The Church and theatre are two of the most comfortable and
uncomfortable spaces in existence. They exist in the tension between the real
and the imagined, the experienced and the hoped-for. It is difficult to get
“butts in the seats” of either building. Those who know the beauty and
importance of the theatre and church respectively go. Those who doubt,
distrust, or can’t be bothered to care don’t go. Theatre and church embrace all
the broken, knobbly, and shard-like parts of humanity and reconcile them with a
vision for a bettered humanity. Both are honest. Both are truthful. Both
operate by parable and metaphor. Both know the power of a story. The
Christian can no more separate himself from the theatre than he can separate
himself from the historical spectacle from the historical spectacle that is the
Bible. We live the greatest story and will be judged at the Curtain Call by how
faithfully we acted our part in accordance to the One who cast us and will
lovingly direct our pathos into scenes of blessing and peace if we will but
attend His voice.
The theatre
and the church serve to enchant. Fueled by the deepest longings of our
imagination and driven by the magnetic and rhythmic pull of ritual, these
institutions waft under our spiritual noses (for we are spiritual beings as
well, don’t forget) olfactory inklings of Paradise. And yet, the stench of
heart-rottenness lingers underneath the rose petals. There are no roses without
mulch. And here, my friends, is the crucial difference between the theatre and
the church. The theatre can only hint at, toy with, and suggest alternative
paths for the depravity of mankind to be cleansed and restored to the life we
were made to live but are incapable of achieving because of our enslavement to
our desires. Only the church can both acknowledge the original innocence of the
Desire for Love, Peace, Joy, Identity, Acceptance, and the like and claim to possess The Path to salvation and
sanctification. Because the church has got hold of the best all-super-natural
medicine of all time: The Story. The
Story has been set upon the ultimate stage: the universe. It is told through
the most honest and moving actor: Jesus Christ (who transcends being
“convincing” and actually becomes his
character, “Godman,” to the chagrin of the most earnest actor). And it is
performed for the most ornery and resistant audience imaginable: Humanity.
So should the Christian abstain
from theatre if the church has already access to the perfect story? By no
means! Theatre should inform our church and church our theatre. We must go on
telling lesser stories with great excellence and honesty so our hearts and the
hearts of our audience members may be receptive to greater and greater and
greatest stories. T.S. Eliot believed that the theatre was a kind of “cultural
church” (my term) that could teach and purify the culture through the telling
of poetic tales. Christianity creates, redeems, and empowers culture. Our Lord
Himself told stories. How dare we neglect the Word that spoke the world into
being and wrote His own death scene so that our tongues would be loosed with
the fire of the Holy Spirit to take the Great Story to the ends of the earth?
Pentecost gave men the ability to speak in native tongues so that the gospel
might be told to all who would hear. I speak in the “script” of “Scripture.”
Act well your part, for there all the honor lies.
