May 20 - Week 6 Finding Balance

May 20, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #6:  Finding Balance

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Finding Balance

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Clothed and walking with dignity, the figure strides into a new future

Colossians 3:9-15

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.

                It seems that there is a lot of synchronicity in that this week is also our graduation Sunday. As the graduates don their robes and stride across the stage they are walking into a wide open future. For the first time, the figure in our drawing has put on a robe; she has claimed her own dignity. Last week she was dancing with abandon. Now she walks with a measured pace. She has claimed a balance that will see her into the future.

                I am not a great fan of Paul’s letters, and much so for the pseudo-Pauline letters. That’s an esoteric way of say that most scholars think it very unlikely that Paul himself wrote the letter to the Colossians (because of writing styles, content, and historical references). But hidden in the midst of some pretty crappy theology are a few gems. This passage is one of those. The author uses the metaphor of robing for the spiritual life. We can don a new self, a Christ-self, like a new set of clothing or more appropriately for the day like a graduation robe. We can leave behind negative aspects of our lives, our wounds and scars, like so much dirty laundry. This letter tells us that the clothing that makes for a healthy and peaceful life are compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  It sounds a lot like loving each other as we love ourselves, more like the way Christ loves us. And even if we think that those characteristics do not come naturally to us, we can wear them like stiff new blue jeans until they are soft, broken-in, and comfortable on our frames. I debated about including verse 15, the last one which encourages us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. I finally decided to include it because I realized that it is in fact the heart of why we carry the name of Christ. It is good advice for anyone to be compassionate, kind, humble, etc. But we put on those clothes because it is what we are called to do as we follow Christ. Early Christians understood that for all their disagreements, it was the peace of Christ that bound them together, that gave them their balance.

                Finding that balance is one of the pieces of wisdom that makes life a joy. Somehow the dignity that our figure has found speaks of a balance that she has now attained. It can be exciting to swing from extreme to extreme, but it is also exhausting. And like a car out of control on the highway, swerving back and forth will eventually  make you skid off the road. Following Christ, taking on the peace of Christ, is one of the ways that we find our balance in life.

                We will need to find ways of recognizing our graduates, as well as the entire Christian Education program. Melani tells me that the Sunday Schoolers would like to reprise their song as well. We have also talked about bringing the prayer beads back, and offering them to worshippers to take with them (perhaps for a donation!). And maybe we can find some way of offering a metaphorical piece of clothing for people to put on as a symbol of putting on love and peace and Christ. This has been a great series, and we can celebrate the Spirit that has brought us from woundedness to forward moving balance!

Dare to Dance Week #5: Stepping Out/Freedom

May 13, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #5:  Stepping Out/Freedom

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Releasing/ Opening

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  She has fully risen and is dancing with joy

2 Samuel 6:12-16

 It was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

In one of our planning sessions I shared a story from the book, “Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens” in which one author (a Korean woman) tells of a time when she and her mother were walking to a village where some relatives lived. Her mother was a very traditional Korean woman: reserved, obedient, modest and subservient. On their walk they stop by a stream to wash in the cool water. But her mother does not just wash her hands or face. She begins to strip down. The author (relating her memory as a girl when this occurred) was horrified. But to make things worse, her mother begins to dance around in the deserted woods. It took years for the author to realize how bound and constricted her mother was by her traditional role in that society. That day by the stream was a rare moment when freedom overtook her, and in that freedom she had to dance. Just like her traditional clothing, she had shed (even for the briefest of times) the constraints of her life. She was naked, and she was free, and she danced.

I see that same joy in our figure for this week. Her nudity has nothing to do with shame or poverty. She is free and beautiful and perfect just as God made her. And now she dances, stretching free of the cramps that fear had imposed upon her. Her arms and legs reach out into the world. She vibrates with joy. Where in the first image she is isolated by her posture, here she is a part of the energy of life. At first she seemed a small child, vulnerable and defenseless. Here though we see all the strength and vitality of adulthood just attained. She is ready to make her own mark on the world.

