07/11/21 - Dances: Sacred and Profane - Westminster Presbyterian Church Westminster Presbyterian Church | Serving God and others with open mind, hands and heart - 07/11/21

07/11/21 – Dances: Sacred and Profane

DANCES: SACRED AND PROFANE

July 11, 2021
7th Sunday after Pentecost
Thomas Clark-Jones

In 1904, the French composer, Claude Debussy, wrote his fine work for Harp and String Orchestra called ‘Dances: Sacred and Profane. Their beauty is startling, and if you have a chance, I sincerely hope you will take the chance to hear it, either in person or on a recording.

Today, we have in the Old Testament and Gospel lessons, the story of dances, one sacred … and one that quickly turns profane. If you will remember, two weeks ago in the saga of David, the shepherd, poet, musician, and king, he led Israel in mourning for the defeated King Saul and Saul’s son, Jonathan, David’s best friend. He averred that his friendship for Jonathan was beyond the love of women. It was a deep, trusting, faithful relationship that occasionally friends can experience. The person feels closer than a brother or sister, and so it was with David and Jonathan.

Last week, we read about the unification of the two Jewish kingdoms under the rule of David. Even with David’s greatest diplomatic skills, the unification did not go as he, or God, had planned. The unification was to be a friendly union of the two great kingdoms. However, David’s ‘helpers’ thought they could make the whole business better by killing Abner, the diplomat from the North, and then, beheading the king and bringing it to David as a trophy. To illustrate that this was not his, or God’s will, David called a period of mourning and repentance followed by a great state funeral in which Abner and the king were buried together in great pomp, giving them in death that which David had wished to accomplish in life.

Finally, the battles over, and today we see David having the Ark of the Covenant, the very dwelling place of God among Israel, brought forth so that David might worship. His chosen worship, this time … a great dance … where he danced with all his might … with joy and gratitude for taking this youngest son of Jesse, allowing him to kill the great giant Goliath, electing him as King and sealing his reign with the defeat of Saul and the unification of the entire nation. What joy! Sublime!

As a musician, many of the biblical stories that I love have been set to music. In this case, another French composer, Arthur Honegger created a masterpiece called ‘Le Roi David’ … King David. He follows the story pretty much in the same way we have. The defeat of Goliath, the mourning for Saul … a chorus of women’s voices with the words of the lament in Scripture read by the narrator. And then finally, the centerpiece of the work … the Dance of David before the Ark. It is a single movement which takes nearly half of the work, starting quietly and reverently and building to a tremendous, overwhelming climax as the chorus sings “MIGHTY GOD, BE WITH US … BE WITH US!!!! I wish you could hear it in your mind as I do in mine right now. Truly, it nearly brings me to tears it is so marvelous. I remember hearing it for only the second time live at Temple Kenesseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania just outside Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Ballet sent seven dancers (all women, the naked David was not present in the synagogue!) to literally dance before the Ark of the Covenant which is what Jews call the ‘altar’ in a synagogue. It is the place where the scrolls of the Torah are kept. It was one of the great religious experiences of my life, conducted by one of my favorite organ teachers, Dr. J. Earl Ness. It was one of Earl’s favorite pieces and has been one of mine ever since.

Of course, there always has to be a spoilsport in the crowd, this time Saul’s daughter, who did not think it seemly for the King of Israel to be dancing naked anywhere! Nonetheless, the purity of David’s heart; his closeness to God, and doing God’s will find favor in the eyes of God. It was for David and Israel a great moment of praise and thanksgiving. A historic moment expressed in dance and music because David’s emotion could not be adequately spoken.

We move on to the Gospel and look upon a scene in which King Herod, the Roman ‘Magistrate in Charge of the Territory’ is throwing a huge birthday party for his court and his friends. It would always be well for a ‘sub-Emperor’ to keep his court and friends in the community happy lest he loses his head … literally. Herod’s bash was most successful, until he made a simple error in judgment, asking his stepdaughter … and his niece since Herod had taken his brother’s wife as his own … a familial power play that was not very nice. John the Baptizer had heard of this, and loudly (as was his way) criticized Herod for this overt sin and immorality. Nonetheless, the new ‘family’ got along well enough except that Herod’s new wife had it out for John.

Herod’s daughter is known in the literature as “Salome” and was an exquisitely beautiful young woman who knew how to dance rather well. For a stepchild to have her step-father offer ‘anything’ … up to half of his kingdom was a huge gesture of generosity and approval. Perhaps it was given to keep him in good graces with her mother, too … we don’t really know about that. The beauty of her dance was marred by the events that followed, of course. Salome doesn’t know what to ask of a King. She is a young girl but was wise enough to know that this might be a good opportunity to acquire some wealth and power and she needed advice. Where to turn but her mother. Denise and I find that now that our children are grown, we still get the occasional phone call that starts, “what would you think if I were to …” It is a sign that at least they think our opinion might be worth something!

