April 1, 2012
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Dancing is one of those activities that I don’t do very often or enjoy. I am way too subconscious! I took some lessons before our children’s weddings so that I could dance with the bride and mother of the bride. You know the routine.
One time when Kenneth Tom was offering a ballroom dancing lesson up in the Fellowship Hall, I listed it in the church newsletter and was reprimanded by Astrid Peterson who didn’t approve of dancing in the church.
I have no personal objections against dancing per se. There are many examples of dancing in the Bible. And with Dancing with the Stars in its 14th season, dancing has become ever more popular with everyone.
Popular Hymn
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, there seems to be some sort of squabble among the Christians in Philippi. They were in disunity because of some “selfish ambition or deceit” that Paul criticizes in Phil. 2:3. There were more self-interests than community interests in their minds.
Paul said, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Verse 5 begins a hymn to the self-emptying of Christ. This was probably a popular hymn sung in the early church. This hymn not only helped the Philippians to understand the truth of who Jesus is, it helps us to understand Jesus today.
In my little understanding of dancing, I know that someone has to lead. The partner needs to follow. This hymn depicts Christ in a kind of dance. He was exalted “in the form of God” (v. 6) yet he “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (v. 7).
Because he became humble, God “also highly exalted him” giving him the name “above every name” (v. 9).
Christ’s name is so high that it brings all who hear it very low in worship and in the confession that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (v. 11).
This passage from Philippians is full of movement. It is a dance that begins high and moves downward, countering the movements that the world teaches us to dance. It links belief with practice, worship with life, affirmation of Christ with discipleship of Christ. And as we begin Holy Week, we are not only to watch Jesus go to the cross; we are to follow him to the cross. Jesus is taking the lead and we are his dance partners to follow his steps. This hymn reveals to us who Jesus is—exalted God but became a human like us, Jesus’ name is above every name and we bend our knees to honor him with our loyalty.
Dancing with Christ is done in three ways: counter-culture dancing, imitation dancing and group dancing. Here I am who knows very little about dancing will now talk with you about three ways of dancing with Christ!
Counter-Culture Dancing
For most of us, for most of our lives, life is a matter of attempting to keep up with the rhythm. We labor to get in step with the beat of the music, to dance to the tune that most people seem to be following, to win the top prize dancing with the stars.
And we might have been able to keep it up—to go with the flow—if we had not been met by Jesus. Jesus moves against the rhythm of the world. He seems determined to dance to a different beat.
Paul tells the Christians in Philippi to be united. Not simply telling them to get along with one another but rather by telling them, “You ought to have the same mind within you that was in Christ Jesus.”
And what is the mind of Christ? Jesus clearly doesn’t think like we think. Paul said that though Christ was God, full of divine favor, yet Jesus was not content to remain fully equal with God. He emptied himself and became the humble suffering servant—suffering even to the point of death on the cross.
Palm Sunday is probably one of the most political Sundays of the year. According to Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan’s book, The Last Week, Jesus enters Jerusalem and walks a perilous walk, enacting an in-your-face public protest before the powers to be. They believe that the procession Christians celebrate on Palm Sunday was most likely a protest march. On that day there was a “peasant procession” led by Jesus as he entered Jerusalem from the east. At the same time there could have easily been a full-fledged “imperial procession” led by Pontius Pilate and his Roman soldiers who entered from the west.
Jesus’ procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city. Pilate’s procession embodied the power, glory, and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus’ procession embodied an alternative vision, the kingdom of God.
The way that Jesus walks this day is a way that is decidedly counter to the ways that the world walks. And the way that Jesus walks and the way that Jesus talks might be limited to Jesus had not Jesus commanded us also to walk and talk that way. Earlier along this journey Jesus clearly said that not only would he go to the cross but that we should go to the cross as well. When we walk with Jesus, Jesus chooses us to be his dancing partners all the way. He invites us to counter-culture dancing.
The world is all about power and who is winning. Though Christ was God, he willingly became the humble suffering servant so that he can invite us to dance with him in our lowly places.
Imitation Dancing
How do we learn to dance with Christ? Paul urges us to watch the moves of Jesus, to bend our lives toward his downward direction and try to imitate his steps. By attempting to follow Jesus and to imitate Jesus we become more like Jesus.
While I don’t know a lot about dancing, I do have some knowledge about learning how to play tennis. If you want to learn how to play tennis, you might engage a tennis pro to give you tennis lessons. The pro will hit the ball a couple of times. She will take hold of your wrist and position your hands just right on the racquet. She will say, “Watch me. Now do the same thing that I do. Copy me.” Though she has been playing tennis for years and you have played tennis less than an hour, you are boldly attempting to do nothing less than to imitate her, to do the same things that she does and think like she thinks. You are attempting, to some degree, to be her in the act of playing tennis. Paul is urging something close to that in Philippians 2.