David had made his mark on the world, too. He has gained the throne of Israel, and in this passage he is bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. David is bringing the very presence of God into the capital city, the heart of the people. And so he dances. His joy overflows and exceeds all expectations of decorum and reserve that a king show exhibit. Elsewhere in this passage, David joy is symbolized by the free feast he shares with all the people. The text says he is leaping and dancing before God. This is no socially acceptable waltz. This is gyrating joy, a primal celebration of life.

In an interesting twist, like the daughter in the first story who is appalled by her mother’s behavior, David’s wife Michal is appalled at his behavior. So much so that the text tells us “she despised him in her heart.” It is one of the curiosities of healing and the joy it may bring that others around us may not share those feelings. In fact, it can cause resentment or even anger. In addicted family systems, they have often learned how to cope with stress of the illness but not on the stress of recovery. When one family member begins to recover the old coping methods no longer function. Sad but true that too many times not everybody is happy when somebody heals.

The point here is not a warning against dancing in order to prevent offending somebody. No, it is vitally important to dance anyway. David bringing the Ark into the city was a sign that the wounds of their warfare were ending. God, the life-giver, was here. The Korean mother danced even amid her daughter’s crying because she sensed the presence of a liberating Spirit. Out figure dances without regard to the cost because she has risen from her pain and celebrates the gift of joy.

This Sunday is also mother’s day and we should thing about how our celebration may lift that up. I am reminded that one of the origins of Mother’s day is Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. Following the devastation of the Civil War, she call for a day of peace and life (http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm ) Here is a video of dramatic reading of that proclamation (a couple minutes in) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/mothers_day_for_peace_a_dramatic

I will also try make contact with Don Titmus again and see if we can bring Conscious Dance back into the Studio. The energy and freedom of Conscious Dance would lend themselves well to the feel of the day.

So the question I face in thinking about our coming Sunday (one more to go!) is, How do we give ourselves the freedom to finally dance?

Dare to Dance Week 4 - May 6

May 6, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #4:  Releasing/Opening

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Releasing/ Opening

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Child is naked, crouching, fists clenched, beginning to rise

Mark 10:46-52

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Our figure has now risen (if not fully) and her clenched fist has opened outward. Whatever she was clasping tightly has been released and now something new can fill her open hands. Henri Nouwen wrote in his book, “Open Hands”: To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, therefore, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises, and find hope for yourself, your fellowman (sic) and the whole community in which you live. 

I suspect that one of our greatest obstacles to healing is our inability to release our woundedness. Bartimaeus knew what he wanted. He wanted to see. (Mark is also making the point that this blind person could already “see” clearly who Jesus was, while the religious people were blind to who Jesus was) I think too many of us don’t want to see or hear or dance. We are getting some kind of demented reward out of wallowing in our victimhood. I believe it also feels safer to stay as we are (even if what we are is wounded) than to be open to becoming something new. The figure in the drawing stands with Bartimaeus, ready to receive.

This is the Sunday that Tsahai and her dancers will be with us. Their healing will be seen in their dancing, but not in physical restoration. This may be a good time to explore the nature of healing: not as cure but as wholeness.  Because of the need for more space, the dancers will be performing in Bond Hall. I suggest that we begin our worship in the sanctuary and then move into Bond Hall and conclude there. Maybe we can get Tsahai and/or a dancer to lead us from space to space.

I’ve also had a conversation with Bill S. who has been attending SCUCC the last couple of months. Bill is a pastor and hospice chaplain. He is willing to talk about healing at the end of life. Marge G. blew us away with her dialog and interaction, and I can’t promise that from Bill but he might have some insight.

I think our focus should be on the openness for whatever healing is offered. For Bartimaeus it was sight, for those in hospice it might be peace, for Tsaihai’s dancers it is beauty in a different form. How can we free ourselves from defining the healing we want, and open ourselves to the healing that Love can offer?

