Are You Ready To Dance?
Good Morning Friends,
Out in Immokalee over the last nine month One by One Leadership Foundation has been sponsoring the iCO dance company of High School students. The experience has been transformative for the students and continues to reach for even greater goals. When I was watching the Olympics’ closing ceremony last night it reminded me of just how glorious and joyous it is to dance. The ceremony included dancers forming a likeness of Christ the Redeemer as a reminder that Jesus does not just overlook the city of Rio but everything on earth. The Olympics ended with dancers from Japan where the Tokyo Olympics will be held in four years. And all that dancing reminded me that perhaps dance should be more of our worship in church than it is now. Are You Ready To Dance?
Scripture: Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
Jeremiah 31:13 (NRSV)
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (NRSV)
David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod.
2 Samuel 6:14 (NRSV)
When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.”
Mark 6:22 (NRSV)
Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.
Psalm 149:3 (NRSV)
Message: Most people like to dance but it never ceases to amaze me that with few exceptions we never dance in church. Few understand when it is biblical appropriate to dance before the LORD with joy. But scripture implies here that to move into a closer, more intimate, more passionate relationship with our LORD, one has to dance to the rhythm of the Spirit. C.S. Lewis puts it this way: ‘The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.’ Friends, we have been made to dance before the Lord with joy. And we need to practice our footsteps. But we are confused about when to dance. Our text from 2 Samuel and Mark paint a contrasting picture of dance. David danced before the LORD as the Ark of the Covenant was being brought to Jerusalem. The daughter of Herodias danced before her stepfather Herod and his dinner guests. David’s dance was a holy dance and well …. Herodias’ daughter’s dance was less than holy and likely revealed more than appropriate. David stripped himself of regal garments and down to the garment of a common priest much like Christ did. He was not naked or nude as has been implied by some…especially his wife Micah for she did not appreciate David’s affection for God. When one thinks about it, the passages that describe David dancing are really prophetic for Jesus also stripped himself of his royal appearance in coming to earth. In some ways I see David’s Dance not just as a shortcut to joy… but of part of its completion. In Jeremiah there is prophecy that God will bring young women and men together with the elderly to dance in worship as part of a new covenant. Pretty exciting connecting worship with music and dance. Friends, it is God’s grace that makes us worthy to dance with the Lord. David danced before the Lord with all his might and we are called to dance with Him too. We are to experience it together.
Pray that we share in the covenant and mercies shown to David. Pray that we listen….drink…eat and delight as we dance in the Lord. Pray that when God invites us to join Him in the dance we say “YES!” Pray that when our feet get tangled, He shows us the next step. Pray that we follow His lead. Pray that we dance away from the devil and into the life that never dies. Pray that we learn to live in the Lord of the Dance.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 