“I Hope You Dance”
“I Hope You Dance”
II Samuel 6:1-5,12b-19 and Ephesians 1:3-14
I hope you dance!
I hope you dance more than I do.
I’m not talking about simply doing the jitterbug nor the shag nor ballet nor the Texas two step. I hope you dance like King David where he leaped and whirled— spontaneously, in joy before the Lord. Has there ever been such a time in your own life when your heart has been so full of joy that you felt like dancing before the Lord?
O, I know all too well for myself the excuses of not dancing and the dangers if you do! Perhaps the biggest excuse is “There’s not enough time. There’s too much always you’ve got to do…or should be doing.” That excuse will make you old quick…..sucking the life right out of you if you never take the time to dance, to play, to celebrate the joys of life. I believe that’s why God made the Sabbath….a time to not work, a time to rest, a time to be renewed, a time to play so that our spirit as well as our bodies don’t get so weighed down with the burdens of the world that we forget to dance in our souls.
The book of Psalms describes dance as worship, as an act of praise. It was praise when Miriam, the sister of Moses, took a tambourine and led all the women of Israel to dance after God had saved them from Pharaoh in the Red Sea (Exodus 15: 20,21). It was praise when King David and all of the house of Israel danced in the procession of bringing the ark of the covenant to its place in the new capital of Jerusalem. Dance in the Bible is usually accompanied by instruments, like the lyre and harps, tambourines and castanets, cymbals with singing, too. It is part of worship—all in the name of the Lord.
But dance can be idolatrous, too. That’s a real danger! You don’t know what can happen if you cut loose…things can get out of hand quick. That’s what happened while Moses went up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments. He was gone too long and came back to the people dancing around the golden calf in worship (Exodus 32:19). Things got out of hand with the people no longer worshipping the Lord.
Dancing can also be seductive….conniving….all for the wrong reasons and lead to no good. That’s how John the Baptist lost his head —-it was literally happened due to a dance. It happened when King Herod lost his head over seeing his daughter dance. He was so delighted by her dancing before him in the court that Herod told his daughter that she could ask him for whatever she wished and he would give it to her….even half of his kingdom, indeed! Instead, all she asked for was the head of John the Baptist served on a platter (Mark 6:14-29).
It’s no wonder, in the name of faith, dancing has not been allowed throughout history by certain groups. Among the Puritans, you could be banished from the community if caught dancing. Even today, in certain places, churches don’t allow dancing; or there’s the thought, that if you do dance, you will go to hell. In one church I served, even though the hymn “Lord of the Dance” is in our hymnbook, it could not be sung in worship for the reason it was too sacrilegious! It was the idea of Jesus dancing—Heaven forbid!
I myself don’t dance very often because I’m always too self conscious. I can’t dance very good….and what will people think if I do? Obviously, King David didn’t care as he danced all over the place and apparently not with much on. His own wife, Michal, looked out of the window and saw the king dancing and leaping before the Lord and despised him. She let him have it when he came home to bless his household. But it sure didn’t seem to phase the King! In fact, we have the sense that he will dance to the Lord all over again despite what she says (II Samuel 6:20ff).
I love seeing the character “Baby” that Jennifer Grey plays in the movie “Dirty Dancing”. At the beginning she is this self awkward, coming of age teenager who keeps her head down because she doesn’t want anybody to see her. But over the time her family is on vacation, she transforms into this beautiful dancer. When Baby is squelched by her position in the dynamics of her family, she sits in a dark corner watching the festivities of the last night. I love the line of the character played by Patrick Swayze when he comes over to the table of Baby and her parents, puts out his hand for hers and says, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” And then they dance much to the surprise of her parents and the whole auditorium of people to the winning song “I’ve Had The Time of My Life.” By the end, everybody is caught up in the dance.
That’s one of the pictures of heaven that I love: being in the great heavenly banquet hall….with all gathered for a feast and celebration and dancing!
I don’t think we dance enough in the church. We literally don’t dance at all in worship—-although it’s very appropriate and I have seen dance in worship that is beautifully done. But I’m not just talking literally about dancing. I confess that far too often I don’t skip or leap or live with the joy of our faith. I get bogged down in the needs, the grief, the tragedy, the wrong , the storms in the reality of life…that I forget to laugh, to see the good, to have fun, to feel the joy in being a child of God. A great quote that I saw this week is: Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
According to our Book of Confession, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, our chief purpose in life is …to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
That is at the heart of what I mean when I say, “I hope you dance” …to dance like King David before the Lord. That is my prayer this morning for you and me together as God’s people…that we are more about glorifying God by enjoying Him forever….I hope you dance!”
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