Dancing The Sacraments
Sermon
Dancing The Sacraments
Sermons And Worship Services For Baptism And Communion
Call To Worship:
Let them praise God's name with dancing. Come, let us worship the Lord.
Hymn: "We Are The Church"
(words and music: Richard K. Avery and Donald S. Marsh)
Children's Time:
The people came together to prepare for the coming of the rabbi, the teacher, the holy man. They sat together and talked about the questions they would ask him when he came. When he finally arrived, he saw that the people were worried and restless. He quietly looked into their eyes, said nothing, and began to hum a hymn (hum a hymn the children know). Without knowing it, the congregation began to hum (invite the children and congregation to hum with you).
Then he sang and they sang along with him (sing the words). He stood up and swayed to the music and the congregation followed him (stand and sway with the children while the organist or pianist plays the melody). As they moved together with the music, the people became one. For over an hour they danced and danced. When it was silent again (sit down and all be still), the rabbi said, "I trust that I have answered your questions."
(Invite the children and congregation to stand and sing "Spirit of the Living God" with movements for those who wish to move. Then dismiss the children with prayer.)
Prayer Of Confession:
Dear Lord, forgive us for not listening to the music of your word, nor dancing its joy, nor celebrating your blessings. Open our ears to hear, our lips to sing, our feet to dance. Accept our bodies in worship. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
Jesus said, "I know that and I love you." You are forgiven. Amen.
Psalter Reading: Psalm 149
Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 3:1--4
Epistle: Romans 15:8--13
New Testament: Luke 8:31--39
Hymn: "Lord Of The Dance"
(words: Sydney Carter; music: nineteenth century Shaker tune)
Sermon:
We entered the darkened church and took our place in our pew, awaiting the call to worship. From the back of the church, bells began to ring softly, becoming louder as the dancer in a long, black dress moved down the center aisle. Shaking her bells as she came toward the altar, she smiled at each of us her call to worship, the Lord of the dance. Then one by one the lights in the sanctuary came on, as she approached the altar. Reaching the chancel area, she turned to us and spread her arms in welcome, and we were in worship.
You have heard it said that Christians leave their bodies at the door of the sanctuary before they enter to worship with their heads. But I say to you, "Play the pipes, dance the sacraments, sing your world, the kingdom of God, into being."
In our text for today Jesus asked, "To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance.' " Children like to dance, to worship with their bodies.
I remember the three--year--old, who, when the pastor invited the congregation to communion, stood up, let go her father's hand, and danced down the aisle to the altar.
I remember, too, the child not yet four rummaging through her mother's basket of sewing scraps, searching for long, brightly colored strips of cloth, and finding them, she disappeared. Her mother, curious, looked for her daughter and found her in the garden, taping the scraps to the top of a long pole. She asked her what she was doing, and the child smiled and said, "I'm making a banner for a parade so that God will come and dance with us."
Children remind us to dance, as the holy man in the children's story we heard with the children. When the retreat leader told of the child who danced down the aisle in joy and celebration of communion, the banquet feast of God, a thirty--year--old woman came to the leader afterwards in tears. "Thank you," she said. "As a child I once danced down the aisle and was severely scolded and punished. This is the first time anyone has confirmed my intuition for dancing the sacraments."
Jesus loved and blessed the children. He invites us to participate in the kingdom of God by becoming a "little child." The adults waited for the rabbi to come and answer their questions. Instead he "played the flute" for them and they danced, experiencing the joy of life in the presence of God. I can see them swaying to their melodies, as the rabbi replied, "I trust I have answered your questions."
The psalmist cried, "Let us praise God's name with dancing" (149:13). The purpose of a ritual is to connect us with God and one another, and with the original event we are celebrating, for rituals last. When I asked my son, "Are you going to vote early?" he replied, "Of course not! November 7 is the day to vote."
Christmas is the day to celebrate Christ's birth! Easter is the day to celebrate resurrection! Baptism is the way to celebrate God's gift of life; communion the way to remember, "God is with us. Take, eat!"
There is pleasure and play in healthy ritual. We remember and with King David participate in dancing the sacraments, whether in body or faith imagination. To dance the sacrament may not mean movement of the body (although it may), but of the mind and spirit, to "move" into newness, the work of the Holy Spirit, for ritual is not performance but prayer in the presence of God. We pray with our feet, our bodies, celebrating the movement of the seasons in the church year in rhythmic repetition, Advent to Lent to Pentecost, but we need reminders.
