get on your boots

i was never a dancer. always wanted to be, always loved watching others dance. few things move me to tears as fast as a big dance number and the sound of young feet pounding out a rhythmic cadence on a stage in a visual celebration of life that is so explosive that the shock is registered on my heart…

there are probably many reasons for my own inability to dance, however: ranging from basic personal rhythm and coordination issues to gravity, the rotation of the earth and the strange 23.5 degree axial tilt, officially called the obliquity of the ecliptic. it’s quite incredible the extent to which one will go to make self-justifying excuses for the things he or she just can’t pull off. all i know is that, in order to compensate for my disability in this area, i got myself some corrective shoes… roller skates.

however, although these shoes still fit today, it has been many years since i danced in them. i remember ignoring everything else when the song for speed skating came on, making my way out onto the floor with every other guy in the place, and blazing around the floor- no style, finesse or smooth moves were necessary here... this was a stampede on wheels, with every guy competing for the position of rollerdome alpha male. at the end of the song, we would, all sweaty and steaming, rejoin the girls we had been with only to find that the fries and ketchup were all gone and none of the girls had really even been paying attention. adolescent disappointment at its best.

still, how long has it been since many of us released ourselves to this kind of movement in a celebration of life- the kind that reduces you, sweaty and out of breath, to a stiff and blistered mass of happy, used flesh, completely spent with nothing left to give? does this ever happen in worship- do we ever give ourselves over completely the way king david did?
(2 Samuel 6.12-23)



see, like the crazy people in the video above, david was this great leader who, in a moment of exultation, stripped down to his boxers and lead a dance party through the streets of jerusalem that just wouldn't quit. it wasn't that david was dancing by himself, completely unaware and therefore unembarrassed that he was making an ass of himself- he lead the people in a worship dance through those city streets, blessing the whole city as he prayed and praised with his feet. his worshipful abandon just made his leadership all the more attractive to the people- and may explain the strangely cold response of his wife to the whole thing. perhaps she was jealous because david was, once again, capturing the hearts of the people, prompting the singing and dancing that her father, saul failed to inspire.

in my view, our difficulties with the aftermath of the fall are directly linked to a diabolical resistance to God's shalom- that perfect peace and balance that was present in creation and in the garden, but lost to us and to God in our rebellion. hell assails our pre-fall identity with post-fall accusation… succeeding in ceasing our dancing through a strategy of basic intimidation.

and yet children draw
children dance
children speak truth openly

and Jesus challenges us in his teaching, to embrace our childlikeness… it’s as if, through life, our orientation to eternity wears off with time and we reflect less and less of the image of God that we were intended to bear, the more we are immersed in physical life.

in zephaniah’s prophetic book, we get a picture of God which may be unfamiliar to us, but may serve us here… in zephaniah 3.16-20 the words are in first person, spoken from a dancing God, rejoicing over his restored people come home with joyous abandon in the same way that david danced when the ark, representing the presence of God himself 'came home' to jerusalem. in the original language, the word in verse 17 that is translated into the phrase rejoice over you with singing is the same word used to describe the round and round dancing of a happy little child.

several centuries later, the first day of Jesus' final week in jerusalem was marked with music and drama. palm sunday was the beginning of the final act in the 3-year run of God’s Divine Musical… a song and dance piece of grand performance art the likes of which the world had never seen, unfolding for the attending crowd in real time, all the while challenging the society of its day and informing all generations to come. part of the energy of that day was marked by children's singing and dancing. (matthew 21.16)

so at this little church on the corner, when the kids start doing laps around the front at the foot of the cross during the opening songs, perhaps they are entering into the time-honoured tradition that the faithful, both young and old, have been actively observing since we found ourselves on the wrong side of the garden gate.

smudge walks, prayer runs, mission trips…
dance if you wanna go where he will send
dance if you wanna take his love to a friend
dance if you wanna bring the good news home
dance if you wanna hear him say 'well done'

let our every footfall be a dance towards God, celebrating who God is by reflecting his love to a world that desperately needs to be reminded of what life was meant to look and feel like. the church cannot afford to be wallflowers, sitting coolly off to the side while its neighbours become less and less adept at pounding out the rhythm of life and love on God’s stage.

open up the doors and let the music play
let the streets resound with singing
songs that bring your hope and
songs that bring your joy
dancers who dance upon injustice
(martin smith)
(1999)

for some futher context and such, click here: northVUs