I had been challenged last week by watching Susan Boyle on Britain's got talent so shared my thoughts on Sunday. They went something like this:-
- how often do we judge others by their outward appearance and not bother to see what they are like on the inside. Thankfully Jesus looks at the inside first and recognises our gifts and talents despite what we might look like outwardly.
- perhaps we have an insight into how Jesus was treated in his day - the audience on the night were quite cynical and potentially hurtful in their initial reaction - I'm sure Jesus had this experience being just a carpenter from Nazareth ("what good can come from Nazareth")
- lastly I was amazed how the audience (and judges) were transformed within seconds of the singing starting - Jesus has the power to do this within our individual lives aswell if we are prepare to get past our predjudices and also in our churches when we receive and allow his spirit to move
On playing the video we were also challenged by the fact that so many of us were affected by it at an emotional level.
What do you think?
The video clip can be viewed at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il5TBgD9kHI
1 comment:
I was interested to hear Angela Tilby on this morning's 'Thought for the Day' (BBC Radio 4)also talking about Susan Boyle.You can listen again on http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/
..or read the transcript here:
Thought for the Day, 23 April 2009
The Rev. Angela Tilby
Good morning. Looked at from the neck down the tabloid photo shows a plumpish woman in a leather jacket, chunky necklace and smart new dress. Then you see her face and see Susan Boyle, the unlikely star of a recent Britain's Got Talent. When she came on stage to sing, the judges and audience laughed at her awkward, dumpy appearance, and buried their faces in their hands. But when she opened her mouth the mood changed. You could see a wave of first confusion, then guilt, then wild applause. The clip of her singing I dreamed a dream has now been watched by 116 million people round the world. Many have confessed that they were deeply moved. Some even wept. And I've wondered for a week, not whether the talent business would survive her arrival but whether she would survive her exposure to fame. Yesterday she was reported as saying that when she watched herself she found herself a bit fat and frumpy and that now she just wanted to look nice and smart. Well, good luck to her.
The odd thing though, is that what was so moving about her performance was the sheer dissonance between face and voice. People assumed that because she was not glamorous she couldn't have talent. Yet in the midst of the catcalls she simply said, 'I'm going to make this audience rock'. And she did. She had real authority. Authority is a strange word to use in this context, but that is what I saw when I watched her on YouTube. Her voice was lovely, but not perfect, and it didn't magically transform her into a princess. What made you want to cry was that she knew before her audience caught on the gift that was within her. It was as though she had been laughed at for so long for her ambition to be a singer that she no long cared. She simply sang from the core of her being, an authority in performance which more beautiful people might well envy.
The millions who have watched her tapped into something that we don't quite understand.
But it has reminded me bizzarely of the way the Gospels speak of Jesus. On the one hand they claim he had an authority which was utterly convincing. Yet at the same time he is identified with the broken figure from the book of Isaiah. One with no beauty that we should desire, despised and rejected of men, one from whom men hide their faces.
So what is Susan's triumph going to bring? Will she be 'made over', meaning made acceptable, so that what evoked unbidden tears turns into a more comfortable sentimentality? Or will she keep her oddness, serene with her inner gift? We have these treasures, says, St Paul, in earthen vessels. Either way I hope that if she is changed by fame, she also changes us.
copyright 2009 BBC
Anon (AKA Gill R)
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