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Noah, the Movie

 
  I recently went to the theater to see the movie Noah which has been creating quite a stir among conservative Christians in the U.S.  Many Evangelical Christians I have talked to since the movie's release have wrestled with whether or not to go see a movie which they have been told by others is not factually aligned with the telling of the Flood story in Genesis, thus seeing the movie is akin to allowing yourself to be deceived (so the logic goes).  And this is not the only issue they have cited.  I have heard others say things like "I don't want non-believers to be deceived since what they see on the big screen is not aligned with the facts of the story in Genesis." or "I don't want my teenager to be deceived by how the story is told in the theater and think that this is how it is told in the Bible." or "I don't want less mature believers to be misled by the story line of this movie."
  I think the questioning of whether or not to go see the movie is revealing of what is going on in the hearts and minds of many of my brothers and sisters in faith.  We are more concerned about facts and information than we are about truth, wisdom and mission.  We are more filled with fear than we are with faith.  We are more concerned about getting facts straight than engaging a culture which is wrestling with our sacred text, and in so doing is handing us a God conversation on a silver platter.
  The logic put forth in the thoughts I mentioned above also betrays the Evangelical Christian's under appreciation for the gift of the mind.  It is as if they believe to watch a movie or read a book means you will automatically agree with it!  But, where is the use of the mind?!  Where is the process of thinking about the messages portrayed and then weighing those messages against the theology of the historic Christian faith? Where is the willingness to engage the messages of our culture and discuss them with non believers and believers?!
  When people say the things like what I mentioned above, and make the choice to not engage the movie at all, they are telling Paul that he was wrong to walk into Athens in Acts 17!  They are telling him that it was wrong for him to make his way through the idol filled city of pagan poets and philosophers.  They are telling him that it was wrong for him to have read (and memorized) the pagan poetry which he quotes in his sermon on the Areopagus. They are telling him that it was wrong to not quote the Scripture (which for Paul had only the Old Testament).  And they are telling Paul that the people who came to faith in Jesus Christ there in the beating heart of the Ancient World's most intellectual city was some sort of mistake and they were probably misguided since Paul was obviously making several huge mistakes by even being in that city.  And they are telling Luke that he made a big mistake by including that story in his telling of the early Church's infancy narrative in our New Testament canon!
  Cultural disengagement by followers of Jesus, is the death of Christian Mission.  What if Paul had not gone into the city of Athens?  Several people mentioned by name in that story would not have come to faith in Jesus Christ.  What conversations with non-believers are we missing because we are afraid of seeing a movie and allowing ourselves to assess what it presents and if need be disagree with it.  What mission fields are we avoiding by neglecting to engage the questions our culture is putting forward?  What would happen if the Church were not afraid of culture, but rather so in touch with Jesus that they actively walked into all of the conversations our culture is having and shared how the Good News of Jesus impacted the conversation?
  What would happen if we went to see the Noah movie and saw the things in there that are true to the biblical portrayal of God - that He cares about every piece of His good creation, that he hates violence, that sin is in all of us even those he lifts up (like Noah).  What if we engaged rather than avoided and chided?
  What if we took advantage of a conversation starter like this movie and gave our non-Christian friends freedom to as their questions and we introduced them to the full narrative of the Bible?  I can only imagine how God might use his church to speak to our culture if we were less afraid of our culture and more faith-filled such that we could engage messages, movies, music, books, etc. and not fear being deceived but remember that if we are filled with the Holy Spirit than we are being led into all truth by the Trinity itself.  Don't avoid movies out of fear, engage the culture, use your minds, and make God the center of your conversations.
 

42: The Story of Jackie Robinson

 

  I recently saw the movie titled 42, which is the story of Jackie Robinson, the first African American major league baseball player.  His story is one of many trials and challenges, and at the same time is one of hope and inspiration.  One of the most impactful aspects of this story for me is the undercurrent of theological truth that runs through the whole story.  True to the historical events that took place there was a man, who owned the Brooklyn Dodgers, and who sought to be the first to bring an African American player into major league baseball, his name was Mr. Rickie, he is played in the film by Harrison Ford.  Ford transforms completely into this character, and at times I had to do double takes to see who it was behind the makeup and disguise. 
  Mr. Rickie grew up a Methodist and attended Ohio Wesleyan University where he played baseball and witnessed first hand how the segregation of baseball crushed the hopes and dreams of African American baseball players.  The injustice of what he saw, drove him to push against the current of social norms, and reach for the just and equal playing field that ought to exist among all human beings regardless of the color of their skin.
   I am a Free Methodist minister and our denomination has long stood head and shoulders above most in the fight for freedom for slaves and equality among all human beings.  Some of the very first Free Methodists were among the earliest abolitionists in the United States.  This identity trait of ours, comes from a faith rooted in the power of Jesus Christ to free slaves of all kinds from captivity, and to seek justice for the oppressed, the trampled and the marginalized.  That is at the heart of our faith story, and it largely shaped the story of one of America's greatest baseball players.  I loved this movie, I loved the story, I love the characters and the truths behind it all, and above all this I love that my faith, the theological tradition I partake in, saw this kind of good fruit from its core character.  Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Holy Spirit shaped this story! Amen!

Conversations on the Jesus Way: Table Talk #5

Conversations on the Jesus Way: Table Talk #4

One big Reason the Man of Steel is not Jesus.

   Like all the Superman fans out there I eagerly anticipated the release of the newest Superman movie titled - Man of Steel.  I went to see it in the theater with another Superman fan, who I must admit is by far a more avid fan than I. 
   With the release of such a highly anticipated movie there came the usual comparisons, critiques and varied responses to what was seen on the big screen.  One comparison that made quite a bit of press was the subtle at times and blatant at times allusions to Jesus made throughout the film.  Superman is sitting in a chapel talking to a priest at one point with a stained glass window of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane behind him, there is also a scene near the end of the movie where Superman cries out in anguish and up the stairs behind him in the background of the shot there is a window with pieces of glass broken out in the shape of a cross.
While there are undoubtedly parallels between the Man of Steel and the Son of Man, for example his being sent by a Father to earth to help humanity, as well as his blood carrying his people's life (see movie for more on this), there is one really big glaring difference between Superman and Jesus.  And it is one that our culture easily overlooks.  The difference is Jesus didn't use violence to save others, he allowed violence to be done to him to save others.  Jesus never practiced nor condoned violence. Where Jesus taught his disciples to turn the other cheek and forgive and love your enemies, Superman simply uses his laser beam eyes, and super strength to smash bad guys to dust.  While I love a good action movie, I must protest at the comparison that somehow the Man of Steel is one and the same as Jesus, or that the parallels are strong enough to overlook this major contrast. 
   There are of course the themes of self-sacrifice, and service and caring for humanity that run through the storyline of Superman; however, he is an alien, not the God-man sent to save us by way of dying.
   I believe our culture overlooks this difference to our detriment.  We sanction violence and even teach our children to thirst for it by way of movies, video games and the like.  I am not against watching movies with violence in them, but I take issue when we blindly allow the viewing of violence in film and other media to wash away one of the most powerful distinctives of Jesus Christ - his total avoidance of violence toward another being.  This difference may be small in the eyes of American culture, but it is big in the eyes of one who is trying to follow the Jesus Way, and while reading texts like the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7 we cannot overlook Jesus' radical call to fight hatred with love.  If we fight fire with fire, the whole world burns.  The Man of Steel is cool but he is not Jesus.

Conversations on the Jesus Way: Table Talk #3