            

Dare to Dance Week 3: Empowerment

April 29, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #3: 

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Empowerment

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Child is naked, crouching, fists clenched, beginning to rise

Nahum 1:2-6

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,

   the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

   and rages against his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

   and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

   and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,

   and he dries up all the rivers;

Bashan and Carmel wither,

   and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

The mountains quake before him,

   and the hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

   the world and all who live in it.

Who can stand before his indignation?

   Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

   and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.

I have to admit that I am having some difficulty opening up this week. To be honest, anger scares me. I grew up in a “peace at all costs” kind of family and the basic value of that teaching is that anger is dangerous. Yes, rationally I understand and appreciate what Judy E said about this part of her drawing; that “anger is energy.” I acknowledge that we need that energy to dislodge us from the trapped position of victimhood. Yet underneath all the intellectual veneers there still lie in my inner child’s heart the messages that anger is bad and dangerous and uncontrollable.

            Which is why I offer the passage from Nahum. How many of us have actually read the book of the prophet Nahum in our children’s lifetime? The description of God given by the prophet is stereotypical of both fiery Old Testament prophets and God. It is a fearsome, terrible portrait. Reading this description of God, it makes me sympathize with Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights when he prefers to pray to “Dear Lord Little Eight Pound, Six Ounce Baby Jesus.” The Angry God is fierce and uncontainable.

            Which brings us back to Judy’s observation: it is the energy of anger that can draw us out of our trapped position. That, I believe, was the role of the prophets, too. Too many times prophets have been cast as prognosticators and fortune tellers. Really, they were working to bring the people back into covenant with God. Maybe the anger they invoked was the energy needed to break the people free of entrenched patterns of death, allowing them to get to the dancing place.

            If our own anger can be a healing gift, then God’s anger can be seen so too. I know I have spent a lot of time ignoring and evading the angry God of much of the bible. I do not believe that there are two different Gods, one of the Old and one of the New Testaments. We know one God, the same God of Jesus’ tender compassion for the woman caught in adultery and the same God of Jesus’ impatient anger at the Pharisee’s hypocrisy. Instead of hiding from God’s anger (or at least the testimony of it in scripture), can we embrace it as energy for deep healing?

            The archetypal scene from the movie “Network” captures the energy of this anger. Howard Beal, stately newscaster loses it on air and starts a movement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBZDwf9dok&feature=related

There is available to us the energy we need for our own transformation, and for the healing transformation of our world. It is ours to claim.

Dare to dance Week 2 - Awareness

April 22, 2012

Dare to Dance Week #2: 

Series Title: Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawings

Frame:  Awareness

Threads: Prayer beads, healing prayers, Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Image:  Child is naked, fearful, beginning to look up 

Psalm 143, from Nan Merrill’s Psalms for Praying

O Bringer of Joy, awaken my heart;

            pour your love and blessings

                        through all my being!

Free me from attachments and desire,

            that I may become a clear mirror,

                        reflecting your love to

                                    the world.

For fear has pursued me, it has

            crushed my spirit to

                        the ground;

            it has veiled your light so

                        that I dwell in darkness.

Therefore, I cry out to You,

                        O Great Awakener;

            Help me to rise once again

                        like the phoenix of old!

I recall days gone by; I meditate

            on all that You have done;

            I muse on the Covenant of

                        your love.

I open my heart to You;

            my soul thirsts for You like

                        a parched land.

Strength comes with  pureness of heart.

            Cleanse me anew, O Gentle Healer.

This yearning within my soul is

            naught but the inner birthright

                        to know and live in You.

Let me hear your Voice within the Silence,

            for in You I put my trust.

Teach me ways of loving service,

            that I might co-operate with You,

                        O my Beloved.

Help me face my fears,

                        O Divine Nurturer!

            I call on You for healing!

Instruct me in your Divine Precepts,

                        cultivate my soul!

