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My hermitage will also soon host gatherings |
And so, I signed up for an Egyptian classical dance class at a nearby fitness studio. It was not what I was expecting.
The moment I walked through the door of the gym, I was greeted by Sohair—a brightly painted woman the age of a village matriarch—who said, “You must be Taylor! I somehow knew it was you!” She opened her arms wide and embraced me, kissed my cheek, looked deeply into my eyes, smiled, and embraced me again. Then she stepped back and, after examining me, selected a coin-covered belt out of her oversized bag and lovingly wrapped it around my waist.
Our class was relatively small, but I estimated that at least six nationalities and mother tongues were present; Sohair toggled between three languages to make sure everyone felt included. We danced and shimmied to the percussive rhythms of the music, but there was more to it than any dance studio class I had ever attended. Sohair had made it feel both liturgical and liberating. Midway through she had us form a circle and take turns swirling invisible energy with our arms as one by one she invited each woman to dance in the center of the energy pool. Then she had us yell and stomp, and even shout out “Stop!” All this followed by cupping our hands and using them to smack our arms and legs, fully awakening the body.
As we approached the end of our time together, Sohair had us put our hands on our hearts and lower abdomen and breathe deeply. Then she walked around the room, looked lovingly in the eyes of each woman, and gave us a parting embrace.
So… did I get a good workout? Eh.. somewhat. Did I improve my dance skills? Umm.. maybe slightly.
Did I leave the gym feeling I had just participated in a sacred act of communal worship? 100% YES.
Diversity. Inclusion. Radical hospitality. Each person’s right to their own bodily autonomy. These values that I found modeled in a gym in Cairo, Egypt, are now explicitly forbidden to be expressed or lived out in all U.S. government workspaces, they are ridiculed by some major media outlets, and they are condemned in the “Christian” nationalist pulpits that heretically preach that God desires an unrepentant s@xual predator and serial embezzler to enact policies that persecute those who were already the most vulnerable among us. Siblings, we are living in pivotal times.
What’s my main point today? In world where values are upside down, let us be more like Sohair. Whatever part of the community we are, let us use our gifts to create glimpses of the Kin-dom of God in the spaces we can directly help shape. Yes, we never stop resisting injustice and violence, AND we keep nourishing each other through defiantly declaring that Hate will never overpower the Kin-dom of Love.
An excerpt from this Sunday’s lectionary text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (NRSVUE)
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. … 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work powerful deeds? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
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