(By Jody)
Acts 2
Dance!
Are you a dancer? Do you naturally move and groove? Do you need encouragement? Do you flat out refuse?
I’m not a dancer, though I enjoy dancing with my kids. I’m sure plenty of people have a complex relationship with dance. Sociologists suggest that connecting and synchronising through movement is essential to being human, a form of social glue. But many of us learned to be self conscious and self surveying at Intermediate School discos and formal assemblies and haven’t recovered.
At my first lecture in Feminist Theology, the two lecturers, Catholic Sisters, led us in a dance. I was horrified at 19. Now I think back on Helen and Ann with great love and appreciation for the theology they taught and lived and literally danced.
I’m not trying to start a dance club or a liturgical line dance or a very charismatic congregation. (Good luck to me if I am.)
But the image of God as divine danceis ancient and enduring. From some of the earliest Christian theologians who said God was perichoresis or circle dance, to Richard Rohr who said: “Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three—a circle dance of love. God is Absolute Friendship. God is not just a dancer; God is the dance itself.”
This leads to the incredible, and risky, invitation God extends to humanity; to join the dance, the relationship. To find fullness of being in Communion. Like the boy and his dad delighting in each other’s moves, taking cues and lessons from each other.
This incredible risky dance is expressed in the reading from Acts, the first followers of Jesus discovering God on the move; bold and stunning, and catching on and moving too – though they did not where it would take them, and it was not part of a four stage adopted plan to advance the Good News about Jesus in their city.
God’s Spirit was... blow[ing] like the wind in a thousand paddocks,
Inside and outside the fences...
... Consuming [them] with flames of love and peace,
Driving [them] out like sparks...
(adapted from James K Baxter Song to the Holy Spirit)
If we believe God is dancing, still, and if we believe God invites human participation, our questions shift from “what is God’s will, and how can I know it?” to “where is God moving, and how can I join in?”
Discernment is part of decision making, though they are not the same thing. Discernment is about attuning and aligning with God. It requires listening (to the Spirit, to others, to yourself, to Scripture, to silence) and untangling (from assumptions, from capitalism, from ego, from pragmatism, from enticements, from insecurities) and imagination (to perceive what could be, alternative to the dominant culture, even our own church culture, to seek and tend the seeds of the kingdom of heaven among us.)
Ruth Haley Barton says: “Discernment is an ever-increasing capacity to “see” or discern the works of God in the midst of the human situation so that we can align ourselves with whatever it is that God is doing. Every Christian is called to this kind of discernment.”
The ability to discern is formation I am interested in, for myself, for my family, for this church. To know how to hold steady through times of panic and times of contentment, to sense God on the move even when I want to stay still, and to have the courage to start to dance.
Last week I suggested the precursor to discerning and decision making was the vast openness of listening, the place of knowing that seems more like unknowing (a phrase I got from Sheila’s article in the SGM magazine!), the presence of everything.
Gordon Hempton, audio ecologist, soundscape recorder, silence activist, says: "Isn’t it amazing that our concert halls, our churches, places like that, they’re quiet places? They’re places where we can feel secure, secure enough that we can open up and be receptive and truly listen. And when we’re truly listening, we also have to anticipate that we might become changed by what we have heard."
Our church isn’t particularly quiet – there’s always traffic, often people, definitely music and twelve step groups and meals. But when we come inside we’re not bombarded with the messages of capitalism and social mobility. There’s a vast amount of space, relatively little clutter. Perhaps it’s spacious enough to provide the secure place Gordon Hempton upholds, from which we might start to dance bravely and innovatively.
Linda gave us a great example earlier, of the kind of issue that requires us to be discerning and to exercise discernment. We can look at graphs and calculate and state opinions and preferences. We can raise and count hands and make a good decision. After all, we’re choosing between two decent and responsible options, and we know that we will find ways to give – we saw this with the collection for the Muslim women’s council and the CBA Easter broadcast.
Does paying debt faster give us shelter to do something new and life giving? Or does it distract us from something we should be doing with our money right now? We want to give generously. Might we be called to give something other than money to those in need? A sacred space for weddings? Free funeral services and afternoon teas for families at their wits end? A 24/7 listening and praying presence on Jervois Rd? An open hall on stormy nights for those out in the open? Tear the whole thing down and plant trees?
