Faith at the Movies in 2013

When we think about our lives – what we value, what is right and wrong, what gives us meaning – we can get very precise and analytical using the language of theology, ethics, and philosophical terms. There’s a place for that, but we what we really need are stories: parables, novels, fables, and, yes, movies. This is the movie award season, and my annual look at faith in the movies of the past year.

You may have missed Philomena . If you did, I urge you to find a way to see it. Based on a true story, Judi Dench plays Philomena, a woman who tries to reconnect with her child who was adopted from the judgmental convent in Ireland where she gave birth to him. Records have been destroyed, but a journalist helps her to rekindle her search. This movie shows the variety and complexity of Christian faith. Some of the nuns are very cruel in their vindictive judgment, but Philomena herself, despite the harm she suffered, has a mature faith that seeks to live with joy and mercy, even when it is hard.

In one of the best moments, the journalist is amazed by Philomena’s forgiveness for the people who did her harm. He doesn’t believe that they deserve her forgiveness, and he says to Philomena something like “Forgive? You’re going to do it just like that?!” 

Philomena snaps back “It’s not ‘just like that.’ That’s hard! That’s hard for me.”

What a wonderful window into the life of faith, so simple and yet so brave, so demanding of strength beyond our own.

 

In the movie 12 Years A Slave, we are reminded of the horror of American slavery, and reminded that the Christian faith was used to justify and maintain the institution of slavery. On more than one slave plantation, we see what passes for a Sunday morning Christian service which consists of the slave owner reading to the slaves

from the Bible, and always choosing the passages about obedience to the master. These are heartbreaking scenes. They are a powerful reminder that we need to be very careful and critical in our understanding of what scripture means. Just because someone says that this is what it means does not make that the final word.

Finally, Gravity was a beautiful and visually stunning movie about the danger and isolation of astronauts in space, orbiting our planet. It is also a story of the weight of grief, and a metaphor that reminds us that grief can feel like a death of our former life. It also reminds us that beyond death there is new life, a rebirth. It is not an overtly religious movie, but that is the good news of our faith.

Text and Subtext

I once found myself giving a long and detailed description to my twenty-year-old stepson about how to install a new toilet. I'd asked him to help me with it so that I could teach him, having only recently learned it myself. But the one I'd bought had a different way of mounting the tank and I soon found that my confident and knowledgeable lesson was breaking down into lots of thoughts along the lines of “now, let's see here...” and “let me just look at the diagram again....” It was not my finest parental lesson, and my son's interest was understandably lowering.

At some point, it was necessary for me to give up on the text of the lesson and get down to the subtext of the moment, which is what was really important in the first place. Text and subtext are terms I borrow from literary work. The text is the actual content of the words. In this case, the text had to do with the setting of screws in the base of the toilet. The subtext is the unspoken message which is being conveyed under and behind the text. Nine times out of ten, or maybe all ten times, the subtext is the more important part of the message. For me, the subtext of my bad plumbing lesson contained several messages.

1.      You're growing up and I want you to be prepared for adulthood.

2.      I wish I'd learned more about taking care of a house when I was growing up.

3.      I love you, and I want to teach you what I have to pass on.

That's a lot to pack into a lesson on installing a toilet, and when the lesson broke down, I decided I'd just tell him those things, in more or less the words I just used. These were not new messages to him, but they were worth saying out loud again.

I've been thinking about the subtext of some of the things we do at church.

Text: We have ministry programs for children and youth = Subtext: we want a safe and nurturing place for the young people we love.

Text: We have a writing group for elders = Subtext: we value our life stories, and we believe that if we listen closely and honestly to our stories, we will hear the story of God.

Text: We work with outreach partners locally and around the world = Subtext: all people are our neighbors. Even if they are strangers to us, they are relatives in the family of God.

Those are just a few, but you get the point. These are not new messages, but they are worth saying out loud as often as we can.

Singing Christmas

We were singing the Christmas carols from memory. Someone would call out a name, and we would all sing the first verse together (the first verse seems to be the most we can manage from memory).

Stock photo for dramatization (not me)

The First Noel

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Away in a Manger

Then someone said “Go Tell it on the Mountain” and we all started to sing the refrain:

“Go tell it on the Mountain, over the hills and everywhere;

Go tell in on the mountain…” but there was confusion at the end.

“…that Jesus Christ was born” sang some.

“…that Jesus Christ is born” sang others.

The first one makes sense. We are the carol singers, and we are singing with joy because of the day long ago when Jesus Christ was born. Past tense. It is the day we remember every year, the day when the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.

But that isn’t how the lyrics go. We sing in present tense: “Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!”

If we think about Christmas in the past tense, we miss the message. Christ comes to be among us in our own time. Christ is born in whatever place will make room for God -actually, Christ is born even if we don’t make room. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you. Jesus said that by reaching out to others we are reaching out to him.

Sermon - What Time It Is

Preached on December 1, 2013, the first Sunday of Advent, at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC.

Scripture: Romans 13:11-14

¹¹Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Sermon

Living by darkness or living by daylight. Living as one asleep or waking up. The apostle Paul asks us to think about our by these stark contrasts. “The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” For all of the complexity of life, for all the shades of gray that we live in, sometimes it’s helpful to put life into stark terms.

Do you remember the parable of the two wolves that comes to us from the people of the First Nations? A grandparent says to the grandchild, “there are two wolves inside of you. One wolf is good, kind, patient, loving. The other wolf is evil, mean, selfish, full of hate. They are locked in a great struggle.”

The grandchild asks “which wolf will win?”

And the wise grandparent answers, “the one you feed.”

What kind of lives are we living? And what lives will we begin today? “You know what time it is,” writes Paul. “Now is the time for you to wake up.” And here is where I think that Paul’s metaphor is really helpful, because Paul recognizes that it isn’t just up to us. We are awake when the sun is out and we sleep in the darkness. We are affected by what’s going on around us, sometimes by light and sometimes by darkness.