Today is my dancing day

MATTHEW 28

They worshipped him, though some doubted

So, here we are. It is Christmas Day. The boy born as Emmanuel, ‘God with us’, now promises to be with us always, even to the end of time, as Lord of the Dance.

For three days he lay there in the tomb, just needing to be loved, as he had in the manger. And then, the King of the Great Reversal, overturned every law of physics and chemistry and biology; and while he was about it he overturned every law of religion and politics and social life as well.

Our faith depends upon this truth: that Jesus, the Light of the World, did not get overwhelmed by the darkness, but was reborn in resurrection. And he did not have his body stolen, as the Gospel tells us the guards and religious leaders would have the world believe. He burst from the tomb in a new dance of life.

It has been both jarring and profound to be thinking about the death of Jesus as we have been preparing to celebrate his birth. But today we celebrate both his birth and his re-birth as the resurrection Lord.

The account is heartening for us, I think. It is heartening to us who wrestle with faith that we hear how even as they saw with their own eyes the risen Lord Jesus, some still doubted (even if they also worshipped). While the women held on to his feet, and Jesus said they had to let go; so some of the disciples held back from wholly accepting the resurrection easily. Jesus condemned neither the women, for trying to hold on to him, nor did he condemn the other disciples for not holding to the truth of the resurrection easily. It was possible for them to worship and doubt at the same time, it would seem.

Well, that is also our experience too, I suspect. In the main we have questions and yet we worship. Because we have just enough of the truth in our hearts and lives which pulls us with the gravity of the resurrection story; yet we have questions because we live in a world whose laws of gravity pull in a different direction most of the time.

We are caught between the now and not yet, the longing for the Kingdom of the Great Reversal to be real and apparent yet the experience that this world is still shrouded in darkness. We still wear funeral clothes but long for dancing clothes. Well, bit by bit, we put on the dancing clothes of the resurrected Christ even as we peel away the funeral clothes of our sorrows and pains and suffering.

Today is our dancing day, not just tomorrow. Today, we are nearer to our salvation than when we first believed. Today, we are able to know the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ when we do the things he has asked us to do. The presence of God is known when we do these things together, not alone. The presence of God is known as we draw others into the Kingdom of the Great Reversal through the ministry of forgetfulness of ourselves and the remembering of Christ in the other. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

And so today, Christmas Day, the day of the birth of Jesus, may we live in the light of the Resurrection, and the joyous dance of life. I end with the most beautiful carol from last night’s Nine Lessons and Carol Service at St Hilda’s. The choir sang only four of the verses; but when you see them all you realise it is an Easter Carol as well as a Christmas one. The two great festivals of our faith become one.

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance;
Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance
Thus was I knit to man's nature
To call my true love to my dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

In a manger laid, and wrapped I was
So very poor, this was my chance
Between an ox and a silly poor ass
To call my true love to my dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then afterwards baptized I was;
The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father’s voice heard I from above,
To call my true love to my dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Into the desert I was led,
Where I fasted without substance;
The Devil bade me make stones my bread,
To have me break my true love's dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

For thirty pence Judas me sold,
His covetousness for to advance:
Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold!
The same is he shall lead the dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Before Pilate the Jews me brought,
Where Barabbas had deliverance;
They scourged me and set me at nought,
Judged me to die to lead the dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then on the cross hanged I was,
Where a spear my heart did glance;
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then down to hell I took my way
For my true love's deliverance,
And rose again on the third day,
Up to my true love and the dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then up to heaven I did ascend,
Where now I dwell in sure substance
On the right hand of God, that man
May come unto the general dance.

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.