Sermon: Acts 17:22-31 and John 14:15-31

Theme: The Lord of the Dance

Yesterday at church those leading the service talked of how our faith is like a dance, in which we are learning to tune into the music of God’s love and move in response.  In looking for what to share on my blog I found something I wrote in May 2017 on these two passages which feels like it is exploring the same theme.  How do we understand God? How do we tune into the music of love and join in his dance?

In the verses in Acts Paul is talking to the people of Athens.  They ask him to explain ‘this new idea’.  They are thinking people but what Paul is saying is something different – I love that they want to understand.  I find myself standing with them saying, ‘Yes, Paul, please explain!’ 

Paul in his ‘tuned-in-ness to God’ understands their desire, and he speaks to them because he  wants the unknown to become known (v 23); he explains that God does not live in temples built by hands (v24): he describes how God wants humans to seek him out, reach out for him and find him, ‘though he is not far from any of us’ (v27).  In verse 28 he uses the Athenian’s own words to explain that God is with them: ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’ ‘We are his offspring’.

I sense that searching for God in my own soul.  I sense the presence of God when I slow down and pause.  I feel like my life’s journey is to return home to the place inside myself where God/Love dwells and this is a journey that we are all on however eloquently or uncomprehendingly we articulate and understand it.

Then we come to Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John. We see that Heaven’s strategy is relationship and starts with the relationship ‘within’ God – between the three parts of God.  Jesus says in verse 16: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counsellor to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth.

God is ‘three in one’.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The relationship between these three is at the heart of our faith.  The Holy Trinity is a difficult concept but as we struggle to understand we find the deeper truths and the mystery that is God.  We will never fully understand ‘him’ but that shouldn’t stop us trying and, in the process, beginning to unwrap that bit of God’s kingdom which lives within us.

The relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is sometimes understood as the ’Divine Dance’.  There is movement and harmony and it is centred around Love. Jesus says in verse 20: ‘you are in me, and I am in you’.  Jesus is in the Father and we are in him, and he is in us, and the Holy Spirit ‘lives with us and will be in us’ (v17).

The intertwined nature of the relationship reminds me of a Celtic knot within which we find no ends.  The flow of the ‘three in one’ is beautifully illustrated in this ancient art.  And that image is deepened when we realise this is a static symbol of something that is moving and flowing.  It is a dance of love into which we are invited: we are invited into that Love energy.

Yesterday at church we sang ‘The Lord of the Dance’.  I tend to associate this song with my 70’s Primary education – a favourite in assemblies.  But yesterday I heard its truth.  Jesus is the Lord of the Dance and invites us to join in.

“I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me: I am the Lord of the Dance said he!”

I would encourage you to listen to ‘The Lord of the Dance’ and to consider Jesus’ words: You are in me and I am in you.  What does that mean to you?  How does that reality sit with you?  God lives in you…  Have you found ‘him’ in there yet?

Picture by Caleb Woods on Unsplash