'If I Could Say It, I Wouldn't Need to Dance It"

"Love is the perfection of the unnecessary." "Beauty will save the world." "Let them be born in wonder." "Only the lover sings." "If I could have said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it."

When you first think of Christian religion, is your first reaction to think of beauty, wonder, love, and dance? Do we not more often think of mysteries that need explaining and hard teachings that need defending? 

Has our modern impulse toward the practical and the explainable hurt our experience of the Faith? Have we boxed ourselves in and only allowed ourselves to do that which we can give rational explanation of? Have we limited ourselves to prose, and then been annoyed that there isn't enough poetry in the world?

Sunday Celebration of the Transfiguration 

We interrupt your regularly scheduled 18th Sunday of ordinary time to bring you:

August 6th: The yearly feast of the Transfiguration 

And collectively, the priests and deacons around the country say "Ugh!"

Why? 

Two reasons:

1 ) we just preached on it 5 months ago, in Lent. 

2 ) it's hard to preach on. 

In the seminary they warned us: the more theological the feast, the harder to preach. 

So, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Assumption...

But even, Christmas and Easter sometimes. 

But also, the Transfiguration is just hard to understand 

Hard for even the preacher to understand, so it's going to be hard to preach...

...because we like to explain.  

We saw that trap back in June on Trinity Sunday: our temptation to explain. 

The Trinity at least is a big, mysterious doctrine. 

Today, August 6, the Transfiguration, the whole scene is hard to understand.

Weird place.

Weird things happen to Jesus.

Weird group.

Weird things said by Peter. 

Weird final thoughts from the Voice and from Jesus himself. 

What is that all about??

Reminds me of a story: 

One of the great ballerinas of all time 

After one of her performances, somebody asked what the dance meant.

Her reply was perfect, but also very honest:

"If I could have said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it."

I love it. 

"No, sir.  I can't explain what it was about, Mr. Spectator Sir."

"If I could have said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it."

We have this drive to want to make things practical and this drive to explain them. 

I don't know if that a modern thing. 

I don't know if it's an American thing.  

But it's definitely a thing we do. 

Things have to be immanently practical and we have to be able to explain it all. 

I don't think that's actually our natural state, but it's where we've gotten to. 

Think of all the careful steps of two servicemen at a funeral, stiffly, sharply, folding the American flag off of the casket.  

"Why do they do that?" a kid might ask quietly. 

"I don't know, kid. But I like it."  

I mean, you could explain: 

"It's for reverence."

There probably some symbolism worked out.

This many folds,

This many turns,

This side up.

You could explain that. 

And that might help a bit. 

But probably the best thing would be if the soldier turned to the kid after giving the flag to the widow and said:

"If I could have said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it."

Honestly, the drive to be practical and to explain things has probably been harmful to Christianity. 

We've trained ourselves that everything needs to be able to fit in nice little boxes in our heads.

And that all the things should be explainable to 2nd graders. 

Or at least to an adult. 

But why?

If we can't exhaust the meaning of folding a flag, can we really hope to cover the depth of our religion?

Two things argue against the drive to be practical and explain everything: 

Our natural love for beauty.  

And our natural love for stories. 


These are not practical, and often then don't really explain things.

Next week I'll talk about stories. 

Today I'm just talking about beauty. 

Beauty is done in a lot of ways in Christianity. 

Beautiful art. 

Beautiful voices singing beautiful music. 

Beautiful lessons: Prodigal son and the thankful leper and Peter asking Jesus to call him to walk on the water. 

Beautiful moments: 

water poured on baby, 

the oil smeared on the hands of someone on their deathbed, 

the hand lifted in absolution. 

These aren't practical though. 

They're not logical and rational and easy. 

Definitely not self-explaining. 

No more than our scene of Transfiguration is. 

Cuz they're not instruction manuals. 

Not even theological pamphlets. 

Why do you process around the church and down the stairs with the Eucharist on Holy Thursday?

"If I could say it, I wouldn't need to dance it."

Incense is a classic one. 

"Why do we use that?"

Quote a Psalm: metaphor for our prayers rising to heaven like incense. 

Book of Revelation too. 

"Ok, but why go around the altar swinging it? Why swing at cross, and gospel book, and the people?"

Do as a sign of reverence.  

It's a sign that they're holy, set apart. 

Marking it off

Cool image: like carving out the altar in smoke to show it's special. 

Seminarian : smoke rising, lifting it up above this world. It's between earth and heaven now. 

Might've made that up. I don't know. 

6 year old boy : "You using smoke to make a force field around it to protect it from enemies!"

"High five kid! That's as good as anything I've got."

Because: "If I could have said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it."

Not just liturgy either. 

