Dear Family,
As many of you know, i enjoy, no i love, the theater. I love the process of reading for a part with all the anxiety that comes with not knowing if i will or will not get the part that i desire. Most of the time i did not get the choice role, but i cherished the journey, regardless. In the rare times that i earned the role i sought, then the real work began. From reading on that stressful day to the scheduling of rehearsals, learning lines, to the dress rehearsal, i loved the entire journey from the beginning to opening night and the amazing feeling i got when lights came up, the curtains opened, and the story began.
I loved the entire ride. If only i acted better.
When i began my ascent into acting, i thought, for all the years i was in school, that developing the character was as simple as memorizing lines and doing the blocking that the director told us to. I would, with a great memory, memorize my lines quickly, and then really spend a lot of time trying to master the blocking, but the art of delving into the character himself? Well i just didn't feel the need.
I was a terrible actor, and i robbed the audience of the full experience because i simply learned the lines and retold the story, without any real work. And when i, or any other actors for that matter, refuse to do the incredibly hard and stressful and emotional work of becoming the character, ensuring the drama unfolds to the glory of the author/writer/creator, we not only dishonor the storyteller but we handicap the full experience of the audience, simply by going through the motions.
Its easy to do, by the way. Just read/rehearse the lines without really studying the character and how to become the person we play on stage. Its really easy, and if the writing is really good and the directing is really good, then the audience can even miss the failures of some of the actors. Even if the audience is oblivious to the failures of the actors, and even if the audience claims to have had a marvelous experience, if the actors failed to do all they should to give the greatest experience ever, the actors failed and robbed the audience of all that the story intended to say.
We see this all the time in acting, but what happens when the drama unfolding is the story of God and the audience is God Himself, and we are the actors? What does that say about us if we can rehearse all the lines of the story, but in reality we have yet to dive, headfirst, into the powerful narrative of God? Aren't we robbing God, dishonoring God, but also aren't we injuring the world because we have not immersed ourselves, our whole selves, into the master narrative, which is God saving the world.
We know all the lines. We recite all the powerful moments in Scripture. And we even praise Easter with sounds of "He is Risen!" But just as i could recite the lines, while on stage, so too, many of us recite the lines to being a Christian, but we rarely become all that we are supposed to be when we profess to follow Jesus, and this failure is to the detriment of God and our neighbor. But if we can learn to respect and revere the great narrative that is God redeeming the world, well then we can give the world what it needs so badly: A great story that brings the worlds to its knees in the greatest kneeling praise ovation possible.
And any church that is able to lead this powerful praise experience will experience something greater than full pews on Sunday, they will be showered with God's presence, living in the Shalom of God to the honor of God and our neighbors good. Amen.
Shalom,
jerry
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