I began dancing in church when I was eight years old, and as a child it always seemed like a normal and correct way to be present in worship.  It was not until I was in high school that I began to realize that there was no one dancing in my friends’ churches and that dance was not even accepted in many of them.  This was very unnerving to me because it was the ability to dance that gave me a physical and emotional sense of faith and purpose; dance was my way of participating and belonging in the worship life of our church. It was through my body that I first really connected with the holy.

I have come to believe that there is a profound difference between having experiences and making meaning. Making meaning does not depend only on what you need to do, but on who you need to be.  What habits of love are formed, what kind of soul is shaped in us.  Our spiritual life is one way in which we make meaning, helping us ask big questions like: how am I connected?, what makes me a whole person?  It’s often said that practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.  Spiritual practice is called practice for a reason – it can permanently shape the way you relate to the world.  My spiritual practice of dancing in worship during a critical time of development in my life affirmed my whole body and whole self – no wonder I never left the church.

I believe that to be present with someone on their faith journey is a ministry of accompaniment.  This “accompanying with” allows a person to form their own sense of integrity – in who they are and what they believe… and I also believe that this accompaniment is not metaphorical, but that it involves actual movement.

Accompaniment is a process of drawing together and I believe that it reflects the nature of the interconnectedness of humanity.  By moving together, (which we all have done this morning), one effectively accompanies others while they themselves are being accompanied; it is as if we are forming a circle where everyone is supported and where all can share pain and joy.

Beginning to move with emotion while together in community creates a high level of vulnerability. However, by using movement as a tool of communication, we can experience each other’s passion and grief on a truly human level.  Body experience does not necessitate agreement, but creates an environment of holy regard for another person.  Bodily expression invites ambiguity and for a person to be met by a sacred presence and the community, exactly where they are in that moment.  In the context of a loving, supportive community, the body is given permission to express nothing less than the deepest longings of the soul.

Movement brings new life and diversity to emotion; anger, pain, joy, longing, and blessing can be authentically represented and worked out in the way it is experienced – on a deep body level.  Instead of emotion being held inside, weighing us down and manifesting itself in negative ways, we have given one another the permission to become a cloud of witnesses calling for a new way of being.  We are challenged to value each person and we are constantly called to be aware of creation and that which is life-giving: By going beyond our inner thoughts and involving our own bodies, we allow ourselves to become aware not only of ourselves, but of one another.

Far too often “sacred dance” is viewed only as a performance art. Many times throughout history, churches have shunned dance, separating spirit and body and emphasizing control over “pleasures of the flesh”.  Sacred dance is not merely an art from, it is a valid form of prayer, praise, and worship that all may joyfully participate in.  Sacred dance is not a new, radical idea, but provides a link to the history of spirituality and religion.  For many people in western culture, dance is a spectator sport: we are a society very accustomed to only being entertained by movement.  There was, however, a time in which dance was one of the most fundamental religious expressions, the connection between this world and that of the divine.  Basic shapes, movement patterns, and symbols have survived from ancient Egypt, Europe, and Israel and transcended geographic regions and faith traditions. Unfortunately, in many cases, dance was suppressed and eventually phased out of the regular practice of worship in the Christian faith. It was just too dangerous.

Humans live in two distinct worlds.  There is the small, unique world of one’s personal experience and the timeless, symbolic word of those experiences shared by ancestors, passed down to us in innate and learned forms from generation to generation. Movement can serve as a very important link between who we are as individuals and who we are as a community of earthly beings: made of stardust and full of ancient body wisdom.

From the beginning of the Jewish faith, the worship of God was active in every religious season and milestone in life.  There are eleven different verbs in the Hebrew language for dance.  There is Biblical evidence that, in fact, it is quite possible that dance was so much a part of everyday life, it was not even necessary to mention it. Imagine us having to mention in stories that one wore clothes when leaving the house or that you drank coffee to wake up or that you had to push the gas pedal to make the car go.  It was common, assumed, basic knowledge.

Jesus was Jewish and Jesus was a dancer, too.  In a specific dance known as the “Hymn of Jesus”, contained in the Gnostic Acts of John, dated around 160CE, during his Last Supper, while waiting to be arrested, Jesus gathers his followers into a circle to dance.  This is a part of that hymn:

Then he asked us to form a circle: we took each by the hand, he being in the middle and said:  Amen: Follow me; and he commenced the hymn.

Jesus:  Forgiveness is our choregos (dance-leader) – to sing is my desire, let us dance together.

Disciples:  Amen

Jesus:  I wish to be grieved for, weep you all.

