Rev. Jacob Singleton… I Hope You “Dance”

Sunday Worship - FPC LaGrange - May 17th, 2026

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

It doesn't mention, nor does it allude to dancing at all. I assure you this isn't a mishap. In seeing this title, and in particular, those of my generation will see it and inevitably hear the song, sung by Leanne Womack, a song played over and over and over again in celebration of life's milestones. While there are different interpretations of the song, most hear it and picture it from the perspective of a parent, hoping that the future of their child is one of love, wonder, and fullness. Now, my point today is not to focus on this song, nor is it to intentionally have it replay in your mind over and over again, as it has for me all week long. Now, my point on this graduation Sunday is to take the sentiment of the song and direct or perhaps redirect it theologically. Hence the emphasis of dance and quotations. And not just for our graduates, but for the rest of us as well. My first official pastoral visit of support was none other than attending Swan Lake, where several of our seniors and our youth and kids from the church performed and displayed their talents through dance. And then I attended the LaGrange High Spring concert, and to my surprise, there was more dancing. Not just from our ballet talents, but from the guys as well. And then I attended the Troop County High School chorus concert where there was, you guessed it, more dancing. And even a pas doudou, one of one of our own, a solo dance of two. And yesterday I attended the LSPA recital where we might have a case for a petition of renaming it, making it part of First Arts, since so many of our FPC kids were in it. And so I thought the metaphor of dance or dancing would resonate this morning. But the title of the sermon is less important to me than the metaphor of dancing. We could have chosen a different song for the sermon title from a number of 90s country songs. We could have called it Boots, Scootin' Boogie, I Wanna Dance With You, Some Days You Gotta Dance, Life's a Dance, and so on and so forth. Now there's no apparent connection between the song, I Help You Dance, and Jesus' prayer this morning. So let me briefly take you through my thought process. During the chorus of I Help You Dance, the background singers sing, Time is a wheel in constant motion. And it's this line, A Wheel in Constant Motion, that brings us back to our passage in Jesus' prayer. To sum it up, Jesus' prayer is about unity. It speaks of the unity of the Father and the Son and moves outward from this unity, from this oneness to the disciples, so that they may be one as we are one, Jesus prays. Now, while nothing in the aforementioned Psalm concretely corresponds with John 17, the line, wheel in constant motion, connects. Again, some explanation is needed. The early church, around 300 AD, was trying to describe the unity of the divine and human nature in the person of Jesus. The Greek term used was pericaresis. Peri meaning around, and creo meaning to go or to make room or to contain. And the term was used to describe how the two distinct natures, the divine and human natures, fully inhabit one another in the person of Jesus without the loss of identity. And then pericuresis was later used around the seventh century to denote the mutual indwelling, coinherence, and divine oneness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And later in Western theology, it was rendered into Latin circum incessio, circum, to go around, and in sedir to go or to march along. And so we hear in these words, both the Greek and the Latin convey mutual indwelling, the unity of the Father and the Son, or the unity of human and divine natures. We hear it by way of motion, particularly going around one another. So in artwork and linguistically, it's often depicted as a divine dance or a dynamic circle. Hence the wheel in constant motion, triggering this thought. In the Gospel of John, we find Paracresis, a divine dance of mutual indwelling, of oneness and unity. But it's not between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Instead, it's found between the Father and the Son. John doesn't speak to the mutual indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Father andor Son. Nor does John offer insight to the Spirit's eternal or essential place in the Godhead. This language is absent in the Gospel. However, in John's Gospel, there are frequent references to the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son. Of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father. Now, this isn't to say that within John's Gospel there is no triunity or trinity. But to describe it as paracuresis, we must look to other biblical texts. Now there is a paracures within the Gospel of John, and this mutual indwelling, this dance, if you will, occurs first between the Father and the Son, and then through the incarnate Son, the incarnate word, the mutual indwelling is enjoyed by the disciples. That is, those given to Jesus by the Father, as we read in 6 and 7, verses 6 and 7. And as they, the disciples, abide and remain in the Son. Think of, I am the vine and you are the branches. Now, whereas the Son shares eternal reciprocal union with the Father and