Hard To Dance With the Devil On Your Back
By Ray Buckley
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About this ebook
In every culture and time, persons of faith, of all ages, have summoned trials and tribulations to find the endurance and strength to “dance.” They have danced with the weight of the world upon their shoulders, sustained by God and others dancing near them.
Hard to Dance With the Devil On Your Back is a seven-session Lenten study that looks at the transcendent struggle in the lives of believers, while helping us to enter the continually crumbling world surrounding Jesus and the disciples in the days preceding Jesus.
Appropriate for both group and individual use, the study provides one lesson for each week in Lent. Each lesson includes a Scripture reference, a brief reading, questions for reflection or discussion, a brief prayer, and a focus for the coming week.
Ray Buckley
Ray Buckley is the interim Director of the Center for Native American Spirituality and Christian Study. Buckley has served The United Methodist Church as a staff member of The United Methodist Publishing House, Director of the Native People’s Communication Office (UMCom) for nine years, and Director of Connectional Ministries for the Alaska Missionary Conference. Most recently Buckley wrote Hard to Dance with the Devil on Your Back and contributed to New Dawn in Beloved community. Also, he is the author/illustrator of five books: God’s Love is Like…, The Give-Away: A Christmas Story in the Native American Tradition, The Wing, Christmas Moccasins, and Dancing with Words: Storytelling as Legacy, Culture, and Faith. He is also the author of Creator Sang a Welcoming Song, and Walking in These White Man Shoes, children and youth resources for the Women’s Dvision School of Mi
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Hard To Dance With the Devil On Your Back - Ray Buckley
R A Y B U C K L E Y
Image2A Lenten Study for Adults
ABINGDON PRESS / Nashville
HARD TO DANCE WITH THE DEVIL ON YOUR BACK
A LENTEN STUDY FOR ADULTS
Copyright © 2010 by Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801, or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buckley, Ray.
Hard to dance with the Devil on your back : a Lenten study for adults
/ Ray Buckley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-4267-1004-9 (book - pbk./trade pbk., adhesive - perfect binding : alk. paper) 1. Lent—Prayers and devotions. 2. Lent— Textbooks. I. Title.
BV85.B76 2010
242'.34—dc22
2010038367
Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To Reverend Im Jung,
who followed the steps of St. John
through the desert and out again
Image3Introduction
Hard to Dance with the Devil on Your Back
First Week in Lent
The Dance
Second Week in Lent
A Parable
Third Week in Lent
The Wronged
Fourth Week in Lent
The Wrong
Fifth Week in Lent
The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved: Judas
Sixth Week in Lent
When Worlds Collide
Holy Week / Easter
Dancing with Holes in Your Moccasins
Introduction
______________________________________________________________________________________
Image1It seemed too early for a spring snow. This kind of heavy, wet snow usually came later. Walking up the street, the snowflakes stuck to my hat and coat as though they were determined to stay. Wet snow seems to have a purpose to it. The small smudge of ashes on my forehead was protected by my hat brim, and to be truthful, I had forgotten it was there. I was thinking about getting out of this Rocky Mountain snow and finding a warm place.
Not far in front of me was a man walking and twirling in the snow. His white rubber boots were pulled up over the bottoms of his pants. He was hatless. The snowflakes had stuck to his hair, weighing it down against his head. He was wearing his jacket inside-out, the yellow lining vivid against the worn, discolored red cuffs.
His gloves didn't match, but that didn't seem to bother him. As he passed me on the street, we smiled at each other, both fellow travelers. On his forehead, running gently toward his nose, was the same smudge of ash I wore on my own forehead.Ashes speaking to ashes.
Dance, then, wherever you may be . . .
There are times when dancing in the snow seems impossible because the drifts are too deep. Some who wear the ashes are praying for enough food or a safe place to sleep. Some have lost their life savings, and some fear for their lives. There are those who wear the ashes who have wronged others, and some who have mastered the art of appearance and forgotten how to dance. Some of us have been hurt so deeply that dancing again seems impossible. There are times when we have so institutionalized The Dance that we dance the same steps out of habit. There are times when we are so weary that we put on the ashes of Wednesday, just hoping, Say something, God . . .
On the wall of the Warsaw ghetto, a young Jew wrote, I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine. I believe in love, even if I do not feel it. I believe in God, even if I do not see him.
What enables faith to be transcendent and engaged even when events around us do not change? In every culture and time, persons of faith have surmounted, endured, and survived to dance.
They have danced with the weight of the world upon their shoulders. As Hans Küng would remind us, in the midst of it all we have been sustained by God, and that sustaining grace has enabled us to be helpful to those around us (On Being a Christian [Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976], p. 602). We dance while helping others dance.
Within some Native cultures is the tradition of circular story. This tradition uses story to contain truth and weaving story together to form a whole. The stories end when they come back to the beginning and have reached the end of the truth the storyteller wishes to share. These small studies are told in circular fashion, both individually and collectively.They begin and end with The Dance.
It is the way our lives are fashioned.Not the lines of individual lives marked along the way by events but woven together where story and event intersect—where God interacts and intervenes.
The season of Lent is a pilgrimage. It is not undertaken to give up a tiny portion of our excess as if it