Fiddler On the Roof

Last night my family and some friends watched Fiddler on the Roof at a Christian High School. It was a blessing to see Elijah sit through the whole thing! We went to see one of our high school students, Sandy Dela, who was in the play. She did a good job. I thought that the performance was edifying to me for a few reasons: (1) it helped me to again appreciate tradition in the family and culture. As an evangelical of a non-denominational church I feel in large measure cut off from tradition and that is not good. To be sure, it is not completely my church’s fault, but the absence of knowledge of and respect for tradition is a sad deficiency in my life and upbringing. (2) I saw the intimacy of prayer again in the life of the character Tevia and was challenged to pray with more intimacy with God. (3) I grew in conviction that the gospel must remain central in Christian living, ministry, education, and thinking.

The last point is rather significant. This was a Christian group performing to Christians and non-Christians. There was no gospel presentation at the end of the play though there was an invitation to prayer and counseling to have peace with God by praying. No Jesus, no cross, no resurrection. I was saddened by it. A senior in the school shared some thoughts that were no more compatible with Christianity than with the Judaism of today that reject Jesus as the Messiah who fulfills the Old Covenant and mediates the New Covenant through his death and resurrection. I was glad for the exhortation to intimacy in prayer. I was saddened by the lack of centrality of Christ and his work to those thoughts. It seemed that the gospel was assumed. I praise God these kids wanted to glorify God. I think they did in some ways. I don’t think much significant glory goes to God apart from the cross-work of Christ proclaimed (at least mentioned), but they could have glorified God dependent on the cross in their hearts and minds as they performed. I was saddened because I think the senior who shared these spiritual thoughts was not taught or shown the centrality of the gospel in all of life. I want to keep Christ even more central in my life now and I want to make sure he is central in my teaching and ministry lest we assume the gospel and a generation (or two) later neglect, ignore, and finally oppose the gospel. I think those kids knew the gospel and for that I’m grateful. I pray that it will be shared more in future days and that as a result of some who read this, they will be encouraged to keep the gospel central to their life and message.