Caught in the Spinning Mirror Ball

In The Message translation of the Gospel passage for the fourth Sunday of Advent this year (Luke 1:47-55), Eugene Peterson has Mary tell Elizabeth:

"I'm bursting with God-news;

I'm dancing the song of my Savior God."

I will never cease to be amazed at how God works to focus my attention.  Weeks ago when I posted the cover picture on my Facebook page (which I've also put below) of my Christmas parade debut as a dancer, I had no way of knowing that in the last week I'd be reading Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr.  I bought the book last summer, hoping to read it before starting my new job.  That didn't happen, and the book, along with 4-5 others I had ordered, sat on the bookshelf until last week.

In the early pages, I was struck by a quote that Rohr uses from author and psychologist, Bill Plotkin:  "...many of us learn to do our survival dance, but we never get to our sacred dance." Later as Rohr talks about the spiritual journey of the second half of our lives, he notes that as we age the dance "has a seriousness to it, but also an unself-conscious freedom of form that makes it bright and shining."  I'm beginning to embrace the "unself-conscious freedom," and liking it.

I moved from tap and ballet lessons as a 6 year old to dancing behind the closed door of my bedroom along with vinyl records turning on the portable record player to somehow emerging on the disco floor as a late teenager.  This week's addition to the Advent altar is a scarf that reminds me of the ones I wore as Donna Summer blared through the speakers.  It also represents how my dance has changed.  In the late 1970s, the scarf was a decorative accessory meant only to flow with the movements of the music, shimmering in the light of the disco ball.  Now, the scarves I wear have a purpose - to keep my neck warm, my ears covered from the wind, and my nose from turning bright red.  Oh, the mystery of life that continues to unfold with growing older: That life's ultimate meaning does not come in youth or defined by our culture, but through a difficult, yet amazing walk of faith, recounting God's presence on the journey and discovering new ways to draw closer to the Sacred.

So why is it that churches hesitate (or just plain fail) to challenge adult faith?  We're too often content to focus our energies on supporting and nurturing "adults" where they are right now in their faith. Yet God isn't calling us to do that.  God is urging us to realize that the 50 year old ballerina costumes don't fit any longer, that we're dancing to different music - much less that the record player has all but disappeared, and that the years have brought new purpose and meaning to life. 

We need to transform how the church is in ministry with maturing adults before the scarf gets caught in the spinning mirror ball and chokes us....