Advent: A Time to Enter into the Dance of God's Limitless Love
Right before Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to go see the musical, "Footloose," that was performed at the Little Theater on North Main Street here in Wilkes-Barre. My motivation in attending the musical was to see Good Shepherd's own, Becky Phiilips who was a dancer in the play as well as Ellen Parrnentari, who is the daughter of Dick and Lois Myers.
I have always enjoyed the music of Kenny Loggins, who wrote the key song for the musical, entitled, of course, "Footloose," as well as writing some of the other songs performed in the skit. But before attending the musical recently, I had no idea what the story behind the musical was about.
And I was pleasantly surprised by what a deep message this fun loving musical had at its core. A compelling story about a dynamic Pastor whose heart had grown cold as the result of the tragic death of his son. Apparently his son along with a number of other teenagers were coming home from a dance when the car they were ia plunged by accident over a bridge.
Headed up by the resentful Reverend, the town council formed a law forbidding anyone to dance in this little back woods town of Bomont. Well, interestingly, it took an out-of-town teenage boy to challenge not only Bomont's backward law but the raging Reverend himself. The reason this teenager moved to Bomont was because his own father had run away, leaving the teenager and his mother to move in with his aunt and uncle who lived in Bomont. A11 the other youth from Bomont told the teenager that the only way he would ever be able to change the law is ifhe could change the heart of the Reverend. Ald what touched the pain filled Pastor was not the young man's impassioned speech. Rather, it was when the teenager shared his own painful story as the result of his father running away. In so doing, the teenager became a mirror for the Reverend to see how heartless and cruel his life had become as the result of growing cold and isolated like a solitary oyster because of loosing his only son. And it was in that instant that the rescued Reverend woke up to God's Relentless love for trim.
Yes, we all bear the painful scars of our broken humanity. I know my own life was irrevocably altered by the unexpected early death of my mother when I was just a little girl. Yes, the suffering that comes our way in life is often too great a burden for us to bear. That is why one of the greatest gifts of our faith is God's constant invitation to place our heavy burdens on God's all supportive shoulders who is always there to give us the strength to weather whatever storm we may be facing.
So, like the Pastor in the toe stomping musical, "Footloose," what God wants more than anything else in the pregnant season of Advent that is upon us now is for us to wake up and enter into the dance of God's endless love for each of us, swirling all around us as the result of sending His only Son, Jesus, into our world. For God is always poised and ready to embrace us with His all giving love that sets us free to discover our true reason for being here on earth as we become co-builders of Christ's infinite kingdom of love.
Peace,
Pastor Janell Wigen
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