Third Sunday after Epiphany (B)
‘The Discipleship
Dance’
No! We aren’t at ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ although Cassie and her partner might qualify. But we are in church. How dare one do a ‘waltz’ down the center aisle of the church?
Good question! I grew up in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. I went to LC-MS colleges and we were forbidden to dance on campus. Imagine that – not allowing college age students to dance on campus. Guess where we danced? Off campus! We even invented a dance for on campus. We called it the ‘tree.’ You’d just stand still and move your arms in the air.
Why begin this sermon with a couple waltzing down the center aisle of the church? First of all they are dancing to the hymn of the day - 798 – which according to our musicians qualifies as a waltz. Second the Gospel reading is about following Jesus – participating in the fulfillments of time and the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Discipleship – following Jesus is a dance somewhat like the waltz that you just saw demonstrated by Cassie and her partner. Following Jesus is a partnership. Sure he is the lead dancer – he is the one who teaches us the steps of the dance – but we are Christ’s partner and together we participate in the loving reign of God.
What does the discipleship dance look like? What steps will we learn from Christ our dance partner?
Timing is really important. The time is fulfilled. We dare not stand around and be a wallflower when Christ has summoned us into the dance. This is no time to step back and be shy. Followers of Christ are not pew sitters. Christ is taking us by the hand now and pulling us onto the dance floor of our lives. Christ’s call is compelling and our response is immediate. The appointed time is now.
Like the first disciples it is time for you and I – time for Gloria Dei church to step out onto the dance floor – no excuses!
Christ summons us into the dance because the kingdom of God has come near. What is the kingdom of God – it is God’s ever present grace in our lives and in our world. God’s loving rule is here. It is never a matter of whether or not God is present, but rather whether or not we recognize God’s presence in our lives and are ready to participate and enter into the dance.
Our partner in the dance is non-other than Christ. He takes us by the hand and the dance of discipleship begins. The dance steps include a step called ‘repent’ and a step called ‘believe.’
Repent – we hear that as a word of piety – like ‘feel bad about yourself,’ or ‘don’t do bad things.’ The Biblical writers and Jesus are not calling us into a dirge and a dance of sorrow – but of dance of turning.
‘Repent’ is the step of turning away from one thing and turning toward another. It is a 180 degree step. The dance is going this way – away from God: Christ turns us around and dances us toward God.
Jesus proclaims: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news.”
So far the dance has called us to step out on the dance floor with Christ – now! We’ve taken our first dance lessons and learned the step of repentance – the step of turning away from self to God.
Now in our movement toward God we begin to believe and trust in God. “Believe in the good news” is the next step. When Jesus uses the word ‘believe’ he means trust. By believing, Jesus does not mean giving ascent to or nodding our heads to certain propositions about him or God. No!
When Jesus says ‘believe’ he means: ‘Trust me!’ Trust is the step that we take when put our whole selves in the arms of our dance partner. Will he let us go or carry us through those intricate dance moves? Can we trust our dance partner not to drop us?
In other words: Do we trust God to take care of us? Do we trust God enough to provide for us? Do we trust God to embrace us and dance us into a new life?
Christ summons us to the dance floor. Each one of us can only answer those questions for ourselves.
Now – turning – trusting are the first steps in the discipleship dance. While other dancers live from song to song our music goes on and on. What is that music that goes on and on?
It is the music in our hymn of the day [798] – ‘The Summons.’ There are phrases in that hymn that give us clues to the dance of discipleship. I hope you will pay close attention to the words as we sing the hymn.
One phrase that stands out for me is in verse 4 – Jesus is speaking in this hymn – he is speaking to you and to me and asking us questions:
Will you quell the
fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the
faith you found to reshape the world around,
Through my sight
and touch and sound in you and you in me?”
In other words the dance of discipleship means taking the hands and arms of Christ and embraced in his dance move to be our true selves – move beyond our shame and our fears to love our selves. Loved in Christ we will never again be the same person.
Freed from shame and fear we follow ever more carefully the lead of Christ in the dance of discipleship. Unfortunately, for far too many followers the dance is simply a personal relationship with Jesus – knowing Christ as a personal Lord and savior is only half stepping to the Savior’s lead.
The Christian faith is not some private ‘me and Jesus’ and how Jesus and I get along. No! The dance of discipleship is a dance that embraces the broken in our churches, our community, and our world. The Christian faith isn’t the dating site ‘Christian Mingle’ where we can couple up only with other our own kind. No the dance of discipleship is a communal dance – more like a square dance, or a ‘hoe down’. It involves us in community action.
Christ is asking: “Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around?” Are we content with a privatized spirituality – a 'me and Jesus' faith? Or will we dance in the streets to share the love of God and justice of God in order to reshape the world around. Will ours simply be a ‘piety of the pew’ or a ‘piety of the people’?
The discipleship dance moves us out of the sanctuary and into the streets to participate in God’s will. God’s will is to bring human society out of fear, alienation, and oppression and into God’s kingdom of peace, justice, and mutuality.
Will we be content with a popular piety that keeps us safe in our pews, or will we step out in the dance of discipleship? Will we share in the radical good news that leads us to stand up and speak out for the vulnerable, the broken, and the marginalized?
Today Christ invites you into the Discipleship Dance. Jesus asks you:
“Will you use the faith you found to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?”
Amen
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