When King David held a feast of dedication and carried the Ark of God into the shrine he had prepared for it in Jerusalem, we read that the procession was enlivened with timbrels and dancing. Timbrels are just tambourines. The association of drums and other instruments of percussion with dancing and rhythmic marching is as old as religion itself. The rhythm got under David's skin on that occasion and he danced mightily to the Glory of God and to the scandal of his lady wife. She said what she thought of it, but he told her to hold her tongue, for he was dancing his religion.
The greatest of all the miracles of God is the Great Dance which the late Sydney Carter wrote about in his most famous hymn - The Lord of the Dance. A perfect pattern in the Great Dance is remembered at the Feast of the Annunciation, which we celebrate annually on 25th March - Lady Day. 2000 years ago one of the great messengers of God visited the world. The Archangel Gabriel, no less, entered time and history, and went to an obscure little town in Palestine called Nazareth. There, Gabriel visited a very young woman - the Blessed Virgin Mary. God's arch-angelic messenger asked Mary to agree to become the Mother of the Messiah, the Son of God. At first, she was understandably frightened (embracing motherhood in normal circumstances is quite a daunting undertaking - but embracing the Motherhood of God is most certainly not to be entered into, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly or wantonly. But then Mary said:- "Be it unto me, according to thy Word", or in other words - "YES". Immediately she conceived. The Child she conceived was JESUS - the Son of God.
So, by Mary's own choice, God Himself was able to enter into the Great Dance of His Creation. By entering into the world as MAN he was to become choreographer of the Dance or, Lord of the Dance. By entering time and history God was able to lead Creation onward into Redemption and Salvation. Ever since then - the Great Dance has continued.
The Church is now observing the holy season of Lent. At the end of Lent, there is another anniversary. The anniversary of the day on which the Son of God died - Good Friday. Lent, Holy Week and Good Friday show us that the Great Dance can become a danse macabre, it can be painful and punishing - as well as glorious. The scourging, the walk along the Via Dolorosa to the place of execution, the Crucifixion itself - so graphically displayed in Mel Gibson's film - The Passion of the Christ - are all a necessary part of the Great Dance - necessary to bring us Salvation.
On Good Friday- the Messiah dances the dance of Redemption. We are all participants in the dance (even those with two left feet are not exempt). We begin to take our first tottering steps on the dance floor when we are baptized. In Baptism our old life dies, and we come to New Life in Christ as we experience the freedom of the Redeemed. In the New Life, we share in the dance of the Resurrection - the Messiah's New Life. Christians marked with the Cross have to choose, and go on choosing at many points during their lives. Choices guided by the Lord of the Dance Himself. The Great Dance can be a dance of endurance, a suffering dance, but never a lonely dance. The Messiah gives His light and life to all who choose Him, and go on choosing Him.
I am the life that will never, never die;
I'll live in you if you will live in me -
I am the Lord of the dance said he.
This Lent, we need to choose. We need to choose Jesus - Son of God - the Messiah. To love Him and be with Him as He enters the weariness, pain and desolation of the Way of the Cross. And we need to choose to be for Him and allow Him to live in us. If we watch and pray with Him at the Foot of the Cross - then we are all the more ready to share with Him in the Easter Joy of Resurrection.
So may we all be caught up in that Great rhythm and dance - which is the Life of Christ Himself - Crucified - Risen - Ascended - Glorified. May we delight to kindle a flame of everlasting joy which is the life of God Himself, the love of the Father for the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, let us with joy and gladness praise Him in the Dance. May we be blessed in finding ourselves in such a communion and fellowship - Psalmists and Prophets - Apostles and Evangelists - Angels and Archangels - the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant - all joining AS ONE to praise JESUS - the Lord of all Life and the Lord of the Dance.
With Easter Blessings
FATHER DAVID