This January we are starting a new theme in Worship at Bear Creek. We're calling it“Enticed by the Light.” And for this season our focus will be Broadway Musicals! I’m so excited about this theme. As soon as it popped into my mind, my heart raced back in time to the first time I went to New York. I was in college. It was January in South Dakota, and we were in what they called “winter interim.” It was kind of a break between the two semesters where we took one intense course for the month of January. And for my interim I chose theater! For the class we did two things: we went to New York where we saw 6 (yes count them six shows!), and we put on a musical called “Philemon” in which I was the star!
Well, let me rephrase that. I thought I was the star! I was actually a character called “2nd Soldier”. Not exactly top billing, but, as it turned out, my four lines were pivotal for the play. At least that’s what the director, Daryl Patten, told me in private. To be honest with you, I really hadn’t gotten the thespian bug yet, and I was just a little bit jealous of how good the three male leads were. Joel Black (a transfer from Augustana College) played the clown Cockian. Doug Meeker (a transfer from McAllester College) played the part of Philemon, and Pete Miller (a hot shot from Fargo, ND who ended up being a big-time radio personality in Cincinnati) played the part of the Roman General. They were all amazing and so fun to be with. In fact they were so amazing that I absolutely hated them for it! Jealousy is real in the theater folks! (Just joking…pastor's never get jealous...hah.)
After practicing a week or two we headed off to New York with the cast and New York totally blew me away. The food was so incredible. China Town was something I would have never experienced anywhere in Mitchell, SD. And the theater was spellbinding! As soon as I hit the first show, “Chorus Line,” I was hooked. I came out of that show singing and dancing “I Can Do That!” I was going to be the next dancer on that chorus line! (Unfortunately I discovered, after nearly spraining my ankle on the streets of NY, that maybe dancing wasn’t my “thing”.) But from that moment on, show after show, I was enticed into a whole new world. After “Ain’t Misbehaving” I was jumping just like the cast was when they sang “This Joint is Jumping.” After “Children of a Lesser God” I was completely silenced after entering a world that helped me imagine what it must be like to be unable to hear at all! After “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” I even fell in love with Dolly Parton! After “42nd Street” I genuinely believed that there was, indeed, “A Sunny Side to Every Situation!”. And after the musical "Barnum", I was ready to run off to the circus, especially it that circus was on Broadway and 42nd Street in New York, New York!
Broadway did two things for me. It transported me into the lives of people I had never even thought about and helped me empathize with them. (Yes, they were different but there was also just enough of me in each of them that I not only related to them, but I was also able to become a part of them!) And second, selected songs and stories of Broadway became “a lure” from a "higher power" that enticed me to be a better, more hope-filled person!
Let me explain!
Ever since I went to seminary, I’ve been a huge fan of Process Theology. In Process Thought, God isn’t seen as a great big oversized person hovering over us and wielding all the power and control. God is, instead, an idea or a set of ideas that “lures” me and every human bing into being more compassionate, loving, and more justice minded. God is like this great big GPS system (like on your car) who gives each of us a way to move forward, and we are given complete freedom to choose that way or not. But if we don’t make the right choice, God doesn’t send us to hell. No, our loving God, just like a GPS system, offers us another route, another way...a more excellent way. And if we miss that…another and another and another.
God is always giving us another way "home".
For me, many of these Broadway songs and scenes have become like the “gospel” or “scripture” or “Torah” for me. Enticing me into a better, broader, deeper, and more loving ME, as I enter into community with others along the way!
And that’s what we’re hoping this sermon and worship service can do for all of us. Our God speaks, no doubt, through scripture. But not just scripture! If we open our hearts and minds to a God that is bigger than just that, we might encounter God on the stage, in the lights, and even in our own struggles to be fully human. In our deepest songs. Who knows, maybe worship at Bear Creek UMC can be just like Broadway was back in 1980 for me…a life-changing experience that enticed me to be braver, more compassionate, and more who God created me to be.
Our first “show” will be this Sunday as we look at the musical “Rent” and discover 525,600 ways to be more loving. See you in the seats!
Your friend and pastor, praying for God’s “season of love” to come your way in 2024, Brook
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