“More than Meets the Eye”

“More than meets the eye,” was the tag line from the old Transformers cartoon way-back-when. Despite the fact that most people went to see the latest Transformers movie simply because of the signature Michael-Bay-massive-cool graphics and Megan Fox, there is more to this movie than meets the eye.

Michael Bay has a penchant for playing a Where’s Waldo social commentary game with many of his movies, like “The Island.” This is no different. While The Fallen is strategizing for his buddy-Deceptacons, the Obama administration (in the film) sends an official (that looks a lot like Press Sec. Robert Gibbs) to the special ops military group working with the Autobots. They are to categorically suspend all activity. The Obama administration (in the film) wants to dialogue with the Deceptacons and send the Autobots away from earth. Yeah … we in the audience see there is nothing-more-here-than-inviting-a-black-eye. The officer-in-charge asks the Obama Administration official, “what if you’re wrong?”

A good question for our own real-life situation. During the heating up phase of the Deceptacon major offensive President Obama is wisked away to a “secure” location, while normal peon “global citizens” must suffer the consequences of his gross miscalculations. Where is Uncle Mordecai when we need him?

During a news conference with the Autobot special ops unit and Optimus Prime, an officer whispers to his friend about Prime: “If God made us in his image, who made him?” The voice-over Prime assures us, like in the previous Transformer movie, that we’re not alone in the universe. Knowing all there is to know in a universe of icy and stale reductionism is a lony place. As a rationalistic and scientifically-precise culture, we have never been more hungry for unexplainable mystery that is bigger. We’re leaving organized, pansy religion by the droves, but we’re hungry for a God, who is big enough to be untamable and is beyond complete explanation. We Christians would do well to take notice that there is more to our God-hungry culture than meets the eye.

A “New” Beginning

Some phrases in our common usage are tossed about like worn underwear. You realize you’re handling it, but you don’t especially pay that much attention to the details. A “new” beginning is such a phrase. By definition each beginning is new. And yet, we don’t seem to mind the redundancy. We’re hoping to emphasize that “this” beginning is newer than most in that it will exact more cleansing power for yesterday’s dirty underwear.

In Christianity each day is a beginning, but Easter Sunday was a “new” beginning. Paul tells us that the Resurrection mean more than Jesus will take us to Heaven one day. He tells us the Resurrection is the tangible hope for the Holy Spirit’s very tangible work in our nasty, underweared lives:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you(Romans 8:11; ESV).

Yes, we can be forgiven of the boo-boos we committed, but Paul is emphasizing something far more potent than taking Ex-Lax with a trucker’s 64oz size “cup” of apple juice. Paul is saying we can be physically empowered to live for Jesus and his way, by being transformed internally. We can literally have victory over Sin … not just death. That is some kind of “new” beginning.

If that were all, simply being able to stop sinning and being made more like Jesus, then we would have eternal reasons for rejoicing. However, Paul’s thought continues through the chapter to this remarkable verse that we often attempt to make stand alone:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose(Romans 8:28; ESV).

Not only am I promised victory over sin in this “new” beginning, known as the Resurrection, I am also promised that the Holy Spirit will take the muck and grime of yesterday’s underwear and use it for fertilizer for tomorrow’s fruitful life for God. The recent movie “Up” carries a similar theme.

Up

Carl and Ellie Fredricksen, an unlikely couple, are Elementary School sweethearts who fall in love over one vision: Charlz Muntz, the disgraced explorer/adventurer. They eventually marry and begin to save up for their ultimate vacation: moving their house to the pinnacle of Paradise Falls, the former haunt of Charlz Muntz. But life happens and their Paradise Falls savings is spent on one rotten apple after another. However, their life together becomes over the years an Eden of what could be. Eventually Ellie dies, leaving Carl cold, lonely, and depressed in exile from Eden to live in what could have been. Now in the midst of a hungry city jungle that is threatening to devour his last vestiges of their Eden, Carl is forced to the sunset of their dreams together in Shady Oaks retirement home.

In one last fit of desperation Carl arranges the crazy scheme of turning their house into a blimp. With those tens of thousands of balloons it literally is Paradise Fall or bust … bust-pop-bust-pop. What Carl doesn’t figure into his equation is a little dreamy-eyed wilderness explorer, Russell. Russell is what Carl was, Russell is in the way of Carl finally accomplishing what he and Ellie dreamed when they were Russell’s age. Russell brings with him baggage, and, as Carl inches towards his destination, Russell’s baggage becomes heavier with the introduction of his new friend, Kevin. Russell is baggage. And Carl can’t seem to cut his baggage loose, despite his best efforts.

