The Ecstatic Dances of the Hasidim

The chapel at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary was packed. It was brimming with all the excitement of graduation Day, June 3, 1994. Commencement was still a few hours away. Senior chapel was just beginning, and I had been asked to preach. In my three years of graduate school I had never seen so many people in that large hall of worship. As the grand procession moved down the center aisle, I looked into the many faces and felt the fervor rising in me.

 The sermon started with a prayer that God might breathe life into my words. And then when I put my hands to the plow, I never looked back. At times when I was preaching I felt like I had taken a step back from the pulpit as if I was watching myself preach. In that hour I felt the power of God’s Spirit surging through that place of worship as it surged through me.

 In a speech to a group of teachers, Martin Buber once said that if he ever met the great Christian theologian, Karl Barth, there was only one thing this bearded Jewish scholar would like to teach him. Buber wanted to teach him to dance the ecstatic dances of the Hasidic Jews.

 Preaching on that day of graduation, I felt as though I was dancing an ecstatic dance of the Hasidim. The Spirit lifted me to the mountaintop.

 Hasidic Judaism is a renewal movement that began in Eastern Europe about the same time as the Methodist movement in England. The Hasidim believe that we know God not so much through our learning or beliefs but through direct encounter with God. The Hasidim use storytelling and ecstatic dancing to encounter God with delight and wonder.

 I believe our Methodist founder, John Wesley, with the experience of his heart strangely warmed, would agree. This is a wonderful paradigm for us in the Christian church. Do we not also want to encounter God with delight and wonder? Do we not also want to have a deep relationship with Jesus Christ? Do we not also want heart warming experiences with the Spirit?

 I have now been preaching for nineteen years. And week after week, though it is a struggle sometimes, I continually yearn to dance the ecstatic dances of the Hasidic Jews. It has become the driving metaphor for me in the church.

 What is your passion? What leads you to encounter God with delight and wonder? What strangely warms your heart? The kingdom of God is made up of people called and equipped to worship and serve the Lord. There’s a place for you and the gifts you bring. I’d love to talk to you about it. 


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