A few guides for discernment, finding our flow in God, seeking the dance:
1. Pay attention. To presence, to God, to Scripture, to people, to creation, to yourself. To the dance you are already part of. (A note on paying attention to yourself, since our own self always looms large. Practice self-awareness, ask yourself where your impulses and inclinations are coming from: ego, vindication, privilege, marginalisation, anxiety, generosity, love, embrace, avoidance?) Pay attention – it might help you find your way into the dance.
2. Name consolation and desolation. Consolation being the inner feelings that draw us further into the movement of God. Desolation being the inner feelings that push us away from the movement of God. These are not moments of joy or sorrow, though those feelings may help build your understanding of your consolation and desolation. David Crawley says: “Think of it as being like a river. At the surface of the river the water swirls and splashes, sometimes surging forward, at other times making whirlpools or back eddies. Our surface feelings are like that. They come and go, they can go up and down several times in the course of a day. If we wanted to know the true course of a river, we wouldn’t look at the surface layer of water. As we go down to a deeper layer of water, we will get a truer picture of the flow of that river...” Where do you notice a steady sense of rightness and joy and peace? Where do you notice a persistent unease or disconnection? Name consolation and desolation – it might help you find your way into the dance.
3. Seek “indifference.” This sounds like a terribly uncaring and irresponsible attitude. Rather, it is to step away from your own agenda when it comes time to make decisions. David Crawley says: “...a place of genuine openness to whatever path God might guide us to. We are caring deeply, but seeking to hold lightly.” Seek indifference – it might help you find your way into the dance.
4. Develop imagination. Reason can make cold hard deductions, but only the imagination can visualise events not yet real, paving the way for creative break through. (Scripture, conversations, seeking joy, sitting in silence, walking the streets, random acts of kindness might help here too!) Walter Bruggeman says: “...imagination is a danger. ...every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.” This applies even when it’s our own church empire that needs to be challenged. Develop imagination – it might help you find your way into the dance.
Let’s keep discernment on the agenda, as we approach the AGM on Wednesday night, and as we keep developing as a faith community.
Acts 2
Dance!
Are you a dancer? Do you naturally move and groove? Do you need encouragement? Do you flat out refuse?
I’m not a dancer, though I enjoy dancing with my kids. I’m sure plenty of people have a complex relationship with dance. Sociologists suggest that connecting and synchronising through movement is essential to being human, a form of social glue. But many of us learned to be self conscious and self surveying at Intermediate School discos and formal assemblies and haven’t recovered.
At my first lecture in Feminist Theology, the two lecturers, Catholic Sisters, led us in a dance. I was horrified at 19. Now I think back on Helen and Ann with great love and appreciation for the theology they taught and lived and literally danced.
I’m not trying to start a dance club or a liturgical line dance or a very charismatic congregation. (Good luck to me if I am.)
But the image of God as divine danceis ancient and enduring. From some of the earliest Christian theologians who said God was perichoresis or circle dance, to Richard Rohr who said: “Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three—a circle dance of love. God is Absolute Friendship. God is not just a dancer; God is the dance itself.”
This leads to the incredible, and risky, invitation God extends to humanity; to join the dance, the relationship. To find fullness of being in Communion. Like the boy and his dad delighting in each other’s moves, taking cues and lessons from each other.
This incredible risky dance is expressed in the reading from Acts, the first followers of Jesus discovering God on the move; bold and stunning, and catching on and moving too – though they did not where it would take them, and it was not part of a four stage adopted plan to advance the Good News about Jesus in their city.
God’s Spirit was... blow[ing] like the wind in a thousand paddocks,
Inside and outside the fences...
... Consuming [them] with flames of love and peace,
Driving [them] out like sparks...
(adapted from James K Baxter Song to the Holy Spirit)
If we believe God is dancing, still, and if we believe God invites human participation, our questions shift from “what is God’s will, and how can I know it?” to “where is God moving, and how can I join in?”
Discernment is part of decision making, though they are not the same thing. Discernment is about attuning and aligning with God. It requires listening (to the Spirit, to others, to yourself, to Scripture, to silence) and untangling (from assumptions, from capitalism, from ego, from pragmatism, from enticements, from insecurities) and imagination (to perceive what could be, alternative to the dominant culture, even our own church culture, to seek and tend the seeds of the kingdom of heaven among us.)