Once I lost the splendor of the sacraments. The routine ritual became empty, dry bones. Oh, sometimes the bones rattled in the closet, but otherwise it was something I did because I was part of a community who found its meaning and mission in the sacraments of baptism and communion. I had become deaf to their music and did not hear the flute nor dance the dance, as the deaf man in the story of the fiddler who played so sweetly that all who heard him began to dance, and whoever came near enough to hear, joined in the dance. A deaf man happened along, and because he could not hear, all he saw seemed to him the action of foolish people.
Paul said that our bodies are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16) which we offer to God. Dance is the embodiment of our joy, or fear, or sorrow, praising God with our bodies, celebrating with the psalmist: "Clap your hands, all you people; shout to God with loud songs (and dances) of joy" (47:1).
It is the "fool" who dances, knowing the joy and wonder of creation. I remember seeing Ken Feit celebrating his "Fool's Liturgy." He sat on the floor, legs crossed, dressed in a t--shirt and jeans, putting on his fool's face, the white of the clown. Then he spread his handkerchief on the floor as a priest placing the cloth on the altar. On it he placed a brown paper sack and from the sack he took a banana, studied it, and pantomimed the word "Wow!" (Create the actions without words.) Then he removed an apple, a balloon, molding clay, a needle and thread, each as a priceless treasure of their possessor. Carefully caressing his banana, he peeled it, taking one bite and then another. Then pausing in his sacred meal, he appeared puzzled and tried to pull up the peeling. Over and over it fell back limply into his hand until sadly he set it aside and moved on to the next item, playing with each of them until he decided to return them to the sack. The limp banana was last. Again he tried to revive it, his face mirroring disappointment, until searching the magic sack, he found the needle and thread and sewed the banana peel together. Whole again, he returned it to the sack, the ordinary having become extraordinary before our eyes. Dancing the sacraments is retrieving our wholeness.
The role of the clown or fool was once an accepted part of Christian worship. Feast days were set aside for fun, frolic, and foolishness. However, the Puritans, the Protestant work ethic, and papal pronouncements worked their power so that today we value production, prestige, and power, ignoring the sacred, "silly" saints, the happy, humble innocents. What if Jesus washed the feet of his disciples not only because they were dirty from walking the dusty lanes, or to show his servanthood, but with humility and humor, as he tickled their feet? For many, dancing the sacraments is holy foolishness.
The joy of the fool cannot be defined, such as the water of baptism and the bread and wine (juice) of the sacrament. It changes our life, but when we insist on a rational understanding of it, it loses its power. All the thinking in the world will not explain how we are eating Christ's "body" and drinking Christ's "blood," and "dancing with God" in the sacraments.
Making symbols and rituals understandable requires participation, poetry and parables, the language of the Spirit, and our response to the words - getting up, going forward, eating, and drinking.
Remember the story of Christ carrying the one who could not walk? This time the one being carried saw zigzag footprints everywhere, stops and starts, and said, "Lord, I understand your carrying me when I can no longer walk. But these prints I do not understand." The Lord replied, "That was when we were dancing."
Jesus spoke of the "abundant life" he came to bring, yet so often we teach children: "Don't play in church!" or "This is God's house. Be quiet." Of course we will be quiet in order not to disturb others, but we need not plant the impression that God does not like play, especially on Sunday. Jesus said that the sabbath was made for us to re--create, to play, to "hear the flute and dance," for the human spirit requires more than work, as the body needs more than bread.
I had a dinner party one night and asked each guest to come with a story, personal or otherwise, to "sing for their supper." One of my friends told the story of her first awareness of wonder. She was in the third grade Sunday school class, taking part in dramatizing the story of Moses and the burning bush. My friend played the part of Moses. Removing her shoes, she stood on "holy ground," and as she said, "Nothing was different but everything was changed." It was the beginning of her life as a sacrament in which she danced with God.
I have a friend of who used to be a dancer and she wrote:
She spun around like a child's toy top,
Her twirling smooth and musical,
And dreamt of spinning in finer places
And of becoming ...
Oh, all life was on a stage,
Choreographed by the Master Choreographer.
