My church did a Christmas program last night. We had a small orchestra and maybe a hundred singers; we partnered with another church and held it in a high school auditorium. It was a great venue to reach unchurched people with the good news of Christmas.
However, somewhere back in the compilation of the musical the good news got a little mixed up. The narration stuck to evangelism but after the first couple songs, most of the music was straight-up worship: “Jesus, You’re beautiful to me”; “You’re wonderful, You’re powerful”; “I come to Bethlehem, I come to praise Him again and worship Him”; “If I can sing, let my songs be full of His glory.” As a member of the choir, I felt very self-conscious, like my personal piety was on display. I also wasn’t sure that a display of personal piety was the best way to evangelize someone, or to attract them to the gospel.
It was interesting how individualistic the worship songs were; maybe that’s what aggravated my feeling of “personal” piety. Maybe I have a different understanding of evangelism than the compilers of the musical do: I understand the good news as being welcomed into a family, as resulting in harmony with many people as well as with God. Also, because Christ created the universe that we inhabit but feel so displaced in, becoming reconciled to Christ further reconciles the Self with the Universe. We regain our ability to function as stewards of creation; we work toward harmony and justice in relationships with each other and with our environment; we gain integrity as we discover more parts of ourselves to turn over to the Lordship of Christ; we look forward to the peace of God (the Shalom) pervading all things in the new Kingdom. Therefore, our songs of worship express our reconciliation within the new community; we use the first person plural a lot in worshipping God—not primarily the first person singular.
It felt like the compilers of the musical understood Christianity as an individual reconciliation of the Self with God. Period.
In fact, towards the end of the musical, one of the narrators said, “If you’ve given Jesus that most precious of human gifts—your heart—then Christmas extends a second invitation. If you’ve received the gift of Jesus, you must leave the stable and open your arms to a waiting world. You must travel to the hills of the shepherds and to the cities of the kings. You must become a bearer of Christmas to a cold and lost world. You must bring them the wondrous gift of Jesus.” (Segue to the next song.)
The point of accepting Christ was here clearly stated as getting other people to accept Him, too. That made becoming a Christian seem pretty pointless, after all. “If I get reconciled to God, I try to get other people reconciled to God; what does being reconciled to God mean?” From the content of the musical, I think our imaginary questioner would conclude that being reconciled to God would mean having some warm feelings toward God and standing up in a Christmas show someday to try to get other people reconciled.
This is an odd message of evangelism because most non-Christians I know claim to have warm feelings toward God; they believe He/She/It is Love and totally approves of them. (They do feel a vague anger about “things”, but usually they don’t assign that to God.) They insist that they already feel “reconciled” to God—in an individualistic way.
But they are not part of a community of people reconciled to God and they are not whole in their relationship to Self, Others, or the Universe.
Anyway, I sang this mixed-up Christmas message with my church because I am part of that community (and God knows finding a good Christmas musical WITH orchestrations is nigh impossible! Other factors which I have not considered went into selecting that musical, I'm sure). Their actions are sometimes clearer than their words: they work toward harmony and justice in practical ways, like giving me and my husband gift cards for groceries.
Singing with people like this gives me hope. Even when we mix up the message, surely God will bless the intentions of people whose hearts are open to Him.
But we can’t stop at good intentions….
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