| |
January 7, 2007
|
Relationships
|
Karen Shimer
|
|
"SHALL WE DANCE?"
John 14:8-26
In my junior high, the invitations were issued on huge pieces of colored butcher paper, written in red and blue bubble letters, accented with yellow and orange flowers. "Dance, this Friday night" the signs would say. I went once. Most of the evening I stood at the edge of the pulsing, moving group. It was a relief to see that, at least to my unpracticed eye, you really couldn't tell who was dancing with whom. Hopefully that meant that it wasn't too clear to everyone else that no one was dancing with me.
It didn't improve much in high school. I went to three dances, I think, and one boy who worked on the Yearbook staff with me asked me to dance. Once. It was hard not be chosen.
The Senior Prom wasn't much different. I found myself a date two weeks before the dance. I asked him. The day I spent getting ready, curling my hair, doing my make-up, finally getting dressed and hearing him drive up the driveway, was more exciting than the dance. We ran out of things to talk about before we ever got to the dance. We ended up inviting the Yearbook photographer, a lowly sophomore, to dinner after the dance because he needed a ride home. I was actually relieved. At least someone else could carry the conversation.
I would expect this experience differs somewhat for men. Perhaps your biggest challenge once you've chosen someone in your mind is asking the question. "Will you dance with me?" The fear of rejection is strong I would suspect. Though we each experience the scenario differently, I think the feeling of it boils down to a similar experience: being chosen is a powerful thing.
At times I picture my relationship with God as a dance. I know He has chosen me, He loves me, but I work hard at being worthy of His love. I concentrate on learning the right steps, doing the right things, intent on not tripping or falling or even more unthinkable, not stepping on His feet. Sometimes I forget that He chose me because He loves me.
In our Scripture passage from Ephesians, Paul is addressing the "saints in Ephesus," people who know Christ and are in relationship with Him already. In the succeeding chapters in Ephesians, Paul reminds these saints that their relationship with God is based on God's grace and that the living of their lives is to be led by their love for God, each step directed by the Spirit. When John addresses the seven churches in the first chapters of the book of Revelation, he mentions Ephesus first declaring that hard work, deeds and perseverance were definitely evident in the church and in the lives of the believers there. He also acknowledges that they did not tolerate wicked people and they had discerned and uncovered false apostles. "But," John says, "I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first." (Revelation 2:1-5).
So, the Ephesian Christians needed to be reminded of God's great love for them. Perhaps they got so busy "doing" the Christian life, they forgot what it was like to belong to God, to be chosen by God, to be in relationship with God. How about you? Are you working diligently at living the Christian life, striving and persevering to reproduce godly characteristics in your family, the people in your daily lives, the people you meet with here on Sundays? Do you remember what it is like to be chosen by God? Can you think again about what it's like to be swept away by His love?
Let's look at some of the verbs in today's passage. As we do that, I want to say there is one verb here which could stir up quite a conversation among us. Predestined. There will be time for that conversation some other day or maybe through some other venue besides the sermon. Just in case you were wondering, I'm not going there today.
In addition to looking at the action words, I want to focus on the One doing the action. Watch as we go along and "re"discover the depths of God's love for you and the ways we experience what it means to be chosen by God.
In verse 3, Paul writes that God, the Father has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Even if we don't know all of what that means, the fact remains that we are blessed. Blessed beyond our comprehension, blessed in the heavenly realms, beyond the constraints of time and space, blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. These are more than temporal blessings like food and shelter and clothing. These blessings include things like a new heart, provision of spiritual food for our souls, intimate relationship with God. The Father brings and gives the blessing.
Not only are we blessed, we are chosen. Before the creation of the world, he wanted us to be holy and blameless in his sight. We are chosen to be adopted into God's family through Christ. This choosing is a celebration of God's grace. He is excited to choose you. He is excited to choose me.
In Christ, Paul continues, we have "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us in all wisdom and understanding." Not only are we blessed and chosen, but we are gifted with God's grace, which He "lavished on us."
We have a friend who wanted to buy our daughter Susanna a dress for her Senior Piano recital. They set aside a day to go shopping and by the end of the day they had done it all! Susanna tried on 20 dresses or so, and after she had found one that lit up her eyes and brought on the unstoppable smile, our friend bought it for Susanna. Not only that, but they kept shopping and found everything to make the outfit complete. Necklace, earrings, bracelet, shoes (they almost didn't find the shoes!), make-up, lipstick and even nail polish to match this incredible flowy fuchsia-pink satin dress. She lavished her love on Susanna in the form of this beautiful outfit, full of hope for a splendid recital.
