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your faith enlivens your spirit and engages your mind as we celebrate God’s
love and healing for the world with the resurrection of Christ, our Risen Lord.
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7th Sunday after Pentecost – July 11, 2021
Thomas Clark-Jones
“DANCES: SACRED & PROFANE”
Today, we have in the Old Testament and Gospel readings, the story of two dances, one sacred…and one that quickly turns profane. King David’s Dance was a dance of joy and adoration of the Almighty. He danced to his inner music, paying no attention to others’ ideas of propriety. King Herod’s step-daughter’s dance was a simple artistic presentation for an audience that went awry. King Herod was of two minds about John the Baptist. On the one hand, he saw John the Baptist’s criticism of his marriage to his brother’s wife as a threat to his authority. But on the other hand, he was intrigued by his message of repentance. Like us, he was torn between his desire to be faithful to God and his desire to hold on to worldly power and security. At a lavish feast, his step-daughter danced for his party guests and he was so taken with the beauty of her dance that he, impulsively, offered her anything she wished. Daunted by this enormous power, she went to the wrong source for good advice, her vindictive mother. Her mother told her to ask for John’s head on a platter. Herod was torn between his pride and his conscience. He chose his pride and granted the evil wish. Herod allowed his inner music to fall into step with sin’s choreography.
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O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon
you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they
ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish
them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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