INVITATION TO THE DANCE
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Texts: Luke 15:25-32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
If you are at all a fan of college basketball, you are aware that we have entered the annual season known as “March Madness.” Tournaments to determine conference champions are being played this weekend and the national tournaments are just ahead. Sometimes these national tournaments are referred to as the “Big Dance.” The Stanford women, with a 30 and one record, are about to wrap up another championship today. The Cal men did not fare as well yesterday, losing the Pac-10 men’s tournament to Washington, even though they were the regular season champions. By winning the conference tournament the Stanford women will automatically get an invitation to the “Big Dance,” the Cal men will have to wait to see if the selection committee issues them an invitation. The hard thing about these “Big Dances” is that you have to earn your invitation, you have to prove that your worthy of dancing with the stars. It’s possible that the Stanford men and Cal women will be chosen to play in the NIT or National Invitational Tournaments, but everyone knows these are not invitations to the “Big Dance.” They are for the teams that didn’t quite measure up.
Now, clearly, today’s texts have nothing to do with basketball. These words were written long before the game had been invented, but I think there may still be an invitation to dance in each of the scripture passages that Chip read this morning. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is very familiar to us. In fact, we had three sermons in a row on this story last August during our joint services with Covenant and First Presbyterian Churches. I’m not going to rehash that material today. Instead, I’ve chosen to focus for a little on the interaction between the father and the elder brother. I’ve known for a while that the choir was going to sing “Lord of the Dance” for this morning’s special music, so when I read again the parable, I was struck by verse 25, “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.” They were singing and dancing at this party for the younger brother. It was a celebration, which he definitely was not expecting.
As soon as the elder brother heard the hubbub, he sent one of the servants to find out what was going on. When he was told the reason for the party, he was angry. He balked. He dug in his heels and refused to go in. He was resentful toward his brother and mad at his dad. The old man came out to find his recalcitrant child. He came to bring him a personal invitation to the dance, but this son was too angry, too hung up on his own complaints and resentment to accept the invitation to join the dance. It seems this elder brother believed that, as with the basketball tournaments, you have to earn your invitation. Only those who understand the game, play by the rules and don’t make waves should receive an invitation to the dance. His brother didn’t deserve to be welcomed home, let alone be thrown a party. Dripping with sarcasm, he lets his father know exactly how he feels.
In our words of preparation, Henri Nouwen writes about the older brother, “Complaining is self-perpetuating and counterproductive.” One wonders if this hasn’t characterized the elder brother’s whole life. The reason he has never had a party is because he never let anyone know he wanted one. He was not exactly a party animal and he was too busy criticizing and complaining to find any joy in life. Nouwen continues, “Whenever I express my complaints in the hope of evoking pity and receiving the satisfaction I so much desire, the result is always the opposite of what I tried to get. A complainer is hard to live with, and very few people know how to respond to the complaints made by a self-rejecting person. The tragedy is that, often the complaint, once expressed, leads to that which is most feared: further rejection” (Henri Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son.) One wonders how many dance invitations this elder brother had turned down in his self-righteousness, only to find himself perpetually on the outside looking in.
I have said before that I am not a dancer and though I survived my boot dance in the desert at last week’s performance of the Choral Project before the American Choral Director’s Western Convention, it was not a particularly pretty sight from my perspective. My feet never seem to go the right way – in fact, they usually go the left way - and my ankles, knees and hips never seem to flex quite properly. I just don’t think God made me to dance in any literal sense. And still, there is this eternal invitation to the dance. Skill and grace notwithstanding, I am always welcome to join in and try once more.
