Second Church Steps

Here's to Christmas Pageants!  Years ago, okay decades ago, I lived in Crawfordsville, and they had an epic one.      You see, the church let the YOUTH GROUP tell the Christmas story.   We all know that can be a little risky.  It was not told in King James English, or even NRSV.   I didn’t get to see it;  I was in Sunday School. Still, I treasure two memories from that event; yes, they are memories of an event I did not see and yet became part of our family Advent Lore. It changed the way I wait. First memory, the kings arrived down the center aisle on bicycles, and second the shepherds’ big line was, “’Biding’s a bore.”  Any time I have to wait, I repeat that line.  The shepherds are SO RIGHT!  “And in the same country there were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8 KJV). They were waiting.  Shortly after that, Christmas Pageants disappeared from the churches I attended.   I don’t know if the contemporary interpretation was