Dear St. Paul’s Family,
I nearly miss the flying harness from A Christmas Carol. Nearly.
By and large, rehearsals for The King and I have been going well. We have nearly finished blocking the entire play, I have more than half of my lines memorized, and I just about have my featured solo under control. The cast has gelled together, we are having lots of fun, and the girls and I are making memories every night.
And then, there was last Tuesday night.
For those of you who have seen Yul Brenner and Deborah Kerr’s timeless film, you know that the pinnacle of the musical is King Mongkut and Anna Leonowens’ grand, glorious number, “Shall We Dance?” The King and Anna hold each other close, with her dress billowing at every exhilarating pivot and his bare feet gliding across the floor. It is altogether romantic, hypnotic, and iconic. The highlight of the show.
Last Tuesday, we tried out the dance for the first time. Becky Elemond (who plays Anna) and I received a crash course in choreography, and attempted our first dance steps on stage.
So how can I best describe what happened ….
Do you remember that scene in Return of the Jedi, when a band of musicians is playing some upbeat, jazzy riff in the palace of Jabba the Hutt, and Jabba is thumping his tail and wiggling his arms with jerky, random movements? I made him look like Fred Astaire. And Jabba doesn’t even have legs. I discovered pretty quickly that I am to dancing what a tree stump is to dancing. A sure bet to appear in an upcoming episode of Dancing with the Scars.
Perhaps I’m being too hard on myself. I’ve got a month to work out the moves, and the rehearsal two nights later was an improvement over the first. “You did better tonight,” Grace told me. “You looked less like a walrus.” That was helpful perspective. If the animal kingdom is my sliding scale, then I’ve graduated from walrus to, perhaps, elephant seal. A few more days and I can hopefully get up to manatee. And then, I believe the grading scale goes caribou, kangaroo, dolphin, butterfly, and finally, swan.
I’ve got a month to get to swan.
Preachers often utilize a self-therapeutic technique for dealing with embarrassing moments: we turn them into sermon illustrations. It just so happens that these last few dance rehearsals coincide with my own preparations for this Sunday, in which the wider church observes Trinity Sunday. I’m reminded that my feeble, developing skills as the next Asian Gene Kelly pale in comparison to the grand, mysterious, and cosmic dance describe by the great C.S. Lewis, in his marvelous book Mere Christianity:
“And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christian and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing - not even a person - but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person.”
Brian McLaren, who writes at the forefront of a new postmodern, post-evangelicalism, builds on Lewis’ metaphor by reminding us of how early church theologians conceived of the trinity as a dance:
“The early church leaders described the Trinity using the term perichoresis (peri-circle resis-dance): The Trinity was an eternal dance of the Father, Son and Spirit sharing mutual love, honor, happiness, joy and respect… God’s act of creation means that God is inviting more and more beings into the eternal dance of Joy. Sin means that people are stepping out of the dance… stomping on feet instead of moving with grace, rhythm and reverence. Then in Jesus, God enters creation to restore the rhythm and beauty again.” (from A Generous Orthodoxy)
My foray into the world of dance has given me a much deeper appreciation for Lewis and McLaren’s metaphor. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work separately but simultaneously as one movement, one free-flowing energy of divine love. It is one dance, with three dancers, all in such perfect synchronicity that their separateness is indistinguishable from the other.
The dance metaphor reminds us that God is intrinsically a relational being. Built into God’s very nature is both the capacity and the necessity to be in a relationship. It begins with the relationships that God maintains within the Godhead, and it extends outwardly, inviting all of creation to take part of that dance, so that we are both the recipient and the reciprocate of all of God’s love. C.S. Lewis wraps up the metaphor with a beautiful invitation:
“And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance.”
Join us this Sunday, on Memorial Day Weekend, to remember together the beautiful artistry of the Holy Trinity. We will acknowledge both its mystery and its accessibility, as we celebrate the God who invites us to step in, learn the moves, and take the stage in a glorious movement of harmony and love.
So, St. Paul’s family … Shall We Dance?
Grace and Peace,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org
UMCOR DISASTER RESPONSE
We join together in prayer for the grieving families, victims in waiting, and first responders in the wake of yesterday’s horrifying tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. Our United Methodist Committee on Relief is monitoring events in the area and preparing a swift and comprehensive response. The following is their latest twitter statement:
“Please hold the people of #Oklahoma in prayer. Support relief efforts with a gift to #UMCOR http://bit.ly/10Isrzf. 100% of your gift will be used for US Disaster Response. Volunteers are not yet needed. Thank you.”
You can donate through the website listed above. Or, if you wish to make an immediate donation, you can text message the word RESPONSE to 80888. We will also receive any contributions you wish to give this Sunday in worship and send them to UMCOR.
To view past editions of the Mid-Week Message, visit http://mdevega.blogspot.com.
To unsubscribe from this e-mail distribution list, please reply to this e-mail and write "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.
Visit us on Facebook at facebook.com/cherokeespumc.
No comments:
Post a Comment