On Being an Ambassador: Renee Fleming and the Super Bowl

Last Saturday, I went to the live broadcast of the Met’s Rusalka starring Renee Fleming in the title role. She was absolutely breathtaking – so expressive, so graceful, and so believable as the tragic sea nymph.

Though the production was stunning, the moment that has stuck with me occurred in an interview between Fleming and Susan Graham after Act I.  Graham congratulated Fleming on singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, praising Fleming as a great “ambassador” for the opera world.

Fleming, more than any other American opera singer, has a presence in popular culture.  Her identity is firmly established as one of the leading operatic singers of her generation, but her name is still recognizable to the layman. 

But is she truly an ambassador?

I got to thinking about what it means to be an ambassador. In a Fellows class last year, we defined an ambassador as one who has both cultural and linguistic fluency in a native and foreign country.

I love that.

An ambassador moves freely between two nations – translating both nouns and cultural norms with elegance and ease. Though she maintains loyalty to her nation of origin, she genuinely loves the new nation in which she resides.  It will never be home, but she cares about its policies, economy, culture - its general flourishing.

In 1 Corinthians 5:20, Paul describes Christians as ambassadors, making us fluent in two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. 

If we are fluent in our Homeland's language and culture, we have a firm understanding of our identity as God's beloved; we understand God's character and the way He is working to redeem the world; we understand His heart towards us; we understand what it means to receive His grace. (This is all aspirational, of course.)

If we are fluent in our foreign country, perhaps we understand what makes the culture of this world tick; we learn what our new nation values; we seek to understand social problems of poverty or illiteracy; we uncover why celebrities and football coaches are idolized; we learn the social systems and strategies of the Saturday night bar scene.

Then what?

Then maybe we ought to just show the kingdom of the world our Home.

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” 

Bring Home here.

So if you are an opera singer, sing so seamlessly and passionately that audiences will wonder Where your voice is from.

If you are a writer, write with such eloquence and honesty that readers will want to know more about the Origin of your words.

If you work at the post office, show customers an efficiency and kindness that makes them wonder Where you learned how to treat people.

If you are a mother, make your home so alive that visitors will want to know Where you learned to live that way.

If you work at McDonald’s, serve customers the way Jesus Himself serves you.

If you are a doctor, show patients a glimpse of the Healer.

But how? 

I don't think it's by striving or manipulating or controlling or perfecting. I don't think it's something we can necessarily work hard at or achieve. I think it's more to do with being than with doing. When we trust Jesus, we already are citizens of Heaven and we already are foreigners in this world. And the Father is too good of a Dad to leave us without the Spirit; to leave us as orphans (John 14).

He is alive and at work within us; we simply receive.

Emily Freeman sums this up so nicely in her book, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try Hard Life:

“[Now] that you believe, now that you have been reborn in your invisible self, now that God's Spirit has given birth to your spirit, now you have a choice: live from your flesh, your false identity, your mask. Or live from your spirit, your true identity, your freedom.  You have the letting power. Let fear dominate or let peace rule. The mystery has now been made known.  All of life comes down to this choice. Once you discover the mystery, once you experience the living God, there is no going back... Paul describes it as 'the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col. 1:26-27). There is no other hope but the truth of Christ in you.”

Praise Him.