Psalm 16; Matthew 11:16-19 The Dance Sermon preached January 28, 2013 Opening We have in our family,

a collection of stories that are called Amy stories. These Amy stories come from the wild and crazy antics of our middle child Amy when she was little. Amy hit the ground running from the moment she was born. Shed climb out of her crib and be downstairs playing before wed wake up. And when she got mobile, watch out. Like the time we were living in Princeton Seminarys married student housing - she was four - and she and her friend Simon decided that the basement of our apartment building was dirty. Somehow, they dumped a box of laundry detergent on the floor, dragged a hose in there and flooded the place and were scrubbing the floor about as well as fouryear-olds can when an adult discovered them. Another Amy story is the time it snowed, and she was so excited that she ran outside in her underwear and rolled around and threw the snow up in the air. And another - she was maybe two, Susan had just changed her diaper, and Susan turned around for just a moment and Amy, stark naked, ran down the stairs and ran outside and it was a beautiful day and she ran around, ran down the street, exulting in the day, the feel of the sunshine on her little naked body - before Susan caught up with her. Our little Amy had immense joy. A dirty basement, cold snow, bright sun - every moment was an opportunity to dance with joy. Scripture Our scripture reading is an invitation from the Lord Jesus, to dance. Figuratively speaking, to come join the dance of joy that is at the heart of what it means to know and love Jesus Christ. The setting of the reading is this - Jesus is frustrated, highly frustrated, with the people of his time. These people - they are the most privileged generation in the history of the world, spiritually speaking. First, they get John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was the greatest of all the prophets. And then they get Jesus himself - Son of God, King of King, Lord of Lords, their Messiah coming to save them for whom they had prayed and waited for centuries. Yet for all that, Jesus contemporaries arent happy. Theyre not happy with John - too gloom and doom, too much strenuous repentance required - and theyre not happy with Jesus - too much joy and celebration and hanging out with the wrong kinds of people. So in our passage, Jesus says that he and John are like street musicians. 1

If youve been to New York or Philadelphia, youve seen street musicians. Maybe on a street corner, maybe at a subway station - theyll be playing the sax or violin or guitar and filling the air with music, if theyre really good you might stop and listen for a while. Some beautiful music can really brighten up a gloomy subway station. And the musicians usually have their instrument case open by their feet and you can throw in some coins to thank them for their music. So Jesus is saying, John and I are like street musicians. John is playing a mournful song of repentance in a minor key - a song of mourning, like Lenten music - and it didnt move you - and here I am, playing a joyful, merry tune on the pipes in order to get you to come into the dance of joy that is the Kingdom of God - and that doesnt move you either. You just sit there with your arms folded and mutter complaints. Its like the Lord is saying, what do you people want?? We played you tunes straight from the music department of heaven and you just walked on by. Thesis Now Im going to run with this image, idea of Jesus playing a tune and inviting us to dance. And this image, is just one example of many, where Jesus is trying to get us to understand something crucial, essential, about what it means to follow him, about the Kingdom of God. Let me explain it like this. You know how you walk into a room, and you can sense the mood of the people there? Its called, reading the room. Sometimes you walk into a room of people and the mood is so dark it almost stops you in your tracks. People are looking down, their brows are furrowed, if they look at you at all when you enter, they glance away or frown. As the cliche goes, you can cut the tension with a knife. And sometimes there is an atmosphere of what can be called enforced cheerfulness - where the expected behavior is for everyone to act cheerful and happy, because if you dont, youre not with the program, and to do otherwise is to violate the group code that we always pretend everything is swell around here. So you see forced smiles and laughter thats a touch too loud and a welcome that is warm but just a little - off. But...sometimes you walk into a room and you can feel it - people are smiling and laughing, their eyes are bright...their posture is open...people turn to you and they light up, theyre glad to see you - there is energy in the air, positive energy. You can call it the atmosphere, the vibe, that the people in the room are giving off. And 2