Not only did Father God lavish his grace on us through Jesus, which included saving us from eternal separation from Him, as Paul says in verse 10 "to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ," He did it with wisdom and understanding. He did it because He knew what He was doing. He did not want to leave anything to chance. Not only were we blessed and chosen, not only did He lavishly give us His grace, He knew all along what He was doing.
Lest you wonder about this amazing God and His intentions for the Ephesians and for us, His children, look with me at verse 11. "In Him we were also chosen…" and in verse 13, "and you also were included in Christ." Once you believed in Christ, then Paul says you were "marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." Think of an old-fashioned letter sealed with softened wax and imprinted with a special design unique to the sender. "Would that the Spirit might impress the face of our dear Lord on our softened hearts, that they may keep it for evermore!" (Meyer)
Let us pause for a moment to look at the relationship of the Triune God pictured in this passage. Each person of the Trinity plays a specific part in this life offered by God. Do the persons of the Trinity work together or do they work independently? The Bible does not provide a concise list or description of the Triune God. Rather we have to glean our understanding of the Trinity from various passages. Turn with me to John 14. In John 14:8-11, Jesus explains to Philip that "it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…" Jesus tells the disciples later in this same discourse that when He leaves, the Father will send the Holy Spirit, "in Jesus' name, who will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said." (John 14:26). John 16 gives a few more details about what this mysterious Three-in-One community is like. Jesus says, the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."
When we have met Jesus, we have also met the Father and the Spirit. When we encounter the Holy Spirit, we meet the Father and the Son as well. At the heart of the Trinity is deep, flowing, living relationship, community unlike anything we experience in our limited human circumstances. They are so interconnected that we cannot think of one of the Persons of the Trinity without thinking of the other two.
Scholars have a word to describe this relationship: perichoresis. This word was first used in the 8th century by John of Damascus in his explanation of the text, "I am in my Father and my Father is in me." (John 14:11) One meaning of perichoresis is rotation. 'Peri' means around and 'choresis' means dance. Using this concept the Trinity can be pictured as three dancers moving in complex, interlocking movements. The dancers work as one and spin so fast and perfectly around each other that it is sometimes hard to tell one from another. This concept is found in Robin Parry's Worshipping Trinity.
Author Eugene Peterson describes it this way:
Imagine a folk dance, a round dance with three partners in each set. The music plays and the partners start moving in a circle holding hands. On a signal from the caller, they release hands, changing partners, weaving in and out, swinging first one and then the other. The tempo increases, the partners move more swiftly with and between and among one another, singing and twirling, embracing and releasing, holding and letting go. There is no confusion, every movement is cleanly coordinated in precise rhythms, but each person maintains his or her own identity. To the onlooker, the movements are so swift it is impossible at times to distinguish one person from another, and the steps so intricate that it is difficult to anticipate the actual configurations as they appear. [The essence of the Trinity, arguably the centerpiece of the Christian theology, and sometimes considered the more subtle and abstruse of all doctrines, is captured here in a picture anyone can observe in a…barn dance or Irish ceilidh. (kay´ lee)]
Peterson quoted in Parry, p84.
So, if we go with this picture of the Three Persons dancing interconnectedly, always knowing the steps, never missing a beat, we can think about the blessings, the choosing, the redemption, the grace, the promised inheritance coming from all three, coming from the One. A dance. The most beautiful, wonderful dance in the whole world!
Picture a very large room, a beautiful ballroom, sumptuously but tastefully decorated. Definitely not the school gymnasium or cafeteria. Though it is so big you can barely see the walls, the perimeter is shaped like a triangle. There is one door in the middle of one side of the triangle. Miraculously Jesus greets everyone at the door while never missing a beat in His part of the dance.
So, the poster is up, the invitation has been issued. Long ago, before the beginning of time, God was on His knees in the school cafeteria, boldly painting signs in red tempra paints. The signs went up all over the world, "School dance, Friday night. Everyone invited." Only a few of the ones closest to Him saw the signs at first. So He sent a personal invitation. Jesus hand delivered these engraved invitations, one for you, one for me, enough for everyone who ever lived on this earth.
The invitations read something like this passage we've been looking at this morning: "The Father has chosen you. The fee has been paid by His Son. He'll know you've said yes to the invitation, because the Holy Spirit is in your life. The dance starts now and goes on for eternity. Come dance with us!"
You don't have to have a fancy outfit to wear. You don't have to know the steps to the dance. You don't have to stand or sit or dance a certain way to get Him to notice you. He wants you to come join the dance because He loves you. He has chosen you.
He loves us. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. We are chosen before the creation of the world to be in Him. Once we have believed, we are marked with His Holy Spirit, a guarantee that God will always be our partner.
Shall we dance?
|
|
|