The Dance

"I would believe only in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity-through him all things fall."

— Frederick Nietzsche

(Painting by Edvard Munch)

A lot of people think that Nietzsche was an atheist. Evangelical Christians are taught to despise him because he is the philosopher who said "God is dead," but a better translation may have been "God is dead and YOU killed Him!" He was not so much an enemy of the faith as he was an enemy of hypocritical hierarchiesfrightenedgladness and even abandon rather than be paralyzed by moralism and legalism. I don't know what was in Nietzsche's heart or what his relationship with God was or where his soul is now, but I am confident that his disgust and resentment was not with Christ, but with Christians, not with God, but with His church, because in this time of "Christian Conservatives" and the "Religious Right," I often feel a similar disappointment and disillusionment. and institutions. Re-read his quote, and then read the passage below from 2 Samuel in the Old Testament. One of the many problems that I find with the "established religious order" is their lack of joy and wonder. We dare not ever be irreverent. That's the same fear that congregants had when they came to Martin Luther, that they would make a mistake and sin and he told them to "Sin Boldly." What he meant was to serve and worship the Lord with

9 David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?" 10 He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.

12 Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

17 They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings ^[f] before the LORD. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"

21 David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."

23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. (2 Samuel 6)

Dear God,

Teach us to love you as much as David and to find as much joy in You as he did.
Teach us to let go of our power struggles and even our dignity, so that rather than be embarasssed or iritated like Michal, we're willing to worship you with reckless abandon and passionate rapture like David did.

We love you Jesus,
Amen