what I think the Lord is saying, here and elsewhere, is that the vibe of the Christian life, is to supposed to be like a dance - positive, joyful, energizing. Examples And the Lord demonstrated this, said this over and over again - here are just a few examples His very first miracle in the gospel of John - his inaugural act, so to speak - remember what that was? Turned water into wine. Why that particular sign? To communicate that he was the bringer of joy. His words at the end of chapter 11 in Matthew Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees - the good religious people - why his disciples didnt fast like those of John the Baptist, Jesus told them basically, your Lord and Messiah is here and that means celebration time! And finally, one of the complaints made against him by the pillars of religious rectitude was that he liked going to parties too much - and he did go to parties a lot - to seek out the lost and celebrate when theyd be found. And its all through the Bible - Isaiah 25 looks forward to the restoration of creation at the end of time - when God brings the new heavens and new earth - and the image the prophet uses, is of a great feast with the best food and wine you can imagine. The essential tone, vibe of the gospel, is one of joy. And this comes from the very being of God. You may know a little about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity - that God exists as both one, yet three - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are different symbols that try to express this - three interlocking circles, a triangle - but theres a great one from the early church, where the Trinity is depicted as three people, hands joined, in a circle dancing together. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a divine community of love who dance together. And Jesus invites us to join in the dance of divine love that is the inner life of God.

Objections Now...this may sound crazy to you. Has to others. Some years back there was an article in Christianity Today titled Jesus - Man of Joy. The writer pointed out that Jesus was a joyful man - used humor in his teaching, liked going to parties, came to bring joy. And wouldnt you know it, in the letters to the editor in the very next issue some sourpuss wrote in and said, The Christian life is essentially serious. This life is a vale of tears. Humor has no place in the Sunday School classroom or the pulpit. I call that Oatmeal religion. A life of faith that is about as appealing as a bowl of lukewarm oatmeal - bland, gray, joyless. And you can find a lot of oatmeal religion out there - there is lip service paid to joy but the real message is that faith is about duty and obligation and righteous living - you come to church, you serve on a committee, you put your offering in the plate and maybe once in a while you get a scoop of jell-O salad at a church potluck but thats as good as it gets. Where does oatmeal religion come from? If you dig deep enough, it always has its source in a concept of God - what God is essentially like. For some people, God is like my high school vice-principal Mr. Cooper. He prowled the halls, wearing a plaid jacket and tie, his serious face bordering on a scowl, his hands clasped behind on his back, on the lookout for any outbreaks of teenage exuberance. He was a scary guy, when he went by, youd stop laughing, you quieted down and got serious. Some folks think God is like that, frowning down from heaven and about to clear his throat when he sees an outbreaks of exuberance so well settle down and put our noses back to the grindstone - a god of law and rules who demands cringing obedience. And Ill tell you - you start with the wrong understanding of God and everything else goes wrong - and you end up with a religion that is long list of rules and law and dos and donts that eventually worm their way into the smallest details of life; you end up with rigid doctrinal standards that you must not question; you end up with a code of behavior that you must not transgress, you end up with a conformity that takes the marvelous diversity of humankind and squeezes it into a narrow little mold, you end up with religion that bores, oppresses and murders the spirit.

Why this matters This really matters. The failure to get this is like spiritual cyanide to an authentic, living faith in Jesus Christ. And its like spiritual cyanide to the church, too. Maybe you recognize oatmeal religion because you were served a big helping of it at one point in your life. My teacher, the theologian Leonard Sweet, talks about it, says he underwent what he describes as a Adeconversion@ when he was nineteen. He writes, AWhat ignited my deconversion was the church=s funereal spirit, its fussy, buttoned-upness. Christians= stay-at-home-and-pickle-in-their-own-juices personalties, their vinegary countenances, drained me emotionally, incapacitated me intellectually, and shut me down spiritually. The best I could say was this: by and large, Christians were kind people in a bad mood.@i Ouch. This is central to the Gospel This is so...terribly...wrong. It is anti-gospel. Word Gospel - Joy news - Gospel is the announcement of joy The word was used in secular history for an announcement that the army had won the battle - joy news that you dont have to be afraid of the enemy...and the joy news here is that Jesus Christ has defeated our ancient enemies of sin and death. Joy news examples from our lives Back before they let fathers into the birthing room, you remember the old scene? A soon-to-be-father would be pacing the linoleum floor of the waiting room, smoking Camels, drinking bad coffee, anxiously waiting...and then a nurse comes out and pulls off her masks and with a big smile, tells you youre a father! Thats joy news! Or youve applied for admission to a school, or for a scholarship, and you keep checking the mailbox to hear back, and one day you get an envelope, and its a fat envelope, not one of the one-page letters and you tear it open and there it is - your acceptance or scholarship - thats joy news!

