William Shakespeare is famous for the line, “All the world’s a
stage, and all the men and women are merely players.” It is perhaps a fitting statement for Ash
Wednesday. For, what is the world, and
is life?
That quote didn’t originate
with Shakespeare. It was around for
centuries beforehand, but he uses it in his play As You Like It. It’s part of a monologue by the
melancholy character Jaques. I think
it’s worth hearing more of the monologue, although I warn you it isn’t easy to
understand. At least it isn’t to me on a
casual reading. Whenever I know I’m
going to be seeing a Shakespeare play I first read a summary. Then I sit down with the text on my own and
pour over it. Then when I see the play
for real I have at least a prayer of a chance of understanding it. But anyway, let’s see if we can get the jist
of what Jaques says:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second
childishness and
mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Humph. That’s a pretty depressing attitude about
life. It’s all the more sad because of
its truth. And if that is the truth of
your life, then the words of Ash Wednesday, “Remember that you are dust and to
dust you shall return,” are enough to make you despair.
But let’s realize a deeper
truth that will take us from despair.
If all the world’s a stage,
then this pandemic is really messing with the play. When Shakespeare wrote those words he did not
mean that people’s lives are false – or a façade. And yet, I suspect that is exactly what many
people’s lives are. They subtly make
themselves into whatever is necessary to be acceptable and successful to the
people around them. We’ve talked about
this before – things like: house, car, clothing, vacations, furnishings – many
of them ultimately chosen to create the image of success. And perhaps a person is successful, perhaps
not. It doesn’t matter. The person is acting from society’s pressure
to appear like they’ve got life together.
They aren’t a mess or a failure.
I believe many people never
really examine their lives or their priorities.
Without questioning it they believe that more money leads to a happier
life. They believe that more things and
a bigger house leads to greater fulfillment.
They believe that they should make themselves the most of what they can
and then live as high as their abilities allow them to. Every time I say this I feel I need to make
the disclaimer that I am not advocating for laziness or any lack of
productivity. Indeed work hard,
contribute, help to make the world a better place. Just be sure you’ve asked yourself what is
motivating you.
All the world’s a stage and
the men and women are merely players on it.
For every person that that is true, then the pandemic is really messing
with the stage. All the interactions of
the play are gone. A lot of the day to
day person to person human interactions we call “normal” are, I think, just
part of the play.
I don’t mean to criticize
the feelings of isolation and depression many people are feeling these
days. But I do believe Ash Wednesday
gives us a faith perspective that helps the situation.
Several times in our gospel
reading Jesus calls people hypocrites.
We know what that means, but it may give us the wrong idea. Indeed the Greek word is, “upokriths” and from that you can
easily hear the English word hypocrites.
But in Greek the word literally means “stage actor”. It is not necessarily someone who’s says one
thing but does another. Hmmm… all the
world’s a stage…
Jesus is not calling on his
followers to hate themselves. He is not
calling on them to be excessively humble or meek. He is calling them into a different way of
living. Actually he’s calling people
into a different way of finding meaning.
Maybe I can get at it this
way. When we meet someone in a store or
on the sidewalk it’s common to say, “How are you doing?” Now most of us don’t consider ourselves to by
liars, but I have a feeling we’ve all lied to that one. The socially acceptable answer is to just say
“hi” back or to say you’re doing fine.
Unless you know the person very well you’re probably not going to be
honest, at least not honest if you’re truly feeling sick or worried or
depressed.
Even so, asking someone,
“How are you doing?” is basically saying, “All the world is a stage and you are
merely an actor on it. How’s the play
going for you?”
What would happen if we
asked a different question? I came to be
friends with a pastor from Ethiopia when I was at seminary. He wouldn’t ask, “How are you doing?” He’d ask, “How’s your ministry going?”
It didn’t matter whether you
were a pastor or a student or a bartender or a factory worker… whatever. The world was not a stage to him. The world was God’s workplace. It was a place for ministry. “How’s your ministry going?” puts everything
in life in a different light. It erases
the numerous stages of life Shakespeare talked about.
In Shakespeare’s play a
person goes through: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, pard, justice,
pantaloon, and second childishness. In
God’s world you are a child of God.
That’s it. From baptism until
death. The world is no stage. The world is God’s kingdom. And we are not actors, but God’s agents. An agent is someone who works on behalf of
someone else.
Yes, we are in a
pandemic. Yes, we are dust and to dust
we shall return. But we are God’s. That is an entirely different way of
understanding ourselves from the world.
It is a different way of defining our worth. It is a different way of living.
Do not be like the
hypocrites Jesus says. The world is not
a stage and you are not an actor. The
world is God’s and you are his.
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