Invited to Dance

2015/05/31
Christ Church, Mountain Top, Trinity, Confirmation
Children,
Isaiah 6.1-8
Message,
John 3.1-17
Today:
      Confirmation, making vows … like a wedding
      Trinity Sunday – a great mystery at the
heart of Christian faith
      John 3, with famous verse John 3.16 (but
that is not where I focus)
            With Jesus’ conversation with
Nicodemus, who is seeking
            If a romance
                  NOT a corny, “We love Jesus,
yes we do” chant
                  Late night rendezvous, Jesus
“hard to get”
                  But
everything depends on this for Nicodemus
Romance (story)
      Initiation by someone
      In connection with God, God takes the
initiative (not Nicodemus, or us)
      “For God so LOVED” (John 3.16)
Prior
sending of the Son and the Spirit:
·        
God did not send the Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him
(3.17)
·        
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear
the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes (3.8)

      “Prevenient
grace”
(Kim Hirt can’t say it)
Responsibility (vows)
      Marriage prep, no surprises with the vows
            “obey”
            Do not all “work” – example
      These are the vows of adults!
      Baptismal covenant is like marriage – love
Jesus
      New birth, new start
            Your decisive choice is a part of
the process
      “Justifying
grace”
Reception (dance)
      Circle dance – hokey pokey, chicken dance
            Being pulled into the dance
      Image for the Holy Trinity, “perichoresis”
      Propeller seeds, twirling
And,
after that is a second sending
·        
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit
(3.8)
Hippolytus:
‘Christ is the “leader of the mystic round-dance” and the church as the bride
that dances with him’
      Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 110
      “Sanctifying
grace”
– becoming like Jesus, learning the dance steps
            In a circle dance, you don’t have to
be “good”, just in the circle
Resources:

Jurgen
Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the
Spirit