Foolish before God

10-11-09
II Samuel 6:20 says, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls like any indecent person might do."

David took off his royal robes. That's a picture of worship. Worship is disrobing. It's getting exposed and exposing ourselves to God.

It's also the recognition that it's not about what we can do for God. It's not about our "royal robes."

It's about what God has done for us. The greatest freedom in the world is having nothing to prove. Instead of trying to prove who he was-the king of Israel. David was embracing who God is-the King of Kings.

Remember what Jesus said? "You must become like little children if you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." I think this is one dimension of that. We need to become less self-conscious and more like little children.

I think that's part of what John the Baptist meant when he said, "He must become Greater. I must become less." We need to care more about what God thinks and care less about what people think.

People are all too often trapped by the fear of looking foolish. The happiest and healthiest people aren't afraid of looking foolish.

Let me put it in theological perspective.

Genesis 3:7 describes what happened the second after Adam and Eve sinned for the first time: "At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness."

The moment they sinned they became self-conscious. In other words, self-consciousness isn't just a curse. It is part of The Curse.

Before the fall, there were no inhibitions in Eden. For what it's worth, there won't be any inhibitions in heaven either!

Think of spiritual maturity as a continuum. On one side is being "conscious of God" and on the other side is "self-consciousness."

To become like Christ is to become more conscious of Him and less conscious of our self.
Ephesians 5:18 says: "Don't be drunk with wine. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill you and control you."

What happens when you get drunk? You lose all inhibition. Paul is saying that wine is the wrong way to lose inhibition. The right way is being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us overcome our ungodly inhibitions.

I like the way Ron Rolheiser says it: "Isn't it the task of the Holy Spirit to introduce some madness and intoxication into the world? Why this propensity for balance and safety? Don't we all long for one moment of raw risk, one moment of divine madness?"

David is intoxicated with God. His dance is divine madness! He takes off his royal robes and loses all inhibition. He humiliates himself before God.

All of us are way too preoccupied with ourselves. That is what keeps us from worshipping God the way we could and should.

I love Eugene Peterson's (author of The Message) definition of worship: "Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves."

The greatest moments are those moments when we lose self-consciousness. We forget about ourselves. It's almost an "out of body" experience.

That's what heaven will be like. We'll be so enraptured by God that we won't be thinking about ourselves.

We'll be too busy enjoying God. ……… Forever.