself.

You might be thinking, “hang on, did David really intentionally treat God this way?”

Did David actually, consciously think he could control God now that he was king?

I don't think so.

It just kind of happened.

It wasn't intentional, but it did happen and God was not going to allow this to go any further.

God would not allow himself to be controlled by anyone.

God stops the action here so that David and the people of Israel get a wake-up call.

God wants them to realize what's happening and stop it.

The writer of Chronicles wants his readers to be unmistakably clear on this point.

Jewish tradition holds that Chronicles was written by Ezra—one of the pioneers that first brought Jews back to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile.

The book certainly dates being written during Ezra’s lifetime anyway.

As previously exiled Jews are making their way back to Jerusalem in order to rebuild her walls and re-establish the City of David as the place of God’s very presence to be among his people, the chronicler reminds the people that they under no circumstances could treat God’s presence in any old way they wanted.

The Israelites could again fall into the mistake of placing God on their terms.

!!! *II.*

We have to admit that we have a problem with this.

We're not Babylonian exiles; we're not kings of Israel, we don't have an ark of the covenant.

But we do have our own subtle ways of trying to control God.