Thriller – Being Jesus’ Backup Dancer

So I sat down and started to write a post on Slumdog Millionaire.  It turned into a post on Bollywood.  Both of those posts are coming soon.  But as I was contemplating Bollywood, my thoughts turned to Michael Jackson, and my favorite Michael Jackson song of all – Thriller.  True confession: I tried this dance.  It did not go well.

Here it is.  As you watch, the translation is this: Jesus and the church.  Michael Jackson is Jesus.  The church are his backup dancers.  He leads.  We imitate his “moves” (the way he lives and loves) in concert and rhythm with him and each other.  The good stuff goes from about 2:20-4:00 in the video.

If everybody was doing different moves, Thriller would not be cool.  If everybody was out of rhythm, Thriller would be ridiculous.  If somebody decided that “I’m just going to do the claw thing because its really cool” and never change, it wouldn’t work.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).  Think of each different dance move as a different part of the Christian life.  The claw thing is discipleship.  The weird sidle forward is prayer.  The line moving back and forth deal is loving the poor and pursuing justice.  Etc.

Two notes here: first, the moves require PRACTICE.  Outside of Michael Jackson himself, all those backup dancers practiced their stuff.  As Christians, we need frequent repetition of every facet of the Christian life so that we know our “moves” by heart when its time to “perform” them.  When we’re offended or treated poorly, there’s no time to mentally think of how to react.  What’s in our heart will emerge.  If we’ve practiced being humble and loving our enemies and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it, then we will.  If we haven’t, we’ll likely be very offended and become snippy and defensive.

This is why our private and inner life, lived where no one sees, is so incredibly important.  It’s our practice time.  Do you lie when nobody will find out?  You’ll be dishonest and miss a step during the performance when it counts.  What “medications” do you use (excessive drinking, pornography, manipulation, withdrawal, bitterness, criticism, food, etc) to numb your pain when nobody sees you?  Your timing will be way off when it matters.  When you are smiling and saying things like “I trust God” or “I really love this” or “I believe in”, or “God is more important than” do you really mean those things?  Where’s your heart?  What’s natural and what’s actually inside of you is going to be what comes out in crunch time.

Second, the key to the success of Thriller, and of the church, is following the lead of Jesus in concert with the rest of the body of Christ.  If we don’t follow his lead, it loses power.  If we aren’t in rhythm with others, its also not as powerful.  Of course, every translation breaks down – I’m not saying we should all be doing the same thing all the time.  There’s variety and differences between Christians and churches for a reason.  But instead of worrying about “what is my purpose” and “what am I good at” (important questions, but not the most important), we should be looking at Jesus and trying to follow him in concert (connectedness, mutual respect, communication) with other Christians.

So – go forth and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be one of Jesus’ highly trained backup dancers!  And if that isn’t a motivational call, I don’t know what is!