Shakespeare the Prophet?

I continued in our "I Am Free" series this past weekend by speaking on being Free to Live for God. My Big Idea was that "being free to live means being free to love."

To explain this, I broke down the balcony scene of Romeo & Juliet and applied Scripture to various points of dialogue to provide a picture of the kind of love we are to have for Christ. The idea for this came from Donald Miller in his book, "Searching for God Knows What." I thoroughly enjoyed doing the preparation for this message; I simply hoped it would connect with people.

The people who enjoy literature absolutely loved it. The people who didn't necessarily like studying Shakespeare in high school were a little concerned at the beginning but understood where I was going by the end.

I am including below the text from an email I received from a woman in the church. In it you will catch a glimpse of why I love what I do - despite the occasional Saturday night sweats. I wrote back to her for permission to share this on my blog. I also thanked her for allowing me simply to be a part of the story God is writing in her life.

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[email message from earlier today - name withheld]

I love Shakespeare. In High School, I got it, and that made me feel good. I got it & I liked it & I enjoyed conveying it to those who didn't get it. I love to read, and since High School, anytime I get to sit down & read Shakespeare to the point of comprehension & enjoyment is a victory in this busy life - a victory I so rarely get.

When my daughters were born, I started a tradition. Every year at Christmas, I bought them a book. My theory was that if I started before they had hair, then by the time they were old enough to read they would already have an enjoyable library. Now - at 9 & 10 - they love to read so much that I could put nothing but books under the tree. Not that I ever would...

When they were 2 & 3, I bought a book called "Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children". I loved it more than they did. I still do - simple text conveying the wonderful stories in a way even a child can understand - Hamlet & Ophelia illustrated as children, even as they play out such adult themes as betrayal, vengance, or even suicide.

This summer, in my search for "things for kids to do after camp, so that the rest of the summer doesn't suck compared to camp", I found a class for girls ages 8-18 at Depaul University. It was called "Shakespeare for Girls: the art of physical storytelling" Do I have to tell you what my girls did last week? Jessica was MacBeth, & Rachel was in A Midsummernight's Dream. We pulled out the old book, we held plays in the living room, and once again, I got the joy of watching my daughters enjoy something I enjoy.

Today, I went to church. I've been "back" at church for 5 months now. I am still overwhelmed by how much I took for granted "before"...before when I was as much a part of my church as the bricks & pews. Now I have yet, in 5 months, to sit next to someone & know their name. It's the place I'm meant to be right now, but it is nonetheless a strange place for someone who probably averaged 4 days a week in the same church over a period of 15 years ... "before"

So I'm sitting in church, settling in during the music, hoping for 1 more song to get my mind away from this headache & into the place where it needs to be. I flip over the bulletin, to the place where I can fall into my obsessive disorder of filling in every blank, and instead of quizzing myself by seeing how many of the scripture references I can get without looking them up, I'm faced with ... Shakespeare - Romeo & Juliet, to be precise - the balcony scene...

I immediately spot the sun & moon comparison, and relate at once to Romeo's disillusionment with false love shattering in the face of a love that is true. But still, the sermon surprises me with a comparison of Juliet to Christ, and a fresh perspective is brought to bear on my life, my own disillusionment, and most of all, on Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Late this afternoon, as I started up my favorite bike path in all the world, I was thinking about this place in my life where I find myself. It is certainly a valley, one I hope doesn't last. But different from other low points in my life, I don't dread my time here or wish to escape it sooner than God would have me to. This time, I find a sweetness & a humility in this place, and I am enjoying the knowlege that every nook & cranny of this place is designed for my benefit, my healing, and my good.

Still, as I pedalled north, I pondered what it was about this valley that I wouldn't miss. The answer was "disconnection" - different from lonliness, as that is not appropriate. I am busy, successful at work, in a good church, and spending better time with my children than I ever have. But I definitely am lacking the intimacy that I have been accustomed to knowing in my relationships. Now, mind you, I left my church, divorced my husband & cohabitated for over a year w/ a non believer, so one can hardly consider the current state of affairs as anything but for my benefit, my healing and my good. Yet it wasn't difficult to pinpoint my least favorite part of this point in my life.