Lead me into deep silence and

                        solitude,

            let peace become my mantle.

Divine Light shines in those

            whose lives reflect love.

            As the river makes it way to

                        the ocean,

            may I surrender to the flow

                        of new life!

then I will trust that all is

            working together toward the

                        wholeness of humanity.

            Then will I help to rebuild the

                        soul of the world with Love!

If you compare Nan Merrill’s version of Psalm 143 to a standard translation you will find they are very, very different. Merrill’s approach, as she says in the title of her book, is for praying not for scholarship. That being said, her Psalm 143 captured for me the full sweep of what I think our second week is striving for. I tried to edit it down, knowing that the psalm is not short. But each stanza takes us through the process of awareness, listening, yearning, turning outward from inward isolation.

The words chosen to describe this second week of our process of Daring to Dance are awareness and listening. I see that dawning awareness in the opening line of the psalm: O Bringer of Joy, awaken my heart. As our figure begins to move out of the defensive, fetal position I hear the psalm as the prayer she might speak. The wounded person needs the joy of being awakened, being aware that there is more to life than pain.

I don’t know where awareness begins or what rekindles hope and vision. But I do know that at some point we must get tired of suffering and long for a better life. In AA they speak of hitting rock bottom. Somewhere there is the dawning that life is meant to be more. One person I knew who was in rehab for at least the third time said that before he wanted to be sober. But now he wanted serenity. Again, I don’t know what brought that awareness, but it made all the difference in the world. Awareness may be the difference between life and death, or at least the difference between a dead-end life and one that is worthwhile.

Bringer of Joy, Great Awakener, Gentle Healer, Divine Nurturer, Beloved; these are evocative names that Nan Merrill uses for God. It is not just up to us to become aware. God is beckoning us to awake, to see, to hear the whispers of promise and hope. God is working in us and around us, holding our place until we can rise and join the Dance of Life.

Here is a fascinating video about how music brings awareness back to someone who has become isolated. I’m not sure it fits snugly in with our main metaphor, but the man’s reaction – his quickening – is phenomenal indeed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHCiMCtIJT8

April 15 - Dare to Dance Week 1

Dare to Dance: Moving towards Healing

Anchor: Judy Emerson’s drawing with one additional image

Thread: Dance, Song - Healed Healthy and Whole

Other Thread ideas:

prayer beads, with additional beads for each week added

Frames: April 15 -             Wk#1 – Internal/wounded

Image:  Child in fetal position, naked

Wounded, defended, holding back

2 Samuel 15:32-33

The king said to the Cushite, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ The Cushite answered, ‘May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.’ The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!’

                Our dance toward healing begins with the acknowledgement that we are wounded. Every one of us experiences some kind of wounding in life, none of escapes unscathed. In “Waiting for Godot,” Samuel Becket expresses this human condition: "The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops.” To acknowledge that we are wounded does not deny the hope for healing, but it is often a grueling, painful admission.

                David is one of the more wounded individuals in the bible. Wresting the kingdom from Saul costs the life of his best friend (David says of Jonathan, Saul’s son, “greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.”) When David takes the throne, he garners the hatred of his wife, Michal, Saul’s daughter. His best known failure is his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. The text above is the culmination of his own son’s treasonous campaign to take the kingdom from David. Absalom’s treachery notwithstanding, David still loves his son and grieves deeply over his death. And yet for all his woundedness, David is still heralded as the greatest king of Israel. His imperfections and wounds do not prevent him from being of use and available to God.

                While woundedness is seen in common wisdom as a punishment from God, that is not always the biblical witness. Rather, it isi the midst of woundedness that God draws near to tend, to comfort, and to heal. The resurrection of Jesus can be seen as a cosmological parable in which God heals the world’s deepest wound: death itself.

