"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"

Tonight, on my overnight, I was looking for a good Christmas movie to watch online. There wasn’t much to choose from but I found a poor quality copy of one of my childhood favorites: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. For those who don’t know the story it’s about this family of six children (the Herdmans) whose father left them and their mother works all the time and are out of control. At attempt to get some free snacks they show up at the local church one Sunday where they hear about the Christmas pageant for the kids of the church. The Herdmans take an interest in the play and decide they want to be all the main parts (and since they are known for being bullies in school, none of the church kids argue). The woman running the pageant naively lets them play the main roles while the rest of church gossips about how awful the pageant is going to be because of these dreadful kids.

           

Growing up I loved this movie. It has lots of funny parts but I think the reason I always loved it was that in the end the Herdman kids learn what the Christmas story is really about: Jesus. However, since I haven’t seen the movie since I was a kid, it brought up a few different emotions and thoughts.

The Herdmans kids are awful, “They lie, steal, cuss, and smoke cigars -- even the girls.” We even see one of Herdmans bullying another kid to get his lunch. But as I was watching this movie I found myself getting angry. Anger. That’s a strange emotions for a child’s movie about Christmas? But yes, anger. I found myself angry at the way these poor kids were portrayed. As wild children whose parents didn’t want to be around them because they were so awful, “Mr.Herdman left when Gladys was 3 and nobody blamed him. And Mrs.Herdman works 2 shifts at the shoe factory so she isn’t home much, nobody blamed her either.”

Hold on a minute! I blame them! Maybe if they were around more these kids would have some supervision and someone to take care of them and they wouldn’t need to bully other kids for their lunches just so they could have something to eat that day.

Ok so all this to say, I feel for the Herdman kids. They’ve been abandoned by their parents and left to their own destructive devices and then on top of it they’ve been marginalized by a school that doesn’t want to deal with them and a church who doesn’t want their “holy” image to be spoiled by some dirty nasty kids. And this is what makes me angry most of all.

It makes me angry because I see this so much in the American church and I am ashamed to admit, in myself, in my earlier years. Unfortunately, the church in American has gone two directions: the “lets be super seeker friendly, water-down the gospel, and never preach anything that will make anyone uncomfortable” and the “we don’t want ‘those’ people in our perfect little church and lets ostracize anyone who might have tattoos, smoke, drinks, has sex, and (here’s the big one) might be gay”.

Let me tell you neither one is Biblical and if you would look at the life of Jesus you would see how wrong both of these perspective are. Do you know who Jesus hung out with? Fisherman, tax collectors, and prostitutes. Do you know who these people are in our society? Jesus hung out with dirty, gross construction workers who hung out in sketchy bars after their shifts. He hung out with people who worked at McDonalds, truck drivers, strippers, prostitutes, “illegal” immigrants, and probably some drug dealers. These are our society’s equivalent. These are the people who have been marginalized in our society. These are the people Jesus hung out with. How many good church do you know who hang out with these types of people? Oh he also hung out with children. Dirty, homeless children who didn’t know how to behave properly. Children like the Herdmans.

Now it’s important to note that Jesus didn’t turn a blind eye to these people sins. He didn’t tell the drug dealers, “yeah go ahead selling harmful substances to people and cheating them in the process.” No, he did call them to repent and live a life of obedience to him but he did this AFTER he built a relationship with them. Once he knew he really knew them, knew their fears and hurts and dreams. And once he had that relationship he asked them to live the life he had created for them.

This is what the church should look like. We should be a place that calls people to live according to plan God has given us in the Bible (which does include abstaining from certain behavior and practicing other behaviors). But we should be a safe place for those who have been marginalized in our society. Unfortunately, these people feel as if church is the last place they would be welcome, but really, it should be the first. Our churches should be crammed full of people of all walks of life no matter what their socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation, occupation, immigration status, political party, or life style.

So what does this have to do with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever? The Herdmans were not welcome in their local church because they were seen as dirty and ill behaved children. And yet, these children needed to understand who God was and what Christmas was all about more than anyone else and they were denied that chance because of the so called “Christians” in this particular church (In the end, the kids do start to understand who Jesus was and the true meaning of Christmas, no thanks to the congregation but rather because of the one woman who choose to take a chance on these wild, neglected kids in the attempts to share the real Christmas spirit with them).

So who are the “dirty, ill-behaved children” in your life? Who are the people who need Christ and his redeeming love in your life? Who are the people who have been marginalized in our society and thus cast from our churches? And how are you going to change that?

This Christmas, may we all remember the true story of Christmas. The story of Jesus. Yes, his birth is important but let us remember the story of his life. How he cared for those around us, how set the perfect example for us on how to love people and bring them into reconciliation with him, how he died on the Cross to redeem us and so that we could have open communication with God the Father, and above all how he gently and lovingly brought ALL people to him. “For God so loved the world he gave his one and only son that WHOSOEVER believes in him, shall have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to SAVE it!” May we be agents of Christ who help save people rather than condemn people this Christmas season!

God Bless!

*** Disclaimer: This is generalization of what I have seen of the American church as a whole. I know many wonderful believers who truly love ALL people the way Jesus did. Zack and I have also been blessed to be a part of body of Christians who have clung to these concepts and live them out on a daily basis. But unfortunately, I find these people to be the exception instead of the rule.***