They had a group from a local drama magnate school write and perform some short sketches that went with 4 specific areas of hopelessness in this world, and then each of the pastors gave a short sermonette from one of 4 passages in Jesus life showing how Jesus brought hope. I don't remember exactly but they were things like "Freedom from bondage" and "Health from sickness" or something like that.
Interspersed were a few carols and/or performed pieces of music, including a choir piece. Nora and I were in the choir. That piece and one other were about the only directly Christmas related songs.
The problem was that the music started out with "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent", with a very heavy, minor sound. It's not a cheery song in general, and the way it was done was like the beginning of Lord of the Rings or something. And then, though the carols were definitely carols and were sung by the congregation, the other pieces of music weren't.
Then the dramas, which were done fine for a bunch of high school freshman, were definitely about the problem, or hopelessness, of the different situations. This is fine, except that people remember a short drama more than they remember a long lecture. Here is the beginning of the problem.
The pastors had also had recorded "prayers" for the city by random people in New Haven, but the recording was awful, and when they were understandable (seriously, at least one was about 3 minutes of garble that I, being right in front of a speaker, couldn't discern any words in) they needed to be heavily edited. They were also about the problems, the hopelessness... "may God bring us hope and here's about 2 minutes of me talking about the problem" kind of prayers. This was the one or two that were understandable, or were also written up in the program so you had a sense of what was being said.
The passages for the sermonettes were parables or miracles of Jesus, so they had nothing to do with Christmas directly. In fact, the Christmas story was never really mentioned, other than the senior pastor saying we were all "in denial" about real life because we listen to "Frosty the Snowman" and other Christmas songs that don't really deal with the horribleness of life in this world. They just gloss over it and we think, oh isn't life wonderful, and forget about the pain and suffering.
That may be true, but there are many other carols, played on the radio all the time, that DO deal with the suffering. Most people hear pleas for help for the poor and downtrodden at Christmas.
Then, after the last performed song, which was a great folk rendition of "Joy to the World" and the only time people actually seemed to get into the service (they applauded!), the senior pastor got up and shared a story about torturing dogs! I kid you not. It had a point, but you don't tell a story about torturing dogs if you want to make people want to celebrate! And it was the last thing said during the service...
So... basically if you were a non-Christian coming to the service, which was what they purported to want, you would think that Christians were dour people who look forward to someone making life better after death, but life now isn't worth living.
It just rubbed me and Nora the wrong way. It was a Good Friday service at Christmas. I have no problem with showing who Jesus really is, and no problem with showing how he came to give hope in a world that doesn't have much hope, but you have to focus on the hope, not the problems!
Christmas is the one time when many people think of others. Nora's workplace had a toy drive for several homeless families. Churches and other places of worship give out meals and gifts. Yes, there is a commercialized aspect to Christmas. But we also have multiple TV shows and movies and songs about how we shouldn't focus on that, we should focus on the One who came to earth, ultimately to give His life for us, or at least focus on giving to others in need.
I think deep down most of us see the commercialization, and we think back and realize that none of the gifts we got really ever made us happy. We may need some prodding to realize it, but it's there. We have a void, and Jesus ultimately came to fill that void!
On top of that, radio stations play songs that are pretty open about declaring the true meaning and story of Christmas! Songs like "Angels We Have Heard On High" and "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" and many other carols, that are basically Christian hymns, are played ad nauseum over the month leading to Christmas. That can make you cynical, and there are silly fluff songs about Christmas that make we want to tear my hair out, but the songs that keep getting recorded, and that people really want to hear, are mostly about Jesus coming to earth!
We need to embrace the season, we don't need to give people the whole story of Jesus life and who He was in one service! We need to entice them in to see the beginning of the story, and want to hear more. We need to tap those realizations that people have deep down, that life isn't fulfilling this way, and show them it CAN be fulfilling with Jesus at the center. We need to show them we aren't just dour, sad people, we do have hope, and it is hope and a purpose that makes this life worth living, not just a hope of something better later on!
Anyway, that's what bothered me about the service. The pastor closed by saying "now, isn't everyone ready for a celebration and some treats downstairs?!" and Nora said to me "I want a drink". And she doesn't drink...
It was just depressing. I mentioned this cautiously to a couple other people that night, and they agreed with me. The one who did the folk rendition of "Joy to the World" even said, "we tried to bring some cheer, but [the senior pastor] just sucked it all out again at the end!"
Even after two other services at other churches that my sisters and mother were involved in, both of which were good, that had a much more cheerful messages (and very similar "Jesus brings hope" messages that were in line with what I said above) I still felt depressed. It took another week to get into the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of joy that God came down to save us, to help us to have meaningful and joy filled lives, so that we could spread hope to the rest of the world.
So that's the story, for those who asked:) I'm a bit bitter about it, really. It was a tough enough season this year, with my sister and her husband moving to another country. I didn't need to be reminded of the suffering, I needed to be reminded of the hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment