The Bible on Broadway: Seasons of Love

We bring down the curtain on our Broadway series “Redefining Family” this weekend with the music from Rent. I know some of you can’t quite bring yourself to “appreciate” this series and won’t be sad when it’s over, but I for one will miss it when it’s gone. For one thing, I think using the music from Broadway allows us truly to celebrate worship. I love to look out and see you smiling, singing along, tapping your feet, even occasionally shouting out as you did last week. And I love seeing the way the music moves you, not just the rousing anthems, but the ballads, too.

I especially appreciate the way that connecting scripture and our faith stories to the music and stories of Broadway keep us connected not only to each other within our individual faith community, but with a much larger community. Theologian Karl Barth once said, “The Pastor and the Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still need - according to my old formulation - the Bible and the Newspaper."

Now, I know Barth specifically named the newspaper as the source that connects our faith with the “here and the now.” But I think the arts do the same. Great books, plays, poems, paintings, and musical compositions can be vehicles that open us up to spirit, truth, and light. And they don’t have to be OLD to do it. We know in our gut when something is destined to be a classic, when it speaks truth to us in new language. If you think the standard for sacred text is that it be at least 1500 years old and written in a language other than English, try rereading “The Gettysburg Address.” Try listening to the theme from Rent, “Seasons of Love.”

525,600 minutes!
525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes –
How can you measure The life of a woman or man?In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or The way that she died.It’s time now to sing out,
Though the story never ends
Remember the love!
…Measure in love.

Call me sacrilegious, but I’m telling you, if Jesus had had an iPod, this song would have been on his Favorites playlist.

And you can bet he’ll be in church this weekend…and he hopes to see you there.
Love,