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Dance! MATTHEW 28:1-8
“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary departed quickly from the tomb with awe and great joy!“ Did they dance? Did they sing, “And I’ll lead you all in the dance said he.” Following Jesus is like a dance: to live is to dance. Life is in constant motion. Life is always moving. It's dynamic. It's not static. It’s impossible to reach into the stream of life, take out an experience and say, “I like this. I'm going to hold on to this forever!” It's impossible because life moves on. Even Jesus' death was not the end. His body was transformed. He was raised from the dead and the dance goes on. Therefore, on this Easter Sunday, dance. Get with it. Get off the chair, get off the sideline, don't be a wallflower. get out on the floor and dance. Anonymous once said, “The real test of a person as he or she faces life is whether he/she runs or fights or whimpers or dances.” No matter what comes at you, no matter what falls on you, no matter what happens, don't run from it. Don't whimper and feel sorry for yourself. Dance. Dance in victory. I like the poster that says, “You can fly but that cocoon has to go.” Resurrection, new life, conversion, new birth, being born again, being saved, salvation, redemption are synonymous and symbolized by a butterfly. The spirit breaks forth out of the cocoon, and a beautiful butterfly emerges and dances. Down deep in each one of you is a butterfly. God made a beautiful person in you. You have talent, ability, intelligence, sensitivity, creativity. Yes, you! You are a beautiful person. If you haven't discovered that yet, if you're not dancing with the good news, then break out of your cocoon. What is your cocoon? What's holding you down? What's confining you? What’s limiting you? Is it a religion of don'ts? Don't do this, don't do that, rather than a religion of “do”. Is it people's expectations of you? Do the people around you expect you to be so good, so perfect, so righteous that you can't really be you? Or are people's expectations of you too low? Do the people around you give you the feeling that you don't amount to much, that you're mediocre, that they don’t expect much of you? What's holding you down? What is your cocoon? Whatever it is, let Jesus break you out of that cocoon into a new life where you dance and follow him. When you dance, you use your whole body, your mind, your emotions. Let yourself go and experience life. Every day is meant for you to be alive, fully and wholly alive. Let the muscles tingle. Let the perspiration roll. Let the heart beat fast. In moments of tenderness, let tears of joy flow. In moments of sorrow, let tears of sorrow flow. Experience, feel what God has given you. Be alive, dance! Frederick Buechner has given us an inventory: “Have you wept at anything during the past year? Has your heart beat faster at the sight of beauty? Have you thought seriously about the fact that someday you are going to die? More often than not, do you really listen when people are speaking to you instead of just waiting for your turn to speak? Is there anybody you know in whose place, if one of you had to suffer great pain, you would volunteer yourself? If your answer to all or most of these questions is no, the chances are that you're dead.” Come alive! Experience fully what God gives you each day. Don't be afraid, don’t shy away, don’t run, don't retreat. Embrace what life hands out. Embrace this big, wide wonderful world that God has given you. Back to the butterflies. Do you know there are between 10,000 to 15,000 species of butterflies? You might think God would run out of ideas. With all the infinite variety that God has created and placed in our world, why are we so narrow? Why do people only want to associate with people who look like them, think like them, dress like them, talk like them, act like them, smell like them? Embrace the world—all the infinite variety that God has given us. Embrace people of all colors. Embrace people of different nationalities, different cultural backgrounds, different religions, people who dress differently, who wear their hair differently, people of different sexual orientations, different lifestyles, people who look at the world differently. Embrace them. Embrace the unhoused. It's a big wide wonderful world! Dance! I challenge you this Easter Day to do something today or tomorrow that is carefree and in abandonment. Do something that will free you, that will help you break out of your cocoon and dance. For example, for the rest of today and tomorrow, greet people by saying instead of hello, or good morning, greet people by saying “Christ is risen.” See what kind of reaction you get. Then take deep breaths and thank God for your life. Take a walk in a garden, in a park and listen to nature speak. Feel what it's saying. Write a poem. Write an Easter poem, or paint an Easter scene, or sing outside the shower. Hug your spouse and tell her/him you love them. Hug your children and tell them you love them. Do something unexpected for someone else that will just completely floor them. Dance! Let me tell you about a woman who danced. Many of you knew Patsy Moore. When I was pastor here, I recruited Patsy to be the Special Events Coordinator. She coordinated memorial services, banquets, and over 500 weddings! Patsy and a neighbor were taking their daily walk when she tripped on an uneven sidewalk and fell forward, hitting her head on the pavement. Paramedics were called and she was taken to Stanford Hospital where she slipped into a coma. A few days later she came out of the coma, but was paralyzed from her neck down. Several vertebrae in her neck were irreparably damaged. She was breathing with the aid of a ventilator. She could not talk, but was able to mouth words and was understood much of the time. Her doctor sat down with her and explained there was nothing that could be done. She would remain paralyzed for the rest of her life. As they talked, Patsy with courage, faith in the future, believing in eternal life, danced. She asked for the ventilator to be removed and to allow her to die. The doctor told her to think about it for a few days. After her oldest son arrived from the Philippines, Patsy reaffirmed her decision to end her life. When the pastors came to visit later that day, she asked, “When will my service be?” She was the planner, ever the coordinator, and she wanted to know the plans. Her son read a letter to her that he had written on the plane from the Philippines, She listened with her beautiful, affirming smile and said, “Read it at my service.” He did, and what a glorious service was held in celebration of her courageous, faithful life. There were over 600 people here. Patsy was not afraid of dying. She danced! In her life and in her death, she danced. Dance! And when you begin to dance, you'll make the tremendous discovery that the dance is Jesus who calls you to follow him. Christ is risen and is alive today. Death could not hold him. The dance goes on into eternity. Nothing can stop it. Trust Him. Trust Him with your life. How do you trust Christ? How do you experience the resurrected power? How do you dance? There are many ways and I've given you a few today: Get in the dance, kick up your heels, get free, break out of the cocoon. Fly! You are a beautiful butterfly. Experience, feel deeply what God has given you. Reach out and embrace the whole world. Do something carefree today. Jesus is alive! Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed!) © 2023 Douglas I. Norris |