Gratuitous Palm Sunday Posting

This morning, as has been the custom for some years at our church, we ran off the childrens' Passion Play outside on the front lawn during the family service. Both the eight year old and six year old Llama-ettes had speaking parts this year (bystanders to Jesus's arrival at Jerusalem) and delivered their lines in what Patrick O'Brian would call a fine double-reefed topsail roar.

The role of the donkey that Jesus rides traditionally is given to one of the youngest kids, who gets the plum perk of wearing a blue Eeyore suit to play the part. This year, it was a cute little girl with dark eyes and an enormous grin. However, this year Jesus was played by a toweringly tall kid of about fourteen or so. The prospect of him sitting on her, even only in simulation, was quite absurd, even for the extremely loose production values under which these plays operate.

All in all, I very much enjoyed it. I've frequently noticed that the combination of qualities the kids bring to these performances - some are awkward while some are completely un-self conscious, some ham it up while some dish out their lines in a flat monotone - adds a special level of grace to the story. We do adult readings of the relevant gospel at the other services and to me, it's never quite the same.

Speaking of services, I should note that we had some Beethoven for the Offeratory today (from his Missa Solemnis). This is the third or fourth time I've heard Beethoven's sacred music and each time I have the same reaction, namely, that I don't believe he really meant it. It may be my own prejudice leaking through, but I've never imagined that, given the enormous size of his ego, there was much room in Ludwig Van's soul for worship of a higher spirit.

UPDATE: David Kopel writes about the silliness of the media attention given to the "discovery" of a "Gospel of Judas" this week and provides an interesting and informative history of the gnosticism from which the text arose.

Unfortunately, this kind of "looking for the Truth behind the Church's milennia-long fabrications" has become quite fashionable recently. Who was it who said that the problem when people stop believing in God is not that they wind up believing in nothing but that they will believe in anything?