Balcony Drama

We almost had some drama in the balcony at Church yesterday.  There was a rather dramatic reading downstairs from the pulpit as we had the woman at the well narrative from the Gospel of John read by three different folks.  I had never realized how much this fourth chapter of John sounded like a script from a movie. It impressed even us balcony dwellers.

Upstairs in the balcony, the youth choir led in a choral call of confession.  Hal Hopson’s arrangement of “Lord, Have Mercy” was beautifully done by this choir who took their part in this third Sunday in Lent very seriously.  But in order for the youth to see their director, she had to stand on the cushioned front pew of the balcony.  I admit to a slight startle as she kicked off her shoes and climbed up to the precarious pedestal.  I would have been leery of doing such a thing, myself, given the fact that I have occasional bouts with vertigo.  I tend to be overly cautious about some things, like falling from great heights.   A friend told me how she and her kids used to sit in that balcony.  They dropped everything from bulletins to hymn books, inadvertently I hope, to the unsuspecting worshippers below.

I confess that I did have visions of what it might be like if the choir director became a little too animated and teetered over the rail into the crowd below.  I tried to shake off this dramatically obsessive thought, and was glad when she stepped down to safety and we could proceed with our prayer of confession and assurance of forgiveness.

Isn’t it interesting what thoughts, fears, dreams, and aspirations occur during a worship service?  It is amazing that the sermon ever seeps through, given the imagined dramas in our head when we must sit still, listen, and meditate. 

Somehow, the story of the woman at the well and God’s wonderful grace got through my fears and uneasiness, not to mention my wondering how Carolina would do against Kentucky in that afternoon’s basketball game.

I am glad the drama in the balcony was only in my “horrible imaginings,” and that the real drama was in the Gospel lesson of a rejected woman who found unconditional love and grace.