Disciples:  Amen

Jesus:  I am the light, ye who see me.  I am the gate, ye who enter.

Disciples:  (The twelve now dance)

Jesus:  Those who do not dance will not comprehend what shall befall.

Disciples:  Amen

Jesus:  Then all of you join my dance. You who dance, see what I have accomplished.

As late as the fourth century, the “Hymn of Jesus” was still regarded as an initiation ritual in some Christian communities.  In a vision on that same night, Jesus told John that he had “transcended the cross, and even that suffering which I showed you, and to the rest in dance, I will that it be called a mystery.”  This record of Jesus, as well as many others, was not included in the Biblical canon.  The Acts of John was condemned by Pope Leo the Great around 447 C.E.  The Christian church, historically, as an institution has done a very good job of disconnecting our heads from the rest of our bodies, to making spirituality thought-centered and not experience-lived.  Experiencing God as something done best while being still, quiet, cowed, and, of course, led by men.  I am not invalidating stillness and quiet or Catholic masses as spiritual practices, I am simply suggesting that they are not the only acceptable ways to be centered in spirit.  Cowed, cramped up, and only led by men, however -in these I cannot abide.

Think for instance of what happens when someone says “Let us Pray…” – what does your body automatically do? ….  Thank you, Reformation.  In the third century, the most ancient symbol of prayer and blessing that we know of was painted on catacombs, and it it looked like this… It is called the Orans position and I invite you to give it a try.  How does that change how your body feels?  Does it change your sense of self in relation to the holy one that you are communing with?  Again, I am not suggesting that bowing cannot be a wonderful and spiritually sound way to pray, just that it isn’t the only, or even the oldest idea.

If we are created in the image of the sacred, then we are understood and accepted fully as we are. As we come in contact with others who have their own unique experiences of the holy mystery and how that holiness acts in their lives, we may come closer to understanding the fullness of God’s presence in this world. God did not have to wait for our say so to be present in the world and God does not depend on us to decide what is sacred. Too often our stories are shaped by ideals projected onto us instead of from the sacred within us.  Too often, we (and even especially teens and young adults) are presented with unhealthy and greedy notions of what it “normal”, “successful”, and “attractive”.  The struggle to live up to unrealistic ideals cloud our ability to see the divine within ourselves.

I am a passionate and enthusiastic facilitator of the Our Whole Lives comprehensive sexuality curriculum that was developed in partnership by the Unitarian Universalists and the United Church of Christ.  It is a life-long learning model with 6 parts, beginning with Kindergartners and continuing through Adults.  It provides not only facts about anatomy and human development, but helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the social, emotional and spiritual aspects of sexuality – it’s about healthy relationships, values, intimacy, and so much more.  It affirms that Sexuality is not just a behavior, its our whole lives – an affirming, positive and wonderful creative life force. The OWL values that influence every part of every session are:  Self-Worth, Sexual Health, Responsibility, and Justice and Inclusivity.

This weekend, I began an academic year-long Jr. High Our Whole Lives class with 21 6-9th graders from UCG and the wider community.  They are now seeing UCG in a new way, as a place where their whole changing bodies and minds are welcome and safe.  That we care that they are healthy, informed, and supported. Each of our sessions together have a ritual opening and closing, a way to bookend the session and give them a secure rhythm.  Usually these rituals consist of a reading and a question – posed for silent reflection in the beginning and inviting response after the workshop.  The readings and prayers used in today’s service are from the OWL curriculum.  The question posed at the beginning and end of our sessions yesterday was “What does it mean to made in a holy or sacred image? Or to made in the image of God?”  This is what I heard and learned from our Jr. High group: “It means that you are already ok.”  “It means that you are good enough.”  “It means that you are created to be you and that’s who you should be. You don’t have to change.”  “You shouldn’t damage who you are because you are made special.”  That’s what you hear when you take bodies seriously in a sacred space, when you understand that it’s not only the brain and the heart that are spiritual, but all of the other parts too – the blessed bellies and holy hands, the cherished cheeks and the sacred sexual systems, ordained organs and consecrated capillaries, the virtuous voluptuous and grace-kissed gangly.

In order to be embodied in spirit, you have to be in your body.  Thank you for bringing your bodies to UCG this morning and allowing them to be a part of our worship together.  I hope that you found meaning in those moments this morning when you didn’t have to think, you could just commune and move together, powerfully and peacefully holding each other and ourselves in grace.  May it bring you the peace of knowing that here, your whole self is sacred, your whole self is welcome, and your whole self is supported.