does what he does because of who he is, the disciples' union with the Father is dependent upon their abiding in the Son. Therefore, Jesus prays that the Father protects them so that they may be one as we are one. Now, if your head is spinning a little at this point, then good. This captures the theme quite nicely. This pericuresis, this spinning dance, describes the relationship to the Father, to the Son, and the Son's relationship to the Father. They are co-equal, co-eternal, and yet the Father is not the Son, and the Son's not the Father. That's how Jesus can say in the Gospel of John, the Father and I are one, and then in another instance, say, the Father is greater than I. So why is it that the disciples need protection? They need protection because Jesus is no longer in the world. But they are. They need protection because as the Son was sent into the world, so too is Jesus sending the disciples into the world. And the world is an interesting place in the Gospel of John. The world often refers to a dangerous, hostile place that opposes God's hope for justice and mercy. And yet, there's a dialectical tension as the world is the place that judgment and salvation occur. The place that rejection and acceptance take place. The world is both the object of God's love and that which rejects God's Son. The world was created by the word of God. And yet Jesus says that the ruler of the world must be driven out in John 12. This tension. It's the tension of Jesus telling the religious leaders, you are from this world, I am not from this world, all the while standing there as flesh and blood. So now that the disciples share in the unity, in the oneness of the Father and the Son through the Son, they too must hold the tension of not being in the world, but being, not being of the world, but being in the world, and even more so as those sent into the world to continue the redemptive work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And this prayer is not just for the eleven disciples. Judas has already left. But as we saw in verses 20 and 21, Jesus prays for us as well. And we too must dance the delicate dance of being in the world and out of it. So perhaps you parents out there know what it's like praying for your child's protection as you send them out into the world. And graduates, you are being sent into the world, whether it be college or the workforce, or continuing your vocation with newly acquired knowledge and skill. And herein lies the connection to the sermon title, I Hope You Dance. The paracresis in the Gospel of John, the mutual indwelling, often referred to metaphorically as a dance, is the relationship between the Father and the Son, and the Son and the disciples. Graduates, this dance began at your baptism. The visible sign of God's grace, in which God claimed you and calls you God's own, uniting you to Christ Jesus. You're familiar with this dance. It's the life of faith, of prayer, the love of God, of Christian community. How might we understand this dance of abiding in Christ and being sent into the world? The world that on one hand God loves, and on the other hand, the world that rejects God. How is it that we can be not of this world, but truly in the world, participating in God's redemption of the world? We dance. We who are sent into the world by Jesus participate in an ongoing dance individually and collectively. We participate in an ongoing dance as we pirouette. Abiding in Christ and ministering to the world, turning to God, and then turning to the suffering of the world that God loves, turning back to God, back to the world as one sent by God to continue God's work. Turning again and again and again and again. What might this dance look like? It looks like stepping out into the world, confident in the power given to us as children of God. Confident in the power given to us as children of God to minister to the world, following Jesus' command to love one another as we have been loved by Christ. This dance looks like humility and service and reconciliation. It looks like a dance, a dance of confession and surrender and service and prayer. Dancing in and toward the sun, confessing the ways in which we are the world, the ways in which our own actions, our own thoughts, and our own deeds create hostility and separation from the God who loves us and others. And so we dance, surrendering ourselves to the eternal dance, being swept up in the loving arms of Christ, abiding in him, obeying his commandment to love, so that we might humbly enter this world on his behalf. And dancing still, we turn to serve others, sharing in their pain and in their suffering. Bringing the message of redemption, fighting injustice and shining light into the darkness of the world. And dancing still, we turn back to God, bringing the world's pain and suffering back to God in our prayers, in our worship, in our service. And this includes our own pain. Dancing still, we turn back to the world to love and to serve again. In dancing still, we turn back to God. To the world, to God, to the world, to God. So class of twenty twenty-six. To your families, to the church. I hope you dance. This dance of mercy. This dance of love. This dance of service to one another. And this dance of proclamation of the good news in Jesus Christ.