Reflections on “Dancing with Jesus: the Last Dance”; Joshua 24: 15-25; Romans 6: 1-11

this was an added dance not found in the book "Dancing with Jesus" that I had planned to use for the last Sunday of the series when we reaffirmed our baptismal vows.   The scene in Joshua fit this scenario very well.  I might have chosen another lesson instead of Romans 6:1-11, if I preached this sermon again.  The Romans passage focuses on ultimate things; I was more interested in choosing this day who would be our dance partner, so to speak.   If I did this again, I would at least switch the order of the Scripture lessons.  I, of course, picked the Romans passage because of the "united with Christ" language.  I said it once in the sermon, and have found myself thinking this way more often, that "united with Christ in his death and resurrection" might be better understood as "united with Christ in his life, death and resurrection." (a variation from Paul's letter that I think might be good).

“Dancing with Jesus: the Last Dance”; Joshua 24: 15-25; Romans 6: 1-11;  August 27, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Introduction:  The last dance can be interpreted in several different ways, I suppose.

Last dance, as in this is the last week we have dance as one of the main elements of our worship service.

last dance could also reference our last dance in the context of life and death and lead us to focus on Paul’s letter when he reminds us that to be united with Christ in baptism is to be united with him in his death and resurrection.  

But, this morning as we gather around our Lord’s Table and Reaffirm our baptisms, I invite you to put the last dance in the context of choosing the dance partner with whom you want to share the rest of your dances. 

Move 1: There is a dance partner who looking for you.

a.  AS Dr. Allen reminded us last week in her greeting from Austin Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Jose Irizarry, the new president, gave his first charge to the graduating students this year.

in his charge, he referenced a TED talk by philosopher Derek Sivers on “How to Start a Movement”

Sivers showed some video footage of young people attending an outdoor concert.

As the video starts, a lone individual is standing up and dancing. there is no sound with the video, so you just the the movements.  Apparently, this person was not gifted with bodily grace so his movements were awkward and uncoordinated.

But there was joy in his movements.

He stood there before the crowd dancing as they sat and watched. 

After a while, someone stepped up and began dancing with the first dancer.  Actually, mimicking the somewhat awkward dance moves.  

the dance of one became the dance of two.

and then, the dance grew as others stood and joined in the dance.

b.  As I read this story, I had the image of Jesus Christ, coming to us in his humanity and living among us.

1. Showing us love and how to love.

2.  Showing us how to be in right relationship with God and inviting us into the relationship by following him.

3.  Jesus living, dying and being resurrected and declaring that in our baptism we are united wtih him in our life, death, and resurrection.

A dance partner for life and beyond, if you will.

As you choose your partner with whom to dance through life, Jesus is ever before you, 

looking for you, 

coming for you, 

inviting you to dance with him.

Move 2:  Sometimes, we need to remember who our dance partner is.

a.  We read the passage from Joshua.

1. One of my favorite stories in the biblical text.

2. I suppose I love the drama of it - Joshua standing there before the people asking them to declare whom they choose that day.

3.  More than just asking them whom they choose to serve, Joshua declares that he has made his choice to follow God.

then, he asks them to choose.

4. It is known as the covenant renewal.

5. A moment when God’s people need to declare for themselves and announce to the world that they choose to serve God.

6. I might also add that the God whom they choose has already chosen them.

b. I suspect this may no longer be the case, but back when I was going to dances in high school and college, the dance always ended with the lights being lower and a slow dance as the last dance.

In some ways, it clarified the evening - by the end of the dance you pretty well knew if your date thought this was a special moment, or if this was a 'we both wanted to come to the dance, but being with you is no more than that” kind of date.

the song we danced to during Time with you Disciples, was a song I danced to years ago as a last dance.

The words go like this:  

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?
Could you be my partner every night?
When we're together, it feels so right
Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

Jesus Christ invites you to be his dance partner for the rest of your life. 

Conclusion:  Later in worship, we will reaffirm our baptisms.

