Gospel According to Glee – 40 Days at McKinley High

Day 16 – Saturday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

To Read: (Series 2 Episode 8)

[BURT and CAROLE (KURT’s dad and FINN’s mum) get married. These are words from the wedding]  

BURT:  I’m not really known for having a way with words.  Uh… you know when you’re a kid, adults will tell you a lot of things.  But one thing they neglect to mention is how…sad life can be.  I lost somebody I loved very much.  But Kurt…he lost his mom.  And that killed me.  Well, we got by, but looking back? I-I want to apologize to you, Kurt.  What we were living just…wasn’t living.  You know that saying, that when God closes a door, he opens a window?  Well, sometimes out of nowhere, he’ll do you one better, and he’ll kick a whole wall down.  He grabbed me by the shoulders, and he pointed me towards this woman right here.  And he said, “There she is.  Go get her.”  You’re everything, Carole.  Words can’t describe you.  You’re everything.  And I will love you till the day I die.

CAROLE:  Oh, hey…I’m lucky.  Most women, when they get married, they get one man. I get two.  One of you saved me from my wardrobe, the other one just saved me.  Kurt, you are an amazing person.  I’m not only getting a son, I’m getting a friend.  Finn…I know you were resistant at first, but I am so proud of you.  I’ve watched you grow into a man.  But I think I’m most proud that you’ve become a brother to Kurt.  We are four people.  Becoming a family.

WILL:   And now, I’d like to introduce one of the best men: Finn Hudson!

FINN:  Best man. Right. Uh…Well, I want to propose a toast to my mom…who is so awesome.  I mean… somehow even without one in the house, you taught me what it means to be a man.  In Glee Club, uh, whenever two of us got together, we got a nickname. Rachel and I are Finnchel.  Rachel and Puck were Puckleberry.  And today, a new union was formed.  Furt.  You and me, man.  We’re brothers from another mother.  And quite frankly, no one else has shown me as much as you about what it means to be a man.  And over the past few weeks, uh, some stuff’s gone down.  And I haven’t manned up like I should’ve.  From now on?  No matter what it costs me, I got your back.  Okay?  Even if it means getting a Slushie in the face every now and then.  You put this entire wedding together by yourself, Kurt.  So as a thank you, I had the Glee Club put together a little number in your honour.  You’re going to dance it with me, dude.

[FINN sings “Just The Way You Are”; The rest of the Glee Club joins in and FINN and KURT dance together]

 

To Watch:

‘Just the Way you Are’ sung by Finn and New Directions

Original Artist: Bruno Mars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJmArgzHUx8

From the Scriptures:

[Jesus said] ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³ and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 

³⁴ Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 

³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

 ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  (Matthew 25.31-40)

 

To Reflect:

They say you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.
However we can choose how we are family…
We can also, despite the aphorism, choose who we name as part of our family.

The family of Jesus is a ragtag bunch of people – the hungry and thirsty, the outsider and those with no possessions, the sick and those in jail.  If I could choose my family I am pretty certain that I would not begin by looking at people such as this.

These little neglected ones are the family of God.  If in our faith journey we do not spend time in their company and spend ourselves in their service we will find that we are not often in the presence of our Beloved.  Because when we meet and help them we meet and help him;

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.  (Matthew 25v40)

Kurt and Finn have not always had the best of relationships.  Finn, living in the testosterone driven world of the school gridiron team has not always been comfortable around Kurt.  Though not objecting to Kurt being Gay, he is not very supportive either.  The recent bullying by Karofsky has brought things to a head and Finn realises that he needs to be more active in standing next to his new brother.

Finn is learning a lesson in being an ally.  The same lesson that the apostle James teaches his readers;

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?  Can faith save you?  If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.  (James 2v14-17) 

Our faith is proclaimed most clearly through our hands rather than our words.  Yes, there are some situations about which we cannot do anything ourselves – problems are too far away, too immense for our resources, we have not the capacity to be physically alongside another, we may even be in need ourselves – but that does not mean we are given a free pass in our duty of care for the Family of God.

Recently these famous words of John Wesley keep on calling me forward;

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

(John Wesley)

It is not expected of us that we help everyone all the time everywhere but that we must do whatever we can where we are.  We must do ‘all the good we can’ when we find ourselves in the company of the hungry and thirsty, the foreigner and those with no possessions, the sick and the imprisoned.  If we do not stand with them we do not stand with our Beloved.

Yes, people may be hungry, thirsty, or naked because they have not been good stewards of their own possessions, but we are still obliged to do what we can to help.  A foreigner may be illegally in our land, a prisoner may deserve their sentence, and someone may be ill because of a situation of their own making, but that does not absolve us of the responsibility of caring for them as we would have if they were a member of our own family.

Sadly for Kurt, Finn’s support comes a little too late.  Karofsky’s bullying has not abated and so his dad and step-mum spend what they would have on their honeymoon to pay for his tuition fees to attend Dalton Academy where an anti-bullying policy is strictly enforced.

May it never be that someone in our own faith fellowship feels they have to leave because the Body of Christ has not treated them as full members of the family and made them unwelcome.  If they leave because of our rejection we also reject our Beloved.   Pray that our Beloved is more loving than we are and does not leave with them…

 

To Pray:  

So many things we can’t control
So many hurts that happen everyday
So many heartaches that pierce the soul
So much pain that won’t ever go away
How do we make it better?
How do we make it through?
What can we do when there’s nothing we can do?
We can be kind.

We can take care of each other
We can remember that deep down inside we all need the same thing
And maybe we’ll find if we are there for each other
That together we’ll weather whatever tomorrow may bring
Nobody really wants to fight
Nobody really wants to go to war
If everyone wants to make things right what are we always fighting for?
Does nobody want to see it?
Does nobody understand?
The power to heal is right here in our hand
We can be kind.

We can take care of each other
We can remember that deep down inside we all need the same thing
And maybe we’ll find if we are there for each other
That together we’ll weather whatever tomorrow may bring
And it’s not enough to talk about it
Not enough to sing a song
We must walk the walk about it
You and I, do or die, we’ve got to try to get along
We can be kind.

(David Friedman)

  

To Do:  

• Support a local food bank.
• Learn how to greet a foreigner who lives near to you (or works with you) in their home language.

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

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

 

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.