December Home Visits

When I first heard about the seminary here in Ambridge, one of the things I was told was that they used to require all of their students to participate in door-to-door visiting in the neighborhood, and I told myself, "If that is still the case, I'm not going!" The church I grew up in was heavily involved in this kind of "witnessing" and some of my deepest feelings of spiritual inadequacy as a teenager grew out of the fact that I simply did not have the kind of extroverted personality that caused me to strike up conversations with total strangers on the street corner and lead them to pray "the sinner's prayer."

Well, such visiting was no longer a requirement for the school, so we moved to Ambridge. And for most of the first decade, no one at my church ever brought up the possibility of me needing to go knocking on doors of people I didn't know. But then we started KidzLife, and somehow it made sense to take some time on a Saturday and try to visit the kids' homes, either to give out invitations for upcoming events, deliver Easter baskets or Christmas presents to kids who didn't make it to one of our parties, or just to get an opportunity to meet the families of the kids. And I've been doing it at various times, for various reasons, with varying degrees of regularity now for about three years. Except for a survey last summer there has been no "cold calling"--we've stuck to families who've had some contact with our church or children's program--and there have been no dramatic conversions (of the type I heard so much of as a teen) to report. But every time I do it, though I feel anxious, disgruntled, or unqualified going into the experience, I always come away from it feeling positive, energized, and thankful for the opportunity.

This past Saturday was no exception. We had a ton of things planned for the family (our regular Saturday chores plus a few holiday events), so it was really inconvenient to take this break in the middle of the day and head down to church to meet with the team and spend an hour or two visiting. On top of that, the main reason for this week's visits was to invite people to our church's Christmas services, which I felt a little funny doing since our family always travels to Virginia for the holidays, and we've only been home to attend our church's Christmas service once. With us not doing KidzLife this semester (which has generally been my main connection to the families of these visits), I was feeling even more cut off and unqualified than usual. And it was snowing, for the first time this year--nothing particularly beautiful or nasty, but just COLD!

But I went. I was teamed with someone I didn't know well (but who fortunately was more of an extrovert than I), and several of the houses we were assigned to were people I didn't know, people others had made contact with through the summer survey. On the other hand, I had a good time getting to know my partner (who DID have some connections to the neighborhood, both because he lived there and because he'd covered some of these same houses in the summer survey), we had an incredible number of people we actually got to talk to (on a typical visiting day it seems there have been far fewer people at home or who answer the door when we knock; I didn't know, but my partner informed me that there was a "Big Game" on that day, so it was a good time to catch folks at home). Best of all, I happened to encounter a lot of the kids that I had met either through my drama class this fall or through Arts Camp last summer, including a case where several were together playing at the one house we visited, another case where the two sisters were the ones to answer the door (giving us the opportunity to wish one of them a Happy Birthday), and one case where we just happening to run into a girl with her mother walking down the street! Everyone we talked to was appreciative of the invitation and many said they would plan to come to one of the services or the Christmas dinner listed on the invitation.

Definitely God was blessing us, the folks praying for us back at the church were doing a great job, and God wanted ME in particular to be out there in order to encounter those kids and give them a face they recognized to go with the invitation. And once again, I was glad I did it!

"Over on the west coast we have Treasure Island"

I was thinking the other day about VBS and the need for female roles in the drama. Pilgrims come in pairs, so of course there will be a female Puritan to help hound our reformed pirates as they try to be missionaries. But I was thinking of other possibilities and remembered reading about Mary Read and Anne Bonny, and I got to thinking of a female pirate. The ex-pirate missionaries first goal was to reach other pirates with word of the Royal Pardon they had all claimed, so I thought on the first day they could take the gospel to some other pirates, and a female pirate could be one of their first converts. Then I tried coming up with a name for this female pirate, and I got to thinking of the book of Acts and Paul's missionary journeys (which is my primary source of inspiration for this venture) and I remembered Paul had a female convert early on in the city of Philippi named Lydia, so a female PIRATE convert might be... LYDIA the TATTOOED LADY!

Delay of the Parousia

It probably surprises no one that my attempt three weeks ago of creating heaven for my puppet theater did not come together in sufficient time. I did make some progress two weeks ago, but only enough to cover the letters to the seven churches (with my translucent Jesus made of pop bottles). Last week we were lacking sufficient puppeteers for what little I had planned to move the story forward, so we are NOW planning on doing the entire book of Revelation (or at least chapters 4-21) in a single night, making our grand finale THE grand finale of all time!

I'm envisioning three scenes (which originally would have been over three separate nights), the first covering the opening scene with a door open in heaven up through the seventh seal and silence for a half an hour (seems like a good place to break). The second scene will begin with the "War in Heaven" (from chapter 12), introducing the Dragon, followed by Beast and False Prophet (I'm hoping to pick up a Pirate puppet, as for years--since reading Zechariah 11--I've pictured this character as a one-eyed, hook-handed man). Having established the Unholy Trinity and their earthly rule, we will back up to the 144,000 being sealed and the trumpet judgments, ending with the Two Witnesses of Chapter 11. The third scene will introduce Mystery Babylon, go through the seven bowl judgments ending in Armageddon, and conclude with Christ's reign, the Great White Throne, and the New Heaven and New Earth. Should be quite a night!

