St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, July 12, 2009

On Earth as it is in Heaven – Rev. Cathy Russell

Mark 6:14-29 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

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The Spirit teaches us the dance of faith

DANCING WITH THE STARS

Dancing with the Stars has become one of the most highly rated shows on television- I can name at least two people from St. Paul’s who never miss an episode. And there’s something impressive about these folks- celebrities from the worlds of sports, tv, movies and music who put themselves through weeks of rigorous dance training in ridiculous shoes, so that they can strut their stuff to be judged by a panel of judges and a huge and equally critical television audience. Surely some masochistic streak must exists in all of these people somewhere.

DANCING WITH THE SQUARES

I am so NOT a dancer, but John and I did learn how to do one dance, for one occasion, and one occasion only, our wedding. It was hardly Dancing with the Stars, more like Dancing with the Squares, but for us, or perhaps I should say for me, it was a big deal. It all started when I became really anxious about the thought of doing the traditional newly married couple’s first dance at our wedding reception. I said to John “people take lessons to do this kind of thing you know, so they don’t look like total idiots in front of all their guests.” Well John never worries about anything, and he soon came up with a solution, but it was not to sign us up for dance lessons at a local studio. Instead, he went to the library down the road here and rented a dance instruction dvd.

For several weeks, in the early evening after supper, we would push the furniture in our living room out of the way, I would put on my wedding shoes, John would put on the instructional dvd, and we would move awkwardly around the room, trying not to bump into the piano or step on each other’s toes. And I would have to keep reminding myself over and over “in dancing the MAN leads”- not an easy thing for me to remember by the way! Eventually, painful to our feet and our egos as it was, we managed a reasonable mastery of the basic forward and back steps, the promenade, and simple turn that make up the fox trot. I’m glad there were no score cards for our actual performance, but we got through without any real mishap, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

DANCING WITH THE SAINTS

Weddings and other kinds of parties are where we are more likely to encounter dancing. However, in some contexts dancing goes beyond a merely social function- there’s more to it than just entertainment, fun and recreation. Dancing can be a spiritual expression- even a form of worship. Certainly for Native Peoples the spiritual gathering of the pow-wow, and e re right in the middle of pow-wow season, is focused on dancing. I’ve danced at a pow-wow, and let me tell you it looks easily but it’s not- even just the repetitive rhythmic stomping that everyone seems to know how to do is actually kinda tricky, let alone the high hops and twirling turns more experienced dancers throw in. .

Although its’ virtually a foreign concept for United Church folks, dancing does feature regularly in the worship life of some other Christian denominations, usually those of a more Pentecostal persuasion. Certainly there is a long standing tradition of the so called “holy dance” in the African American Pentecostal traditions in the United States. Call it dancing with the Saints. But despite what we might expect, even this less inhibited form of praise is not without form or pattern. In fact, I was told by a former pastor in that tradition, that if a person were to totally let themselves go and improvise, they would soon find themselves taken aside by an elder, likely a grandmother who has been worshipping in that way for decades, and gently shown how to do the holy dance correctly.

DANCING WITH THE SPIRIT

In contrast the ‘holy dance’ we see David doing in our Old Testament lesson seems in a whole different league. David we are told danced “with all his might before the Lord” in a linen ephod, which essentially means- naked except for some priestly underwear. We aren’t told what his dancing looked like, but we can picture it as frenetic, and frenzied- limbs flailing about wildly, head thrown back, eyes turned heavenward in religious ecstasy. Certainly there doesn’t seem to be any pattern, form or steps to David’s dance, seems like he’s just out there shaking his moneymaker in front of all Israel.

Certainly that’s how it appears to Michal, David’s wife who is watching him from the palace. Michal is embarrassed, horrified and disgusted by what she sees her husband doing. So much so that we are told she “despises him in her heart”. In her estimation, by his dancing David was making a fool of himself, and therefore her.

Well David’s dancing may have been unorthodox and uninhibited, but was it really just an unseemly un-co-ordinated personal display?

Passionate worship, willing sacrifice and generous sharing.

When we wanted to learn to dance- we used a video at home to learn the steps

United Church doesn’t dance but some churches do

Some churches of the Pentecostal persuasion include the holy dance as an appropriate, even expected expression of praise during worship.

David’s dance- is a whole other level again- wild and crazy

Michal is offended and despises David in her heart.

Form within the frenzy there is a rhythm to David’s dance, a discernable pattern of three different steps, repeated over and over. Willing sacrifice, passionate worship and generous sharing

Sacrifice- honour and thank God for his faithfulness to the people- destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else. Are we willing to sacrifice for God?

Passionate Worship- moments of transcendence, when we lose our sense of self-consciousness, and are taken up into God’s presence. Shouldn’t that be the main goal of our worship?

Generous Sharing- become instruments of God’s grace.

That’s the dance we learn as people of faith- to sacrifice willingly, to worship passionately, and share generously.