Skip to main content
*|MC:SUBJECT|*
View this email in your browser

This is a reminder to please pick up your gift from the TMA Office

The Department of Theatre & Media Arts would like to give you a Christmas gift.  Please visit our office during business hours before the Christmas break and receive your small statue of Jesus and a delicious truffle bar.  

A Christmas Note From Our
Department Chair

Dear Students,
 
Several years ago, a member of our ward gifted my family a small statue of Jesus for Christmas.  Unsure of what to do with it, we left it on the kitchen counter where we opened the gift.  What started out as an act of laziness turned into a small joy.  We soon realized that no matter where we set Jesus in our kitchen, it looked like he was helping us out, or welcoming new food items, or blessing our efforts.  We started to take turns moving Kitchen Jesus around in new and delightful ways.

The very literal presence of Jesus in my kitchen reminds me of one of my favorite plays—End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer.  The play is about Sylvia, a newly born-again Christian, who believes that the rapture is fast approaching and is terrified that her family will not be taken with her when she goes.  Her new faith is made real by the character of Jesus, who follows her around the stage to help her with her chores, to hand her religious pamphlets to hand to neighbors, and to keep her company when she proselytes. 
 
In his last scene in the play, Jesus comes to comfort Sylvia after a nightmare.  Offstage, we hear Sylvia calling out:
 
SYLVIA.  Jesus, where are you? (A hall light comes on.  SYLVIA comes out to the kitchen in her nightgown.) Jesus?  Are you there? 
 
(He comes out of the darkness.)
 
Oh Jesus!  Thank God.  I was so scared.  I just woke up and I didn’t know where you were.  I thought it was happening.  I thought I’d been left behind.  (She goes to him and he takes her in his arms.) 
 
JESUS.  Did you have a bad dream?
 
SYLVIA.  There was a storm, like tonight.  Thunder and explosions.  The sky was on fire.  I heard screaming and I was trying to find [my family], but I couldn’t.  So I prayed that you would come and take me in your arms.  And you did. 
 
As no one else can see him on stage Jesus’s presence in the play is largely comic.  The audience can see what everyone else around Sylvia cannot and take pleasure in her interactions and Jesus’s reactions to her and her family.  But I find a quiet and important message in these scenes of a woman whose faith is so strong that she literally sees Jesus comforting her fears, helping her make decisions, and putting groceries away in her kitchen.
 
I want to have that kind of relationship with Jesus Christ.  I want you to have that relationship with him as well.  He is our Savior, our Redeemer, and in very real ways, our friend.  My family’s kitchen Jesus helps me remember that.  So for this Christmas, I hope that you will find a place for Jesus in your home, too.
 
Love,
Megan
Chair, Department of Theatre & Media Arts
Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved.
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|*

Our mailing address is:
*|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|*

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.