"There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God." --Psalm 46:4

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Serving God with His people at Faith OPC has been a great joy and blessing. When I grow up, I want to umpire Little League Baseball. I will revel on that day when I can say to a 10-year-old boy after four pitched balls, "Take a walk in the sunshine." My wife of 30+ years, Peggy, consistently demonstrates the love of Christ and remains my very best friend. Our six children, our four lovely, sweetie-pie daughters-in-law, and our four grandchildren serve as resident theologians.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

God's Gospel Drama, Chesterton and Puppets!


We do puppet ministry here in Grants Pass, and it's fun to learn of practical ways to image His hands and little bodies with the stage, scenery, story, conflict and resolution.

More than a few Christian thinkers have conceived of God in artistic terms, and regarded the creation as an ongoing drama, with a vast cast of characters, innumerable subplots, and all sorts of conflicts: truth versus falsehood, God versus the Devil, good versus evil. The whole production is heading toward a resolution known only to the Author, but foreshadowed in the Apocalypse, where He is the Author and Finisher, the Alpha and the Omega.

What makes this drama different is that the Author has seen fit to become human, to be born among His characters, then to work, suffer and ultimately die at their hand.

G. K. Chesterton attempted to dramatize this in his play
The Surprise, in which the author first performs the action through puppets, who faithfully executes his every command. Subsequently, a shift is made to living, self-willed men and women who manage to make a mess of things. From offstage the author cries: What do you think you are doing to my play? Stop it! I am coming down.

From The Seductive Image: A Christian Critique of the World of Film by K.L. Billingsley from Crossway Books, 1989

G. Mark Sumpter

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