Preferring Not To Join In And Dance

Rom 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

When I was about nine years old, I was indeed a chubby little fellow,

Some of the older boys in the choir nicknamed me mini barrel.

So when it came to Monday afternoons at school, I was in a right old state.

Every Monday afternoon we had country dancing and I hated it.

For two big reasons.

Number one: my complete lack of grace and elegance and inability to master even the simplest of steps.

Number two (and much worse) that the teacher made all the girls in the class line up and the boys had to choose one to dance with.

And the girls refused to dance with me.

They would bribe me with sweets and crisps for me not to ask them.

“Andrew Cunnington will you get a move on” Mrs Turner would shout

“None of them’ll dance with me Miss”.

In the end, Mrs Turner would pull out some terrifying girl to be my partner.

So I would make excuses to get out of country dancing.

I would deliberately loose my plimsoles.

I would have a bad toe, knee or ankle.

There would be a dentist appointment.

I was happier sitting on the edge – it was too risky to contemplate joining in.

Let’s look at this puzzling doctrine of the Trinity from a different angle to usual.

There is one God – but its as if the different parts of God have a relationship one with another.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit so entwined – that we might describe them as an inner movement of love within the heart of God.

Father – creator. Son – redeemer. Spirit – sustainer.

I guess we might know that bit – but then what if you and I are called to show forth in our lives that same inner movement of love.

As Christians, it seems to me that we care called to love in three directions and each direction relates to one part of the Trinity.

We are called to direct our love towards God.

It’s why God the father created us, that by our own free will and in our own funny human way – we might come to love him.

And we do that by joining our lives with the creative force of the Father himself.

We can show this love by the way we worship – by the quality of our praise.

We tend to stay on the edge when we don’t know the words of a hymn or the tune is unfamiliar or we are hesitant because someone once told us we could not sing or we have convinced ourselves that we are tone deaf.

We then have made ourselves like mini barrel at country dancing –any excuse to stay on the edge.

I used to visit Chailey Heritage – a school for physically disabled children.

It was a privilege to lead their chapel time and to hear them sing.

They couldn’t sing a single note in tune – they couldn’t pronounce the words clearly – but it was a beautiful sound – because they just offered up who they were to God in praise and it must have moved the heart of God.

We are called to direct our love towards God with the same movement with which God the Father created us and goes on creating.

Then we are called to direct our loving amongst those who are part of the church family with us here, first of all, but then amidst the worldwide church.

God was made man for us in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

His incarnation sets him firmly in our midst. We frequently say we are the body of Christ.

God the Son is at the heart of our gathering here. It is His body and His blood we share in the Eucharist.

When life is tough for us, it is the reality of his being at one with us on the cross that brings His love so very close.

It is through Jesus that we have something to say about being forgiven and healed and restored.

When we pass the peace with each other – it is his peace we offer.

We do it to recognise the presence of Christ in each other.

We need to be ready to welcome the newcomer and the stranger to our worship, not as if they were Christ, but knowing that they are part of Christ.

Sounds a bit risky – mini barrel would find an excuse to opt out.

How would you get on if called to name everyone present in church today.

How far would you get?

Why not take the opportunity to speak to someone over coffee today whose name you don’t know or look out for the person who seems to have nobody to talk to.

Not so that we might generate superficial mateyness – but because this is about recognising the inner movement of love, coming from God, but stirred up for us in the person of Jesus.

We are called to direct our loving towards one another with the same quality of care and serving and sacrifice as we see in God the Son, of which we taste the reality at each and every Communion.

Then we are called to direct our loving towards all people with the same movement that God the Holy Spirit made in the hearts of his followers on the great day of Pentecost.

The grace of God is like one of those massive starters now available at good pubs and restaurants – enough for two or more to share.

The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples so that they could reach out in love to the people who were hanging around their place.

To people who were hanging around the porch where they met.

To people going about their business, feeling something stirring but couldn’t say what.

To people who were simply hurting inside and nothing could stem the ache.

I’ve started to visit some of the big offices around the church and some people look at me as if I’m deranged and some have been marvellously welcoming.

This hanging around sort of ministry is a hard old thing.

It’s easier to sit this one out too. Mini barrel certainly would.

Peter and John daring to speak to the lame man at the temple gate and heal him. Stephen called to wait at the tables of the widows and yet finding himself witnessing before crowds, because the spirit had given them the strength to witness to those on the edge.

We are called to direct our loving toward those outside the church family with the same quality of openness and witness as the disciples felt in God, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and of which we read continually in the Acts of the Apostles.

I have not explained the nature of the Trinity in a snappy watertight way, but rather as an inner movement of love within the heart of God that we are called to get caught up in, in our own lives today.

Ten years on from Country dancing and I was a disco dancing champion.

I had a girlfriend who was a great little mover and we entered one of those competitions where a spotlight flashes around the dance floor and the best dancers are picked out. She did all the Saturday Night fever type movements and whilst I was no John Travolta, I learnt to do one or two things well and just bathe in her limelight for the rest of it.

No longer mini barrel, I just let myself get caught up in her grace.

Perhaps that’s where God’s calling His church today.

Perhaps that’s where God’s calling you.

That you might know Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit not as a doctrine made up of words, but as a dance which calls us to loving action.

R 3.6.07