In this week’s sermon, we picked up where we left off the week before. And at the Benediction last week, I said, “Invariably, I’m asked this question (which I also seem to be constantly asking), ‘So, what am I to do?’” I then said, “Hey, look -- There’s a list nailed to the tree,” (as I pointed to the list that was still hanging on the cross behind the communion table). “And isn’t that what we want: Knowledge of good and evil that we can apply to our lives?” Last week, we made posters of “Unreasonable” reasons -- that is, everyday miracles – and we hung them around the room and then read John 1:1-14, ending with “And the Word (the Logos) became flesh.” And we nailed all our posters to the tree. God is so confusing, but we “nailed it down.” “The law came in to increase the trespass,” writes Paul. And it works, doesn’t it? Adam sinned, for Adam lacked faith in the Word of God and so took knowledge of the Good on the tree, and God gave knowledge of the Good to Moses, written in stone, and had him place it in a coffin (also called an “ark”). And now we’re addicted to laws: “Pastor, stop talking about the story of Love and just tell me what I have to do!” I’m with you. If we don’t want the Ten Commandments, religious laws, or civil laws, we most definitely want personal laws — directions, instructions; we want “steps.” “What do you want me to preach?” I ask God. “Do you want us to sell the building? Jesus, we’re at a crossroads; right or left, yes or no? We need wisdom.” That was my prayer this past summer. My wife would pray with me and say, “I see Jesus. And He just keeps looking at you.” It seems that there are some questions that He just doesn’t want to answer. We read John 1:1-3 once again and noticed that it sounds just like Proverbs 3, 8, and 9. “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth,” writes Solomon. “Then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing (dancing, frolicking) before him always,” says Wisdom. “Wisdom has built her house,” writes Solomon. “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine that I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live,” cries Wisdom. Wisdom sounds just like “The Word” (the Logos, the Reason), that is Jesus. And Wisdom is a Lady. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is always a feminine noun. Proverbs 3:18, “She (Wisdom) is a tree of Life.” Solomon asked for Wisdom and knowledge of Good and evil, and he got both. Adam took Knowledge of Good and evil, and everything died. “God made [Jesus] our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). We took His life on the tree, and He gives His life on the tree, crying, “Father, forgive,” and delivering up His Spirit. John 1:14, “And the Logos became flesh and tabernacled among (literally, “in”) us. On the wilderness journey, God tabernacled among the Israelites. “Mercy triumphs over (dances on top of) Judgment,” writes James (2:13). It appears that the presence of God would dance on top of his own coffin in the inner tabernacle of the temple, which is the presence of the age to come, which is always “now.” We are that temple. John 1:17-18, “Out of his fullness, we have all (not some) received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” #1 Notice that all creation is a manifestation of the Logos. #2 Notice that the Logos became flesh. #3 Notice that the Logos tabernacles in us. THEN ask the question once again: “What am I to do?” #1 All creation is the manifestation of a Love (God) Song, the Logos (logic) of God. Music is not illogical but more “logic” than we can comprehend. And so, to appreciate Music, the Music, the Logos, must comprehend us. Physicists argue that all elementary particles are different ‘notes’ on a fundamental string, such that “The universe... is akin to a cosmic symphony,” (Brian Green). Aslan sings Narnia into existence. In Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, God through angels sings creation into existence, and when a fallen angel sings discordant notes, God Himself sings those discordant notes into a deeper harmony. The dissonance creates a longing for consonance and ecstatic delight in a deeper resonance. In the Revelation, a slaughtered lamb stands on the throne (the top of the ark) and sings meaning into the Seven Sealed Scroll as all creation worships. Reality is a dance, and if you’re not dancing to the Logos of Love, perhaps you don’t actually exist. When you nail the Logos to a tree, what do you get? Sheet music, dance steps, science, and technology — it has its place, but it’s not the same as feeling happy or dancing in the moonlight. #2 “The Logos