Nativity Plays and Safe Religion

Caroline left a comment on He's Good deserving of it's own post:

He's not safe ...

funny that, I was watching a nativity play just before Christmas and saw 3 or 4 pretty little girls dressed up as angels ..

and yet the angels in the story scared the shepherds witless

I wonder next year, if we might have a nativity with a couple of 'heavies', thugs as angels. Mary and Joseph played by Palestinians who've been cut off from their homelands. Herod could be played by any of the politicians who've sent armies into Iraq because of their fear of terrorism. The Shepherds might be played by the poor of New Orleans and the Magi, played by Sting, Bono and Bob Geldof. Might that capture more of the feeling of Angels (not perfect of course)? not quite so cute, I guess.

but it is all symptomatic of the sanitised, comfortable Chritianity we enjoy in the west. 

He is not tame but we have safely tamed Him
He is not safe but we've caged Him in a church
The commands He gave we've turned to wishful thinking
and the life He lived we've iced with sugared, almond paste.

He is not tame but we keep him at arm's distance.
He is not safe but we've made Him one of us.
The journey that he maps, is travelled by our SUV
and His way, diverted by leafy, suburb lanes.

He is not tame and we just have not even noticed.
He is not safe so we've simply turned our heads;
But His call still echoes in our stabled ears
and His way still lies, through a country not our own.

Well said, Caroline.