Our lessons for this morning tell of two dancers: one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. The one in the Old Testament is the king, David; the one in the New Testament is the step-daughter of the king, Herod. Both stories have to do with political intrigue.

They are not commonly read as lessons in the Sunday worship, but during these dog days of summer, this is the kind of stuff they give us to read. So we will faithfully look for the word of God speaking to us in these two stories.

Let us begin with the Old Testament story of David, the new king, dancing in the streets before the ark of the covenant. The fascinating detail in this story is the reaction of Michal, David's wife, who views the spectacle from the window of the king's palace. The text says that Michal observed…