I have often said that the sermon should be a conversation between God and God's people. This conversation takes place after we have heard the words of Scripture read from the Bible and while we are thinking about what is happening in the world and in our own lives.

But today I would like to think of our relationship to God as a dance, where God is our partner.

God's partnership shows up as God's love for God's people and the way in which this wonderful love stays with us all our lives, supporting us when we are weary, raising us up when we fall, guiding us when we need to make decisions, and giving us the strength and the will to do what is right before God and to dance the dance of life.

There is plenty of death before us. The recent terrible destruction and murder caused by the terrorist bombings in Mumbai and the equally barbaric bombing of Beirut airport. And whenever we pick up the Sydney Morning Herald or the Telegraph we see more evidence of human greed, stupidity and violence.

This human wickedness is echoed in the Gospel story of the murder of John the Baptist. John was a good man. Jesus said that among men born of women, none was greater than John the Baptist. Even King Herod liked him. Herod was puzzled by what he said, but he liked to listen to him. Who knows, in time Herod might have repented of his sins and turned to God. But Herod had married Herodias, his brother's wife and John had declared their marriage against the law. Herodias was furious with John, she felt insulted. "How dare such a grubby little man say such things to a Queen?" So she planned to kill him.

We know the story, Salome danced and pleased Herod, who made a stupid drunken promise. Herodias demanded the head of John the Baptist, and Herod, rather than lose face in front of his guests, had him executed. John was a good man, but his death was brought about by human pride, anger, jealousy, spite, malice and stupidity.

In the same way, I suggest, in Mumbai and Beirut and the rest of the world where men fight, the deaths of innocent people are brought about by human pride, anger, jealousy, spite, malice and stupidity.

But these dreadful things don't have to happen! There is another way to live! The three great faiths of the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam condemn this wicked way of life. Each of these faiths declare that "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it." to use the words of the psalmist. God is the creator of all that is, and without God nothing can exist. Human beings are God's creation like everything else, and like everything else, are created to live in obedience and harmony with God and God's creation. "Who shall climb the hill of the Lord?" asks the psalmist. The answer is that only those with hands unstained by crime and hearts free from guilt can be part of God's kingdom. Those who serve other gods and liars cannot stand in God's holy place.

King David was not always a good man, but when he brought the Ark of the Covenant up the hill of Jerusalem and set it in its place, he was overjoyed. He believed that the Ark was the throne of God, and that while God sat on the throne on the hill of Jerusalem, then there would be peace. In his joy, he came dancing up the hill, leaping and dancing with all his might. But Michal, his wife, King Saul's daughter, saw him dancing and despised him in her heart.

Outside, God was climbing up the hill of the Lord and around him, people dancing. But inside there was still pride and envy, polluting God's Holy place.

Again, this is not how things have to be. St Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, gives thanks to God because God has given us the gift of the heavenly places, the hill of the Lord, God's Holy place. God has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. God has made a plan for us. We are to be God's children, the sisters and brothers of Christ. All the pride and envy, greed and hate will be forgiven and made as if it never was. We will be given new hearts, hearts full of wisdom and insight, hearts that beat the same as God's heart and dance the same dance. This is what God has promised us and this is what God has given us. John the Baptist was a man sent from God to declare God's promise of forgiveness for sins. The sins of the world overwhelmed him and he died. Jesus Christ was a man sent from God, not to declare God's promise, but to be God's promise.

In Christ we have been given the greatest of gifts of God, forgiveness, holiness, blamelessness and love. We are God's children now, because of Christ.

St Paul calls all these gifts our inheritance, as if have not yet received them. This is true. God has given us the kingdom; he has made us his children and forgiven our sins.

But they are like clothes that are too big for us. We have not grown into them yet. We are like flat balloons which will only receive our true shape when God has breathed into them.

In the meantime, while we are growing, while we are being filled with the breath of God, let us live as if we were fully grown, fully filled with the Spirit of God.

King David danced because the Spirit of God filled him with joy and delight. The Queen despised him because she did not share the spirit. Princess Salome danced because she wanted to please her stepfather, King Herod, to fulfil her mother's wicked desire for the death of John the Baptist.

But God, through the life of Jesus Christ and through the words of St Paul, invites us to be filled with the spirit of God and to dance a new dance, which is the dance of life. This is what will break the grip of sin which holds the world so tightly. Not fighting, but dancing. We fight to hurt those we attack, but we dance to invite others to dance with us, to the praise of the glory of God.

So let's dance.