Invitation to the Dance

That is a very different thing than the scene from the old west movies where the bully fires his gun at the ground in front of the hapless unarmed person while snarling “Dance, I say, dance!”

To be invited to dance, versus being forced to dance.

For a few moments, let's take up the idea that all of the events of Jesus' life are a dance.

Which kind of dance is it?

Is it one which he undertakes willingly at the direction of the Father?

Or is it one which he is forced to endure by some other power?

And we know the answer to that question.

Jesus willingly leads the dance of life; no one forces him into it.

The hymn which is embedded in our Second Lesson today confesses that Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human form...and humbled himself.” [Phil.2:7-8]

He did this for the sake of his dance-partner, the church.

Some years ago, Sydney Carter wrote a text and set it to an old Shaker tune, and he expresses this very idea:

1. I danced in the morning when the world was begun....

2. I danced for the scribe and the pharisee.... [HS-1991#798]

The stars, everything, and everyone else are invited to dance with Jesus from the very beginning of creation.

Some accept the offer and learn a few steps.

Others, like many scribes and pharisees, refuse and turn away.

But the dance goes on.

Philippians describes the path taken by Jesus.

His way has been through the villages of Lower Galilee and other areas, but now he turns toward Jerusalem.

He knows, and says, that he is dancing toward his death.

And the tempo of the dance becomes more deliberate and measured.

“You can't go there; they are waiting to kill you,” Peter begs, but Jesus does not miss a beat.

The great hymn from Philippians gets to the heart of the dance:

Though Christ Jesus was in the form of God, he emptied himself, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Sydney Carter's song turns somber:

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black.

It's hard to dance with the devil on your back.

They buried my body and they thought I'd gone...

That should have been the end of the dance.

Everyone expected that it was the end of the dance.

All those who said to Jesus “You'll dance our way, or die,” thought they had won.

But they were not measuring the depth of the love of God.

For even the ones who reject the offer of the dance and play the bully to try to force Jesus into a different dance cannot stand in the way of God.

There is resurrection! New life!

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, sings the hymn in Philippians,

and Sydney carter continues:

They cut me down and I lept up high

I am the new life that will never, never die... I am the Lord of the dance, said he.

This invitation to the dance is offered to us all the time.

Sometimes we court the mistaken notion that there are no new steps for us to learn,

or that we don't need to practice the steps that we have learned in Sunday School or catechetical study as a youth.

I'm trying to learn a computer program.

I know that I am in trouble when one of the kids starts out, “Now look, it is very simple...all you need to do is to highlight this, click on that, move this over here, put your cursor there....”

It is not “very simple” for me; it takes repeated practice for me to learn that computer dance.

But in the dance of life, we have a very patient teacher:

...for I am the dance and I still go on.

In school, at work, in everyday life, there are other, very seductive dances.

There is the self-absorbed dance of pornography.

There are the illicit dances with one not your spouse; all the ways that we can flout the 6th commandment.

No, says the Lord,

Come, dance with me in the holy estate of singleness, or else in the equally holy estate of marriage.

There is the self-gratifying dance of success as the world measures it in money, numbers, or rank.

No, says the Lord.

Come, dance with me in faithfulness, and I will not let you stumble alone, but I will step with you when the circumstances of your life's dance are difficult, just as I am with you when they are easy and light.

One dancer said, “I've discovered that I don't need a lot of the things I thought I just had to have.”

Have this mind that is yours in Christ Jesus, says Paul to the Philippians.

Listen to this dance-instructor and not another.

There is the self-deluding dance of looking for the easy way.

You know...go along and get along,... the wink across the table with the words “Now this is how we do things in this business...or this organization...or this school.”

No, says Jesus,

you have been made for a different dance:

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth , and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So that when temptations come we can say, “Sorry, I won't be forced into a self-absorbed dance, or the dance to cheap success, or the dance of the easy way out.

I've been invited to the dance of new life in Christ Jesus, and I have lots to learn, and to practice, and to do.”

If anyone is having difficulty figuring out what that might mean in his/her life, that is a conversation that can't happen here in the middle of a sermon.

I would be glad to sit down with you individually, in the company of the scriptures,

and see if together we can discern what steps you need to learn,

what opportunities for dance are opening up to you,

and ways in which you can practice those new steps.

It is hard work, but the Lord is a patient teacher for us all.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

so that we can join in his coronation dance:

Dance then, wherever you may be;

I am the Lord of the dance, said he,

And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,

And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.

And that is a promise that he will keep. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.