Gospel According to Glee – 40 Days at McKinley High

Day 14 – Thursday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

 

To Read: (Series 2 Episode 4)

[WILL has set the Glee Club the task of singing Duets to improve their range and chances of winning the National Championship.  The winning pair receive a vouchers at their favourite restaurant.  RACHEL and FINN, now a couple, could win it with their version of ‘Don’t Go Breaking my Heart’ but deliberately choose to lose…]

FINN:  We’re totally going to win this thing.

RACHEL:  I know.

FINN:  Wha- don’t be sad. I mean, Breadstix has these vegan meatballs, they’re… they’re okay.

RACHEL:  I’m not really a nice person.  I’m selfish.  The fact is, I’m only really generous if there’s something in it for me.

FINN:  Yeah, but I still like you.

RACHEL:  But you, you’re so… kind, and open. Well, it’s made me want to be a better person. We have to throw the competition.

FINN:  But I love Breadstix.

RACHEL:  No, if we wanna win at Nationals, then Sam has to win this contest.  Okay?  He has to feel like he belongs and, and the team has to believe in him.

FINN:  Wow, Rachel, I’ve never seen you like this. I’m kind of impressed.

RACHEL:  Well, like I said… you inspired me.

FINN:  But technically you’re doing this because it’ll help us win Nationals, which means there’s something in it for you, so it doesn’t really count as you doing something nice.

RACHEL:  Okay, so I’m just gonna ignore what you just said.  Repeat what I said before: we just have to find a way for me to lose a singing competition so that the new kid sticks around.

FINN:  Right.

 

To Watch:

‘Get Happy/Happy Days are Here Again’ sung by Rachel and Kurt

Original Artists: Barbara Streisand and Judy Garland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvzLU9jrMAY

From the Scriptures:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ ²² On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴ whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. ²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.      (1 Corinthians 12.12-27)

  

To Reflect:

Anyone who has worked with groups of young people, or who has tried to join an existing group of youngsters know that it is not an easy thing to do.  Once a group has established itself, even if they want to, adding new members is a challenge and it requires commitment from those on the ‘inside’ to welcome those on the ‘outside’ in.

This is true of Faith communities as well.  Even though, as our Parish does, we want to live out the motto ‘Open to God, Open to All’, it is a constant challenge to invite people to join.  It is easy to think of reasons why people who aren’t ‘like us’ don’t attend but mostly it boils down to helping everyone realises that they really are welcome.

Rachel and Finn forego a free meal at their favourite restaurant to ensure Sam is welcomed in the club.  Is Rachel still looking out for herself by looking out for him?  Perhaps.  But that is how the Body of Christ is called to work. Each helps the other grow and we need some of every part of the Body of Christ to begin to be able to proclaim the Gospel of God’s love for all people and not simply ‘people like us’.

From the very beginning the Church has struggled with this.  (Read today’s Scripture passage again and see if you recognise yourself or any of your fellow worshippers).

Rachel is correct though.  If the group can bring Sam, and later on other voices, into Glee Club then New Directions will produce even better harmonies and everyone will prosper.

To Pray:  

Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
which is perfect and everlasting, that our souls may radiate peace.
Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
that we may think, act, and speak harmoniously.
Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
that we may be contented and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts.
Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
that amidst our worldly strife we may enjoy Thy bliss.
Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
that we may endure all and tolerate all in the thought of Thy grace and mercy.
Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
that our lives may become a divine vision, and in Thy light all darkness may vanish.
Send us Thy peace, O Lord,
our Father and Mother, that we, Thy children on earth may all unite in one family.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

To Do:

• Tell a friend who doesn’t come to worship at all how they would be welcome to worship in your fellowship.  If you’re not certain they will be comfortable (and so able to grow) in your church point them to one where they can do this.

• Welcoming others is an inside job.  Think of anyone in your own fellowship with whom you wouldn’t not be comfortable to sit next or pray alongside.  Ask God for forgiveness and pray about a practical way you can demonstrate being ‘Open to God, Open to All” towards them.

Reprise:  Click here to watch the original version of today’s song

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XIky4mHCt4

Acknowledgements:

Prayers from ‘Prayers for Hard Times’ are copyright  © Becca Anderson 2017

Scripture quotations are copyright © New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Transcripts of Glee Episodes were made with thanks to gleetranscripts.tumblr.com

These Reflections, ‘ ‘Gospel According to Glee’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2021 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged