"Troilus and Cressida: Reaping What You Sow": Part 1 in The Gospel According to Shakespeare

In celebration of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and the Longmont Theatre Company Taste of Shakespeare's summer seasons.

I am not a Shakespeare expert. I taught HS English for several years, so I do have a decent familiarity with the famous plays.  And I watched my son and his classmates perform many scenes over the years at the Denver Public Schools Shakespeare Festival. I have attended school productions of Shakespeare plays, including a wonderful all-female Hamlet version a few years ago at Denver School of the Arts. I have been to some public performances of Shakespearean plays at the Denver Center and others. I even have a favorite Shakespearean play: Macbeth.  But I am not an expert in the nuances and rich fullness of this master playwright's works. And I won't claim to be. Even so, I thought it might be fun to tie the July Sermon series to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival's plays for this year... along with one from the Longmont Theatre Company's Taste of Shakespeare 

Don't expect to learn too much about the plays... or for me to give away the endings... but do expect to glean some of what the gospel of Luke and the apostle Paul have to share with us about human nature and our tendency to falter and fall, and also to survive and soar and how that aligns with some of the brilliant words of William Shakespeare, master of knowing how to speak stark truth through poetry and prose.  Let's give it a go...

This week's play is Troilus and Cressida... and the scripture reading is from Galatians 6:1-16

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted...Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. --from Galatians 6

One part of this play that is described as a tragedy, comedy and history all in one is the relationship between Troilus and Cressida... a love affair that goes somewhat sideways when Cressida is given to the Greeks as part of an exchange to the Greeks from the Trojans, who are embroiled in a war.  It seems that, as tragic as this sounds, it doesn't take long until Cressida is beginning a relationship with Diomedes, which Troilus unfortunately hears and sees her doing firsthand:

Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee
But with my heart the other eye doth see.
Ah, poor our sex! this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind:

--Cressida, from Act V, Scene II, Troilus and Cressida

The apostle Paul tells the Galatians that if anyone among them is detected in a transgression, seek restoration. The Holy Spirit resides within us and gives us the power to avoid temptation, deception, and the like.  Galatians 6 says that we reap what we sow... therefore corruption reaps corruption and goodness reaps goodness.

How do comedy, tragedy, and history align in our own lives? How have we been tempted to stray from our alliances and loyalties?  How have we seen people offered up as no more than commodities in conversation and in relationship in our communities and in the world?  

Independence Day weekend is a good time to reflect on these intersections.  And a good time to reflect on reaping what we sow and learning to not grow weary in doing what is right.

Thoughts? Questions? Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment on the link below.