Sermon 7/16/00
Shall We Dance? - 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 & Mark 16:14-29
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Shall we dance? Picture this. A junior-high dance with boys gathered on one side, girls on the other, awkward, standing in circles, trying to move as the music blares from the DJ station. Self-consciousness? Yes, everywhere you turn. Gossiping? Sure. Fears and Doubts? High Hopes? Broken Hearts? All around. Dancing? Is there dancing here? Well, not really. Not freely, not without care for how you look and who is looking at you.
Shall we dance? Picture this. A dance recital exhibits the talents of the ballet, tap and jazz classes. The ballerinas turn detailed steps, refined to the placement of a finger, the position and tilt of the heard, into beautiful, graceful, fluid moves that look easy, natural. The tap dancers step in time with rhythmic clicks that move the audience to clap along. The jazz dancers excite with twists and turns, amazing feats of flexibility.
Shall we dance? Picture this. The intricate moves of the square dance. The changes and twangs of the country line dance. The floating on air of the graceful Fred and Ginger. Ballroom dancing. Slow dancing and swing dancing.
Shall we dance?
In today's scripture passages, we come upon two passages with contrasting themes – David giving glory to God and the young daughter manipulating King Herod into the beheading of John the Baptist. What could be more opposite than a tale about the king, David, who falls into the messiah's family tree, and the king, Herod, who later helps to condemn the messiah? But these two passages are connected in context and setting in a somewhat surprising way. The Dance. Salome, as we know the daughter in Christian tradition, dances seductively before King Herod, securing a promise from him to get whatever she desired. At her mother Herodias' bidding, she requested and received the head of John the Baptist on a platter. That must have been some dance! On the other hand, we see the king, David, celebrating God's acts in his life by dancing, sans robe, with all his might. His wife Michal despises his display, but David is not stopped. He continues to dance before God as an act of worship and thanksgiving. What a sight, to see a king, political, spiritual, and religious leader giving no care but to dance for the Lord. Can you imagine the President dancing with all his might? It is almost too unusual to picture.
We have two very contrasting images of the dance, and of course we know which dance is best and right. We know that the dance of Salome represents manipulation, hunger for power, and other aspects of evil. David represents the good and dutiful servant of God. We choose David's dance as the better of the two. Easy decision, right? Perhaps . . . but first, we must ask ourselves a serious question. Do we, the members and friends of Rome First United Methodist Church dance at all? Suddenly, the answers aren't so easy.
Let's return to those images of dance with which I began. Picture, for a moment, the dances as metaphors for the life of a congregation. What kind of dance would you say we have here at Rome First? What kind of dancers are in our congregation? Are we at a junior high dance? The junior high school dance as a church congregation becomes a congregation immobilized, not really dancing, not really living and serving and worshipping, at all. Fear of failure or risk taking, unwillingness to self-invest, or to be hurt by caring for others, ties the hands of members from really moving. No leaps of faith, no demands for justice, no interaction with one another – this is the congregation at the junior high dance.
Are we the congregation of the ballet class at the dance recital? Think of this congregation. The church of the ballet is the church of formality. Jeans to church? Not appropriate. Guitars? Drums? No, the organ will do just fine. Move out of the favorite pew to welcome a new comer? But I always sit there! Change? But we've always done it that way. Don't mistake – the formal church has beautiful worship, like the beauty of the ballet dance, but like the dancers, the muscles in the congregation are tensed. The product is beautiful, but the process behind the finished product is not so pretty. The hearts of the congregation aren't really in what they are doing. Everyone is going through the motions, but missing the point. True worship and fellowship is sacrificed for the sake of the performance, the dance of the ballet.
Shall we dance? When is our church dancing like the junior high dance? When is our congregation absorbed by the ballet? We strive, no doubt, to be faithful to God's will, but surely we sometimes are overcome from dancing, like the junior high students, or dancing too rigidly, seeking skill but forgetting the spirit. When we dance like this, we are missing out on something – missing the mark and dancing out of step and off beat. Our scripture lessons offer two extreme examples, and we shudder at the idea of dancing like Salome. However, one would almost think it better to be the hot of David on fire for God or the cold of Salome in her chilling manipulation than to be the luke-warm, half-hearted dancers somewhere in between.