became flesh... and we have seen his glory... grace.” Jesus lived gracefully; He lived His life like a dance. The dance fulfilled the law, although it was not at all what we expected. We had the sheet music; we had the knowledge of good and evil; we had the law in a coffin in a stone temple. We had the dance steps, but we were all surprised by the Dancer and His Dance. When we expected Him to save us from our enemies, He let us crucify Him and He saves us from ourselves. We nailed Him down, for although nothing is as lovely as Grace, nothing is as offensive as Grace; He revealed that none of us were dancing. We were just practicing dance steps. His dance wasn’t bondage but freedom; it wasn’t work but play. He wasn’t trying to dance; He was dancing. He is the manifestation of the Logos. He wasn’t trying to justify Himself; He is just Just, and Right, and Happy. He was the constant delight of His Father. Which sounds just like Wisdom (“I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always.”) My favorite dance is the “Daddy’s Home Dance.” Thirty years ago, it happened every day around 6 p.m. One of my four children would hear the key in the lock and yell, “Daddy’s home!” Then, all four would come running and break into this uninhibited dance. They weren’t trying to please me; they were simply rejoicing in my pleasure over them. They sang songs for me, pretended to cook for me, even wrote sermons for me, and never stopped to ask, “Are you pleased?” Each one now has a master’s degree or Ph.D. I’m happy for them, but I love them no more or no less; they have always been worth everything that I am. But there came a day when each one of them stopped dancing. It was the day that they learned to judge the dance and started practicing dance steps. It was the day they began to ask, “Is my dance any good? Does Daddy love my dance more or less than yesterday, more or less than my brother’s or sister’s?” And once they ask this question, it’s almost impossible to get them to stop; they’ve already bitten “the apple.” My wife walked into my office two weeks ago and said, “I just heard Jesus say, ‘Tell Peter, I let Lookout happen’ (The dissolution of our former church; perhaps the most painful event of my life) ‘so that you would be free. …So, are you free? Or are you still trying to please me... and others?’” I thought, “Holy crap! Jesus is displeased with me because I don’t believe he’s pleased with me! What do I do?” Then I remembered “The Daddy’s Home Dance.” Only in Jesus can I please Him by NOT trying to please Him because I’m convinced that I already do. John 15, “Abide in me... Abide in my love.” The only way you can please God is to get into Jesus, which is actually where you already are, and listen to the voice of the Father as He says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” When you hear that, you will Dance. “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). To abide with Jesus is to tabernacle with Him in the depths of your own heart, where it is always “now.” You cannot dance if you’re ashamed of the past or worried about the future. You cannot dance by trying but only by listening to the music all around you and dancing with Jesus right now. In Luke 7, Jesus says, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance... Yet Wisdom is justified by all of her children.” You are the children of Wisdom, and she’s teaching you to dance. Jesus cried, “Father, forgive them,” and delivered up His Spirit. I think her name is Wisdom. This past summer, I was begging Jesus for Wisdom, and He refused to give me any dance steps. After a prayer meeting, around midnight and fast asleep, Susan grabbed me, saying, “Something’s here!” I rebuked it. She said, “It’s gone.” About two hours later, it happened again. This time, she said, “It wasn’t a demon... it was a woman.” Then she fell asleep. In the morning, she explained, “She was beautiful. I sensed that she had ‘crossed time.’ She stared at me, and I stared at her, eye to eye, face to face, for about a minute before I woke you. …I’ve seen angels. This was no angel.” I said, “You need to read Proverbs; I think that was Wisdom.” Just then on our “Alexa,” Bob Dylan began singing “Shelter from the Storm”; I think the whole song is about the tent of Lady Wisdom. I didn’t know then which step to take... still don’t. And I don’t think it matters, for as long as we’re dancing, it will be Wisdom, and the Logos will be in “carnos”; She will become flesh in us. #1 The Music is all around you. #2 The Music became flesh in Jesus. #3 The Music is becoming flesh in you. “What are we to do?” Start Dancing.