Shall We Dance?

Proper 10B-24

Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago

Sadly, today’s gospel depicts a scene of political violence which could be ripped from the headlines of this morning’s news. Our prayers are with former president Trump, those who were shot, and for the families of those killed yesterday at a political rally north of Pittsburgh. We must also continue to pray for peace this week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and for the remainder of this election season. Political violence is reprehensible and disgusting, and unfortunately, nothing new. What guidance and counsel does scripture offer us and our country today?

We have the tale of two kings and two dancers. One of the kings is also one of the dancers. King David rejoices, shouts, and dances “with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14) at the front of a great parade celebrating the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Michel, David’s wife, did not see it this way. When she looked out her window and saw the king leaping and dancing before the Lord, the text says, “she despised him in her heart.” It made him look like one of the little people.

King David, of course, didn’t always live up to his faith in Yahweh. Yet his dancing and singing would prove memorable. Half, (or 73 of 150) psalms are attributed to him.  A legacy of David’s rule is in demonstrating a different way to belong, a more embodied way to live out our faith, and a new way of doing politics in God’s new community.

In Mark’s gospel, we encounter another dancer and a different king. Herod’s palace, next to the Sea of Galilee, rivalled any in the Roman Empire. He demanded the best of everything. Extravagant appointments, exotic entertainment, incredible food, wine, and that all the best sort of people would be there. At Herod’s table, “…no feet were washed and no prayers of gratitude said. There’s no anticipation of God’s reign, only an insatiable hunger for power. Slaves served the food and women watched the men sate themselves.” (Diana Butler Bass, Sunday Musings, 7/14/24)

Mark’s “flashback” to John’s imprisonment and senseless, brutal death, comes just as Jesus sent out the disciples, two by two, without bread or bag or money, to preach the good news.  King Herod sent out hired men to arrest and to bind John, while Jesus sent out disciples to bring life and wholeness. The gospel of Mark insists we see this stark contrast. Mark intertwines the story of John and Jesus almost from the very beginning. All the way back in chapter one, Mark told us it was “…after John was arrested, [that] Jesus came to Galilee, [following his baptism by John] proclaiming the good news of God, and saying ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near!” (Mark 1:14).

“John was from a priestly family in the tradition of Abijah. Rather than employing his pedigree to enable the regime of Herod Antipas, John gives up his privilege and takes on the prophetic role. His humble lifestyle itself was a critique of the opulence of Herod, his family, and his courtiers. John fiercely advocated for the masses on whose backs Herod built his wealth, its trappings, and his power. The ancient historian Flavius Josephus notes that John became a political prisoner and was executed primarily for criticizing the Roman Empire’s economic and political structures. In the end, John’s head ends up on a platter at Herod’s birthday banquet (Mark 6:14-29) precisely because John criticized Herod’s economic structures that made such a lavish banquet possible.” (Raj Nadella, Proximity to Power, Sojourners, July 2024)

Mark invites us to choose between two kingdoms — the reign of God and the rule of Caesar. Mark’s mockery of the imperial politics at Herod’s birthday gives stark warning of what you get once you choose to attend his private and exclusive party. ‘Where would you rather be? With Jesus and his homeless friends who have “no bread, no bag, no money in their belts” wandering from village to village? Or with Herod and his enablers, in a glistening palace having a gluttonous party with political murder for dessert? The wily world will always call some version of king Herod’s tune. Come, says Herod, come to my party of retribution. Follow me. I’ll feed you well. Dance for me.’ (Butler Bass)

Here today we are moving to a different tune, one called by the Lord of the dance. Christ, the incarnation, dances that shape and pattern rising from the heart of reality. It is a dance of transformation, joy and of life, while the world-dance leads to anxiety and death. Which do you choose? Sadly, we make the wrong choice again and again unless and until Jesus calls the tune.

Catholic Brother and author, Richard Rohr, outlines this transformation in three stages: Growing Up, Waking Up, and Cleaning Up. Growing Up refers to the process of psychological and emotional maturity that comes with constructively and creatively confronting, both personally and culturally, the pain and suffering of life. Waking Up refers to the goal of all spiritual work, the sacraments, worship, and Bible study involving an abiding awareness of the presence of God. Cleaning Up is largely about the need for early impulse control and creating necessary ego boundaries so we can show up in the real and much bigger world.

Unfortunately, Rohr says, too often Christianity pushed all waking up into something that would hopefully happen later, in heaven or after death, or as a reward for good behavior in this world. This, he says, was a major loss and defeat for Christianity and a disastrous misplacement of attention. When religion is focused on Cleaning Up more than Waking Up it becomes almost exclusively about a narrow personal morality, rather than any deep transformation of consciousness.

Instead, John the Baptist and the disciples were worrisome to king Herod, because transformation in Christ made them members of a new humanity. They were citizens of the kingdom of God and not Herod’s kingdom. They were part of God’s already and not yet. When Christ calls the tune, we begin to move from false self to true self, from little self to big self, from death into abundant life.

Growing Up, Waking Up and Cleaning Up means Showing Up. It means we stand for love, fairness, and flourishing of all people in all nations rather than those of any single nation. It means our person well-being is bound up with the well-being of others. It means our hope, compassion, and energy can be restored again. It means having the courage to enter the fray like king David, being willing to appear foolish or to make mistakes. Showing up is the full and final result of cleaning up, growing up, and waking up. It’s God’s fully transformed “work of art” which is best version of you. (Richard Rohr, “Growing Up, Waking Up, and Cleaning Up,” Daily Meditations, 7/9/24)