Why do nuns where veils and habits? 

Variety of answers:

Simplicity for poverty

Takes away temptation to vanity and worry 

Witness to the world

Sign of a bride of Christ

All the order looks the same

But if you went up to a nun and said "Sister, why do you wear a special veil and habit, she might just say: 

"If I could say it then I wouldn't need to dance it.

The explanations of some things are just beyond us, but they still feel reasonable, natural. 

How does a four-year-old act?

Comes up, stares at you, you stare back in wonder, maybe smile at the kid, and then...

Four-year-old explodes: "BYAH!" <arms thrown wide>

And then runs off. 

What was that about? 

"Uh. It means I like you."

It doesn't have to make sense. 

How do you lovers act? 

Kind of ridiculously. 

"Only the Lover Sings" by Josef Pieper

About beauty in sacred art and music. 

The natural response when we are filled up.

Love is about the perfection of the unnecessary. 

The unnecessary...that we want to do anyways. 

We have candles all over our churches. 

Why?

They're covered in "unnecessary" ornamentation.

Why?

We ring bells at the elevation, we put ashes on our heads, we beat our breasts, we lay a large white pall over a casket. 

Why? 

Why?

Good Friday 

Enter in dead silence. The only day of the year.

Servers and ministers are kneeling, but the priests fall flat on their faces.

They lay prostrate on the ground, like the apostles in today's gospel.

Why?

It's a sign of reverence

Well then what's genuflecting?

That's our standard act of reverence. 

And what is bowing? 

It's our sign of reverence...when we're on our way to do other stuff.

Is this like a double extra special kind of genuflection?

Why on that day? 

Why not on Easter? Jesus busting out of the tomb triumphant!

It's the one day of the whole year Jesus isn't even there in the tabernacle. 

"I don't know.  If I could have said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it."

Why do old churches have such high ceilings?

In 8th grade social studies, Miss Reynolds told us that the medieval cathedrals were made tall to make people look up and think of God. 

Ok, could be. 

Another person told me they're high so that on a hot day the heat would rise and leave cooler air on the floor. 

I thought: "Wow, that's a lot of work with hand-cut stone for a horribly inefficient air conditioning system!"

And I think if I ever meet the architect of Nôtre Dame in heaven, and ask why it's tall, he's going to say:

"If we could have said it, we wouldn't have needed to dance it. Out of stone."

On Trinity Sunday I talked about us not needing to feel we need to explain everything.

Instead we need to worship.

And worship is much more like a dance then like an explanation. 

The Christian faith is heavy on explanation, but even heavier on dances. 

Easter vigil: the greatest of dances. Many little dances within one big dance.

Start with a bonfire, give everyone candles, go into a dark church, sing a song about candles, then up to seven readings telling the whole story of salvation, then we bless water, baptize people, sprinkle more people...and then have a normal Mass!

So much stuff it's almost overwhelming.

This year on Holy Saturday on Facebook I asked people which they preferred: all the many layers of song and readings and extra rites, or when we try to keep it a little shorter for more people to come and find it more accessible.  

People were pretty split.

One person made the argument that they thought the Church over the centuries had intentionally overloaded the Vigil so you could never quite pay attention to all of it. 

I said, "That sounds stupid."

"No, there is something about how you can never quite know if you caught it all. So much stuff of symbol and story washing over you that passes in and out of focus. And you walk out not sure if you understood it, but thinking 'That was amazing.' Intentionally overwhelming."

Lines up well with the rest of Catholic Faith.

We tell you for years "Pay attention. Pay attention. Look up front, kid. Focus."

And then we fill the church with all this Catholic Eye Candy: Stained glass, statues, stations...

It's like the Church knows (after centuries of practice) that we're going to get distracted. It's going to happen. So she makes sure we are distracted by cool Catholic stuff.

To wrap up, let's come back to the Transfiguration with this new sense of things.

We can explain some things:

Moses and Elijah: stand for the Law and the Prophets, the whole old covenant 

Peter's strange offer: when you see amazing things, you might say gibberish

"Keep it Secret", because cool things become cooler when you have to keep them secret

But if we ask the question:

Why?

are they on a high mountain 

does his face shine like sun

are his clothes white as light

does the cloud envelope them

does the voice speak

God the Father might just answer us:

"If I could've said it, I wouldn't have needed to dance it." 

Snow Theories (Unrelated to Game of Thrones)

Five or six years ago, my friend Fr. Lee Jirovsky, a farm kid from near Seward, Nebraska, shared with me a thought on Isaiah's referencing both the rain and the snow coming down. It really stuck with me and so this weekend I wanted to share with people the ways that image can compel them to take learning their Bible more seriously.

