Musical Mondays: Stained Glass Masquerade

To encourage my resolution to blog more frequently, I'm going to start a new tradition inspired by a friend of mine's blog. I'll think of a song that's been stuck in my head recently, or something we sang in church on Sunday, or when all else fails I'll open up iTunes and see what pops up...

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Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin' so small

Cause when I take a look aroundEverybody seems so strong
I know they'll soon discover
That I don't belong

So I tuck it all away, like everything's okay
If I make them all believe it, maybe I'll believe it too
So with a painted grin, I play the part again
So everyone will see me the way that I see them

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation's open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who's been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who's traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay 

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation's open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

-Stained Glass Masquerade, by Casting Crowns
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I'd heard this song quite awhile ago, when I purchased CC's second album called Lifesong. What really sticks in my head about this song (other than the catchy lyrics and tune) was a litergical drama/dance a group in my church performed. It included kids and adults, leaders in our church and people I didn't know. They acted out pieces of this song - someone being shunned and ignored on Sunday morning, people huddling in cliques and being perfect "plastic" people.

Casting Crowns is a band that isn't afraid to make people squirm under the lyrics of their songs. Take one of their first hits - "If we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching, why aren't His hands healing..." They have identified some of the biggest problems in the church today and called for a change. Hypocrisy is huge. So many people today claim to be Christian, but it's just a label. Jesus said "You Pharisees and teachers are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You're like tombs that have been whitewashed. On the outside they are beautiful, but inside they are full of bones and filth." (Matt. 23:27 CEV)

It's so easy to think you're better than someone else. Whether it's in what you say or do, how you act, etc. We can see that person in the grocery store or the one who steps in to our church and think "Wow, I'm glad I don't look/dress/smell/act like them." Yet even Jesus "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem..." (Isaiah 53:2-3)

But if the invitation's OPEN
To EVERY heart that has been broken
Maybe THEN we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade...