High Calling Magazine

The official publication of The Francis Asbury Society

If All The World's a Stage
BY TOM LETCHWORTH

Perhaps you've heard the old theater joke, "If all the world's a stage, I want better lighting." The truth is William Shakespeare's famous words are probably more true than we care to admit, especially in this media- soaked world.

I recall as a kid eagerly anticipating the Saturday matinee. When the movie was over I blundered out of the darkened theater, my eyes blinking in the sunlight. Then, with my imagination aflame, I played out the lives of the movie characters in my own improvised story. To a certain extent, many people in our own culture continue to act out the stories they have lived vicariously on the screen well into adulthood.

Students of ancient cultures tell us that this was the function of myth in the ancient world. A man or a woman found in the mythos a story with which they could identify. They could psychologically step into the skin of a god, a hero, or a story that would help interpret and make sense of their own circumstances. But what has that to do with those of us who are born again Christians who seek to identify not with mythological characters, but with the Risen Christ; who seek holiness of heart and life? Plenty. Jesus himself gave us direction in our role play: "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16: 24). We are to step into his role. Paul says, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). More to the point, he says, "Be imitators of God as dear children" (Ephesians 5:1).

In the fourth century Etheria went to Jerusalem because she wanted to live through Holy Week with Jesus - perhaps even walking in his footsteps. Thomas A. Kempis expanded this tradition with his work on the Imitation of Christ. And of course, Charles Sheldon's In His Steps continued the tradition. Lately, the battle cry among young Christians has been "WWJD," What Would Jesus Do?

In my own ministry, role playing has been an important asset. When I portray Jonah, Peter Bohler, or Eliezer of Damascus in a dramatic sermon, I have to draw on some of those skills that I sharpened as a kid in the backyard, imitating the characters I saw on the silver screen.

What must we do to take on the greatest role of our lives? First, we must internalize the story. Mira Sorvino, who portrayed Daisy from F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby said, "I've always loved the novel, ever since I first read it when I was in junior high school -it's an almost irresistible challenge to play a person you've loved in literature." She continues, "I started reading and re-reading the text and mining it for reasons behind the way she behaves as she does." If we are to follow Christ, to become, as Luther said, "Little Christs," we must immerse ourselves in the Great Story. Using the means of grace is a powerful way to reinforce that story in our own lives-prayer, Bible study, fasting, the Lord's Supper, are all part of the means by which the story comes alive in us.

Second, we must think like Jesus. Here the WWJD model is helpful. When I first began acting, I was in a community theater production of "You Can't Take It With You." I played the role of the boisterous character named Boris Kohlenkoff, the Russian who said things like, "Life is chasing around inside of me, like a squirrel." Well, I am not boisterous, or Russian, but I overcame these deficits by trying to live his lines, his actions, and thinking like Boris Kohlenkoff. After the play was over, two elderly women approached the director and asked, "Where did you find the Russian man to play that part?" I actually received the best review in the local paper-not because I'm a gifted actor, but because I tried to forget Tom Letchworth and become Boris Kohlenkoff. I maintain that it is necessary for our life in Christ to forget (deny) ourselves, and to think and act like Christ.

Of course, there is a significant difference. We are not first century Jews, under oppressive Roman occupation, living with the realities of Torah and oral law. But the principles Jesus teaches, and his life of love, servanthood, and celebration are universal-or Christianity is only a pretty theory, like Plato's Republic or Marxism. Even more, that life in Christ is a possible reality, as the lives of Augustine, Francis of Assisi, John Wesley, Francis Asbury, Mother Teresa and 2000 years of Christendom all testify.

The key is we must contextualize the story for our own lives. Not just the great, monumental acts of our lives, but in the smaller events as well-perhaps those smaller events especially. In P.D. James' mystery novel, The Black Tower, Detective Dagliesh remembers his father's priest, Father Michael Baddely. Once, when Adam Dalgliesh was ten, Father Baddely gave him an unexpected lesson on the spiritual life. Father Baddely had kept a daily diary for years. It wasn't filled with the reflections of a poet or a philosopher. It was a methodical record of his daily schedule, down to the minute of every day-when he prayed, where he walked, when he shopped and what he bought. Adam asked the priest, "It's just an ordinary diary then, Father? It isn't about your spiritual life?" Father Baddely's response is worth remembering: "This is the spiritual life; the ordinary things one does from hour to hour."

If we study the life of Jesus, if we think and act like Jesus, if we contextualize that life in our own lives, we will begin to become the "Little Christs" of which Luther spoke.

Just one catch. I defy anyone to do this, under their own power. I've tried. I've seen others try. Trying to live the life of Christ under your own power leads to futility, frustration and failure. Either we become involuted narcissists, constantly asking ourselves "how'm I doing, how'm I doing?" and growing less and less interested in others; or, we become legalistic Pharisees about the very acts and thoughts that should liberate us. Or, worse, we become both of the above-Narcissistic Pharisees.

No, the only way to live Christ's life is to allow Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us. We begin, no matter where we are on the spiritual journey, with a repeated act of surrender that imitates Christ in Gethsemane: "Not my will, but Thine be done."

God doesn't wish to obliterate our personality. I've met too many diverse characters and eccentrics who joyfully follow Christ to believe that. What I believe he does want to do is to live his life through us and in us in such a way that the gifts and strengths of our own personality are transformed "by the renewing of our minds."

And, when we have immersed ourselves in the story of Jesus, learned to think and to act like Jesus, forgotten about ourselves; and when Jesus lives his life in and through us, then we will play the greatest role of our lives, and in the lives of others.


If you enjoyed this article, please e-mail us your mailing information to receive a complementary copy of the complete HIGH CALLING magazine.
 

top

Return to Article Index