Credo ↔ Oratio

I have seen little about it on the blogs I read, so here it goes….

Several years ago my wife and I went to see Rent and fell in love – not with each other (we’d already done that)but with the production. As cliche as it sounds, it spoke to us.

Now, it’s a movie. For months I’ve been awaiting it’s release with a strange mixture of joy and worry: joy, that, finally, it would be more accessible than it has ever been…worry, that they might make it too pristine. “Pristine?” you ask? Yes, I was worried that it would be all hollywood-ed out…that it would miss some of the grit and discomfort that the stage production captured so well.

For what it’s worth, I think they did well. Although it does have its differences from the production, it raises the same questions (hope, love…what are they? where do we find them? etc.) and forces us, in the church, to admit the same answers (wherever most people look for them, the church has failed at being the place where they are found.)

When I was in seminary a professor asked that we bring in a piece of music, art, poetry, etc. that acted as a modern day prophet. I chose Rent. Not because it “presents the gospel,” but rather because it rightly notes that the church has failed at being a place of good news for so many – forcing them to look elsewhere.

I know that a bit of Rent’s content will offend some of my colleagues, many of whom will probably condemn it (likely without even seeing it.) But I hold to the belief I had in seminary – if we (the church) fail to be a place of good news (as it does in Rent) we have failed to be the kind of church Jesus wanted us to be.

I fear that we (the church, within which the RCA is no exception) have done just that. I also fear that we (as the last year has shown) have been so rent (torn, ripped, etc) and p0larized by the themes that Rent forces us to engage that we may continue to fail as a place of hope, love and good news to all.

I hope I’m wrong.

Grace and Peace,
`tim