Have you known someone who became convicted to believe simply by reading the Bible? There was a man who decided, from his reading of the New Testament, that Christians ought to be pacifists; that Christians ought to be nonviolent. He noted that Jesus never lifted a hand against anyone and that none of the first followers of Jesus ever took up arms or even practiced self-defense.
The challenge was that this man was by nature a rather angry, short-tempered person. He had served with distinction in the army. As a young man, he was notorious for the use of his fists in a couple of barroom brawls.
“So I just decided that I was going to try to copy Jesus,” he said. “I would really try to turn the other cheek and, if I failed at that, I would ask Jesus to forgive me and would try again. I would ask myself, when confronted by conflict, “How would Jesus handle this?” And gradually, step by step, move by move, this man came more closely resemble the Lord he was attempting to love. He became more like Jesus by attempting to follow Jesus.
This is the reason why Erica Chun, Linda Choy, Jimmy Yung, and Steven Zhen were baptized today. They want to follow Jesus and they took one of their first steps in doing that today by publicly professing their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord. Gradually, step by step, move by move, day by day, they will move closely to resemble the Lord whom they love.
We learn how to dance with the Lord by imitating his steps.
One of the hardest parts of being a Christian is forgiveness. We know we should forgive but we hold grudges and we love to get even. The more times you forgive people when they have wronged you, the better you get at forgiveness. It’s like learning how to play tennis. Just as Jesus was someone who could forgive us, even when we were crucifying him, we can become better forgivers ourselves by trying to act like Jesus. Who in your life you would like to forgive today?
Group Dancing
When we dance with the Lord, we do counter-culture dancing and imitation dancing. And lastly, we do group dancing.
In Philippians 1:19, Paul writes “I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” This word, “help” in the Greek means chorus or chorale. It means, “getting it all together,” like a choir singing in harmony. In Ephesians, this word is translated, “being knit together.” This is what a good choral director does—gets us together. At his or her direction, the whole choir comes in on the right beat and ends on time.
By the way, that’s why I think people join choirs. In this troubled society with its discordant and divisive voices, it’s a joy to be somewhere—such as a choir—where, even for a little while, we are singing the same note!
In Philippians 1:19, Paul says, “I give thanks because I know that with the help or the choreography of the Holy Spirit, this will work out for my deliverance.” Paul is in jail. Yet, even in chains, he has faith in the choreography of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the choreographer for our deliverance, the dance instructor for our faithfulness. Ever watched a Broadway choreographer at work? A choreographer sees the whole picture, steps back, says to the dancers, “Now, on this beat, you come in. Then you.”
The individual dancers cannot see the whole picture. Each is too busy with his or her steps to worry about how the whole piece is shaping up. They don’t know how their little part, and the moves each one is making, fit into the whole artistic endeavor. That’s the choreographer’s job. You can’t see the choreographer. She stands in the wings, giving cues, observing, pushing some late dancers on stage. Sometimes at the end of the dance, when the audience rises to its feet in acclamation, the choreographer comes out and takes a bow. And then we’re surprised that that humble little old woman harnessed and encouraged, criticized and instructed all those talented dancers so that she put that whole complex piece together so that the music and the dance all marched so wonderfully well.
Paul, in jail, bound in the darkest circumstances, is still able to say, “I have faith in the choreographer of the Holy Spirit that even this will work for my deliverance.” Paul could have prayed, “Break down these prison doors and set me free.” But he prayed for choreography. When we dance with Christ, the Holy Spirit, the choreographer helps us to dance together as a church community.
Dancing with Christ
Just like this hymn that was sung in the early church that provided movement of dancing with Christ, we are invited on this Palm Sunday to dance with him too. Those who were baptized today are imitating his steps. Many of us who have been dancing with Christ for some time may need to take some dancing refresher class. We might need to learn how to dance again.
Let us have the same mind in ourselves that was in Christ Jesus. If we attempt to make Jesus our model, if we attempt to copy the same moves into our lives that he made in his, we shall come to look more like Jesus. Even with all our weakness and stubborn pride, we can become more like the one whom we worship.
Jesus is heading into Jerusalem and toward the cross. Let’s go with him so that in obeying and following him we might become more like him.
Let us pray.
We offer thanksgiving and praise for the work of Jesus, for the love of God, and for the action of the Spirit, 2000 years ago and in our lives today. We give thanks for the way Jesus invites us to dance with him in discipleship that changed us to become redeemed children of the kingdom. As Jesus emptied himself and taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death on the cross, we pray that we may imitate Jesus so that we too may someday be exalted as being faithful in Jesus Christ. Thank you, O God, for changing our lives through the life of Jesus. In his name, we pray. Amen.