Why Godspell is Not About Religion

community-made cupcakes for our wedding

"Together could never be close enough for me
to feel like I am close enough to you.
You wear white and I'll wear out the words,
'I love you,' and, 'You're beautiful.'

Now that the wait is over
and love has finally shown her my way...

Marry me, today and every day,
marry me.
If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe,
say you will,
say you will."

-Train, Marry Me



I was doing research for Godspell the other day.  I am playing Robin in the musical, which will go onstage here in Tulsa at the end of this month.

Our director, Joel, had the opportunity a couple of years ago to sit down with Stephen Schwartz, who created Godspell's music and new lyrics, and pick his brain about the show over veggie pizza and diet cokes.  I was inspired when Joel told me about that conversation, and thought it would be great to get more of Mr. Schwartz's background notes on the show myself.  So I read through this interview with him.

(As a side note, Stephen Schwartz was also the composer and lyricist for the musical Wicked.  The lead role in that show, Elphaba, is one of my dream roles.  You know, in case anyone out there with the power to cast me in that role is reading.  Wink, wink.  So, moving on...)

In the interview I read, someone said, "This is a very broad question: What were your feelings about the musical as a whole?  I read somewhere that you never saw Godspell as a religious musical but more of a show about community."

Mr. Schwartz responded like this:  "Your information is correct.  Godspell is essentially a show about the formation of a community, not about religion, at least in my view, and it was always on that basis that we rehearsed it."

Reading this, I was struck on a gut level.  I felt like I had just stumbled upon something important about Christianity as a whole, beyond the show itself.  I was surprised by the fact that I suddenly wanted to cry.

When I saw Godspell on Broadway last year, it affected me powerfully, as an actor sitting in the audience, that Jesus was a character in the show.  The phrase, "Jesus is onstage," kept rolling around in my mind and heart.  In my day-to-day existence, I am asked to walk "by faith and not by sight".  I worship a God that I can't see with my eyes, which can be very difficult at times.  But I know, in a very real way, that this God I serve is real, that He is who He says He is.

As Billy Graham put it, "I've never seen the wind.  I've seen the effects of the wind, but I've never seen the wind.  There's a mystery to it."

And, like other Jesus-believers, I am stoked about the day when He will really be with us, in the flesh.  And I think Godspell gets at my heart because it's like a movie trailer for that future.  It taps into my deepest longings for this God I serve but don't see, or rather, who is more real to me than anything that I can see.

(A quick disclaimer to my readers who don't follow Jesus: I know all of this may sound crazy, and I know I am being more direct in my writing style than usual.  But read on and see what you think.  If what I am saying isn't true, then throw it out.)

I liked reading the Q&A with Stephen Schwartz in part because it gave me a valuable outside critique on Christians today from an ethnically Jewish theater guy.  I appreciated him sharing his perspective.  At first I thought that what Mr. Schwartz said about the show centering on the formation of a community, and not on religion, was somewhat offensive, like he was trying to take the religion out of a Bible story.

Then I remembered that maybe this is what Christianity is really about anyway.  Jesus did not come to form a religion, that is, not in the way that most of us think about religion.  He did not come to demand that we keep impossible rules.  Instead He kept the rules perfectly for us, died and rose for us since we hadn't, and invited us into a relationship with him.  Following the rules only comes out of knowing him, out of being so deeply and unconditionally loved and accepted that we are free to help him make the world beautiful again.

Jesus came to be my friend, and your friend.  And not just our friend, but our best friend.  And not just our best friend, but our lover.  And not just our lover, but our husband.  And not just our husband, but our brother, one who is in the trenches with us in the truest way possible.

And out of that good relationship spring all other good relationships, and a community is formed.  A real one.  Jesus called it "my church".  Like seeds blowing on the wind to produce more flowers.  Like good seed that falls on good soil and produces a good crop.

Jesus walking among us, in the flesh.  Jesus, giving us shiny new white clothes for our rags, and asking us to put them on and walk down the aisle to him.

Jesus, wearing out the words, "I love you," and, "You're beautiful."

Jesus, asking us over and over to marry him, in the most vulnerable and embarrassing of ways, like a lover that won't stop pursuing.





Jesus, making a community out of nothing.