On a recent visit to New Zealand, my grand daughter Natalie arranged for us to attend an evening featuring extracts from the great stage shows of the last fifty years: Lion King , Evita , Phantom of the Opera, The Impossible Dream, Les Mis and others. They were sung by a touring group of professionals who had been singing in these stage shows in London and New York.

Despite my being musically illiterate and incompetent, I enjoyed it immensely. Some might be ungracious enough to say that was why I enjoyed it! I don’t think so. I think it had something to do with presenting philosophy in a way that appeals both to the rational and emotional side of our being. Like many others I have become increasingly tired of the sterility of words alone, and the uselessness of emotion alone. In the musical stage show the two brought together. Instead of hopping along on one leg, we walk strongly on two.

When you come to think of it, isn’t that exactly what a hymn does? A hymn draws meaning and music together. That is why we sing them. This is also the basis of our time together this morning.

It is my hope that you will both enjoy it and find it meaningful.

So let the show begin!

(1) LION KING Circle of Life – The Lion King (lyrics) U Tube

CommentLion King is a much loved and popular musical, indeed last week it was announced that it is going to have a remake. The story line is about a young Lion Simba regaining the throne of his father Mustafa despite the machinations of his uncle Scar. There are many touching scenes in the musical as the rightful King is restored to his throne.

I am fully aware that to criticize the musical is heresy to many, but criticize it I must, because life is not a circle back to some established and rightful position. Life isn’t a circle. It spirals and evolves into the future and we are in, and part of, the process.
As George Coyne says “No element in the universe, including ourselves, can be ultimately understood except in relation to the whole”. Life is more than a handful of years. We live and die and the human race continues to evolve. The big questions are what it will evolve into, and what part does consciousness play in the process. Our lives, and the Christian faith, are about the future of the world and the human race. Paul Tillich spoke in terms of God being the “ground of our being”. We need today to speak of God in terms of the “ground of our becoming”. The future is that is all important. God is the ground of our becoming and in Jesus of Nazareth we see and experience God’s future. The Christian faith is not about the future of you and me. It is about the future of the human race.

Prayer
Dynamic energy of life
Ground of our being and our becoming,
calling all to fullness of life.
We give thanks this day for the gift of life.
We have done nothing to deserve it.
It is sheer gift.
For some it is the joyous energy of scooter and bike.
For others the calmness of a setting sun.
Wherever we stand on that spectrum
we give thanks for the new possibilities inherent in Jesus of Nazareth
And here and now, at this time and place,
we open ourselves to those new possibilities
within and among us
May we this day see God and Jesus in terms of the world’s becoming.
May our lives spiral into the future and may life become richer and fuller than we know it today.
For all that is, and all that can be,
and for him in whom we see the nature and presence of fullness of life
we offer our thanks this day
So be it, and if it be so, then to God and Jesus of Nazareth be the praise and the glory.
Amen

(2) EVITA Don’t cry for me Argentina (Lyrics) U Tube

Comment

What do I see as so significant about Evita? It has an emotional content that I relate to and brings to mind a striking piece of scripture, a piece of scripture that is both universal and personal. And we will make it our scripture passage for the day.

Luke 23:26-28 .

Jesus is on his way to being crucified and we read “Great numbers of people followed, amongst whom were lamenting women. Jesus turned to them and said ‘Don’t weep for me. Weep for yourselves and your children’ “.

Jesus was on his way to being crucified. And for God’s sake, let’s not forget that Jesus was crucified! How I tire of the facile optimism of our society and many Christians! Jesus was on his way to being crucified, one of the most hideous deaths one can imagine. And it is central to the story of Jesus – there is no question about that. The story of Jesus is the story of a man who was crucified and Bonhoeffer is one hundred percent right when he says. “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die”. Jesus himself said. “If you want to be a disciple of mine, then take up your cross and follow me.” And there is nothing joyful about crucifixion! I am growing increasingly tired of those who see the Christian faith in terms of “being happy”. I wonder at the facile optimism that dominates our society today. “Weep not for me.” says Jesus “Weep for yourselves and your children.” Weep for a world that is based on pleasing oneself. Weep for a society that elects a Donald Trump. Weep for a world that relies on violence to effect its goals, with domestic violence now reaching epidemic proportions. Weep for a world besotted with technical competence and no goals to which to direct it. “Don’t weep for me Australia. Weep for yourselves and your children.”

