Are You a Faith Wallflower?

The readings and, essentially, my sermon for this Sunday...




Psalm 71:1-6:

1 In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.



Jeremiah 1:1-10:

1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy."
7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD."
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."


It was in the early days of my marriage, and the memory is foggy and partially obscured. Teresa and I were auxillary, even tangental guests at some rather staid gathering. As I recall, the whole experience was something of a non-sequiter, as the event was rather stuffed-shirt, but the venue was anything but.

We were in our Sunday best in the mid-afternoon at some sort of warehouse/nightclub/party house in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. There were about twenty of us, as I recall, and my wife and I – in our mid-20s, God bless us – were the youngest adults in the room by a good decade or six. I remember wide-plank flooring, industrial skylights mixed oddly with fine linen tablecloths and fluted glasses.

There was a DJ at this event, and he was doing his best to lift the mood all by himself. The dance floor was a wasteland. I remember our nameless hostess bemoaning that fact under her breath to us as she made her obligatory rounds of a disappointingly subdued party.

Then the DJ, in some pathetic final act of quiet desperation, threw on a tune by the Grateful Dead. It might have been one of their rollicking, 48-hour live versions of the Buddy Holly classic “Not Fade Away.” Teresa and I took matters into our own feet. We got up, moved out onto the empty floor, and we danced. But we didn't just dance, we DEAD DANCED!

Deadheads have their own movement vocabulary. They neither get down nor tighten up. They whirl and twirl and twist and hop and tip, limbs akimbo. That's what we did in that cold, dank room. The DJ was so delighted that he followed up with four or five more Dead tunes, and we happily obliged by staying out there...WAY out there... on the dance floor.

That was all. There was a temporary stir. The party eventually evaporated. We thanked our hosts and drove home. I remember Teresa later telling me that the hostest had said to her: “all the other guests were asking me 'who's that guy out on the dance floor?'” My wife, being the sensitive type, kindly left out the second half of her statement, which was probably something like: “and does he need medical attention?”

I am not a dancer. I do not draw attention to my body and its rather awkward movements. But I am willing to do even the occasional insane thing to see a dear friend smile.

This is why the call of Jeremiah really resonates with me. Jeremiah is just this guy, you know. He's a preacher's kid just minding his own business, quietly growing up and getting on with life when God taps him for Holy Propheteering. Jeremiah looks down at his feet and says to God, essentially, “Sorry, I'm just a kid and I can't dance.”

And God answers him, essentially, “I'm the one who gave you feet. Now go out there and make me smile.”

You may have gotten an inkling by now that I am not your typical evangelist. I am a deep believer in God and in the path that Jesus has enlightened. But in my faith, I like to whirl and twirl and twist and hop and tip, limbs akimbo, when so many around me insist on moving in lock step with the line dance du jour... or worse still, frown on anyone even rising at all from their assigned seats at the table.

I need to tell you that I am a very faithful man who loves his call and his work. When I don't speak up or fail to observe proper decorum, it is not that I am “ashamed of the Gospel,” (Romans 1:16). It is that I am ashamed of what some of my fellow Christians sometimes say and and do and insist upon, or FAIL to say and do and insist upon in His name. If I'm not dancing, it is because I am temporarily ashamed of THE BODY. Know what I'm saying? But I get over it.

Here's the thing: I love God. And God knows if the tune is called, I'll be out there doing something different – our thing on the feet he gave me – just to see that smile and share it with any of the other guests who might find God in it. I've gotten more than my share of offended glares, judgemental stares and all. I've lost friends and fellow Christians over some of our steps. But I know that God is with me, too. And I've got to think there are other wallflowers out there just waiting for someone to start a dance that will resonate with them.

When was the last time you danced out loud a truth God has given you and, apparently, nobody else in the room? Tell us about it!
 
Do you continue to make your way out to the dance floor when your faith calls the tune, even if others discourage you and cast judgement? Please share!
 
What does it take for you to get up and dance to the tune God is spinning for you?