"I Shot an Arrow in the Air..."

So, I ask myself, why would an eagle sit and listen to St. John go on and on about his vision, if he didn't particularly like the man or the task he was being asked to carry out (deliver John's scroll to the seven churches)? Perhaps because it was injured and couldn't fly away from the island for awhile.

And how would it become injured? Archery seems the most likely way of injuring an eagle in the first century and forcing it to land (unless, of course, it was attacked by another eagle, but that would put all the drama in the clouds when I need my audience focused on the ground--and I can't think of a good motivation for one eagle to attack another). On the other hand, if two children were having a contest to see who could shoot the furthest (or highest), it is possible one of them could strike the eagle by accident.

If there are children on the isle of Patmos, then they would most likely be the children of one of the Roman guards. I cannot find any evidence, but it would seem that, with the eagle being a symbol of the Roman Empire (and the army in particular), shooting an eagle would be a crime and an incredibly unlucky thing to do. It could be ruled treasonous and/or sacrilegious (as the eagle was Jupiter's particular bird).

The father of said children would not want them associating with the prisoners on the island in general. But, if one of them had injured an eagle, and one of the prisoners thought he could nurse said eagle back to health, and Dad wanted to keep his child's crime covered up, I think we have the formula to give a good dramatic setting to the next several weeks' puppet shows for KidzLife.

The Continuing Adventures of the Heavenly Pearl - Early Thoughts on VBS

When last we saw our pirate friends (VBS two summers ago), the crew had voted nearly unanimously--the notable exception being the Captain Harry DuPillage--to accept the Royal Pardon and give up being pirates. "Dick Deadeye" had been named the new captain, the ship had been rechristened "The Heavenly Pearl," and the crew (minus Captain Harry) had set off from Paradise Island to spread the word about the Royal Pardon to others.

This summer, we intend to see how things are faring for our pirates-turned-missionaries. Missions will be the theme for this year's VBS, and each of the five days (August 10-14) will focus on a different aspect. Monday will focus on the call to "Go into all the world" and the Holy Spirit's role in directing the mission. Tuesday will focus on the Power the Holy Spirit gives in speaking out and confronting the powers of the evil one. Wednesday will deal with Perseverance in the face of persecution; Thursday will deal with the place of Wisdom in missions (and the fact that God's wisdom is seen as foolishness in the eyes of those who are perishing); and Friday we will focus on Endurance and "fighting the good fight and finishing the race." All of this will be shaped to reflect the missionary journeys of St. Paul as recorded in Acts.

Last year we found it was very effective to involve the children in the action by making them members of the "flock" and seating them inside the sheepfold. To apply this same principle this year, we will have them all sit in the boat as members of the crew. Although none of our actors from two years ago look like they will be available this year, I suppose we will write the same characters and simply recast the parts. In addition to Captain Dick Deadeye and first mate Andrew (and former Captain Harry, who will be stirring up trouble still trying to get his ship back and talking the crew into returning to piracy) we will be adding two new young men: Tim and Mark, who will be joining the crew and tracing the story arc of St. Paul's young traveling companions by those names (John Mark being one that turned back for awhile and was eventually restored; Timothy being the faithful son, servant, and successor to Paul).

Along the way we will meet other characters in port: Kingsmen, legalistic soldiers who don't trust these former pirates or their liberal application of King's pardon to others like themselves; Magicians whose authority and livelihood is threatened by the extension of the King's authority into their realms; Pirates who want to continue their lives of crime; Barbarians who believe in their backwardness that the missionaries are gods; and Sophisticates who don't believe anything, but love talking speculatively of how certain beliefs, if held, would alter their lives.

Specific characters and relationships need to be fleshed out and story arcs must be integrated into the overall plot, but this is where things stand as of now.

"I Just Want to Be a Sheep"

Tomorrow is our Christmas pageant, and once again I have been asked to direct (after the upper-level Sunday School class decided on a script and casting). And once again we have integrated the younger classes' performance of a traditional pageant into the larger production. Last year we had an odd detective/time travel piece, which involved the main character actually interviewing Mary and Joseph, but this year the older kids are doing an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's story of the shoemaker who is told Jesus will visit him, only to have the Lord show up in the poor people he helps throughout the day. The pageant only happens in his mind as he reads the Gospel story, so there is no need for any of the biblical characters to speak.

One five-year-old girl in our church we knew had been pining for the role of Mary, and this situation made it possible for us to offer it to her. We were excited about it, her parents were excited about it, and we were certain she would be excited about it, but when her Dad told her she could be the mother of Jesus, she surprised him by saying, "I think I'd rather just be a sheep." She's since changed her mind and will be appearing as Mary tomorrow (if all goes well and stage-fright doesn't strike again), but it got me and my wife thinking, "What if Gabriel had gotten that response?"

"Hail, highly favored one! The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God!"

"Nah, thanks anyways, but I think I'd rather just be a sheep!"

Since God knows the end from the beginning, and knows our response before he makes an offer, it seems unlikely he sent Gabriel to other girls, but if he had, how many would have turned him down? How many would have turned down the role of Theotokos just to keep their ordinary lives and forgo the attention, the notoriety, the misunderstanding and the sorrow of being the mother of Jesus.

She must have been a very special girl!