We Don’t Need Permission to Dance

I happened upon a video of the Korean pop band BTS. They were singing at--of all places--the United Nations. And they were singing a song called “Permission to Dance.”

Now, BTS is a band I was aware of, but I hadn’t listened to their oeuvre until that moment. And that video caught me and grabbed me the way Michael Jackson’s music did. N.B. We will put aside for the moment the troubling parts of MJ’s story and simply revel in the music.

These young Korean men sing beautifully, and, oh my goodness, how they dance! The exuberance and the sense of freedom and possibility in the words “…we don’t need permission to dance.”

It’s been a season of strange and disturbing happenings in the nation and in the world, and we long for serenity and sure-footedness. That longing has taken up residence in the deepest core of our souls. We don’t feel calm. We don’t feel sure-footed. We long for relief.

And that takes me to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Welsh priest, poet, theologian. Not what you were expecting, was it, especially after the shock of a 73 year old saying she’d fallen in love with BTS?

In Rowan Williams’ recent interview with Kate Bowler, the subject of longing came up. Specifically, they were talking about the question of whether it is right for Christians to long for something. Williams raised the idea of longing as the ongoing desire to be at rest, and then once we are at rest, we long to be more deeply at rest. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That longing can be a longing for more wonderfulness. He suggests the notion that (channeling St Augustine here) heaven isn’t just a static place where we’re done with the troubles of the world; instead, we see the possibilities of love and beauty and grace and long for them to more deeply imbue the world we live in now, the world that God created.

At Saint John’s, we may be feeling a longing for a feeling of being settled and having certainty--when will the interim come? When will we call a new priest? It is natural and also slightly anxiety-producing. And also, I’d suggest that the longing should not only be for an interim or a permanent priest, but also for the sense of how the church is looking forward to the future. It’s a longing for the revelation of new possibilities. It’s a longing for the marvelous surprises that God through the Holy Spirit has in store.

It’s knowing we can ask “what if” and also knowing that for every “what if” we have the capacity to face the “and if not.” Because we are made for longing and also for creating and then wanting to go ever more deeply into God’s hopes as we can respond to them.

It will not be the same as it was. We are not the same as we were. We have grown, our minds have broadened and deepened. And that is precisely what we have been made for, and just what we might do, if we trust in the God who built us for this.

Now go and dance. We don’t need anyone’s permission to dance. And who knows? We might even come up with some new dance steps!

Be blessed and be a blessing-

Mary+