2 Samuel 6:1-19

Year B - Pentecost +7 or Energy to Witness ⁷

July 12, 2015

2 Samuel 6:1-19

“Off with their heads!” are words uttered topologic novels, king to challenger, and G*D to people. We do this within friendships and families. We are willing to do away with much more quickly than we are to spend a moment to reflect on long-term consequences or even one alternative.

Red Queen to Alice, King Herod to Baptizer John, G*D to Uzzah, you to _______. The tradition lives on, “Do to others, simply do them in” and rationalize it later. It expands to military folks destroying a village to save it, to economic titans finding every last profit to be made no matter the human or environmental cost, education leaving more and more behind because a test is what is important, and examples go on.

No wonder that David was afraid that he would be on the other end of the ark or history and initially refused the gift. When it proved to be as profitable as it was dangerous, David finally placed his bet and retrieved it (as much to spite Obed-edom as to reap the bounty?).

From here everyone returns home. The breaking Friday-after-deadline is lost as everyone returns home for the weekend. So, violence continues mostly out-of-sight. Stand-by, folks can only avoid issues so long, stay at home so long, before consequences come due. Long or short, comeuppance arrives.

See if you can last at least as long as David without an "Ark O'Don't Touch". How long can you go without physical or some other form of violence for someone trespassing your Red Queen habit, King Herod pride, or G*D ultimate rule? An hour? Half-a-day? Day? Week? (Don't forget to include a dismissive glance or silence.)