Reflective Prayer After a X-Mas Concert

Sunday, December 23, 2007 REFLECTIVE PRAYER

Dear ONE,
You were with me and the others at City Hall on Friday at the CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERT. Judy, two friends and I arrived early in order to get good seats. I stayed to stake our claim to them while the others roamed on Queen Street to view the grand decorations in the windows of THE BAY and EATONS. The choirs were warming up. Directly before me was the High Park Youth Choir. I had forgotten once more how simply angelic people can appear when they sing their hearts out. Especially when they are otherwise hell raisers in grades eight and nine. To see their faces as they sing such beautiful carols of love and hope you just know that they would never, ever have a wicked or discourteous thought.
After the practice one of the angels came to join her parents who were sitting next to me. How could such tone and attitude come from the mouth of one who had just sang so purely of the Sweet Little Jesus Boy? The transformation from angel to little bitch was worthy of Hollywood.
Dear ONE, You made us so able to be HOLY and evil nearly simultaneously. At Christmas this is abundantly clear and made even obvious. We need the HOLY and are instinctively drawn toward what YOU give and yet we do our best, it seems to water that down so that the message is hidden and ignorable. The City Hall concert was a good example. We were assured by a grade eleven student that the meaning of Christmas was the good feeling one received when we gave to others that materialism was not really the way to happiness. The usual Christmas message now-a-days. Of course, apart from the traditional carols there was no mention of Your or Jesus.
I should have been prepared mentally for it. An event at City Hall could not have been anything else. For a while I was so saddened and angry I could only sit there and control myself. What would YOU have me do? I feel your CALL in me, a prophetic one to be sure but am I to ruin “nice” occasions in your name? I doubt that that would be beneficial for anyone. Or am I just wimping out, showing my lack of nerve and the shallowness of my call and understanding. Am I to speak only in safe situations? The event certainly gave me a lot to think and pray about.
I was glad I went. And it had its positive side. Sure the words were largely tripe, the theology hopelessly from another time and insulting to our intellect, the symbolism for another time and people, but the fact is that people still came to it. Maybe for reasons of habit or nostalgia, maybe to just hear some beautiful music from talented folks of all ages who had spent many hours to prepare and share with us. But they came for reasons that were good and meaningful to them. Good on them!
I know I'm an idealist and so am by definition of unsound judgment but I can't help but believe if people gather to events such as that that many would be even more attracted to where they could hear and see your WORD becoming flesh among us! I am fully aware of how many millions in our society throng to the nice/meaningless/easy/beautiful and materialistic half truths of City Hall or religious evangelists but I simply MUST believe that there are many who long for more and who recognize the smallness of what most accept as Christianity. Where are churches in all of this? ore.

"I think we have ruined God." - Bono

"The first and greatest commandment is this: don't let them scare you." - Elmer Davis

"Most people would die sooner than think. In fact, they do so." - Bertrand Russell

"The world is craving spirituality so much right now. If they could sell it at McDonald's, it would be there." - Carlos Santana