So, shall we dance? Let us not be lukewarm. Let us instead make our choice, decisively, with the gusto of one of our biblical dancers. Can we, have we ever, shouldn't we always dance like David? When was the last time you danced before the Lord with all you might? We gather to worship every Sunday. How does the experience change us? When we leave this place each week, if we are not somehow changed by our experience of God through worship and praise, then we ought not to come at all. Each Sunday, we sing hymns in praise to God. Do you read the words? The tunes are beautiful and uplifting, but the lyrics, the lyrics bring a deep message. Each Sunday, we invite children to come forward for a special message. Do we nurture them by supporting their dreams and ambitions, offering ourselves to them as mentors and trusting them as full participants in the life of the church? Young people are not only the church of tomorrow, but the church of today as well, and we are entrusted with the responsibility to hold them up whenever and however we can. Every Sunday we offer our gifts to God out of thanksgiving for abundance. Do we give all we can? Do we seriously consider our possessions and commit to living differently in a consumer materialist-oriented society? Our gifts of money and time to this church are symbols of how much we are willing to commit to God. Every week we gather to praise and worship God, the Creation, God the Christ, God, the Holy Breath. Are we dancing before this God with all our might?
If the answer is no, why is that our answer? At Jurisdictional Conference this past week, one speaker noted seeing the following sign at the entrance of a sanctuary: "Ladies wearing pants may not enter the sanctuary". He was appalled, and sought the church leaders out to confront them about the sign. He found them, ironically, gathered in a meeting singing old hymn, "Come Just as You Are". He said to them, "friends, you must either change you sign or change your song". Let us not change our song. Our song is a good one, blending grace, hope in Christ, and praise of God's glory. Instead, let us change our sign, the outward expression of our inward song of praise, by changing our dance. Let our dance say that one can come, just as they are, to praise God. Let our dance say that we are not afraid to take risks in the name of Christ. Let our dance say that we can take leaps of faith because we want the church to grow. Let us dance in a way that shows the depth or our relationship with God and the joy with which we praise God. Let us dance with all our might.
If we are ready to dance like this, I have two challenges for our congregation today. First, the tough one. I recently read a report about membership in our area of the country, the North Eastern Jurisdiction. Unlike some other areas, our membership is declining rapidly. In the next four years, if this trend is not reversed, we risk losing a bishop, as our need would not be great enough to require an extra position. Why is our membership declining? Maybe it is time to change our dance. Why do you come here to worship? If you believe, as I do, that there is something valuable and meaningful here at Rome First – if you believe that this is place where we can praise God and serve God in a way that will change lives – if you believe that your faith is an important part of your person – if you believe this, don't you want to share this place with others? Imagine – if each person here invited one person to church with them, think of how full this place would look on a Sunday morning. If each person invited one other, think of how many could learn of the peace found in relationship with Christ. If each person brought one other, think of the dancing we could do before our God. So my first challenge is that within the next weeks, or even next months, that each person here today, each adult, youth, and child, would invite one person to come and join us in our dancing.
Challenge number two is a little easier. During the closing hymn, Lord of the dance, I offer you a chance to start dancing for God with all your might. Relax, praise God. If you are able, feel free to move out of your pews and into the aisles. Or, you can clap your hands, or snap your fingers. Sing boldly. Dance your way over to your friends. Get excited. Experience God, and let it change you life.
Are you ready? Shall we dance?
Let us pray: Lord of the Dance, We want to praise you with a whole heart, body, mind, and soul. Let us keep our song of grace, but change our sign, so that we are dancing with all our might. All praise, glory, and honor is yours, God, now and forever. Amen. Benediction: May God richly bless your life, as you seek to bear signs to the world that by grace you are a different person because of God's love. May you be the dancers of life, filling the world with joy and celebration. Go now, inviting others to join in the great dance, praising God with all your might. Amen.