To be sure there is a lot of sentimentality in the song Evita but it also has some striking words. “As for fortune and fame, they are illusions. They are not the solutions they promise to be. The answer is there all the time : “I love you and I hope you love me”. All of which brings up another aspect of the song : that when I eventually shuffle off this mortal coil, “don’t cry for me Wembley Downs.” Like many of us I have greatly appreciated beeing part of a community that sees and experiences the centrality of love and offers a vision. What more could one ask for? Sure some of us are getting pretty frail with various concerns and illnesses but we have a lot for which to be thankful.

But enough of Evita. Let’s now listen to an older show time song (1964) which, for some of us, still gets the adrenalin flowing.

(3) THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
Luther Vandross The Impossible Dream with lyrics U Tube

Comment

What do I find so striking about this song? It picks up the concept of the future as crucial to life today. The Christian faith is about the past, it is about the present – but it is primarily about the future. “I have come” said Jesus “that you might have life and have it in all its fullness”. “Fullness of life” is what Jesus is all about – a fullness which is not to be found in the evolutionary story. T.H. Huxley pointed this out in the nineteenth century. Huxley was known as “Darwin”s Bulldog” and was the one chosen to represent evolution in the debate with Bishop Wilberforce. Huxley, however, had no time for what we call today “social Darwinism” that “whatever will be will be”, “Que sera sera” as Doris day used to sing . T.H. Huxley’s point was that we should not look for an ethic in evolution and that we have to insert an ethic into it. Unfortunately he discounted the Church as providing an ethic and this was understandable. The Church at that time was (and still largely is) locked into the past with its creedal formula and a penchant for Holy Wars – a direct contradiction of the non violent Jesus of Nazareth. The ethic of Jesus “love one another as I have loved you” was overlaid by a war mongering Church that was a denial of everything that Jesus lived for – and died for. Jesus didn’t die so that we could go to heaven saved by his precious blood. He died because he was a threat to the government of his day – just as he is today. His ethic was, and is, regarded as an “impossible dream”.

Strangely enough, there is today a growing movement around the idea of an impossible dream. It is led by a guy called Don Cupitt and in his latest book he lays great emphasis on “The Impossible Dream” and how we are called to love it in advance. “For me” he says “the dream is about spiritual perfection never fully realized on earth….. The dream functions to make us dissatisfied with present ethical reality….. Far too many people’s aspirations are set far too low…. Dancing with the dream is true religion.” “ I insist” he says “on the need for an impossible dream that forever drives us on and eludes our grasp.” “Jesus” he maintains “had a dream about what human life might become and his early followers tried to live the dream. “

There is much in Cupitt’s idea that resonates with me, and I am, of course reminded of Martin Luther King and his magnificent “I have a Dream” speech – the background of which is quite interesting. A traditional speech had been prepared for him and Martin Luther King was quite uncomfortable with it. He stumbled over the first few lines. The singer Mahalia Jackson was on the stage with him and whispered “Tell them about the Dream, Martin” And putting the prepared speech on one side he delivered one of the most memorable speeches the world has ever heard.
“I have a dream today that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream!
”I have a dream that one day in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream!”

That speech, and the dream contained within it, would never have seen the light of day had it not been for Martin Luther King’s kitchen chair.

On Friday January 27th 1956 King arrived home exhausted and late at night. The phone rang and a sneering voice said “Leave Montgomery immediately if you have no wish to die.” King hung up the phone, walked to his kitchen, and with trembling hands, put on a pot of coffee and sank into a chair at his kitchen table. And this is how he describes what happened.

“I was ready to give up. With my cup of coffee sitting untouched before me, I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had all but gone, I decided to take my problem to God. With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory. ‘I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone. At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced God before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”

Three days later a bomb blasted his house and his family escaped harm by a hair’s breadth. “Strangely enough,” King later wrote, “I accepted the bombing calmly. My religious experience a few nights before had given me the strength to face it.”