Or the great pictures from the end of World War II - people are holding up newspapers with a gigantic headline - Japanese Surrender! - and people and hugging and kissing and dancing - joy news! Jesus the joy-bringer Remember how the story of Jesus starts? The angels announcement to shepherds - remember what they said - I bring you good news of great joy - actually redundant - literally I bring you joy news of great joy! Jesus first words...repent and believe the joy news - turn away from what does not bring joy and turn to me. Even Gods judgment is about that - helping us tear ourselves away from what enslaves us, from what keeps us from his infinite joy. Now of course, following Jesus Christ is hard, demanding, strenuous. And there are commands that seem difficult, even impossible. Love your neighbor as yourself? Forgive and pray for your enemies? And we are called to sacrifice deeply, to give our wealth away freely, to walk into the Lions Den and trust God...no matter what. And there is suffering in this life, for sure. And grief and pain that should not be brushed away with pious platitudes. And there are times when our hearts should break over the suffering and evil that stalks this world. And times when our hearts break over the suffering and wrong weve done to others. But...like the psalmist says, joy comes in the morning. There are times of doubt and darkness, but over time, the music that plays in the background of the Christian life calls us to dance. That is what the Lord wants for us. And thats what he wants us to share with the world. How do you get ahold of this? Now some people, this is natural - they are like Tigger - happily pogo-ing through life but its harder for some people than others. Like me. Im kind of emotionally constipated. I live above the eyebrows in the realm of concepts and ideas - faith for me has bee mostly about beautiful and elegant theology and a quiet wonderful sense of peace I get in prayer oftentimes - but joy - not so much - I mean, Im Scottish by extraction and Presbyterian too - exuberance in religion is that unseemly behavior we leave to the Pentecostals.

So how do we be joyful? Its not something you can summon up by willpower - we didnt come with the option package that includes on/off joy switch. This sounds almost inhumane - sounds like the enforced cheerfulness that is part of some churches where people pretend From knowing and loving Jesus Well, one thing, is to repent of oatmeal religion. Repent of it in the sense that we reject it as anti-gospel and turn to Jesus Christ; but also repent of it in the sense that if we grew up with it and its become part of the our mental and spiritual furniture, that we desire to leave it behind and desire instead to embrace the joy of the gospel. And we get that, by believing and meditating on and celebrating, what God does for us in Jesus Christ. I mean, do we really get, that as the late Reynolds Price put it, that the maker of all things says to us, I love and want you? That he loves and wants us so much that he came to rescue us from the sin and darkness that disgusts us, everything about us that is false and shallow and puny and weak, and make us into new people? That he is slowly but surely pushing back the darkness that has shrouded this world since our ancient rebellion against God and bringing a new world - the Kingdom of God - that we get to be part of, that we get to help build. That he saves us from the terrifying annihilation of death and that we live forever in Gods new world? That nothing, nothing, nothing, can ever separate us from his love? I wonder...if that really sunk down deep into the bedrock of our souls, and if the goodness of God was on our minds and hearts all the time - we might find joy welling up inside us; I dont know, maybe wed feel like dancing. I mean, a worship service is a weekly celebration of what God is doing in us, in the world through Christ. Thats why we sing hymns and pray and all the rest - to celebrate - and it not only gladdens the heart of God, it gladdens our hearts too. Its early in my ministry with you and I am so happy to be here and have all kinds of hopes and dreams about what God is going to do among us - and one of those hopes, one of those dreams, is that we be a church that dances. Dances to the tune of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That it infects us, that people come here and sense the vibe of joy in 7

the air and it pulls them towards Christ, that we are known in the community as a place that will warm the soul. Closing Dr. Diane Komp of Harvard Medical School tells the story of one of her Down=s Syndrome patients with whom she was eating, at a restaurant. The restaurant had music and a little dance floor. Her friend loved to dance, but Komp had had a hard day and didn=t feel up to it. But then the young man found a partner, another Downs person named Grace. And they danced, and danced, and the young man was so pleased and excited afterwards. He said to Dr. Komp, she=s amazing Grace, she could dance all night. My friends, grace does dance, all day, all night, forever. So it does. And were invited. Amen.

Endnotes i. Leonard Sweet, SoulSalsa, p. 185. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.