Timothy Shapiro, writing on this text, insists that all three characters – the younger son, the older and the father are “lost.” He says, “Both sons are a mess in terms of their relationship to their father. They are both lost.” And the old man is working overtime, trying to bring them home, back into relationship. But Shapiro goes on, “Of course, the father is also lost. In terms of cultural standards, this father does not deserve ‘honor.’ He is a pushover. He is weak. He makes decisions based on unrestrained love. He neglects his role as patriarch. The family unit is an emotional glob, not an economic project worthy of honor as it should be by first century standards.” By those standards the father is indeed a failure, definitely lost. “Remember that in Jesus day the family is not only or even primarily a relational community; it is a rather utilitarian organization. The family exists to provide a personnel structure for the economy. Honor is achieved when the family functions [respectfully] toward a father in the interest of economic stability. Because of his inability to invite – no, demand – honor from his sons, the father is lost” (Timothy Shapiro, New Proclamation, Year C, 2006-2007, Advent through Holy Week, pp. 210-211.)
The parable does not describe a situation that, in that culture, would invite partying and dancing. In fact, the actions of the father throughout this story are decidedly countercultural. Is Shapiro correct in saying this father is lost? Well, he may be lost to the expectations of this ancient shame and honor culture, but in that same vein, Jesus, himself, may be counted among the lost. Jesus comes questioning social norms and challenging cultural expectations. In the end, it will cost him his life. I believe Jesus means the father in this parable show what God is like – one who is not interested in reigning as a patriarch at the expense of his children. God may not be weak or a pushover, but God does seem to make decisions based on “unrestrained love.” In fact, Jesus teaches that the law of love provides the rule for the realm of God. 2000 years ago Jesus taught that relationships are more important than any structures of human interaction, than any cultural norms and expectations. The father’s love for his sons is far more significant than how he is perceived by his friends and neighbors. He is just the kind of parent who would welcome home a wandering child and reach out to an uptight one, inviting them both to dance, not because either has earned a party, but because he himself is overjoyed with the restoration of broken relationship. This is God’s grace, friends. God invites us to the dance because God wants us there, and God’s joy is only complete when everyone is present.
Now, let’s be clear. Joyful as it is, this dance is no frivolous affair. This is the dance of life, the dance of which Jesus Christ is the Lord, the eternal dance master. It is a dance that started in that “morning when the world was begun.” It flows out through incarnation, witness, calling, discipleship, healing, social and cultural challenge, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. This is the dance of life that “never, never die.” It is a dance that costs life at the same time it gives life. These realities are intimately intertwined in the realm of God. Even now, you and I are invited to this dance – “I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me. I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.”
The apostle Paul has an important perspective on this dance of life when he writes to the church at Corinth about reconciliation. “…if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” If anyone is willing to accept the invitation to the dance, to follow the Lord of the Dance, indeed, to dance with the Christ, there is new life. Old cultural norms and social expectations fall away, disappear; everything becomes new! “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” That is, God in Christ is inviting us to the dance, the dance of life - not because we earned the invitation, not because we are exceptional or even passable dancers, but because God wants her whole family at the party – self absorbed wanderers and self-centered prudes, the thoughtless and the complainers. God wants to dance with the stars and with least of these and all at the same party.
Come build a church that provides a home for heart, soul and mind. Come build a church with a dance floor. Come build a church that overflows with those who hear the invitation to the dance because we have spoken it clearly and joyfully, genuinely desiring that whosoever would join us. This is the good news, that God was or, rather, IS, in Christ, reconciling the whole creation to God’s self. That foolish father, standing by the road, waiting for his wandering child, that shameful old man, standing in the field, pleading with his resentful child is the God we serve. That practitioner of unrestrained love, who is continually offering us an invitation to the dance, is the source of life – not just the ordinary life of our everyday, but life abundant and eternal, life so rich and full and free that we cannot keep from dancing, in sheer joy, even when the tempo is too fast, the rhythm too complex and the steps too challenging. In this Lenten season, may our “March Madness” be to lay aside our fears and our pride, accept joyfully the invitation, and step boldly out into the dance of life, new life in Christ Jesus.
“O blessed Love, your circling unites us, God and soul.
Your arms from the beginning, embrace and make us whole.
Hold us in steps of mercy from which you never part,
That we may know more fully the dances of your heart”
(Jean Janzen, I Cannot Dance, O Love)