15th Sunday, Year A: The Rain and The Snow

We know the parable of sower well. 

One of the first parables we learn. 

When we think of a parable, it's often what comes to mind. 

Probably for the rich imagery: four soils

And because Jesus explains it. 

So instead, turn to p. 28

1st reading: Isaiah 

Three things to note on the text:

1) All one sentence. 

<<read>>

You could diagram it

One core subject & predicate 

Tons of prepositional phrases

Lots of illustrations and metaphors around one metaphor:

2nd line, 2nd column 

"so shall my word be" 

^

"like the rain and the snow come down"

2) Focused on the watering 

Gospel > seed

Isaiah > moisture 

Psalm 65 on the opposite page

You have visited the land and watered it [...]
God's watercourses are filled;
you have prepared the grain.

Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,
breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers [...]

Nice illustration of the water cycle. 

Learned in 4th grade? 

I didn't know that they knew about it back then. 

Almost makes for a better image. 

Return isn't a given in Isaiah, as it is in the water cycle 

In the metaphor: God gives water...

...returns by making things grow to His glory and for our benefit. 

3) Snow. 

Uncommon in Judea. 

Rare, but can get in the highlands. 

Especially farther north. Golan Heights. 

But rare enough. 

But makes sense to us why Isaiah includes "snow"

We in Nebraska know it's not enough to get rain in the spring and summer. 

The city people and commuters are happy when there's little snow, 

but ask the farmers and they'll tell you. 

Need snow to keep up the groundwater levels, 

to keep the fields wet enough for when planting starts, 

and snow enough up in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming to keep the river levels up. 

Just crossed Platte yesterday for a wedding

Big sand bars visible again

Not like a month ago

<<Close books>>

Before further, let's clarify something:

"The word of God", of course, is God speaking to us. 

Most common and direct way of encountering is Sacred Scripture

Other wisdom of God through his Church: sacraments and teaching

Personal Prayer = the Word speaking quietly within us

And of course Jesus himself is "the Word of God" in the flesh. 

But I think naturally the primary way we hear "word of God" here is in reference to the words of the sacred biblical texts. 

Back to our metaphor

Isaiah: the word of God is like the rain AND the snow 

Rain comes down = water now

Snow builds up = water for the future 

I need the word of God to hit me now...

And I need the word of God to store up and stay with me for later. 

We need to build up our water supply...

...Our water supply of the word of God 

Keep the soil soft and supple. 

Build up reserves of word of God that we'll need in the months to come. 

This is why don't pray only when in need. 

Or at least we shouldn't. 

Why we say "now and at hour of our death". 

Don't go to church only when feel like it. 

Shouldn't read the bible only when I get the urge. 

^

Or in desperation 

Things like: 

Daily prayer, 

weekly Mass, 

regular reading of the bible, 

...build up our reserves. 

When you hear a little old Protestant lady quote some line of scripture when something bad happens, she didn't pull that out of the air. 

She probably learned it in Sunday school and has called it to mind or meditated on regularly for the last 60 years. 

We might joke about Catholic lack of scripture knowledge. 

But that means we are cheating ourselves of our snowpack. 

By not reading, soaking, meditating on it:

We are counting on daily rain alone to get us through. 

That little old lady, 

who quotes a psalm when she's rejoicing, 

and quotes St. Paul when she's in distress, 

She has a mountain glacier of the word of God stored up in her heart

She is not going to go thirsty. 

So should we be too: 

Daily prayer: letting the word speak, soaking it in 

Weekly Mass, or even occasional daily Mass,

Regular reading of the bible, on our own, seeing the whole story

Crucial:

So that we have the reserves, the snowpack, that slowly melts and waters the fields of our hearts. 

Almost Everything You Need to Know About Baptism

This Sunday's homily on Baptism: staring the talented trio of St. Paul, Louis IX, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod!

13th Sunday of the Year, Cycle A

Today I want to talk about baptism

....Cuz, that's what Paul wanted to talk about today

Letter to the Romans

Amongst other things, baptism

Take out missalette, p. 25

1. Paul's words

2. Infant baptism

3. Cool reflection by a saint on his Baptism. 

Want to look at first part of the reading 

I always have this as the reading at a Baptism the church

Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.

We’re like: “Paul, you’re such a downer!"

Baptism = Babies and new life and resurrection! 

And yet Paul wants to talk about death, dying, burial

Feels odd

But Paul is saying what all Christians believed: that baptism was a going down into Jesus' death

And both Paul and the early Christians saw the water as a perfect image for this

We're all used to pouring at a Baptism 

But as you know: Early Church submerged 

Perfect image:

You go down into the water 

And what's it like?

