|
|
Pastor's Message
Awaking to Wonder!
Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee;
changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, Charles Wesley
During the time of the English Restoration, actor Thomas Betterton played Hamlet for a total of forty years or so. Betterton was so convincing that he was able to play the young Hamlet nearly into his 60s! The Archbishop of Canterbury, John Tillotson (1630-1694) is supposed to have talked to Betterton one day and asked, "Why is it that I, when I am preaching about the greatest things, leave people quite unmoved, while you, when you are acting in what is nothing more than a play, can move them to the depths of their hearts?"
"Sir," said Betterton, "you are telling them stories, while I am showing them facts."
This is timely a commentary on our human condition, that the action portrayed in entertainments should be more real to people than the working out of the eternal drama of the love of God! Why? Perhaps there are two reasons. 1) There is the problem of numbing familiarity. Do bible stories sound too familiar? Is there anything we have heard more than the scriptures? Most of us have heard these stories so often that the edge is dull. 2) For so many of us scripture stories happen in fairyland. They take place in the same twilight fantasyland as little children's bedtime stories; they lack the grit, fear, and thrill of sharply historical events. But this is strange to me. I am confronted by the good Samaritan, the unjust judge, the rich fool, Jonah, zealots, or some other member of the scriptural cast in the newspapers and on the radio just about daily. Can the real ever become truer than make-believe? I have no doubt it can. I believe it already is in our congregation. We will need to continue to use contemporary presentation and communication. Too often the Church is dying of dignity, and perishing in the perfection of some noble liturgy. Our congregation strikes me as being traditional in crisp, vital ways. At the same time, new things are not apt to shock us, and we do not get so flustered at the shocking. In the struggle between those who wish to sing one line seven times and those who wish to sing seven lines one time we have found a creative balance. Expression is not an end in itself; it is only the means towards an end, and the end is the awakened realization of what this faith means. It is when we face ourselves and face the truth of God, that we are lost in wonder, love, and praise. I can't help but hope that we will not be remembered as a people of faith by how we behaved in worship, but rather by what real messages from God we brought with us out of the pews and spread to our classmates, co-workers, and neighbors. If the message really is good news no one is going to want to sleep!
Now, let's rehearse our lines once more with feeling!
God bless your witness,
Russell J. Atkinson
|
