COTTON EYE JOE, RIVERDANCE, AND WORSHIP
In “The Sound of Music”, Maria and von Trapp perform a beautiful Austrian folk dance (the Ländler) on the porch outside the ball, and in a few shots you can see everyone in the ballroom doing the same dance, dipping and gliding together in harmonious movement to the music. You can see the same phenomenon displayed in any period piece depicting ballroom dancing.
That sort of dancing was not a matter of personal expression. One did not “do one’s own thing”. Each dance had ordered steps that had to be learned if one wished to participate (and belong). Everyone performed the same steps together to the music.
In recent history (probably the 60’s), dance evolved into mere personal expression (although there may have always been some individualized dances) and now, generally speaking, nearly all social dancing is self-expression.
Nearly all.
When a DJ plays “Cotton Eye Joe” or the “Cha-Cha Slide” at a wedding reception, everyone does the same steps together. Traditional Irish dancing (a la Riverdance), German schuhplattlers, the Jewish hora, the Greek hasapiko, and American country line dancing are examples of the same thing. These dances are not about individual expression; the dancers behave (or perform) as a group and participation is more for the expression of social cohesion than of “the self”.
I am interested in the contrast between self-expression and the expression of social cohesion, i.e. things done as a group to express connection/belonging, as it relates to public worship.
American culture is so dominated by individualism and the importance of self-expression that we seem to define almost everything from this perspective. There is “personal worship” between me and God as my Father. But when we meet as a church, we come before God as a body – a “we” rather than a “me”—and what we do is not just between me and God. It is between us and our God, our Father.
We are, as it were, the living stones of the Temple (1 Peter 2.5a) cemented together for an hour on a Sunday. In that expression, it is not that the Spirit is present and working merely in me, but that He is present and working in the midst of all of us at once. We are not there to have our own isolated internal spiritual experience, but to lift sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God together, in unison, as it were (1 Peter 2.5b).
I believe that sense of social cohesion ought to direct the form of our worship. It ought to express togetherness, belonging, connection, unity – not mere individualized personal expression, each soul doing its own thing “in its own cell”, cut off and isolated from everyone else, as it were.
What should this look like? Don’t worry about that just yet.
Do you think the principle makes sense?
If it does, then we should seek ways to “put skin on it”.
Maybe we have become so individualized that this concept has been lost. Maybe expressing social cohesion is now unpalatable or even wicked, and we have no choice but to each “do our own thing”. I hope not, as the cohesion of believers with one another and with Christ is at the heart of the biblical story.
That sort of dancing was not a matter of personal expression. One did not “do one’s own thing”. Each dance had ordered steps that had to be learned if one wished to participate (and belong). Everyone performed the same steps together to the music.
In recent history (probably the 60’s), dance evolved into mere personal expression (although there may have always been some individualized dances) and now, generally speaking, nearly all social dancing is self-expression.
Nearly all.
When a DJ plays “Cotton Eye Joe” or the “Cha-Cha Slide” at a wedding reception, everyone does the same steps together. Traditional Irish dancing (a la Riverdance), German schuhplattlers, the Jewish hora, the Greek hasapiko, and American country line dancing are examples of the same thing. These dances are not about individual expression; the dancers behave (or perform) as a group and participation is more for the expression of social cohesion than of “the self”.
I am interested in the contrast between self-expression and the expression of social cohesion, i.e. things done as a group to express connection/belonging, as it relates to public worship.
American culture is so dominated by individualism and the importance of self-expression that we seem to define almost everything from this perspective. There is “personal worship” between me and God as my Father. But when we meet as a church, we come before God as a body – a “we” rather than a “me”—and what we do is not just between me and God. It is between us and our God, our Father.
We are, as it were, the living stones of the Temple (1 Peter 2.5a) cemented together for an hour on a Sunday. In that expression, it is not that the Spirit is present and working merely in me, but that He is present and working in the midst of all of us at once. We are not there to have our own isolated internal spiritual experience, but to lift sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God together, in unison, as it were (1 Peter 2.5b).
I believe that sense of social cohesion ought to direct the form of our worship. It ought to express togetherness, belonging, connection, unity – not mere individualized personal expression, each soul doing its own thing “in its own cell”, cut off and isolated from everyone else, as it were.
What should this look like? Don’t worry about that just yet.
Do you think the principle makes sense?
If it does, then we should seek ways to “put skin on it”.
Maybe we have become so individualized that this concept has been lost. Maybe expressing social cohesion is now unpalatable or even wicked, and we have no choice but to each “do our own thing”. I hope not, as the cohesion of believers with one another and with Christ is at the heart of the biblical story.