The Dance of Joy

Today’s message was written by my friend, Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Many years ago, someone asked Pavlova, the great Russian dancer, what she meant, what she was saying in a certain dance. She replied, “If it could be said in words, there would be no need to dance it!”

Certain truths are too big for words. They have to be dramatized, acted out. And that’s why for the Christian, the cross and resurrection are so important to us. There on the old rugged cross of Good Friday, and there at the empty tomb of Easter morning, God dramatized his message, God acted it out for us. And now this symbol, the sign of the cross, serves as a constant and powerful reminder for us of God’s truth, God’s will for us, and God’s unconditional love for us. The apostle Paul sums it up in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “…and now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.”

Listen to these words from two beautiful hymns. The first is: “The Old Rugged Cross,” written in 1913:

On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross
The emblem of suff’ring and shame
And I love that old Cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain

So I’ll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.

The second hymn, “I Danced in the Morning was written 50 years later in 1963:

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem I had my birth.

I danced on a Friday and the sky turned black;
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back;
They buried my body and they thought I’d gone,
But I am the dance and I still go on.

They cut me down and I leapt up high,
I am the life that’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

Let us pray: Creator God, sometimes we feel like the world is spinning out of control. Help us to see that the universe is truly a dance of joy. Give us an attitude of thanksgiving and eyes to see the wonder of life. Help us to see life as it is and as it can be, when all people everywhere will join in the everlasting song of peace, all people everywhere will live in communion with you through the power of the Holy Spirit, when all people everywhere will be free to live and love in the way you have intended since the dawn of time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.