There has been a lot of drama in my life this week. Actual, real drama on a stage I mean! On Wednesday Juliette and I went to see the Jacob’s Well production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the Cheltenham Playhouse. The production starred our very own Alexandra Dyer and behind the scenes was Sandra Read (also our very own). It was wonderfully acted, great fun, and so many gifted musicians and singers contributed to a very entertaining evening.
On Thursday we headed to GL1 for a Strike a Light performance of “The Endz” which was a collaboration between The Multi-Story Orchestra and a group of young people who have experienced the death a friend from gang related violence. There was also a chorus of about 100 local secondary school children. The fusion of orchestra, young voices, rap, and drama was inspiring and beautifully done.
It might appear as if these two evenings were chalk and cheese, and of course, singing wardrobes have little in common with the struggles faced by many of our young people. But, in another way, they were so similar. Both demonstrated the capacity for courageous and uplifting change that exists within each one of us. Both stories involved struggles with societal expectations, struggles with identity and belonging, but demonstrated that we can discover the inner strength needed to choose life, choose hope, and (in the Beasts case) choose love!
These themes of struggle and the possibility of redemption and restoration are threaded through our Christian story, because they are threaded through our human stories. For each one of us, whatever our circumstances, the story and the questions are the same. (A question the poet Mary Oliver wrote as, “What is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?”) The difference lies in the resources we can call upon to help us answer this question. Many of you reading this will be able to call upon our Christian traditions of prayer and worship, our personal relationship with God to guide us into the way of life in all its fullness.
Holding on to God as we journey through life is the theme of my sermon on Sunday (I haven’t actually written it yet so this is liable to change!); holding on to the hope that there will be a good ending because the author of life, the living word is Christ and in Him there is a light that leads us onwards through our own story of redemption and restoration.
As always, if there is anything I can support you with in prayer or conversation please get touch.
With peace and God’s blessing,
Rev Steve
07503164309