Divine Dance

My last post recounted the image of the body of Christ as the Bride in beauty and unity depicted by the Lausanne Congress IV. I stressed the priority and primacy of spirituality for participation in God’s mission, and the urgent need for contextuality from the standpoint of the global south in global missions. We need to go beyond dogma and statements to show and tell in more holistic, contextual and embodied ways. As the apostles declared and displayed Christ through prayer and worship (Acts 4:24; 16:25; Philippians 2:5-10), so can we find unique expressions that are embedded and empowered in our own cultures and tongues.

Generations of Chinese Christian evangelists and scholars have attempted to synthesize Chinese traditional spiritualities with Christian faith. Just to name a few: Wu Li (吴历, 1632–1718) was the first to create Chinese Christian poetry that effectively contextualized traditional Chinese poetic structure with Christian themes; John C. H. Wu (吴经熊,1899–1986) wrote extensively on Christian spirituality and Chinese literature, seeking to bridge the gap between Western and Eastern thought; Watchman Nee (倪柝声, 1903–1972) taught a deep intimacy with Christ that has influenced indigenous Chinese Christian thought and movement to this day. As we enter the era of global missions from everywhere to everywhere, what would Chinese Christian spirituality look like?

Here I ask if contemporary poetic utterance impregnated by spirituality can be a way to bridge the gap in an unfolding and evolving journey of participation in the mission of God. By integrating both the indigenizing and the pilgrim principles that Andrew Walls once articulated in his missiological reflections,¹ the sensibility of felt and lived life in the Spirit through poetic expression reflects deeply the particularity of context, and also bears universal significance. It resists colonial imagination and construction that often trap us in “dominant consciousness.” In Walter Brueggemann’s words, “The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.”² He admits that the poetic/prophetic utterance runs the risk of being heard as fantasy or fiction. But in truth, the vision of a poet/prophet is to destabilize our familiar consciousness and open the way for transformation and the gift of newness.³ The prophetic vision unveils a fresh spiritual horizon of beauty and truth, offering a new pathway toward being and becoming fully alive.

The bilingual poem “Divine Dance” is an attempt to capture the seamless dance of the Bride of Christ in response to Christ’s invitation—an invitation to embrace peace and rest defying the endless pursuit of consumerism, productivity and power. Contemplating the phrase “the unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11:28-30) that the late Eugene Peterson (1932–2018) brilliantly paraphrased in The Message, this poem portrays different phases of discipleship grounded biblically, theologically and contemplatively.

The poem is bracketed with “the unforced rhythm of Grace”—a Christological center where Christ as the groom instigates and leads the dance. It is essentially the movement of the Holy Spirit—the rhythm of the personhood of Christ (hence the capital “G” for Grace) that permeates the whole dance movement. The first stanza shows that the divine dance is initiated and invited by God alone as one enters new life created in and through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The second stanza expresses the stage of adjustment from the old to the new as one is reborn and starts to learn a new way of living as a Christ’s follower (Romans 12:2). The third stanza displays the ups and downs of life and ministry, whether it is a “calming pace” (Luke 5:16) or “surprising spin” (Matthew 8:24).

The following stanzas express the freedom in Christ without limits, undergirded by the Holy Spirit (John 8:36; cf. 2 Corinthians 3:17). We can place ourselves in the loving presence of God by resting our feet on his feet (Mark 6:31), and trust that he will catch us even when we are tossed into the air or in a tango “tilt” (John 10:28-29). There is a confident declaration and display that God is with us in our coming and going (Hebrews 13:5). As we enter communion with Christ, we are transformed to become the one created and recreated in his likeness (John 17:21). 

The last stanza borrows Julian of Norwich’s well-known saying “all shall be well” in the face of the turmoil of her time. Like Julian, we can also proclaim the faithfulness of God by being faithful followers of Christ without bypassing the harsh reality and inevitable traumas of life. The last three lines are commissions to bless the world with the blessings of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Can the body of Christ find the rhythm of Grace and declare Christ individually and collectively without a shadow of doubt in today’s world that is filled with conflict, war and disaster?

Not above or below, not center or margin, but all held together beautifully and seamlessly as a whole like a Divine Dance.  This is the prophetic vision, the yearning and the prayer for the body of Christ, despite her imperfect, disjointed, and broken parts that are still in need of healing, restoring and beautifying. To declare and display Christ, let the Bride dance freely and lightly in the unforced rhythm of Grace.

References

Brueggemann, Walter. Finally Comes the Poet: Daring Speech for Proclamation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989.

———. The Prophetic Imagination. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978.

Walls, Andrew F. “The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture.” In The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, edited by Andrew F. Walls. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996.

Yang, Xiaoli. “Divine Dance.” In Transformation, edited by Maree Silver and Janette Fernando, 24-5. Montrose: Poetica Christi Press, 2022.

©Xiaoli Yang. All rights reserved.

1. Andrew F. Walls, “The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture,” in The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, ed. Andrew F. Walls (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996).
2. Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978).
3. Walter Brueggemann, Finally Comes the Poet: Daring Speech for Proclamation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989).
4. Xiaoli Yang, “Divine Dance”, in Transformation, ed. Maree Silver and Janette Fernando (Montrose: Poetica Christi Press, 2022), 24-5.

Xiaoli Yang

  Rev. Dr. Xiaoli Yang is an Australian Chinese theologian, pastor, poet, and spiritual director. She is currently serving Australian Association of Mission Studies and on the editorial board of Australian Journal of Mission Studies.    View Full Bio

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