The stage is set, take your seats please.

        Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Broadway Play The Boys in the Band . It is a classic play from 1968, long before I had ever dreamt I was blessed by being gay. I was a barely a teenager. When it was revived this year, it had a stunning array of gay icons and so on that basis alone I wanted to attend. I was awe struck and delighted at the whole performance. We had a wonderful time unpacking the depth of the characters and meanings the play. All around, a hit.

        In this Advent season the stage is set with several key parts. Of course Mary is one of the stars. She is the Christ bearer, accepted the role she was asked to play with great potential harm to herself, if not death, simply for saying yes.  Joseph too took on a role, albeit of lesser degree but played with strength and faith that has enamored him to the faithful forever.  The starring role of course is the baby Jesus and all that the Incarnation means for humanity.

        While I cringe at the simplicity of comparing Boys in the Band to Advent, I think we all know that we have to unpack the meanings of events, plays and relationships. The primary event of a large part of humanity is the impact and offer of God to become human in the baby Jesus.

         The Word taking on flesh in Jesus was a watershed moment. In Biblical terms as great as the flood and creation itself.  God had promised his love and relationship to the Hebrews. Now God is letting us know that His love and message is not just for the Jewish nation but for all of mankind. This is huge to unpack. Scarcely anyone knew the real impact of the Incarnation but God's love cannot be contained if even God's love can be really grasped in it's magnitude and depth. 

          The Nativity Play or Christmas Pageant is something we spend time each year trying to unpack, or perhaps a better word might be unwrap. When we see a play we often enter into the experience by pre-reading some information about the cast, the plot, the writer.  This is so very much like Advent.  How will I prepare for this Christmas pageant to make it fresh and new? What new messages will I glean from the immensity of God taking on human form and entering into our experience of vulnerability and humility?  Do we accept the terms of God's love as Mary did? Do we accept the 'play' at all? Do we walk away after Christmas saying 'thank God it's over?'  How do we prepare and how do we respond? 

Luke 20:9-18

 He began to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.” But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, “This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.” So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’ When they heard this, they said, ‘Heaven forbid!’ But he looked at them and said, ‘What then does this text mean:
“The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone”? 
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’