Mon 10 Dec 2007
A Time To Dance
Posted by tom cottar under theology
Real Christians don’t dance.
Scott M sent me this great post rom Father Stephen about the role of the [Orthodox] church to American culture. Along the lines of Staub’s Culturally Savvy
Christian, Father Stephen has some great wisdom to share about the history of Christianity’s setting itself up as the enemy of culture instead of being a producer of culture.
Early on, he says:
"The Orthodox Church exists within an American culture that is indeed a mixture of many things.
There are inherited elements of Puritanism in America that can trace their roots back to Oliver Cromwell and his religious cousins and forebears.
These elements will not yield a Christian culture but a culture that diminishes our humanity and is, at best, a heretical Christian culture."
But what really caught my attention (and evidently, Scott’s as well…) was this:
"There’s something wrong with a nation where people don’t sing and dance."
OK..so here’s my possibly heretical and tangentially related question: Given that it’s Christmas season, shouldn’t we be dancing? Isn’t there something wrong with a Kingdom such as ours that doesn’t dance? Instead of bemoaning the fact that our consumer-based spirituality is upset about the ‘Happy Holiday’ banners all over the television airwaves, how about being a holy nation (in the ‘royal priesthood’ sense…) which dances at the birth of our Hope? Instead of being cynical about equal time for Chanakuh and Kwanzaa, how about singing and rejoicing over the miraculous birth of the King and a new way of Kingdom rule? Granted, I know the Wal-Mart machine doesn’t want to offend the handful of athiests or agnostics or hindus in my community, so it’s much better for the bottom line if we have a generic ‘Holiday Tree’, but what about the incredible opportunity for conversations? "Hey, Mr. Hindu..what holiday is it exactly that decorates evergreen trees with lights? …oh, yeah..the one about the birthday and the King and…and…and…" Or for the agnostic (or anyone for that matter), the natural opportunities to talk about a season of Hope and the Bringer of Hope. A season of Peace…and it’s Prince. The appropriateness of the gifts we offer families and loved ones…and the significance of the gifts of the Magi.
Of course, it shouldn’t be limited to any particular time of year, but this month should be a no-brainer. Shouldn’t missional living foremost include dancing? To paraphrase Martin Smith, should not our lives consist of opening up the doors, letting the music play, and letting the dance spill into the streets?
At its core, isn’t ours a Kingdom of Dancing? The blind receiving sight. The poor receiving abundance. The crippled walking. The dead living. The lonely comforted. The sick healed. The oppressed rescued. The captives set free. The hopeless filled with hope. The good news has come. The messenger brought ‘good tiding of great joy’ because a Son is born, of Man and Spirit, that has come to heal the nations. And He will be our King and we will be His people. Even Ricky Bobby should dance over his bounty of Taco Bell, now that 8 lb. 6 oz. baby Jesus has come.
Am I a little cynical about advertisementsof consumer-driven ‘Happy Holiday’ commercials on the tube? Yeah. Definitely. But I can just get over it. My responsibility to share my faith doesn’t trump my responsibility to dance. The kingship of Jesus isn’t threatened by Holiday Trees or political correctness any more than by my personal indignation. I can embrace my community and serve it. I can love my neighbor without an agenda. I can give my time and energy to my wife and kids and friends. And I can dance in the truth of the Season. As Father Stephen says, "May God teach my feet!"
One Response to “ A Time To Dance ”
Comments:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Or as Wright asks, what would this look like if God were running the show. Because, of course, our central confession is that he is and we are acknowledging and living under his rule. Yes, we need the ascetic disciplines to indirectly tame the passions which rule us instead of God. And yes, we live in a world which is not yet full of Jubilee and we need seasons that reflect that truth. But we worship and proclaim the loving and gracious God fully revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. We must celebrate! In the face of even the harshest reality, we must together practice the rarely mentioned discipline of celebration.
But even more than that, that sentence drives home a deep, deep truth. There is something essentially and wonderfully human in the fact that, in the face of trouble, pain, and suffering, somehow we still sing and dance. You see that everywhere, in every culture, and throughout history. When the Cromwells of the world deny and attempt to suppress that part of who we are, it is soul-crushing. Those of us learning to live within the life of the true Triune God have so much more reason to “bust out” as it were. How can we not?
But the disturbing thing about America to me is not the return to paganism or embrace of secularism. Rather, it’s that we seem to have forgotten how to dance as a people. And if the church won’t live and teach us how, who will?
However, in the Western Christian world, I believe we are in the Advent season and in the Eastern Christian world, we are in the midst of the Nativity fast. In both traditions, this is intended to be the season of anticipation and prayerful waiting for the Incarnation. The Christmas season, the season celebrating the glory and wonder of God becoming one of us to save his people, is traditionally supposed to run from December 25 to January 6. I think we need the prayerful anticipation to prepare us for the extended celebration. When we abandon either, it seems to fall apart.
Of course, many of us (me included) do neither these days. We certainly don’t seem to approach these seasons focused as a community.