The Daphne Statues at Northerly Island, Chicago
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he.
The Trinity made sense to me after the first time I sang this hymn in church a few years ago. Instead of all of the theological and philosophical arguments about Homo Ousion (same substance) vs. Homoi Ousion (like substance) or hypostasis (one person, 3 substances or elements). (Remember I was a theology major.) Then there’s the simplistic way of thinking of Godde as ice that has 3 different forms, but I’m not seven years old anymore. This song made the Trinity real to me as an adult. All dancers are connected and separate. All are dancing in harmony, but not necessarily the same steps. In couples dancing, one of the partners normally leads. In line and circle dances no one leads, and if you don’t know how to do the dance, you just join in. People teach you the steps as you go.
I was reminded of this realization while reading Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Wisdom of Jesus as she explained how scholars and mystics from an early Eastern branch of the church, the Cappadocians viewed the Trinity. They called the relationship between the Trinity perichoresis, which Bourgault reminds us means “the dance around.”
One of the arguments that is made for male headship is that someone has to have the last word. There has to be a leader when an agreement can’t be made. They picture that is how the Trinity works too with Godde the Father being at the top of the totem pole. They use what is known as the Kenosis (Self-emptying) Hymn from Philippians 2:5-11 to subordinate Jesus the Son to Godde the Father, not just for his earthly life but for all of eternity.
Have this attitude, which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, being in the form of Godde,
didn’t consider equality with Godde
a thing to be grasped,
but emptied herself,
taking the form of a bondservant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
So Godde also highly exalted him,
and gave to him the name
above every name;
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow,
of those in heaven, those on earth,
and those under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of Godde the Mother (Philippians 2:5-11, DFV).
Complementarians take this self-emptying act of love (kenosis), and use it to eternally subordinate Jesus to the Father in order to keep women eternally subordinated to men. But as Bourgeault reminds us the Cappadocian writers and mystics interpreted these verses very differently:
They saw it as an outpouring of love: from Father to Son, from Son to Spirit, from Spirit back to the Father. And the word used to describe these mutual outpourings is the same word that we’ve been looking at—kenosis.
The Trinity, understood in a wisdom sense, is really an icon of self-emptying love. The three persons go round and round like buckets on a watermill, constantly overspilling into one another. And as they do so, the mill turns and the energy of love becomes manifest and accessible. The Cappadocians called this complete intercirculation of love perichoresis, which literally means ‘the dance around.’ Their wonderful and profound insight is that God reveals his own innermost nature through a continuous round dance of self-emptying (p. 72).
Now I know my metaphor is not perfect. As I said before there are couple dances where one partner, usually the man, leads. But couple dances aren’t the only dances. One of the first dances I learned was in grade school: square dancing, where none of the dancers lead, but there is a step caller. I grew up in Oklahoma and danced couple dances like the two-step and waltz, but we also line danced (Cotton Eye Joe is my favorite). Like the round dances Bourgeault mentions, line dances do not have leaders. Dancers line up, sometimes they join hands or put their arms around each other, and they dance in step listening to the music, everyone doing their thing. If someone who doesn’t know how to dance wants to join, room is made, and the steps are shown. There is room for everyone, no one has to lead and no one has to follow.
Not only do I see this as a wonderful way to look at the Trinity but also at the church. Only with the church I would go with square dancing. Of course then the Trinity, Godde the Father and Mother, Jesus the Son (or Lord of the Dance), and the Holy Spirit are calling the steps. But the dancers—male and female—are on mutual ground dancing and weaving in and out of one another. When someone wants to join the dance, we make room and show them the steps as Godde leads.
The Trinity and the church, particularly church leadership, does not need to be a hierarchy to keep things under control. We don’t have to be good, little soldiers falling in line when the General commands it. We can be dancers going hand from hand, swirling each other around, dancing do si dos, weaving in and out of each other following the Lord of the Dance and listening to the calling of the Spirit.
“Lord of the Dance” by Sydney Carter
I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.
Chorus: Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he.
I danced for the scribe
And the pharisee,
But they would not dance
And they wouldn’t follow me.
I danced for the fishermen,
For James and John -
They came with me
And the Dance went on.
Chorus
I danced on the Sabbath
And I cured the lame;
The holy people
Said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped
And they hung me on high,
And they left me there
On a Cross to die.
Chorus
I danced on a Friday
When the sky turned black -
It’s hard to dance
With the devil on your back.
They buried my body
And they thought I’d gone,
But I am the Dance,
And I still go on.
Chorus
They cut me down
And I leapt up high;
I am the life
That’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you
If you’ll live in me -
I am the Lord
Of the Dance, said he.
Chorus