Carl meets up with his former hero, Charlz Muntz, and for a moment reenters Paradise Lost only to find the last vestiges of his innocence lost. Charles is desperate to trap and return to the States with the mythical bird Kevin. Charlz was disgraced long ago, because the world refused to believe his stories of birds like Kevin. Now he will stop at nothing to capture Kevin, who happens to be Russell’s only friend in the world. Whether he likes it or not, Carl has now become attached to Russell, and he is in the very awkward position of cutting himself loose from his attachment to his childhood hero to be a hero to his new child-friend.

At a very powerful moment Carl reaches for Ellie’s exploration scrap book. As a kid Ellie had put paraphernalia in there regarding her dreams of adventure. She leaves a huge section open: “Adventures I’ll have next.” Carl’s dream, as Ellie’s friend, sweetheart, and husband has always been to make sure Ellie could fill those pages; the ultimate adventure being their trip to Paradise Falls. On her deathbed Ellie hands her scrapbook to Carl, who sets it on the proverbial shelf. After all their entire life, in his eyes, has been a perpetual shelving event. As Carl flips through the scrapbook he accidentally opens the “Adventures I’ll have next” section to find that Ellie had filled those pages with photos and such of their life together.

Carl’s life is about to flounder and die with the loss of his hero’s standing in his eyes. He truly has nothing anymore. His hero is a villan in his life. His house is nothing. Ellie is long dead. Yet, Carl is reborn through Ellie’s scrapbook. He now realizes that the ultimate adventure he was waiting for was his life with Ellie. He now realizes that he is just about to cut another real adventure off from his life in finally getting rid of Russell and Kevin.

So Carl embarks on an adventure to save Russell and Kevin. After adrenaline-rushing moments Russell and Kevin trap Charlz in the house that is now attached to Charlz’s blimp. Russel and Kevin jump to the blimp, and Carl cuts the house loose. The house, Charlz, and Carl’s old dreams plummet to their death at the bottom of Paradise Falls. Carl’s new adventure takes flight, goes “Up,” with Russell, as Russell’s dad-figure.

As the World Turns … Inward

One way in which believers have chosen to respond to the onslaught of the world is to turn inward, isolating themselves from the outside and hoping the outside will simply go away. This was the response of the Essenes to the corrupted Hasmonean dynasty over Israel, the Amish, and it has been the way of Fundamentalism. Recently I have seen two movies featuring this dilemma. This post will discuss one of them, “The Village” (2004). My next post will discuss the other.

Sunday night my wife and I watched my absolutely favorite M. Night Shyamalan movie for about the 5th time: “The Village.” Set in the “1800s” several families have taken it upon themselves to leave “The Towns” and move to an “isolated” valley. They hope to rid themselves of the vices of the towns: greed and violence, by ridding themselves of the environment of the towns. They are successful until the Second Generation begins to enter adulthood. Curiosity and desire lurk with mythical creatures in the woods beyond the valley, designed to keep the villagers in their naïveté.

Yet, naive desire proves more powerful than cynical paternalistic care. Noah Percy (Adrien Brody) is adult innocence on display. He is a 10 year old boy trapped in a 20-something male body. His good-hearted, playful spirit makes us all want more Noah Percys in our lives. Yet, when his special friend, Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), is pledged to Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), Noah takes a blade to Lucius. Although every effort has been made to remove the vice of the towns from this village of innocence, even down to banning anything red (even vegetation), the most innocent of the villagers bathes himself in the “bad color.”

Noah is placed in detention, while Ivy is sent to the towns for medicine to save Lucius. Before she leaves her father reveals the hidden secrets of their village, namely that the good intentions of the village to preserve innocence are set on a foundation of paternalistic deceit. The town, while set in the late 1800s, are populated by people who live in the early 21st Century. The creatures that roam the woods are some of the elders in scary suits.

Ivy, though she is blind, braves the trip through the woods to the towns. Along the way, her two male escorts are too overcome by fear of the mythical creatures to remain long on their journey. They flee for the “safety” of the village. She is also attacked by one of the mythical creatures, who we in the audience later realize is Noah dressed up in one of the suits hidden under the floor of his detention center. Ivy is of course innocent of any knowledge of this, and lures the creature (Noah) into a deep hole, where he dies. Ivy makes it to the towns (by climbing a chain link fence that surrounds a huge “wild life preserve”) and returns with medicine. She is shocked to find kindness in the man from the towns who helps her.

