SALOME'S DANCE COMPETITION

But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted.
(Matthew 14:6-7, NLT)

I confess my fascination with dance competitions. I watch SYTYCD religiously (So You Think You Can Dance, for those not in the know.) I will also watch Dancing with the Stars. Not to mention the dancers on other competitions such as America’s Got Talent and Kim of Queens. Worst of all, I watch those horrible mothers and cruel teacher on Dance Moms.

In the process, I have come to understand the fascination of dance for young women. Thinking of all those devoted dancers made me consider today’s story in a different light.

Salome, the name traditionally given to Herodias’s daughter, has been portrayed as a slutty young girl twirling behind seven veils, revealing her nudity. Liz Curtis Higgs gave a different spin on the story in Really Bad Girls of the Bible. She portrayed Salome as a young girl dressed for a “glitz” pageant (hair pieces, false eyelashes, and the like), in cowgirls dress and boots, dancing to a western song.

I can see that. Salome had the opportunity of a lifetime. How had she learned to dance so well? I suspect there were limited opportunities to perform. What a rush to receive an invitation to dance for the king (her stepfather) and other powerful men of the kingdom.

She rose to the occasion, dancing the best she had ever performed,

She wasn’t promised a prize, but she received one far beyond her wildest dreams. He offered her anything she wanted, “up to half the kingdom.”

She had Daddy in the palm of her hand. I wonder what she wanted for herself, what she might have asked.

Unfortunately, at that point, Salome’s dream slipped out of her fingers. As coached by her mother, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist on a plate.

Talk about interfering dance moms.

With a different mom, Salome’s life might have turned out differently. Consider her story as a warning against stage moms who live vicariously through their children.

THE GOSPEL IN FICTION (Matthew 13)

That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. 

Matthew 13:11-15

I love stories. I grew from Dr. Seuss’s silly rhymes to Nancy Drew and on to the greats such as Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy in high school. By far my favorite books were the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. In college, I discovered  C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and books by other authors from their Inklings group. In them, I discovered the gospel retold in compelling fiction.

In fact, in seminary, I wrote a paper about “eucatastrophy,” a term coined by Tolkien. He argued against calling something “just a fairy tale,” stating “it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”

            I find that same ping in many works of fiction, some more than others. I felt it when I read The Chamber by John Grisham; Bone Crack by Dick Francis; Really Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs.

            As I write, I pray that my books will be mediums of that same eucatastrophe. That over and above the problems my characters face, they will run to the joy and peace of faith.

            Pray with us writers of faith, that our words will nudge our readers to “receptive listening.”