More Godspell thoughts

July 3, 2009 at 1:00 am (Americanization of Christianity, Godspell, Politics, Resurrection)

During the only performance of Godspell I have seen there was applause from the audience when Jesus was brought back on stage after his death wearing all white. Applause? I thought this was interesting because it was not as though the people did not know Jesus comes back, but could the applauding be an expression of our cultures embedded theology? That is to say we American Christians really like the Resurrection.

For example there was no clapping during the parables of Jesus, or his baptism, or his Crucifixion, or his touching the unclean. (Although there was clapping when Jesus did the robot!) Although these events are remarkable in their own right. In fact the Resurrection would not be possible without the Crucifixion.

Why did we not clap when Jesus told the story of the prodigal son? This is a beloved story of resurrection. Why was there no clapping when the younger son came back to his home? Or when his father hugged him?

I guess that is part of the reason we go to church on Easter more than any other day (Christmas might be a close rival). We really like the resurrection. But the question remains:

For all that we like about the resurrection do we even know what it means? Do we just think it means that we too will get to be resurrected?

If we understood the political dynamics of the resurrection (that is God saying yes to the politics of Jesus and no to the politics of empire) then would we American Christians clap at the resurrection?

I guess it makes a different if we are Americans or Christians.

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Ressurection is hard…

April 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm (Easter, God, Resurrection)

During the Sunrise worship on Easter Sunday, the youth had developed a theme of “Resurrection, Renewal, and Response”. Each of these words had an experiential prayer station which everyone was invited to participate in. The resurrection station had plexi-glass which was painted black and people were invited to scratch off the paint (think like an etch-a-sketch) in order to allow the light to shine through. This was to “resurrect” these sheets of plastic which were cast away, dark, and considered dead.

Here is a couple of the squares which was completed.

At the conclusion of the “station time” we invited people to share their reflections and experiences. There were many things shared that were rich in meaning and built on the metaphors we were working with, but one person shared with us something that I found very true.

When speaking of the resurrection station someone stated, “The paint was thicker than I thought it would be and I found it hard to etch anything into the glass. I really had to work at it. It was difficult to do. So too is resurrection, it is hard to do.”

Often times I think we tend to look at a person and think, “This person is too thick. I really will have to work to help this person. It will be difficult. I think I would just rather leave them alone.” And maybe that is something that makes God a bit different than humanity, God is willing to resurrect and we are willing to let things die.

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