But, toy tops rust and break down;
Their spinning becomes less musical.
The Choreographer, however, remains the same;
Still turning out wonderful imaginative works of art.
But what can be made from the toy top who no longer spins?
Perhaps a lamp in whose light the work of the
Choreographer can shine.1
One evening at a retreat the minister asked us to join him in singing the old Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts":
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'Tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning, we come round right.
Out of that spontaneous singing a serendipity happened. In the group was a dance instructor who had spent the day teaching her class a dance to accompany that very hymn. She volunteered to teach us and together we learned and danced and sang. Later that night, around midnight, before we said goodnight, we danced the hymn under a full moon on the lawn of the courtyard of the dormitory where we were housed. Hearing the flute and dancing, it was movement, sound, and story blended into a whole.
Remember Zorba the Greek dancing his joy and sorrow. His "boss" said to Zorba, "Teach me to dance." So we say to Christ, our "boss," "Lord, teach us to dance, not leaning back to the last step nor forward to the next one, but in time with the music, poised on the present." The world is dancing energy and Jesus invites us to take the cup, share the bread, dance the sacraments. Lift up your hearts ... sing to the Lord a new song ... praise God's name with dancing, for Christ is the Lord of the dance! Amen!
Hymn: Repeat singing "Lord Of The Dance"
(words: Sydney Carter; music: nineteenth century Shaker tune)
Sacrament Of Holy Communion
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
A man stood up from the table,
looked out of the window
and saw his daughters
throwing into the trash,
behind the house
the large cardboard cutouts
of them he had made.
After months of play,
smudged and smeared,
they were wornout,
worthless, weary litter.
But when he looked out of the window
he "heard the flute,"
and saw the garbageman
approaching the discarded trash,
behind the house.
Picking up the rejected rubbish,
he brushed them off,
and began to dance,
breathing new life
into the cardboard figures.
Lord, pick us up,
brush us off,
dance with us,
and breathe new life
into our cardboard hearts. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder"
(words and music: African--American spiritual)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God who invites us to dance through Jesus Christ, Lord of the dance, and the Holy Spirit, who enables us to move our hearts and feet in praise to God. Amen.
____________
1. With appreciation to Melanie Miner, Austin, Texas.
Let them praise God's name with dancing. Come, let us worship the Lord.
Hymn: "We Are The Church"
(words and music: Richard K. Avery and Donald S. Marsh)
Children's Time:
The people came together to prepare for the coming of the rabbi, the teacher, the holy man. They sat together and talked about the questions they would ask him when he came. When he finally arrived, he saw that the people were worried and restless. He quietly looked into their eyes, said nothing, and began to hum a hymn (hum a hymn the children know). Without knowing it, the congregation began to hum (invite the children and congregation to hum with you).
Then he sang and they sang along with him (sing the words). He stood up and swayed to the music and the congregation followed him (stand and sway with the children while the organist or pianist plays the melody). As they moved together with the music, the people became one. For over an hour they danced and danced. When it was silent again (sit down and all be still), the rabbi said, "I trust that I have answered your questions."
(Invite the children and congregation to stand and sing "Spirit of the Living God" with movements for those who wish to move. Then dismiss the children with prayer.)
Prayer Of Confession:
Dear Lord, forgive us for not listening to the music of your word, nor dancing its joy, nor celebrating your blessings. Open our ears to hear, our lips to sing, our feet to dance. Accept our bodies in worship. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
Jesus said, "I know that and I love you." You are forgiven. Amen.
Psalter Reading: Psalm 149
Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 3:1--4
Epistle: Romans 15:8--13
New Testament: Luke 8:31--39
Hymn: "Lord Of The Dance"
(words: Sydney Carter; music: nineteenth century Shaker tune)
Sermon:
We entered the darkened church and took our place in our pew, awaiting the call to worship. From the back of the church, bells began to ring softly, becoming louder as the dancer in a long, black dress moved down the center aisle. Shaking her bells as she came toward the altar, she smiled at each of us her call to worship, the Lord of the dance. Then one by one the lights in the sanctuary came on, as she approached the altar. Reaching the chancel area, she turned to us and spread her arms in welcome, and we were in worship.
You have heard it said that Christians leave their bodies at the door of the sanctuary before they enter to worship with their heads. But I say to you, "Play the pipes, dance the sacraments, sing your world, the kingdom of God, into being."
