Drama: the conflict of difference - The drama of creation
Before I was a priest I was an actor. Mostly doing stage (especially Shakespeare), but dabbling in a little of everything. Honestly, sometimes I miss acting. It still is a passion of mine, even if God, the church, faith, teaching, and priestly service are an even greater passion. With drama being so important to me, and a necessity within much of our entertainment, it begs the question: what part does drama play in the good news of Jesus Christ?
I had a teacher in my drama program tell us that drama is created through conflict, whether it be grand or sometimes mundane. So, we would learn about the character, their history, relationships, choices, etc. so that we could choose that character's goal or intent and the tactics he might use to get it. The drama was created when other characters hadn’t different goals or different intents, or even sometimes just had a different history or experience. Ultimately, conflict and drama were created by difference.
If we understand drama in this way, then we only need to open up to the first page of the bible to see the drama. In the beginning, God created. To some degree, it doesn’t even matter what God creates, because it will be different from him. And difference creates the potential for distance and greater conflict (C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain makes a similar point in more depth). As God creates more things the difference and potential increase. But the important part is that God creates through ordering what is. He takes that dark shapeless chaotic water and he reveals it through light, he separates it to create the sky and the land, so that then seeds can be planted and thrive. It becomes this beautiful and dramatic dance as order gives way to more life. Yet at any moment we can imagine the greater potential for conflict: the darkness or water closing in and destroying the light, the land, and the seed.
Eventually, God does realize greater drama even within his order. He creates humanity and creates in them great potential as his image bearers and great need. So he gives us the responsibility to continue his work (tending the garden) and he gives us great helpers in one another (Eve). But as we are different and have a greater share of Him, we also have a greater potential to turn away. That’s what happens. We choose to eat the fruit, deciding to trust ourselves and a snake more that the word of God, more than our creator, more than the one who gave us everything. We want to become like God on our terms defining good and evil for ourselves, not realizing that we were already made to be like God.
So begins the great conflict of our creation (this drama will be explored in greater depth later). Where will our own independence and separation from our creator take us? Immediately the result for Adam and Eve is a great conflict with God (as they hide), their own lives (as they feel ashamed), nature (as they rip at the trees), one another (blaming one another), and the animals (blaming the snake). This is the conflict, but this is not the drama or the point of the story though. The point is how will we ever find our way back to a right relationship with all of these things that we have put in such great turmoil? As we have decided to define good and evil for ourselves, it means we can’t even rightly see the way forward. Thank God that He comes to us to show us the way.
Next, we will explore how this drama plays out in Scripture.
