Holy Week Ruminations: Eat the Damn Steak
"Lord Jesus, please do not let me fall asleep in this, thy holy wooden church pew. Or --if in Your infinite wisdom-- You do see fit for me to just pass out right here during the longest reading of Prayers of the People ever witnessed in our generation or indeed any others; please do not let me take out the little old lady sitting next to me on my way down. Kyrie etcetera.
In fact, the two days I am most apt to miss are Christmas and Easter. To me, the traditional services on those days are more about the show. Now, there's something to be said for the show --as that great theologian Penny from Dirty Dancing said "if you want 'em to know there's steak for dinner, you gotta let 'em hear it sizzle!"
I'm all for the sizzling but sometimes you just wanna sit down, shut up and eat the damn steak.
posted by Rhiannon at 4:46 PM
2 Comments:
All right, I'll admit it: I'm a big music, pull out all the stops kind of guy; and so I enjoy the show. I will admit that the third Christmas Eve service is harder and harder each year; but in recent years there have been smaller and smaller crowds. Where I've been the 4:00 p.m. "Let's get the kids through this" service has been the busiest.
I've heard colleagues over the years go back and forth about those big shows: do something special, because you'll have the biggest crowds; make it as main line as possible, because you'll have crowds of folks who only come twice a year, and if they feel lost they'll get lost; give your best pitch either say, hoping to bring them back. Since I'm not a parish priest I haven't had to wrestle with that issue; but I know it's out there.
I am reminded of the cartoon with the inept missionary priest who, misunderstanding his commission, had taught the natives Choreography instead of Christianity.
The joke derives from the fact that there is SUPPOSED to be a difference between the two.
Post a Comment
<< Home