                It must be difficult to dance when wounded. And yet, this may be one of the most important times to dance. Dance is an art form, a form of expression. To not dance is to repress one’s wounds. To dance is to give the pain back to the world, to release it into the ether. Some of the world’s greatest art has come from anger and pain (see Picasso’s Guernica). So dancing itself is an act healing and freedom.

                The image for this week begins with a person drawn into a fetal position. How do our wounds make us withdraw, pull in? Can healing begin when we are so contorted?

                It seems to me that we need to give people a chance to acknowledge, if not name, their woundedness. Maybe the church lost sight of the idea that confession is not about listing sins but rather about naming our wounds and calling for healing. What are ways we can do this in the Studio?

                A song ide might be REM’s Everybody Hurts:

When your day is long and the night

The night is yours alone

When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on

Don't let yourself go

Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong

Now it's time to sing along

When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on)

If you feel like letting go (hold on)

When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on

Everybody hurts

Take comfort in your friends.

Everybody hurts

Don't throw your hand. Oh, no

Don't throw your hand

If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life

The days and nights are long

When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes

Everybody cries

And everybody hurts sometimes

And everybody hurts sometimes

So, hold on, hold on

Hold on, hold on

Hold on, hold on

(Hold on, hold on)

Everybody hurts

You are not alone

                The good news in acknowledging woundedness is that healing is indeed available. Dancing not only names our wounds, but opens us to that healing.

                I am still waiting to hear back from Tsahai about her availability to be with us. We may want to be looking for an alternative. I think it is important to have actual dancing in the house, but this video may also be of use to us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTrb6i7gJAk&feature=related

Easter - April 8

April 8 – Easter Sunday

Anchor: The Way
Frame: We are invited to experience resurrection, continuing our pilgrimage of life
Question: Is resurrection for real?

Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

                OK, here is my bottom line belief about Easter: Easter is something that happens to us, one that continues to happen, and not some isolated historical event locked away in the past. I do not know if the tomb was empty, or if there even was a tomb, but it seems to me that people have experienced the life-giving presence of Christ ever since the first century. Lots of people think Easter is something that happed to Jesus, but I believe it happens to us. Easter happens when we experience the life-giving-restoring-renewing presence of the Spirit of Christ.

                Mark’s gospel tells the story this way. The risen Jesus is never seen. The youth delivers a message that Jesus will meet the disciples (all disciples?) back in Galilee – back where the story began. The story of “The Way” ends by saying that the way continues, get back on the road.

                Which brings us back to the movie, “The Way.” Tom thinks he is taking his son’s ashes on the pilgrimage his son was unable to complete. The camino de Santiago ends at the cathedral of Santiago. But after an episode where a gypsy boy steals Tom’s pack (and Daniel’s ashes), the boy’s father tells Tom that he must continue his journey beyond the cathedral and go to the sea shore. There he can put Daniel’s ashes in the water. “You must do this for you, and for him,” says Ishmael, the boy’s father. When Tom shares this with his traveling companions, to a person they say that they will go as far as the cathedral but then they are done. Eight hundred kilometers is enough to walk. But after arriving at the cathedral, they laugh at themselves and the next scene shows them all walking with Tom to the sea shore. It is at the sea shore that these 4 characters really discover life, and find real acceptance of who they are: The author finds a story, the smoker accepts names her denial, the man wanting to change accepts his life, and Tom gives his son to the sea.

                A symbol given to the pilgrims walking the camino de Santiago is a small sea shell. Since the earliest days of the church, Easter has been a time for baptism, which os often symbolized with a sea shell. I don’t think that we will have an actual baptism to celebrate this Sunday, but we can all remember that we are baptized, and maybe we can give out sea shells to remind us that we are still on this pilgrimage called life.

                One unrelated thought: Back at the beginning of Lent we ran a video featuring Diana Butler Bass talking about hospitality as salvation (http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00722). In that video she is askedif she believes in the resurrection. She quotes a friend of hers who said, “Yea, I’ve seen it too many times not to believe it.”