Rev. Tessie Mandeville
July 29, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

The fourth sermon of the series - The "Left Behind" Gospels....and how they could still change the world.

Sometimes we can learn a lot from children. I learned a lot about life from a little boy named Kerry. I met Kerry when he was eight years old and I was one of his counselors at the residential treatment center where I worked. Kerry came to us from an abusive family. In fact, when he was nine months old, he had boiling water thrown on his leg and was severely scarred. As Kerry grew older and experienced some growth spurts, his legs didn’t grow at the same time and length. Because of his injuries, his left leg was longer than his right leg, which meant he walked with a limp. The doctors told us that by the time Kerry went through puberty and the growth spurt that accompanies it, that there would probably be a 12 inch difference between his legs and he would be severely disabled.

Kerry lived in the residential home with 11 other boys, ages 7-13 years old. You can imagine how difficult it was for Kerry to be surrounded by other boys who didn’t walk with limps and who, when they were mad at Kerry, made fun of him. Perhaps you can also try to imagine what it must have been like for Kerry to wake up every morning, to see his leg, and to have a constant reminder of the suffering he endured.

Kerry was extremely self-conscious about what his burned leg looked like and he never wore shorts. He was also extremely self-conscious because he didn’t walk like the other boys which meant he couldn’t run and play like them either. My colleagues and I wondered how we would help him and what would be most beneficial.

My colleague, Dave, came up with a great idea which was to buy lotion for him to help his dry skin. We bought “Keri” lotion, and told him that this was made especially for him, since it used his name. Every morning and every night, one of us would spend time with Kerry, playing music, singing or talking with him as he rubbed lotion on his legs. It became a very important ritual. Kerry learned to touch his burned leg in loving and healing ways. Rituals can help us heal and reclaim a sense of freedom.

Rituals are important in religious communities. There are rituals surrounding birth, naming children, coming of age, marriage and death. Rituals describe some type of repeatable action that expresses some fundamental truth or meaning. There are several rituals surrounding the Eucharist, or the Last Supper, in the New Testament. In the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before Jesus was arrested, he assembled his disciples and shared a meal. This ritual consists of Jesus sharing a meal and telling the disciples to eat the bread and drink the wine, which symbolize his body and blood. For Matthew, Mark and Luke, this ritual is central because it shows believers how to celebrate Communion.

But in the gospel of John, we have a completely different ritual. After dinner, according to John, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe and tied a cloth around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the cloth that was tied around him. So according to John, this ritual is significant, even necessary, for anyone who wants to share communion with Jesus.

Today’s gospel story comes from a book called the Acts of John, which is a collection of stories and traditions inspired by John’s gospel, but more than likely it was written by a follower of Valentinus. We talked about Valentinus last week who was the author of the Gospel of Truth. Valentinus was a sophisticated theologian, poet and teacher who often relied on dreams and revelations for his understandings of Jesus.

Whoever wrote this story boldly revised John’s account of what happened that night before Jesus was arrested. In this story, there is yet another ritual, and probably one of the oldest Christian rituals we have. Here, Jesus invited his disciples to sing and dance with him. It is known as The Round Dance of the Cross and it says: “Before he was arrested…he assembled us all, and said, ‘Before I am delivered to them, let us sing a hymn to [God], and so go to meet what lies before us.’ So he told us to form a circle, holding one another’s hands, and he himself stood in the middle and said, ‘Answer Amen to me.’” Then, as the disciples circled him, dancing, Jesus began to chant a hymn.

But this isn’t all that happens in The Round Dance of the Cross. Jesus and the disciples don’t just sing, dance and pretend that everything is okay. They don’t pretend that Jesus isn’t going to suffer. After Jesus finishes his hymn he says, What I am about to suffer is your own. For you could by no means have understood what you suffer, unless I had been sent to you as the logos, or word, from God…if you knew how to suffer, you would not be able to suffer.

