Monday, March 10, 2008 at 12:12am
Come on, everybody, let's dance!
Column: Woman at the Well
On Wednesday, as part of a local Lenten series with other Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ congregations, I did a presentation called "Embodied Spirit." This was the formal title, but the subtext could have been "We don't dance enough in our churches these days!"
Christianity is founded on the powerful theological idea of Incarnation: Jesus, the Christ, was God in the flesh - Incarnation. God's Spirit has been poured out on all flesh and abides now with all of us. So we are the Incarnation of Christ in our world, if we allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit and guided by the law of love.
All this sounds so somber and serious, but if it's really true, we should be dancing!
Miriam led the women in celebration after the miracle of the parting of the Sea of Reeds, "and all the women went out with her with tambourines and with dancing" (Exodus 15:20).
"David danced before the Lord with all his might" (2 Samuel 6:14) as the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem (Psalm 149:3, Psalm 150:4) and the wisdom of Ecclesiastes tells us, "For everything there is a season ... a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:1,4).
Finally, Jesus himself challenges our unwillingness to celebrate the sacred miracle of our embodied spirits: "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn'" (Matthew 11:16-17).
Everyone listened patiently to my biblical review, but I really got their attention with a recently released 21-year study of possible ways to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's. All kinds of physical exercise were studied along with a variety of mental practices. The results? Regular reading reduces the risks of dementia by 35 percent; doing crossword puzzles at least four times a week, 47 percent. But dancing reduced the risk by 76 percent! No other form of exercise had any effect, although golf, swimming, walking, running and weight lifting are all good for your heart, so don't stop. But their impact on dementia was 0 percent.
We should be dancing. It's good for us. God says so!
Since humanity first became aware of the miracle of life, since awe first turned to worship, we have been using our creativity in the service of our creator. Beauty comes from God and is meant to serve God. Drama, visual arts, poetry and dance all originated in worship settings. Now we must bring them back.
Together we not only can create liturgical dances to process the elements for Communion and Baptisms, we can dance the scripture lessons.
We can dance our prayers. "The Spirit intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). Our bodies can express in silent gesture what our hearts and minds cannot speak.
And we can dance our hymns. We can celebrate the rhythm and joy that the words and music inspire in us. Whole congregations can move to the music.
It seems tragic to me that Western civilization has grown so left-brain ponderous that worship has become stilted and too often dull.
Come on, people. Let's dance!
— — —
Rev. Kristi Denham is pastor of the Congregational Church of Belmont, California (United Church of Christ). Her email address is {email RevKristi@aol.com}RevKristi@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Kristi Denham.
Christianity is founded on the powerful theological idea of Incarnation: Jesus, the Christ, was God in the flesh - Incarnation. God's Spirit has been poured out on all flesh and abides now with all of us. So we are the Incarnation of Christ in our world, if we allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit and guided by the law of love.
All this sounds so somber and serious, but if it's really true, we should be dancing!
Miriam led the women in celebration after the miracle of the parting of the Sea of Reeds, "and all the women went out with her with tambourines and with dancing" (Exodus 15:20).
"David danced before the Lord with all his might" (2 Samuel 6:14) as the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem (Psalm 149:3, Psalm 150:4) and the wisdom of Ecclesiastes tells us, "For everything there is a season ... a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:1,4).
Finally, Jesus himself challenges our unwillingness to celebrate the sacred miracle of our embodied spirits: "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn'" (Matthew 11:16-17).
Everyone listened patiently to my biblical review, but I really got their attention with a recently released 21-year study of possible ways to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's. All kinds of physical exercise were studied along with a variety of mental practices. The results? Regular reading reduces the risks of dementia by 35 percent; doing crossword puzzles at least four times a week, 47 percent. But dancing reduced the risk by 76 percent! No other form of exercise had any effect, although golf, swimming, walking, running and weight lifting are all good for your heart, so don't stop. But their impact on dementia was 0 percent.
We should be dancing. It's good for us. God says so!
Since humanity first became aware of the miracle of life, since awe first turned to worship, we have been using our creativity in the service of our creator. Beauty comes from God and is meant to serve God. Drama, visual arts, poetry and dance all originated in worship settings. Now we must bring them back.
Together we not only can create liturgical dances to process the elements for Communion and Baptisms, we can dance the scripture lessons.
We can dance our prayers. "The Spirit intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). Our bodies can express in silent gesture what our hearts and minds cannot speak.
And we can dance our hymns. We can celebrate the rhythm and joy that the words and music inspire in us. Whole congregations can move to the music.
It seems tragic to me that Western civilization has grown so left-brain ponderous that worship has become stilted and too often dull.
Come on, people. Let's dance!
— — —
Rev. Kristi Denham is pastor of the Congregational Church of Belmont, California (United Church of Christ). Her email address is {email RevKristi@aol.com}RevKristi@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Kristi Denham.