In our text for today Jesus asked, "To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance.' " Children like to dance, to worship with their bodies.
I remember the three--year--old, who, when the pastor invited the congregation to communion, stood up, let go her father's hand, and danced down the aisle to the altar.
I remember, too, the child not yet four rummaging through her mother's basket of sewing scraps, searching for long, brightly colored strips of cloth, and finding them, she disappeared. Her mother, curious, looked for her daughter and found her in the garden, taping the scraps to the top of a long pole. She asked her what she was doing, and the child smiled and said, "I'm making a banner for a parade so that God will come and dance with us."
Children remind us to dance, as the holy man in the children's story we heard with the children. When the retreat leader told of the child who danced down the aisle in joy and celebration of communion, the banquet feast of God, a thirty--year--old woman came to the leader afterwards in tears. "Thank you," she said. "As a child I once danced down the aisle and was severely scolded and punished. This is the first time anyone has confirmed my intuition for dancing the sacraments."
Jesus loved and blessed the children. He invites us to participate in the kingdom of God by becoming a "little child." The adults waited for the rabbi to come and answer their questions. Instead he "played the flute" for them and they danced, experiencing the joy of life in the presence of God. I can see them swaying to their melodies, as the rabbi replied, "I trust I have answered your questions."
The psalmist cried, "Let us praise God's name with dancing" (149:13). The purpose of a ritual is to connect us with God and one another, and with the original event we are celebrating, for rituals last. When I asked my son, "Are you going to vote early?" he replied, "Of course not! November 7 is the day to vote."
Christmas is the day to celebrate Christ's birth! Easter is the day to celebrate resurrection! Baptism is the way to celebrate God's gift of life; communion the way to remember, "God is with us. Take, eat!"
There is pleasure and play in healthy ritual. We remember and with King David participate in dancing the sacraments, whether in body or faith imagination. To dance the sacrament may not mean movement of the body (although it may), but of the mind and spirit, to "move" into newness, the work of the Holy Spirit, for ritual is not performance but prayer in the presence of God. We pray with our feet, our bodies, celebrating the movement of the seasons in the church year in rhythmic repetition, Advent to Lent to Pentecost, but we need reminders.
Once I lost the splendor of the sacraments. The routine ritual became empty, dry bones. Oh, sometimes the bones rattled in the closet, but otherwise it was something I did because I was part of a community who found its meaning and mission in the sacraments of baptism and communion. I had become deaf to their music and did not hear the flute nor dance the dance, as the deaf man in the story of the fiddler who played so sweetly that all who heard him began to dance, and whoever came near enough to hear, joined in the dance. A deaf man happened along, and because he could not hear, all he saw seemed to him the action of foolish people.
Paul said that our bodies are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16) which we offer to God. Dance is the embodiment of our joy, or fear, or sorrow, praising God with our bodies, celebrating with the psalmist: "Clap your hands, all you people; shout to God with loud songs (and dances) of joy" (47:1).
It is the "fool" who dances, knowing the joy and wonder of creation. I remember seeing Ken Feit celebrating his "Fool's Liturgy." He sat on the floor, legs crossed, dressed in a t--shirt and jeans, putting on his fool's face, the white of the clown. Then he spread his handkerchief on the floor as a priest placing the cloth on the altar. On it he placed a brown paper sack and from the sack he took a banana, studied it, and pantomimed the word "Wow!" (Create the actions without words.) Then he removed an apple, a balloon, molding clay, a needle and thread, each as a priceless treasure of their possessor. Carefully caressing his banana, he peeled it, taking one bite and then another. Then pausing in his sacred meal, he appeared puzzled and tried to pull up the peeling. Over and over it fell back limply into his hand until sadly he set it aside and moved on to the next item, playing with each of them until he decided to return them to the sack. The limp banana was last. Again he tried to revive it, his face mirroring disappointment, until searching the magic sack, he found the needle and thread and sewed the banana peel together. Whole again, he returned it to the sack, the ordinary having become extraordinary before our eyes. Dancing the sacraments is retrieving our wholeness.
