BEING PART OF THE PICTURE

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you ... so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.(Colossians 1: 9a, 11-14)

There is an awful lot of spectacle involved in our modern celebrations of Christmas. Pagents, music events, lights, decorations. It is very easy to sit back and enjoy the sights, to be observers. To be passive, in fact.

But that is not what God had in mind for us.

Paul tells us that we ought to be walking in a way worth of the Lord, bearing fruit in our work. He reminds us that we were rescued from the "domain of darkness" and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.

Now there's a thought. Instead of sitting in the darkened movie theater, watching everything up on the screen, we've been transfered into the picture itself, in all its color and motion and light. Instead of sitting passively watching, we are called to be moving about and doing things, doing them well.

When I was growing up in Michigan, the choirs of many of the churches in the community would join together to form a massive chorus in order to perform the Christmas section of Handel's Messiah. It was usually the adult choir members that took part in the chorus. My mother was a church musician (organist and choir director), and I not only could read a score, I could sing well. For two years, I had been intrigued by my mother and older sister going off to the special rehearsals in the weeks prior to Chirstmas. I forget how old I was when I first got to join the chorus, but I was far younger than anyone else there. I sang soprano. Over the course of the next several years, I took part in the Messiah chorus, reaching the point where I knew all the choruses for the Christmas section by heart. And I'd heard the solos often enough that I knew them as well.

Taking part in the event became an important aspect of the season for me. I didn't quite realize how much until after we moved to Texas, and it was no longer as much of a factor. Oh, the choir in our church in Houston certainly did sing some of the choruses for services (so many churches do!). But it wasn't quite the same thing.

When I look back on it now, I vaguely remember the years before I joined the special chorus, attending the performances, sitting with my father, but being restless. (I was occassionally a fidgety child.) Because so much of the meaning of that musical work is in the words, perhaps I fidgeted because the words didn't fit together in a way that reached my young brain. But once I was in the chorus, and spending the weeks learning the word, learning how the voices fit together, my connection to the performance changed greatly.

I was no longer a spectator. I was a participant.

The Advent season unfolds so much spectacle for us in the story of the birth of Jesus. We sit back and watch it. We let our thoughts dwell on the meaning of the season, the coming of Christ into the world ... while sitting comfortably on our sofas or lounge chairs.

Are we remembering yet that we were rescued from the domain of darkness? That we are now citizens of the kingdom of Christ? That we are called to walk and do things in that kingdom?

We're part of the picture. We're not the audience.