1.  It will serve as a reminder to those baptism that God has already claimed us as children of the covenant in the waters of baptism;

it will serve as an invitation to those who are not yet baptized that God is ever before us, calling us into relationship, inviting us to the waters of baptism.

2.  As the summer comes to a close and we we move into the fall, it is a moment for us to reflect and lay claim to who we are and whose we are.

A moment in which each of us declares:   I choose this day Jesus Christ as my dance partner for life.

Amen.

Reflections on “Dancing with Jesus: the Apostolic Conga” I Corinthians 12: 27-31

The "Dancing with Jesus" preaching series is almost complete, just one more week.  I enjoyed preparing and preaching this sermon.  

 “Dancing with Jesus: the Apostolic Conga”; I Corinthians 12: 27-31;  August 27, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp

Two more weeks of dancing - then, we start our fall preaching schedule.  Don’t forget that next week, our worship will include the Ritual of Reaffirmation of Baptism

I Corinthians 12: ²⁷Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ²⁸And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Introduction:  When I was in high school, dances seemed to be exclusively meant for couples.

Only couples on the dance floor.

If you did not have a date, there was not much point in going to a dance because you would just be sitting or standing alongside the wall.  I figured the odds of me finding a dance partner once I was at the dance we close to zero!

after graduating from high school, I worked in Corsicana, TX, and attended Westminster Presbyterian Church there. 

I’m not sure whose brilliant idea it was, but they asked me to teach Sr. High Sunday school and serve on the Christian Education committee.  At the time, I did not realize it was a preview of my life to come - teaching Sunday school and going to committee meetings!

Teaching the Sr. high Sunday school class led to being asked to chaperone at the local high school dances.  Maybe to redeem my own high school dance memories, I agreed to be a chaperone.

I arrived at the Homecoming dance with flashbacks to my own high school dances.  

the kids from Sunday school greeted me and introduced me to the head chaperone.  She told me my duties, which included making sure no kids were going in and out of the gym to the parking lot and making rounds to the dark corners of the gym.

As I began observing the high schoolers at a dance, I realized dance protocols had changed since my high school days.   

the dance floor was not filled exclusively with couples, but lots of groups on the dance floor dancing together.

Groups of girls; groups of guys; groups of girls and guys; a mobility-impaired high schooler surrounded by several dance partners. 

there seemed to be no concern over having one partner with whom you danced exclusively;   everyone on the dance floor was a partner in the dance.

so too, our ministry as the body of Christ invites into partnership with each other, indeed, an abundance of partners.

move 1. The Apostolic conga reminds us that we are connected to each other.

a.  Consider the task before Paul.

1. First, he proclaims the resurrection of Jesus Christ and invites people to lay claim to that truth.

2,  But that is not enough.

he also invites those who come to believe in Jesus Christ to do the work of Christ in the world. 

b. Thus, the image Paul uses of the body of Christ.

1. Individual parts needed to make the body function.

2.   first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 

3.  Not one of those people is enough; 

not two;

but All different types of people and skills are needed to do the work of Christ.

4. When we danced the apostolic conga it was a line of different people, 

different gifts

all joining together for one purpose.

c. Sometimes it is hard in the English language to know whether someone is talking about you, as in you as an individual 

or you, as in the plural, a group of us.

1. Biblical scholars point out that in vs. 27 when Paul writes to the Corinthians,

when Paul writes to us: “Now you are the body of Christ.

You “is a big emphatic YOU! (in the plural not the singular to underscore once again this many-membered body).” 

2.  Not one of us, but all of us.

3.  Paul does not mean that the body of Christ is “some assertion of privileged status, but rather a  recognition of our responsibility for mutual care for the members of this body. (James Boyce

Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Greek, Luther Seminary; https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany-3/commentary-on-1-corinthians-1212-31a)

d.  Being part of the body of Christ also means we are connected in ways beyond just those people whom we can see.