The role of the clown or fool was once an accepted part of Christian worship. Feast days were set aside for fun, frolic, and foolishness. However, the Puritans, the Protestant work ethic, and papal pronouncements worked their power so that today we value production, prestige, and power, ignoring the sacred, "silly" saints, the happy, humble innocents. What if Jesus washed the feet of his disciples not only because they were dirty from walking the dusty lanes, or to show his servanthood, but with humility and humor, as he tickled their feet? For many, dancing the sacraments is holy foolishness.
The joy of the fool cannot be defined, such as the water of baptism and the bread and wine (juice) of the sacrament. It changes our life, but when we insist on a rational understanding of it, it loses its power. All the thinking in the world will not explain how we are eating Christ's "body" and drinking Christ's "blood," and "dancing with God" in the sacraments.
Making symbols and rituals understandable requires participation, poetry and parables, the language of the Spirit, and our response to the words - getting up, going forward, eating, and drinking.
Remember the story of Christ carrying the one who could not walk? This time the one being carried saw zigzag footprints everywhere, stops and starts, and said, "Lord, I understand your carrying me when I can no longer walk. But these prints I do not understand." The Lord replied, "That was when we were dancing."
Jesus spoke of the "abundant life" he came to bring, yet so often we teach children: "Don't play in church!" or "This is God's house. Be quiet." Of course we will be quiet in order not to disturb others, but we need not plant the impression that God does not like play, especially on Sunday. Jesus said that the sabbath was made for us to re--create, to play, to "hear the flute and dance," for the human spirit requires more than work, as the body needs more than bread.
I had a dinner party one night and asked each guest to come with a story, personal or otherwise, to "sing for their supper." One of my friends told the story of her first awareness of wonder. She was in the third grade Sunday school class, taking part in dramatizing the story of Moses and the burning bush. My friend played the part of Moses. Removing her shoes, she stood on "holy ground," and as she said, "Nothing was different but everything was changed." It was the beginning of her life as a sacrament in which she danced with God.
I have a friend of who used to be a dancer and she wrote:
She spun around like a child's toy top,
Her twirling smooth and musical,
And dreamt of spinning in finer places
And of becoming ...
Oh, all life was on a stage,
Choreographed by the Master Choreographer.
But, toy tops rust and break down;
Their spinning becomes less musical.
The Choreographer, however, remains the same;
Still turning out wonderful imaginative works of art.
But what can be made from the toy top who no longer spins?
Perhaps a lamp in whose light the work of the
Choreographer can shine.1
One evening at a retreat the minister asked us to join him in singing the old Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts":
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'Tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning, we come round right.
Out of that spontaneous singing a serendipity happened. In the group was a dance instructor who had spent the day teaching her class a dance to accompany that very hymn. She volunteered to teach us and together we learned and danced and sang. Later that night, around midnight, before we said goodnight, we danced the hymn under a full moon on the lawn of the courtyard of the dormitory where we were housed. Hearing the flute and dancing, it was movement, sound, and story blended into a whole.
Remember Zorba the Greek dancing his joy and sorrow. His "boss" said to Zorba, "Teach me to dance." So we say to Christ, our "boss," "Lord, teach us to dance, not leaning back to the last step nor forward to the next one, but in time with the music, poised on the present." The world is dancing energy and Jesus invites us to take the cup, share the bread, dance the sacraments. Lift up your hearts ... sing to the Lord a new song ... praise God's name with dancing, for Christ is the Lord of the dance! Amen!
Hymn: Repeat singing "Lord Of The Dance"
(words: Sydney Carter; music: nineteenth century Shaker tune)
Sacrament Of Holy Communion
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
A man stood up from the table,
looked out of the window
and saw his daughters
throwing into the trash,
behind the house
the large cardboard cutouts
of them he had made.
After months of play,
smudged and smeared,
they were wornout,
worthless, weary litter.
But when he looked out of the window
he "heard the flute,"
and saw the garbageman
approaching the discarded trash,
behind the house.
Picking up the rejected rubbish,
he brushed them off,
and began to dance,
breathing new life
into the cardboard figures.
Lord, pick us up,
brush us off,
dance with us,
and breathe new life
into our cardboard hearts. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder"
(words and music: African--American spiritual)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God who invites us to dance through Jesus Christ, Lord of the dance, and the Holy Spirit, who enables us to move our hearts and feet in praise to God. Amen.
____________
1. With appreciation to Melanie Miner, Austin, Texas.