Ruth Haley Barton says: “Discernment is an ever-increasing capacity to “see” or discern the works of God in the midst of the human situation so that we can align ourselves with whatever it is that God is doing. Every Christian is called to this kind of discernment.”
The ability to discern is formation I am interested in, for myself, for my family, for this church. To know how to hold steady through times of panic and times of contentment, to sense God on the move even when I want to stay still, and to have the courage to start to dance.
Last week I suggested the precursor to discerning and decision making was the vast openness of listening, the place of knowing that seems more like unknowing (a phrase I got from Sheila’s article in the SGM magazine!), the presence of everything.
Gordon Hempton, audio ecologist, soundscape recorder, silence activist, says: "Isn’t it amazing that our concert halls, our churches, places like that, they’re quiet places? They’re places where we can feel secure, secure enough that we can open up and be receptive and truly listen. And when we’re truly listening, we also have to anticipate that we might become changed by what we have heard."
Our church isn’t particularly quiet – there’s always traffic, often people, definitely music and twelve step groups and meals. But when we come inside we’re not bombarded with the messages of capitalism and social mobility. There’s a vast amount of space, relatively little clutter. Perhaps it’s spacious enough to provide the secure place Gordon Hempton upholds, from which we might start to dance bravely and innovatively.
Linda gave us a great example earlier, of the kind of issue that requires us to be discerning and to exercise discernment. We can look at graphs and calculate and state opinions and preferences. We can raise and count hands and make a good decision. After all, we’re choosing between two decent and responsible options, and we know that we will find ways to give – we saw this with the collection for the Muslim women’s council and the CBA Easter broadcast.
Does paying debt faster give us shelter to do something new and life giving? Or does it distract us from something we should be doing with our money right now? We want to give generously. Might we be called to give something other than money to those in need? A sacred space for weddings? Free funeral services and afternoon teas for families at their wits end? A 24/7 listening and praying presence on Jervois Rd? An open hall on stormy nights for those out in the open? Tear the whole thing down and plant trees?
A few guides for discernment, finding our flow in God, seeking the dance:
1. Pay attention. To presence, to God, to Scripture, to people, to creation, to yourself. To the dance you are already part of. (A note on paying attention to yourself, since our own self always looms large. Practice self-awareness, ask yourself where your impulses and inclinations are coming from: ego, vindication, privilege, marginalisation, anxiety, generosity, love, embrace, avoidance?) Pay attention – it might help you find your way into the dance.
2. Name consolation and desolation. Consolation being the inner feelings that draw us further into the movement of God. Desolation being the inner feelings that push us away from the movement of God. These are not moments of joy or sorrow, though those feelings may help build your understanding of your consolation and desolation. David Crawley says: “Think of it as being like a river. At the surface of the river the water swirls and splashes, sometimes surging forward, at other times making whirlpools or back eddies. Our surface feelings are like that. They come and go, they can go up and down several times in the course of a day. If we wanted to know the true course of a river, we wouldn’t look at the surface layer of water. As we go down to a deeper layer of water, we will get a truer picture of the flow of that river...” Where do you notice a steady sense of rightness and joy and peace? Where do you notice a persistent unease or disconnection? Name consolation and desolation – it might help you find your way into the dance.
3. Seek “indifference.” This sounds like a terribly uncaring and irresponsible attitude. Rather, it is to step away from your own agenda when it comes time to make decisions. David Crawley says: “...a place of genuine openness to whatever path God might guide us to. We are caring deeply, but seeking to hold lightly.” Seek indifference – it might help you find your way into the dance.
4. Develop imagination. Reason can make cold hard deductions, but only the imagination can visualise events not yet real, paving the way for creative break through. (Scripture, conversations, seeking joy, sitting in silence, walking the streets, random acts of kindness might help here too!) Walter Bruggeman says: “...imagination is a danger. ...every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.” This applies even when it’s our own church empire that needs to be challenged. Develop imagination – it might help you find your way into the dance.
Let’s keep discernment on the agenda, as we approach the AGM on Wednesday night, and as we keep developing as a faith community.