Salome’s choice of an advisor was ill-advised, at least for John the Baptizer. Her mother didn’t hesitate one moment, “ask for the head of John on a silver platter’. WOW, MOM! Is that really the best thing I could ask for? Whatever the reason, Salome did not question her mother’s wisdom … perhaps she realized that if John stayed around, it might well mess with her comfy lifestyle in the palace and was ‘in on’ it too. Whatever … Salome takes her mother’s advice and asks for John’s head. In the meantime, I’m sure that while waiting Herod well may have had second thoughts. What if she really wanted half of his kingdom? Or a Rolls Royce or a Lamborghini … or a Villa on the Mediterranean? That turned out to be simple stuff compared to the request for John’s head. Herod knew John was right, of course, and was just trying to steer clear of the prophet while at the same time being fascinated with him. Now, it was his time to decide. An important decision to be sure. Should he do the right thing and say, “NO”, that’s not what I meant with the offer. Or should he save face by killing John on her behalf so as not to go back on a ‘royal’ promise? A dilemma. As they say, ‘a no-win situation’ … damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

As we know, Salome received the head of John and took it to her mother. The story does not go further, but it certainly cannot have sat well in that household for a long while.

So, we have two dances … one a dance of joy and adoration of the Almighty. Another simple artistic presentation for family and friends that went awry. That’s how a lot of things are, no? Things that are neutral in their existence are colored by the reason behind the action. Things as simple as water … can be used to sustain life (we need it) or can be used to murder someone through drowning. Fireworks the same way. When controlled on our gas stove or fire pit it can produce a delicious meal, or when left to go wild can destroy great swatches of territory as it so often does in the Western US. Yet, we could not do without fire.

Dancing has been seen at various times by various people as being sacred or profane. When I was a teenager and would hang with young people from Youth for Christ, a group considerably more conservative than my church experience as an Episcopal Choir Boy, dancing was considered right up there with drinking and smoking as a terrible sin. The joke went around, ‘Why do Christians not make love standing up … because someone might think they were dancing!’

The Shakers … a sect peculiar to New England … saw dancing as redemption. They were a pietistic group of believers who took a vow of celibacy. They lived in communities where men and women lived in their own buildings … dorms if you will. Every so often, when tensions built up, the Shakers danced …and thus we have the famous ‘Simple Gifts’ hymn … dance, dance wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance said He’. The last of the Shakers died off toward the end of the twentieth century. It seems that celibacy does not make for a continuing line of new converts to one’s religion … a fact well known by many Christian denominations that expect one to produce as many children as possible from anyone marriage.

So … the dance may be sacred or profane. It might be seen as a sin by a Baptist (perhaps for good reason considering what happened to John) or salvation by a Shaker. And the paths we follow in life, too, can be sacred or profane.

We choose to live our lives as we will. God gave us free will. But what we choose does matter … both to God and for our own good and happiness in life. Sometimes we use our gifts for good, sometimes for ill … sometimes on purpose … sometimes something bad just happens, beyond our control. But the choice comes down to us.

Choices, too, are made on other levels of life. In our world … the choice of survival or destruction depending on how we are willing to sacrifice to stop disastrous climate change. The relationships our leaders decide to take in our name as to who will be friends and who will be enemies. Who will enjoy our spirit of generosity and who will be denied it? Questions of how open, or tight shut our national borders will be, and the effect it has upon the lives of millions of people longing to share in our blessings of peace and prosperity.

On the church level, we see the dilemma of choice in working toward using our now dormant Parish House for the good of the community and the kingdom of God. We find subtle and not-so-subtle opposition to this expansion of our ministry. What will be our choice in dealing with this important issue? How do we as a Christian community, committed to mission make peace with the fact that the rear property line of the church parking lots are on Martin Luther King Blvd … a street in one of the most poverty-stricken Zip Codes in the US and yet we are restrained from using our resources for the good of those neighbors who might see this church as a shining light in the darkness of their lives if we can find our way clear to do something … hopefully the right thing … the one God wishes for us. All these are decisions, decisions that will be made either through our actions, if not, through our inaction.

There is a great hymn of the early twentieth century which no longer appears in hymn books because it is rather overtly sexist in its text, but the point of it still rings clear “Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide in the midst of truth and falsehood for the good or evil side. Some great cause, god’s new messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, and the choice goes by forever, ‘Twixt the darkness and the light.

So, we live our lives. We make our choices. We dance the dance of life … And we pray that ‘thy will be done … thy kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven.”

May it be so.

My Story

“What goes through your mind as you sit in the sanctuary and look around?

As I sit in my pew and look up at the cross with the wonderful light illuminating it, I am reminded of why I am at Westminster on this particular day. The cross reminds me that Christ died for me and, in a sense, I am to do the same in my daily life. The brightness of the cross illustrates for me the brightness of living my life in the way of Christ.”