This sermon was submitted by Rev. V-Tog and we are grateful for her dedication in this :)

Sermon – The Dance of Life

I’d like to talk to you about dancing. Some of you might be thinking ‘Yeah, I love dancing!’, and for those of you who are more like me, the thought of dancing will be conjuring up painful memories of countless occasions standing on the sidelines watching others dancing and wishing you felt a little less self-conscious about the whole thing. If you are one of those people, don’t worry! I’d like to talk about a different kind of dancing. A specific dance, in fact. One that we can all be involved in. Perhaps I’d call it ‘the dance of life’.

I little while back, I found myself using a new metaphor in my meditations. I was outside listening to music with my eyes closed, feeling the wind and the rain on my face and knowing that I was surrounded by trees, greenery, wildlife, and so on. And suddenly I realised that these things, whilst they seem separate, are in fact just parts of a larger thing. A dance. A new kind of dance, called the Force.

Think of the wind and the trees. Some might think that they are fighting with each other. But I think that they are dancing with each other. On a slightly breezy day, for example, there is something relaxing and peaceful about the wind in the trees. They are certainly not fighting. On a windier day the dance is simply a little faster and more energetic. What about the sun and rain? They too are part of the dance. Perhaps they determine the mood of the dance, as music does. And where do the confines of the dance stop? Is it limited by distance, or by time? Could you find a way of marking the boundaries of the dance? Of course not. Everything is a part of it. This is an all-encompassing and never-ending dance; the dance that is life, and the dance that is the Force.

And, of course, you and I are called to be a part of this dance. Think of it as a dance with your friends, where you are standing at the side and they are calling you to come and join in. In any dance you have the energetic joyful dancers, the slower and more relaxed dancers, and the people resting or watching. The question is, which are you? Are you fully immersed in the dance? Or are you watching it from a distance? Perhaps you are so keen to ignore your friends and avoid dancing that you have left the building completely and are trying to forget all about it.

I would suggest that in being here, you are probably not that last person. But if you are a watcher or a rester, I would like to suggest that you consider why that might be. Perhaps you are sometimes involved in the dance, but you like to take constant breathers. Perhaps you are rarely or never a participant of the dance, you just enjoy observing it.

There is nothing to fear. No-one in this dance will judge you. You will be welcomed in to it with open arms. And if you step into it with an open and loving mind and heart, you will find that the dance never grows tiring. Rather, it grows ever more invigorating. It may change over time; perhaps it will speed up or slow down, perhaps the steps will get harder or easier, perhaps the mood of the dance will grow more joyful or more sombre, but that is part of what makes it such a magical thing. So what are you waiting for? Get your dancing shoes on!