Sunday School: The Dancing King
When David ordered the ark
down to Jerusalem,
a dutiful rule follower
(like me) steadied the Lordbox
with his hand and was
struck dead which was
a terrible deal
since he was just trying to help.
And afterward when David
in his linen ephod
several sizes too small
danced in front of servant girls
his wife speaking
the truth in love (as I often do)
told him how undignified
He was, how embarrassing
He was, how unseemly
He was, because she too
was just trying to help
her husband not to be a laughing stock
but instead her sass got struck
barren until death
and David, his junk on display in the big parade
got a medal for faith
or something, so here
I am to tell you, children,
you better undignify yourself
and lose the tending of rules
you use to measure who
is in and who is out because God’s
not into rules or boundaries apparently
or levels or codes, but instead
loves the rash and the desperate,
the humiliated and the effusive,
the reckless,
seeing every pain as ecstasy
and naked dancing with unhinged joy
(which is a disappointment since I’ve never)
you may enter the kingdom and
carry your dark ablutions with you
like martyrs who by the kindness of
their death are purified and forgiven.
13 thoughts on "Sunday School: The Dancing King"
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So much to love! I love the Great Undignification. This poem has crunch. The tone and syntax are perfect.
Totally awesome humor throughout
and yet deeply profound
David’s junk! Good lord. If Michelangelo is right, he wasn’t especially endowed, at least not in that one way.
Love the ways the speaker sneaks into the poem through parenthetical comments, as well as through diction and tone.
Ditto to all the above! I love the voice and that you posted this on Sunday. Favorite lines: David
“got a medal for faith/ or something.”
Fortune favors the bold and apparently so does God.
Wisdom.
This is amazing.
I love the breathless humor in this poem! The admonition to “undignify” ourselves and dance naked to attain salvation. Maybe I need to take another look at God.
I love this ecstatic, Dionysian of grace! Yes!
*view of (you know what I meant)
rule followers–so not fun
A reminder that there are no rewards for following the rules! What fun.