Mon, Mar. 25
... Dance before the Lord
Yesterday morning, as part of the Palm Sunday thing, they had a couple of interpretive dancers. Now, you have to understand that my church is borderline conservative/charismatic. We have a little bit of everything, and people who prefer a wide range of worship styles. We've never done anything like that before, though, and I'm sure that there will be people who will "talk" about having *gasp* dancing in church!! As part of the service, no less!
Of course, I have my opinions on it, and I just wanted to get them down for the record.
I think it was absolutely beautiful, and about time we got that kind of worship into the service.
Some people would say that it's not worship--that it may be "art" but not worship--but I would say that it is. If I play a beautiful classical piece on the piano as an offeratory or something like that, is it any less worship, just because it doesn't have words that talk about Jesus every 2 lines? No! It can still be me offering my gift of music to God; taking what he's given me and giving it back to him... and it can still be inspiring for someone else and draw them closer to God in some way, even if the words themselves don't have some sort of message.
Can painting, drawing, photography... anything like that... still be worship even if it doesn't show a biblical scene or such? Yes. It can open people's eyes to the beauty of God's creation. It can represent a soul. It can show a personal journey towards God, or away from God.
God is the ultimate artist, and I think that anything we do that glorifies him in some way is worship, even if it's inadvertant. If I play the piano to praise God with what he's given me, I'm worshipping him. If someone takes a picture, even if they're not intending it to be "God-focused," and someone else sees it and praises God because of it, that's worship.
Dance is no different. It's celebrating the art, the beauty of God's creation--the human body--the gifts given to the dancer, and the story being told. Of course dancing can be--and often is--taken out of context and misused, just like anything else can. Music can. Photography can. Theatre can. Painting can. Sculpting can. Anything can be distorted and perverted to become anything but what God intended for it to be... but it can be beautifully used, too.
infinite || abyss
posted at 5:52 p.m.