Lost in my thoughts, and easily winning the battle against self pity (again, there is so much good in this place), I missed the place where I usually cross the river. Further north, I found a different bridge, that led right into the Batavia RiverWalk park. I heard amplified voices, & noticed a crowd. It wasn't near dark yet, so I figured I'd take a break instead of going further on or turning around. As I approached, the costumes, the verbage, the whole flavor was unmistakable. Midsummernight's Theater presents Shakespeare in the Park - Much Ado About Nothing - Batavia Riverwalk, July 23 @ 7pm.

You've got to be kidding me. What was I just saying about feeling disconnected? Strike that, Lord. Leave me in this place, this place where you are positively ridiculous, utterly hilarious, over the top, and completely committed to showing me how much you love me - truly, madly, deeply. And help me to throw my head back & laugh with a joy I've never known to experience that love in big ways, small ways, medium ways, so many ways.

I am free to live. The very circumstances I bemoan leave me free on a Sunday afternoon to do what I want, when I want & experience something wonderful. I am more free than I've ever been to live & work & parent & minister & laugh & love & read & be loved by one who would pursue me with such reckless abandon as to leave heaven itself & bear the shame of a Roman cross and to further meet me in the park on a perfect midsummer's eve and remind me that I am never alone, & least of all when I'm alone.

No, no, no...

I took my 18-month old daughter, Morgan, to our local library this evening. As she walked through the aisles, she reached out and ran her hand along the books and videos. The whole time, she was saying, "no, no, no...no, no, no..."

We have taught her not to pull the books and videos off the shelves, and yet she couldn't resist reaching out to touch them. She was being obedient, but just barely. You could see the gleam in her eyes as she kept looking up at me to see if the rules had changed.

How often we are like my daughter! We know the things in life that God has asked us to avoid, yet we cannot resist getting as close as possible without breaking the rules. The problem is... as we continually run our hands over the things we are to avoid, the desire to take the next step grows and grows. Every now and again, we look to our Father to see if he is still watching. Can I still not touch this? Have the rules changed yet?

One day, we can no longer resist, and we pull them off the shelves and cross the line of obedience.

Perhaps instead of running our hands along the "books" and "videos" of life, we should avoid them completely. Perhaps we should discover those things that our Father wants us to embrace and enjoy life as He intended.

Free to Run

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to teach on being Free to Run in our relationship with Christ. My primary text was Hebrews 12:1 - "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." As people came into the services, we gave each of them a fist-sized rock to hold onto. During the course of the message, I used the rocks to symbolize the burdens we all carry.

Some of these burdens are from life in general - grief, accidents, loss, etc. Some burdens come from other people - disappointment, unrealistic expectations, abuse, gossip, etc. For other burdens, though, we have nobody to blame but ourselves - busyness, stress, burnout, lust, anger, bitterness, etc.

We closed the service with a special time of communion. We had everybody in the church come forward and place their rock in a metal tub placed at the foot of the stage - thus letting go of their burdens - before stepping over to eat the bread and drink the juice. It was humbling to see everyone respond to the teaching. The sound of the rocks hitting the metal tub and tumbling over the other rocks has been resonating in my mind ever since.

I closed out the service by talking about the scene in Forrest Gump where his braces come off his legs as he is running away from the three bullies who are pelting him with rocks. It is in this scene that we hear the oft-quoted line, "Run, Forrest, run!"

I told the audience I believe God is saying to us today, "Run, Church, run!" My hope is that we will accept His challenge. I hope that we can throw off our burdens of tradition, personal opinion, and lack of involvement and run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

We have an amazing opportunity before us with this new facility. Will we have the courage to come together as the church and use this opportunity to start a revolution in the Fox Valley area? It will not be easy, but I promise you the rewards will be great!