Seven years after his kitchen epiphany he gave his “I have a dream speech” which concluded with this magnificent peroration “I have been to the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy today. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” In less than 48 hours he had been shot dead. He was 39 years of age and a fine example of what Don Cupitt was on about but – and it’s a very big but – there would never have been a “I have a dream” speech if it were not for his kitchen epiphany.

The conclusion I draw from all of this is: “If we don’t have an impossible dream perhaps its time to spend more time in the kitchen chair” And now, so that kitchen chairs will not perish from the earth, let us worship God with our offering.

OFFERING

(4) MUSIC OF THE NIGHT Music of the Night (lyrics) Michael Crawford (5.07)

Comment
Strange thing about that song. With the changing of a few words it reads like an altar call of the last century

Close your eyes and surrender to your greatest dream
Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before
Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar
and you’ll live as you never lived before.
Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world
Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before
Let your soul take you where you want to be.
Only then can you belong to me.
You alone can make my song take flight
The power of the music of the light.

The theme of light and dark is prominent within the New Testament usually in the sense of light breaking the darkness. It is something that lies deep within the human psyche – and I freely admit that when I walk down the drive to pick up the papers at dawn I find myself involuntarily saying “Good Morning God”, and I remember the words attributed to Jesus. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

PRAYERS OF CONCERN

(a) The US Election
Many were surprised at the election of Donald Trump. I was not! In many ways he is a man of our times: abuse, threaten and destroy your opponent, and be nice when you have done so. As Paul Kelly puts it “He elevates almost every debased feature of our flawed culture.”

(b)The children of our society
Last week we had another grand daughter over to dinner. Jessie is an Occupational Therapist working with children. In the course of conversation I casually asked if there were any signs yet of computer/I pad usage by the young. Well, Jessie really took off and in technical language of motor skills and relationships outlined a startling impact on child development. And here’s me thinking computer effect was a concern for the future. It is among us right here and now.
The same goes for the dire future of indigenous children where the number in care has quadrupled in the last 20 years. The skyrocketing rate of removal means that 35% of children in care are indigenous. The aboriginal community is dysfunctional as far children are concerned. The government spends $700 million on family support and early learning centres, and $3.5 billion on protecting the children. Government policy is all about school attendance, an experience for which for which of course the child is completely unprepared. Its crazy and its stupid – as is the case that more than one in three children in detention have foetal alcohol spectrum disorder

In the name of Jesus of Nazareth
We remember the election of the US President.
and the words of Jesus
“Weep not for me, weep for yourselves and your children”
Let there be light we pray

In the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
we remember this day the children of the world
and the words of Jesus
“Weep not for me, weep for yourselves and your children
Let there be light we pray

(5) LES MIS Les Mis Finale with lyrics(CD version) Start 2.22

Comment

And so we come to the finale of Showtime Sunday – the finale of Les Mis which as some of you know, I have requested as a song to be played at my funeral service. Why? Because it highlights for me the centrality of Peace Making , of the plough replacing the sword, of people who are lost in the valley of the night, of a flame that never dies. And if you haven’t seen this flame, if you haven’t heard the music, then you don’t know what the Christian Faith is about. It is about tomorrow coming – the tomorrow as lived and expressed by Jesus of Nazareth.

Why do I find stage musicals so significant? Because they present the rational, the emotional, and the practical as one complete parcel. We have an abundance of people who are rational, an abundance of people who are emotional and an abundance of people who are social but we have all too few who hold together the rational, the emotional and the social.

And when you do, when you find people like Jesus of Nazareth, then tomorrow comes in all its fullness!

BENEDICTION

Tomorrow has come – so go forth into the world with and in faith. Be of good courage, hold fast to that which is right, render to no-one evil for evil, strengthen the faint hearted, support the weak, honour all people, love and serve the Lord, rejoicing with music and thanksgiving, and knowing that the grace of Jesus of Nazareth, and the love of God, and the courage of the Holy Spirit goes with us and will be with us today tomorrow and for evermore.