I was planning a funeral with a family not long ago. As we were working our way through all the decisions that had to be made, one of the grown children would say, "You know, I think Dad would have wanted this to happen." Or, "Dad always liked that poem; I want to read it." Or, "Dad was a shy kind of guy, so he wouldn't want any fuss to be made." You see, the children wanted to honor their father in a fitting way. It was almost as if they were saying, "What would Dad do?" I'm not cynical about grief situations, but I wondered a bit if each of the children had their own agenda: the shy one wanted no fuss; the English major wanted the poem, and so on. And couching it in the language of "What would Dad want?" made it more difficult for their siblings to resist a particular suggestion.

Over a hundred years ago, Charles Sheldon wrote the classic, In His Steps. The "His" in In His Steps refers to Jesus, and the characters find themselves in situations where they have to make critical choices with no easy answers. The theme is raised, over and over again, "what would Jesus do"? Written in the 1890s, the book inspired a fad in the 1990s, which undoubtedly made more money than the book. WWJD. Rubber bracelets stamped with the letters, WWJD. Or bracelets with four beads: WWJD. Bumper stickers, needlepoint pillows, posters - WWJD.

Truth be known, in many situations we don't know what Jesus would do. After 9/11, Christians of good will debated the question, WWJD - without couching it in those terms. Would the Prince of Peace want us to turn the other cheek? Or, did the Jesus of Compassion want us to go to war to try to make sure there would be no new 9/11s? Capital punishment? Does Jesus want justice for the victims more than Jesus wants life for the perpetrator? Depending on our own leanings ... we try to tell others just what Jesus would do. I don't like to be cynical about theological conversations, but maybe my answer to WWJD might be more WWTD than WWJD. Human nature. In other words, like children planning a father's funeral, we tend to use the pious acronym, WWJD, to frame our own point-of-view.

Now, the difference between a family planning their father's funeral ... Dad had not have given his children much direction. On the other hand, the words of Jesus have given us plenty of direction as to how we are to live our lives. And this: by the Seventh Sunday of Easter, we have received countless reminders that Jesus, once dead, is alive once more! That make the conversation about WWJD far more important than planning a funeral!

That being said, I want to take WWJD in a different direction this morning ... and all because of our bulletin cover, depicting Jesus dancing. When I first saw it, I was not impressed. But it's grown on me. We can't see any facial expressions ... but I'm guessing everyone is smiling. I asked myself the question: WWJD - Why Would Jesus Dance? Based on our Gospel text, and the key verse written on the cover of our bulletin, Jesus just might dance this dance of joy because the dancers reflect diversity of nationality and ethnicity, and yet they are in the dance together. Presumably, since they are dancing with Jesus, they are Christians ... and they might even be Lutherans, given the diversity of our own New York Synod. But the denomination is unimportant; what matters most is, they are dancing with Jesus.

Tres Dias is a community of ecumenically-minded Christians from various denominations in this area. Occasionally they hold a worship service at Grace, and I am invited to give a history of our church. I always begin by saying by saying that Grace Lutheran began on a Sunday morning in early June, back in 33. Not 1933, but 33, as in 33 AD, as in Pentecost Sunday, that's when our church began. Well, I can read body language and quickly saw no one was impressed by my cutesy-ness. But my point was that all Christians, whatever the denominational flavor, can trace their history back to that day when the Spirit of God came upon those first believers in Jerusalem. As far as this particular branch office of God's Church goes, we trace our timeline way back to '63. Not 63 AD but 1963. And that's what we are: a branch office of the true Church of Jesus Christ. And over the years I've seen my calling as one of promoting a spirit of openness toward other Christians wearing different labels.

Like those first disciples, you and I are privileged to overhear one of the final prayers of Jesus, "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one." We can be partners in that oneness - dance partners, if you will. And on our bulletin cover, maybe the artist is making the point, no one is leading - but all have Jesus in the center.

This does not mean that Christians should always agree on everything. Heaven forbid! Even at the corner of Curry and Gomer, where we seem to get along pretty well, there are times when we surely disagree with one another over compass points and the best course of direction. And if we are at all "successful" as the Body of Christ, a part of it has to do with the fact that even in the midst of our strongest disagreements, our God seems to have blessed us with a sense of fair play and respect. Real strength and true growth come from diversity; we need to be on guard that diversity does not become adversity.

Christian unity. The real embarrassment of Christianity is not the diversity of her churches. I feel comfortable worshipping as a Lutheran. Others feel comfortable with the "let down your hair" style of many Pentecostal groups. There is no need to mouth the same liturgies and pray the same way. The real scandal for the Christian Church is not that we are worshipping in different churches, with different liturgies, and dozens of different dogmas. The real scandal is that we have loved our church and our liturgy and our dogma ... loved these things more than we have loved one another!

I've shared this story before: one of my seminary colleagues, Dick Webber, tells the story about a family from Manhattan, John and Susan and their two sons, who wanted to get away from it all: the crime and the grime; the rat race and all the rest. They sold their penthouse and moved to a ranch house in southwest Texas. About a year later, some friends from the east came for a visit. Over dinner they asked John, "Have you named the ranch?" Well, I wanted to call it The Bar-J; Susan wanted to call it The Susie-Q; William liked The Flying W; and Tommy, for reasons you can guess, favored, The Lazy T." He shrugged and went on, "So we compromised and call the ranch The Bar-J, Susie-Q, Flying-W, Lazy-T Ranch. Trouble is, we had quite a herd of cattle but none of them survived the brand!"

A silly story ... but if we see Baptism as having been "branded" into a denomination; and if we see that denomination as having the only truth about Jesus; then we will not survive the brand. But, when we acknowledge one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism - and when we speak well of our Christian neighbors of a different label, then we have a pretty good answer to my pretty lame question: WWJD? Why Would Jesus Dance? He wants his followers to be one. When we follow in his steps - I think it would be hard for Jesus not to dance!