The Sisters Dance

Our nephew Matt was married today in Defiance, Ohio, on a beautiful day in a wonderful ceremony followed by a reception that was cinematic in its Midwest realities.

It was my pleasure to offer a prayer before the meal at the reception. It was Spirit-led and well received by the happy couple AND by their Lutheran pastor who had officiated the ceremony.

Matt's mother Jan, my sister(-in-law but in name only, more my sister from the moment I entered her home more than a decade ago), thanked me. Cousins by marriage that I have previously only seen at a funeral and in annual holiday cards, wanted to talk theology with me. Friends of the groom's family wanted to know about my call.

So, later in the evening, when they were finally playing some music that didn't require a dance partner, when they were finally playing some rock 'n' roll after a long stretch of big band, square dance, and polka, my sisters(in-law in name only) and I got out and danced the Sisters Dance to "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" then we stayed on the dance floor to "Some Kind of Wonderful." During the refrain that asks: "Can I get a witness?" I was throwing my hands up in old-school evangelical, revival choir style.

My sister Jan leaned over to my sister Betsy as the three of us were dancing together and said:

Jan: You know what the best thing is that Karen learned in seminary?
Betsy: No.
Jan: How to drink wine.

There it is, my seminary experience summed up in one prayer and one embodied dance move.

Thanks be to God for sacred moments and sisters.