When I think back to my furthest recollections of “Church Christmas Programs Past” There seems to be two constants– bathrobes and fake beards.
Here in 2011 we can all find a youtube video of a 10,000 member church putting on a professional Christmas performance of art, music and media that rivals Hollywood. If I could, someday I would like to go and watch one of those productions. I have no doubt they bless Christians and reach the lost. In no way would I be critical of the time, work, energy and vision that it would take to put those things on.
But I am the first to admit I have my own bias toward the small town Christmas Program, complete with untrained unprofessional children dressed in bathrobes and wearing fake beards… When I was about 12 years old, I thought I was too cool to have to participate in our church Christmas program. But I was short for my age, so I was paired up with a 8 year old girl, and we both were enlisted (more like drafted) into the Christmas Program for the Rock Assembly of God, which at the time was meeting at a local community center on the South Side of Janesville WI.
I was pretty ticked off about the whole arrangement and came up with a solution to protect my 12 year old ego from the embarrassment of being on stage with an 8 year old girl in the church Christmas program. My mom was big into “crafting” (home made Country crafts type stuff) and was making these long armed, long legged velcro monkey puppet things (If you are in your 30s or older you know exactly what I am talking about). So anyway, I got a hold of some brown, fake monkey fur stuff and constructed a thick brown beard that basically covered 3/4 of my face, kinda like those partial face masks you wear when you are skiing, only mine was brown and furry. I had a very furry looking beard, but hey, Joseph could of been a furry guy– nobody knows for sure, right?
So anyway, I cut just a small slot for my mouth, rigged up some paper clips to hook the crazy thing over my ears, and I was ready to go, and nobody would ever recognize me. It was the perfect plan.
So on the night of the program, the community center was packed, and the program went off without a hitch, and like every good pastor, Al Borreson got up to give the closing prayer, but he seemed to be really happy, almost like he was trying hard not laugh out loud. So he gave the closing prayer, dismissed the congregation to enjoy some Christmas cookies and coffee, and he later told my mom that he was laughing pretty hard at my brown furry beard, but what he found even more ridiculous was the big, two white teeth that managed to poke out of my little mouth hole, unbeknown to me!! Turned out I was a bathrobe wearing, furry beard wearing, hill-billy Joseph!
So whats my point… I grew up in church. I was dragged into many a crazy church project, scheme, program, choir, fundraiser, ect. I was unprofessional, reluctant, and in retrospect, something of a Hill Billy. But I was loved and accepted, and more than that, I was needed. That is the power of the local church. We need and use regular people, to help serve an amazing God. This was the model set before us by God as found in the Bible. He grabbed fishermen, farmers, shepherds, cowards, scoundrels, crooks and wayward women, as well as wealthy men, kings, and business men, and gave them second chances, gave them grace & mercy, and used them all for his purposes.
I love the fact that the Birth Story of Jesus involves wise men (Magi, astrological advisers to kings Matthew chapter 2) as well as shepherds (Luke Chapter 2). ….And apparently they all wore bathrobes back then….
