I hope they remember


I've just read a wonderful blog post and was taken back to last year's pageant at St. Luke's-San Lucas. I've recently shared in it again oh-so-peripherally by a youth group member asking about a costume possibility I'd mentioned last year. Impressive memory, that one. And she did a great job last year; I'm sure she will again this year. It's not often you can count on your youth group to run a pageant, but ours did and was fabulous. I mostly worked on costumes with the youth, which was loads of fun.

shepherds and animals at the manger

The blog post that reminded me of this starts as follows:

We had the pageant rehearsal today. I hope they remember. So went the Tweet from a fellow priest who apparently spent the day not, as much of America did, doing last-minute shopping, but going through the annual ritual of reading the elegant, weighty words of the birth of Jesus according to Luke as interpreted by those under the legal drinking age.

I responded to her Tweet: I suspect God looks as us and says, "Gee, I hope they remember."

Indeed. 

I recommend the post for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the description will make you laugh.  Here is the link for those of you who are interested:
http://dirtysexyministry.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-hope-they-remember.html

It ends as follows:

In the witness of those who are under the legal drinking age, dressed in tinsel and fuzzy sheep ears and bathrobes and whatever else seemed appropriate (or whatever didn't result in a temper tantrum), the children will ask us to remember. Remember feeling your life, freely. Remember crying when you needed to cry and laughing when you needed to laugh. Remember when make-believe was real. Remember when a snowflake or a crown of tinsel or box of new crayons could make your soul sing. Remember that you are loved, just as you are, no matter if you get the lines right or not. Remember that we are part of a bigger cast, that God isn't really that into solo artists.

After the nativity story is told through their little incarnate selves, they will bow and the congregation will clap. I think applause after the story of God's incarnation is quite appropriate. If it takes children to get us that exuberant about God With Us, so be it. I hope in that moment they know the feeling of God's message of, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

And I hope we will all remember.