Interestingly, the village elders’ use of deceit to preserve innocence unwittingly leads to the death of the most innocent of them all. In the attempted death of Lucius and the actual death of Noah, innocence died in the village. Despite their best efforts to preserve innocence and prevent vice, vice sprouts up in the most innocent. Changing environments, even with chain-linked fences and state laws (the elders had secured protection from the state government for their “preserve”), does not change the human heart. Innocence alone is not enough to defeat and prevent evil. Ivy Walker had to graduate from innocence to the real world in order for the most good to be done in the village.

The Apostle Paul did advise us to be “innocent as to what is evil,” but he also advised us to be ”wise as to what is good” (Romans 16:19; ESV). Ivy Walker experienced “the towns” before she crossed the chain-linked fence: in the attempted death of her fiancee, deep-seated anger towards her once close buddy, coming into realization of the well-intentioned deceit, but deceit nonetheless of the elders, and leaving one of the mythical creature to die.What she carried back to “The Village” was more than medicine, she carried back a heart bent on goodness advised by first hand knowledge and experience of the towns. Unfortunately the elders decide to maintain their charade.

We might turn off our TVs, refuse to go to movies, do away with the Internet. We might go to Walmart with horse-blinders at work. We might even hire people to go out for us … so that we don’t have to. What inevitably happens though, when we turn a blind eye to the evil in the world, is that our sharpness in doing good over time will become dull and rusted. I’m afraid that in attempting to turn inward to flee from the world, we’ll inevitably find the world there waiting on us, but without the tools to defeat sin and evil.

Logan, You’re Not an Animal

From time to time, if we’re honest, our baser nature oozes through our Armani suits and spills onto the hip floors installed by the crew from “HGTV.” The stains left behind in the hearts of those closest too us can be a mission-impossible for even ShamWow. For those of us who actually care about petty things like this, such experiences leave us saying, “Woe” … not “Wow,” every time. In the latest Comic Book flick, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” this beastly struggle of classical Western literature prowls the cinematic screen.

I found connection.

I was tamed.

Logan, aka “the Wolverine,” is a man’s man, whose meekness holds his animal in check. He was a soldier, tapped for special duty (which saved his career and possibly his very life). Yet he leaves this behind, when the blood of innocent people rocked the cool, distant mountain of his heart. He returns “home” to become a logger. Yet the heaviest object he hauls around is his own heart, which carries the heart of his girl friend, Kayla. He carries it with the gentleness of a dove.

In one humorous and equally-tragic series of scenes, he is being tracked down and finds refuge in the bosom of an elderly couple. The couple happens upon him running nude into their barn. (No, there are no “bad” shots/scenes.) It’s a scene reminiscent of “Back to the Future.” The old man checks out his barn with his trusty shot gun. Little did the old man know, but Logan could have gutted him clean. Even if the old man got a shot in … no matter. Logan heals himself … and quickly. Logan plays the submissive hand, though he doesn’t have to do so. The couple takes him into their hospitable care, lending him their dead son’s clothes. Still getting used to his “make over,” he accidentally destroys the shelving. Coming to the dinner table he carries the shelving, with his head hung charmingly low, promising to pay for his damages. The trio bonds. The next morning, the old man show off his motorcycle in the barn, and his wife comes bringing breakfast. As the wife is talking, everyone see her get shot by an X-man with sniper powers. This particular dude dresses as sharply, as he shoots.

Logan has a rough exterior but is meek. The sharp-shooter has an equally sharp exterior, but a pungent heart. Logan wrestles against the beast inside throughout the film. The bad guys, led by a full-blooded human, hunt down other human beings as animals, showing they’re lower than the animals.

As Christians we can crash our theological vehicles in one of two very wide ditches. On one side of the road is a violent ditch, red in tooth and claw. Believers being trapped in this ditch walk on egg shells fearing for their very lives. They constantly live in the hands of an angry God. No matter what Jesus has done for them, they will never feel as though they can ever do enough to appease the divine savage beast. These believers will always be primarily known as sinners. God’s power only pretends to make them clean.

The other ditch is one that is far more seductive. It is easy on the eyes and especially wooing of the appetite. In this ditch lives a myriad of sirens. Once trapped inside this ditch (though the driver believes he’s anywhere but about to be eaten by the sirens) the sirens dress up as God and reassure the driver that he is saved by grace. Since he is saved by grace, little “sins” won’t matter. After all they will make sure he gets to heaven. The driver can live and do as he pleases because he is under grace and not law. As a sign that he is in the right place, he sees the drivers stuck in the other ditch. They are in a living hell. He’s happy and carefree. He must be in the gateway to heaven.

