The Goodman Theatre is nothing if not persistent.
My wife and I were subscribers to the Goodman for a couple of years, but decided for various reasons not to renew this past year. So the Goodman called. And called. And called again, as if we were the only subscribers to ever not renew. They were nice about it, but they just wouldn’t take no for an answer so they tried a different tactic: They called to see if we’d be interested in buying tickets to the show that’s currently being performed, “The Iceman Cometh.” Because it’s starring Brian Dennehy and Nathan Lane and because we thought it would be a nice anniversary treat, we finally said yes. It wasn’t until later that I discovered that the performance is four hours and 45 minutes long. I’m a big fan of the theatre but I wondered to myself if I was that big of a fan. We’ll find out tonight (I’m writing this on Tuesday).
To prepare myself (other than taking a nap and drinking lots of coffee), I bought a copy of the script and am almost done reading it. I’ve now gone from seeing it as something to merely endure to something that I’m eagerly looking forward to watching. It’s a remarkable piece of literature and I’m curious to see it come to life on the stage.
I shouldn’t be surprised I feel this way because it’s exactly how I feel about my faith. I find the “script” (the Bible) to also be a remarkable piece of literature, but what makes it go beyond being just a piece of literature into something transformative and life-giving is to see it come to life. That happens in all sorts of ways. I see it in worship at Urban Village, in small groups, in service projects, and in the many ways we do fellowship.
The thing about following the Bible is that there is also room for improvisation, meaning, for example, when Jesus says that the most important commandments are to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, we have the capability to enact that in so many varied and creative ways. And the amazing thing is that you and I are the ones who are called to live that out. We have this amazing script, friends. Will we let it be merely words on a page or will we, as followers of Jesus, allow the world to be our stage?