At my church yesterday, we had the first in a series of church services centered around the theme of Broadway musicals. The series is called "God on Broadway". Yesterday was World Communion Sunday, and the entire service was planned around the play South Pacific. This play was chosen because of the inner running themes of racism and acceptance of those different from ourselves. The musical depicts two different love stories that take place on an island in the South Pacific, during World War II. One story is of a young Marine lieutenant who falls in love with a young Polynesian girl, and the other is of a young Navy nurse who falls in love with a Frenchman who lives on the island. Where does the racism theme come into the story? It is within both of the love stories. The lieutenant is madly in love with the young Polynesian girl, and he enjoys spending time with her, but he cringes at the idea of marrying her. When he later realizes the conflicting feelings within him, he sings a wonderful song called, "You've Got to be Carefully Taught". This song describes the feelings of racism and hate that are not in one's mind initially, as a child, but are placed there by others during one's lifetime. The young nurse exhibits her feelings of racism when she finds out that her Frenchman is a widow, and that his two children were born of a Polynesian woman. The young nurse cannot get past the fact that his children are biracial, and she runs away from the relationship.
Later in the show, the Frenchman and the lieutenant go on a secret mission on another island where they can see the enemy ships coming. In this way, they can help the cause of the United States. Alas, the lieutenant is killed on the mission and does not return to the island. After much sadness and realization of how narrow minded she has been, the nurse goes to the Frenchman's home to help take care of his children. Happily, the Frenchman returns home safely to the arms of his the young nurse and his children. Of course, the young nurse has had time to think about her ugly thoughts of racism, and she is extremely happy to have her Frenchman return to her. Unfortunately, the lieutenant does not return, and the young Polynesian girl is devastated. She must now be married off to some older plantation owner and return to life as usual on the island.
In the sermon for the day, our minister did a wonderful job of bringing in the message from the musical into our everyday lives. He talked about how the song, You've Got to be Carefully Taught, brought up a stir of controversy back in the 1940's, when the musical first came out. Rodgers and Hammerstein were greatly urged to take the song out of the musical. They were told that the show would never be a success with such a theme running through it. The two great musicians left the song in the story, and it is still there today to help teach us how to accept and help each other, rather than reject and tear apart one another.
We opened the service with the song Bali Hai, welcoming everyone to the wonderful island. Of course, that theme was to represent being welcomed into the house of the Lord to feel his wonderful, peaceful presence in our lives.
There is Nothing Like a Dame was sung wonderfully by our men, and they used this song creatively to do our morning announcements! Several guys received "mail", and they read their "letters" to the congregation. Their letters, of course, were our morning announcements, and it was really fun to listen to these guys play it up as though they were reading love letters from home!
The children used their puppet ministry to the song, Happy Talk. The positive message was creatively rendered by these children and they had a lot of fun ministering to us. Another song, Cockeyed Optimist, was presented to us to help remind us all of the importance of taking a positive outlook on life. All of the songs and little scenarios worked together to create a wonderful worship experience, and everyone in attendance was truly blessed. Next week, our service will be around the family in "Fiddler on the Roof". You can join us in the services by going to our church website that I have listed here.
http://asburymemorial.org/
I hope you enjoy the services!
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