Paul teaches us a middle way, one that will keep our theological vehicles driving securely on the road and away from either ditch. In Romans 7 Paul describes the death-struggle between his flesh and his spirit. His inner-man, his heart of hearts, wants to follow the way of God. His flesh, his body, is trained to serve Sin. He poignantly asks,

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (7:24; ESV)

Paul is asking a real, not a hypothetical, question. He answers, “Thanks to be God though Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25; ESV). Now we might expect Paul to drift off into a discussion of pearly gates and golden-bricked roads, where there is no longer any pain or suffering. or temptation to sin. Yet, he goes in a radically different direction. In 8:1 he mixes no words: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” He picks up this discussion of the struggle between flesh and Spirit, making the audacious claim, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (8:8; ESV). This was to have been expected given the discussion of chapter 7. Yet the promise of “no condemnation” makes this sound odd here. The next verse is the balance: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you” (8:9; ESV).

Is Paul really suggesting that it might be possible to live free of servitude to that old flesh? Listen to his stark promise in 8:11:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (ESV).

The promise is this, if we belong to Jesus and the Holy Spirit lives in us, this same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will “give life your mortal bodies….” Paul boldly claims that it is possible to be delivered in the here and now from our bodies of death, through the Spirit of Life transforming even our physical bodies. Real, not hypothetical, victory over Sin is possible. This victory will not come about by dolling up the external. Nor will this victory come about by false humility. This victory will certainly not come about by ignoring the necessary struggle.

This victory will come about over time as we continually make the choices to fellowship and know God, live in his word, and love his people and his potential people. As we choose daily … hourly even … to travel the Way of Jesus, transformation will be wrought in our souls … and bodies … by the Spirit of God. As the inner is transformed, the outer will eventually follow. Rarely does the inner follow the outer.

The good news for us is that we don’t have to be animals.

Character and Emotional Intelligence in “Appaloosa”

As dust blows up and down the streets of Appaloosa, so also do feelings rage in the hearts of the characters. The problem is that “feelings will get you killed.” At least that’s what Virgil Cole lectures to his trusted friend and side kick, Everett Hitch, in the recent movie, “Appaloosa.” The movie is a western, taking place close to the turn of the end of the 19th Century in New Mexico territory. Tough times call for tough men, and that means you’re supposed to stuff your feelings.

The town has been taken over … so-to-speak … by the mobster-like rancher, Randall Bragg. Cole and Hitch come into town and are hired to put things back into order, as “The Law.” This is not much of a problem … until Allison French finds her way into town. She successfully attracts Cole, the stalwart mountain of a marshall, into falling for her, which means that a lonely and vulnerable … and unemployed … female has finacial and emotional security. 

She has security until she realizes that Cole could be killed and/or there are other … seemingly bigger … fish to fry … to fill her emotional appetite for the lead stallion in the available herd. In one rather humorous scene, Cole … a man’s man … comes down to find his best friend and confidant, Hitch. Cole is in a bind, as he is forced to help pick the color of the curtains of his and Allie’s new home.

He sends Hitch back down to the house to say hello to Allie and inform her that Cole is not up to this arduous task. She quickly puts the moves on Hitch, who pushes her away. Hitch tells this groping damsel in horney distress, “Allie, you’re with Virgil, and so am I.”

Despite this undercurrent of “As the Appaloosa World Turns,” Cole and Hitch get their break, when one of the Bragg boys defects and agrees to testify against Bragg in a possible capital murder trial. They bring Bragg into custody. Two weeks and some emotionally-trying moments later, Bragg is put on trial and found guilty. Bragg is ordered to be taken by train to his execution site.

During a delay in the train ride, several of Bragg’s mercenaries parade Allie out as their ransom for Bragg’s release. Cole has to make a choice … and goes with his feelings. He releases Bragg for Allie; only to find that they have been duped. The mercenary team did not keep their word … suprise, surprise. Cole and Hitch track the crew until they run up on them … with Allie and Bragg frollicking in the nude in a stream.

Later on after Cole and Hitch get shot-up (not mortally wounded) for sticking to the line of duty in chasing down Bragg and attempting to bring him to justice … Bragg gets a presidential pardon. He moves into Appaloosa and buys the hotel where Allie is employed to play the piano. Allie and Cole have reconciled, though Hitch has tried to explain that Allie is lonely for men in authority. Even still Cole is accepting of Allie where she’s at, and attempts to work with her.