What Jesus tells us in the Round Dance of the Cross is that he suffers in order to reveal the nature of human suffering, and to teach the paradox that the Buddha himself taught: that those who become aware of suffering simultaneously find release from it. Yet he also tells them to join in the cosmic dance by saying: Whoever dances belongs to the whole. Whoever does not dance does not know what happens. The one who doesn’t dance isn’t free.

Those who loved the Acts of John apparently celebrated the Eucharist by chanting these words, holding hands, and circling in this dance to celebrate together the mystery of Jesus’ suffering, and their own suffering, knowing that if they could dance, they were free, no matter what was going on around them.

Suffering is not an easy topic to talk about and yet it is necessary to acknowledge that everyone suffers at different times in their lives. I wish that wasn’t the case but we all know better. God sees, hears and knows suffering. I don’t believe that God causes suffering but I do believe God partners with us to try and end suffering in this world. What I have come to believe deeply, through my own suffering, is that God grieves when I do. I hope we all discover through our suffering that God meets us in our deepest, darkest moments.

The little boy, Kerry, knew a lot about suffering. He suffered terrible abuse from his family and as a result, he was crippled. He walked with a limp everyday, and though the ritual of rubbing lotion on his leg everyday was helpful and healing, it didn’t change the way he walked.

One day my supervisor, Anne, had a great idea about how to help Kerry. She said we could get special shoes made for him that had the right amount of heel built into them so that when Kerry walked, he would not walk with a limp. We had three pairs of shoes made for him, including tennis shoes, so that he would have shoes like everyone else, even if they had more of a heel on them.

At first, Kerry was scared to try these shoes on but over time, and with encouragement from his friends, he began to wear them. And I wish you could have seen his transformation! He experienced a freedom that I don’t think he ever thought was possible. He ran everywhere he could. He was happy and he felt like the other boys. And the biggest transformation of all was that he began to dance! It didn’t matter what time of day it was or what was going on or how he felt. Kerry danced! He danced his joy. He danced his sorrow. He danced his anger. He danced his loss.

Our story this morning from The Round Dance of the Cross tells us that the one who doesn’t dance isn’t free. Kerry found freedom and he danced. Jesus found freedom and he danced too. The paradox is that both found freedom and danced in the midst of terrible suffering.

Rituals can help us heal and reclaim a sense of freedom. Rituals don’t necessarily stop the suffering. What they do is offer us ways to move through our suffering and ways to find freedom.

Matthew, Mark and Luke enact a ritual that is meaningful to them and helps them understand Jesus. It’s important for them that bread represents Jesus’ body and wine represents his blood. John enacts a ritual that is meaningful to him and helps him understand Jesus. It’s important for him that Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Jesus’ loving service is his example and motivation. The community that follows The Round Dance of the Cross enacts a ritual that is meaningful to them and helps them understand Jesus. It’s important for them that Jesus sings and dances.

In the Acts of John, John tells the community that it is not strange or paradoxical that each of them sees Jesus in different ways because he says that what anyone sees depends on that person’s expectations and capacity. In other words, what we see in Jesus—or God—depends on what we need to see and what we are capable of seeing. And I’d like to take it one step further—God is big enough to be seen in a multitude of ways and isn’t threatened by being seen in more than one way.

These “left behind gospels” teach us many things but here is one of the most important lessons: we are all dancing with the divine, at times embracing and other times moving apart, but always remaining in rhythm and relationship. Each of us is called to be a cosmic dancer, not grasping any belief too tightly but letting our minds and spirits and bodies leap and learn and grow as we live our lives. May we always be willing to learn from children because as the poet, Hafiz, says:

Every child has known God.

Not the God of names,

Not the God of don’ts,

Not the God who ever does anything weird,

But the God who knows only 4 words

And keeps repeating them, saying:

“Come Dance with Me.”

“Come Dance with Me.”

Matthew 26: 26-29; Mark 14: 22-25; Luke 22: 15-20; John 13: 1-8

Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief, p. 125.

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.