1.  Did you notice that Dr. Allen joined in the conga line

 (Okay, I asked her to, but I am sure she would have joined us anyway), 

2.  but she can join us in dancing with Jesus because the body extends beyond our own congregation here at St. Andrew.

it extends at least to Austin

at least to other communities of believers in the United States.

at least to other communities of believers around the world.

We are connected in Christ to the host of believers because Christ’s work demands all of us.

or as Paul says it in the opening verses of this letter:  To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

b.  In fact, we understand our connections even beyond our present time.

1. The apostolic conga line extends back to those who have come before us

imagine stretching back to the beginning of creation;

Imagine stretching beyond our time into the future when those who follow us will continue working as the body of Christ.

Imagine that line of people, connected to God and continually shaping and being shaped for their work as the body of Christ.

move 2:  Body of Christ is a place of transformation.

a.  As you may I have noticed through the years, I read Milton Brasher-Cunningham’s blog on a somewhat regular basis.  He grew up in the mission fields, spent some time in Waco, and became a chef, is married to a UCC minister, and is one himself.

1.  he loves music and cooking and often makes theological insights in these two areas.

2. A few years ago, he blogged about the thought of fiddlehead ferns. 

I do not know much about fiddlehead ferns, except you have to clean them very well or you can get sick when eating them.

 To clean fiddleheads before you cook them, you put them in water  (which makes sense), and, here’s the chef’s trick, you rub them up against each other. 

The dark outer layer – dirt, skin, whatever – comes off leaving a beautifully bright green skin that sparkles in the sauté pan. 

They don’t clean up well one by one; they have to rub up against each other to be transformed (donteatalone, 9/3/2007, Milton Brasher-Cunningham, http://donteatalone.com/fiddlehead-faith/ 

b.  Church is for finding and adoring God in community:  with others, through others, because of others, in spite of others.  Only by finding this place of human interaction focused around the need for the spiritual was I able to recognize God in other people, and so, in myself.  Without community, how would I share. Who would I help?  How would I learn to accept help?  Would I learn to serve others without others to serve?  And could I know how if I wasn’t taught? To what would I, a human being, belong to if not to a group of human beings?”   Nevada Barr, Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat (191)

1.  Paul uses the term “new creations” to describe what we become when we give our lives over to Christ.

2.  Even as we join together in the work of Christ transforming the world, we ourselves are changed.

3. Changed by being in relationship with those around us in the body of Christ;

changed by the ways we are challenged;

change by the ways we are nurtured;

changed by the ways we join together to go into the world in the name of Christ.

Move 3:   Paul says strive to be the body of Christ,  “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

I finish with a  story from the chili cook-off in Terlingua, TX.  

years ago, there were three brothers - Les, Don, and Larry Eastep.

Les was an 11-time grand champion of world chili cook-offs;

Larry competed but was not quite the same level as brother Les.

Don, was not much of a chili chef, but enjoyed going with his brothers to competitions.

One year, Larry qualified, but couldn't go to Terlingua, Texas, to compete in a chili cook-off, so Don, went instead, and signed in as Larry, including getting his pot to submit his chili.

Except Don didn’t cook any chili.  But, we wanted to be involved in the competition, so he spent his time visiting the competitors and managing to get a cup of their chili, which he took back and put in his pot.

eventually, he had a big enough sample to turn in for the competition.

He won. Larry was too stunned i the moment to protest. "I was afraid if I would have said something at the time, a Texas lynch mob would have come after me," he said later.

 Other cooks protested, since they didn't see Larry cooking, so he quickly 'fessed up and turned the trophy over to the runner-up. Judge Tom Nall called Eastep a "rotten, no-good scoundrel" who is banned from future competitions.  (I first saw this in the Washington Post, then read more about it here https://squirrelcookoff.com/people/chili-cook-off-cheater/) 

the chili from all the cooks was the best.

Conclusion: The body of Christ dances the apostolic conga, a dance that needs all of us.