Homily for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - The Two Dances

First Lesson - 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

The Gospel - Mark 6:14-29

Homily by the Rev. Dr. David Smith

The Two Dances

Have you ever noticed how naturally and easily young children dance?

I was washing my car at home recently. All the doors were open and I had my mp3 player plugged into the radio with the music cranked up on random play. Three young children – ages 2, 4 and 5 – were playing in their yards at adjacent homes.

At one point, a song by James Brown came on – I Feel Good – and it was loud.

Suddenly, all three of the neighboring children stopped what they were doing and just began to dance. They moved and swayed easily to the music as James Brown belted it out, oblivious to how they looked or who might be watching.

Dancing seems hard-wired into young children’s make up. But somewhere between age five and later adulthood, we seem to lose that easy, uncaring ability to just dance.

Today’s Gospel lesson is about the ugly circumstances, including a dance, leading to the be-heading of John the Baptizer. It is a strange and unpleasant story for a Gospel reading.

But if we first look at today’s lesson from 2 Samuel, what we find are two stories about two very different dances.