It’s cold, dark, you can't breathe 

It's like you're in the tomb

You've died with Jesus 

And then you come up...

<gasp>

And there's breath, and light, and warnth

It's like a mini resurrection

You've risen with Jesus 

So baptism was this perfect image of dying and rising with the Messiah

And what Paul is saying, here and elsewhere...

Is that once we've died and risen with him, we are **in** him

We are in Jesus 

We are in the Messiah, the Christ

And then everything else we say about us as Christians flows from there:

"God is our Father"

How?

Because we've been put in the Messiah

We are sons in THE Son

What he is to the Father, we are now too:

Sons and daughters of the Father

We say "we're brothers and sisters in Christ". 

Why?

Because of Baptism

If you're in Jesus, God is you're Father...

And I'm in Jesus, God is my Father...

And she's in Jesus...

If we all have the same father, that makes us??

Brothers and sisters 

We are one body of Christ?

Yes because in baptism we all died and rose INTO him

Everything we say flows from dying and rising with the Messiah. 

Point 1: Paul

2) Why baptism infants?

Know there's debate: Catholic, orthodox, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodist baptize infants 

Baptists, evangelical, fundamentalist: don’t 

Reasonable argument:

Early church = mostly adults

Going down into the water: adult image

We all agree: Need to believe; Profess faith in Jesus 

A baby getting baptized looks different

Not professing much

Why are we ok with godparents reciting creed; making promises? 

Debate going on in the church for centuries since the Reformation, exactly 500 years ago 

But why then do we baptize infants? 

You know who I really like to steal from on this one? 

The Lutherans

Missouri Synod: Their document on Baptism. FAQ

Incredibly clear and concise answer

Probably have to answer the question more often than us. 

Catholics can get used to just doing what the church does

"We baptize infants, evangelicals don't. Ok."

But Lutherans have Baptist friends asking "Hey Lutheran folk, why do you..."

Had to be ready

"be prepared to give the reasons for the hope that lies within you"

Lines right up with Catholic thought:

Baptism, we believe, [is] the miraculous means of grace [...] through which God creates the gift of faith in a person's heart. Although we do not claim to understand how this happens or how it is possible, we believe—because of what the Bible says about Baptism—that when an infant is baptized God creates faith in the heart of that infant. This faith cannot yet, of course, be expressed or articulated, yet it is real and present all the same. The faith of the infant, like the faith of adults, also needs to be fed and nurtured by God's word.

All of a sudden makes sense

Debates about: having enough free will to choose God; or do we really have faith as infant...

No, you're reading it all wrong

Faith is a gift

At baptism God creates faith in the heart of the baptized... whether a child or an adult

And then grows, nourished...

...Taught and nourished...

Whether a child or adult. 

Bp. Bruskewitz, for 20 years at Confirmation: “ The faith is more caught than taught"

We 100% agree

God creates the Faith—no matter what age we are...

and then it grows— no matter what age we are. 

Point 2: infant Baptism

3) St. Louis IX

KIng Louis of France 

St. Louis named after him

St. Louis IX 

...has Single best reflection on just how big baptism is

We know it's important, but because we were baptized as children we kinda forget 

"I've seen pictures, I was cute, my godparents were a lot younger."

We know it's important but we don't realize how humongous it was

Louis didn't have this problem

Would become king of France in the 1200s

Would have so much power as the king of the largest Catholic nation

So much dignity, 

So much royal regal power

But he  had perspective

Didn't grow up in Paris

Poissy

Years after he been crowned king, as an adult, he was asked why he loved the little chapel in the castle where he a grown-up, compared to Notre Dame in Paris, or the beautiful Cathedral at Rheims where all the kings of France had been crowned for 500+ years. 

He answered: 

In the castle chapel I received the sacrament of baptism, thereby becoming a child of God. In the Cathedral of Rheims, I received the royal crown, whereby I became King of France. I deem divine sonship a greater dignity than earthly kingship. The dignity of kingship I will lose at the time of my death, whereas, as a child of God, I will obtain eternal happiness.

That's an awesome insight.

That's why he's a saint

He understood that, while he might not remember his baptism, and they didn't have photos in the 13th century…

He knew that on that day, in that moment, he became a child of God and he inherited eternal life

He knew that was a far greater things than anything else that had happened to him:

The roses thrown at his feet

The gold placed on his head

The bows and reverence from all of France 

Was nothing compared to what he received... 

As a tiny little infant, in that cruddy little chapel, in that drafty old castle, in Poissy. 

He received everything he could ever want


We need to take that to heart

We need to think that for ourselves:

"I might not know everything about my baptism, 

but that was the moment

That was the KEY moment for my entire life and my eternity:

The moment I was baptized."