Cole refuses to enter the building now owned by Bragg. Bragg, attempting to smooth things over with ”The Law” explains to Hitch that he is now a “reformed” man … and that if Cole did not come around to working him (Bragg), he might find himself out of a job … hint, hint. Over the next few scenes there is the not-so-subtle hint that Bragg and Allie still have something going on, which Hitch of course notices.

Hitch, who is normally able to navigate these tumultuous waters and bring about harmony with integrity, is not able to reconcile all of these potential pawns in a perfect storm in Appalousa. He attempts to talk Cole into leaving, but to no avail … because of his (blindness) devotion to Allie.

Thus Hitch takes it upon himself to resign his position as deputy and challenge Bragg to a duel, which Hitch wins handidly. He leaves town under his own voice of narration, saying that at least his friend will have no competition for Allie … for the time being.

It seems to me that the one who was most in tune to his emotional undercurrent was the most aware of what was going on around him. Hitch’s emotions … rather than getting him or his people killed … kept them all alive and out of quicksand. He was at least being aware of his emotional undercurrent and successfully navigated it. On the other hand, Cole’s inability to deal with his emotions or navigate them, got him into trouble … and would get him into trouble in the future. He was blinded.

I think this movie has something very powerfully to say to us men, especially us Christian men. I’m not suggesting that we turn ourselves into women. However, I am suggesting rather emphatically that we need to develop good emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize what is going on in our hearts and channel it for good. The fear in men (largely because of the brain’s wiring) is tapping the realm of the fealings will make us vulnerable … or at least make us look sissified. The movie’s message is in line with Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence, that not learning how to channel the currents of our hearts, by default, makes us vulnerable … vulnerable to being swept away by our emotions. The inability to recognize them means they will clip us from behind, and the inability to channel or discipline them means they will get us fired … or killed.

No, there is no substitue for character development … and for Christians godly character development. Both Cole and Hitch had good character. Can anyone name the last Hollywood movie that glorified loyal friendship … loyal to the point of turning down an easy sexual score, as Hitch had done out of loyalty to Cole? However, the movie’s contention, which I agree with, is that even the best of character in men can be derailed by the freight train of emotional un-intelligence. Stuffing the emotions instead of taming them will cause your heart to be swallowed up, much like an appaloosa catfish swallows everything in its path.

Sight Sharper than an Eagle’s

Seeing is believing … at least in our secular progressive culture … but sometimes believing leads to seeing. This is certainly the case of Rachel Holloman and Jerry Shaw in the recent production, “Eagle Eye.” The “normal” life is swooped from these two strangers from out of nowhere, as they are thrust into a post-911 spy thriller. An all-seeing female automated voice, ”Aria,” guides/conjoles these two unwitting pawns into her master plot of completely overthrowing the US government. However, only an “eagle eye” movie critic can spot Aria’s goal from afar. It is not revealed to the general audience until about ¾ the way through.

In a man-and-machine world we must not underestimate the “Human Factor”.

It tries to assume the prophetic mantle, warning us … potential prey … against technology. In this case technology grew smarter than her inventors and sustainers and almost took over. A parallel point the movie attempted to make was that technology in the hands of a militaristic regime (aka the Bush administration) will in the end consume us all as prey.

We certainly need to remember that human sin nature clouds anything we might wish to accomplish in this world for good. This smarter the process of accomplishment for good becomes an equally intelligent capability for evil.

However, if applied to the Bush administration of wire tapping, which Clinton also engaged in, I think the analogy is stretched and troubling at best … distorted and destructive at worst. A plot was foiled in Florida recently that in planning an assassination attempt on Obama. Is the left going to be consistent in ridiculing the technology that preserved the life of their messiah? Whether we like President Bush or not, we must give his administration credit for preventing further attacks on US soil … and rendering Iraq “a lost cause” for Al Qaeda.

On the other side of the coin humanity is equipped with a capacity for faith. Jerry Shaw is overshadowed by his over-achieving, super-intelligent, never-scoring-less-than-perfect twin brother. Jerry’s life achievements have … well … gone in less productive directions. He is a great backroom poker player. Rachel is in a rather nasty parenting relationship with her ex-husband. She despises men.

Aria is a dangerously near-self-sufficient super computer, utilized by the military for the War on Terror. She has gained control over every piece of technology in the world. Along this wild ride she is even able to read the human soul through extensive study of material relating their lives On-line. Yet, she underestimates Jerry and Rachel. She assumes Jerry will always remain a slacker. Yet, Jerry “mans-up” by becoming a welcomed, shepherding presence for Rachel and going the extra mile to potentially sacrifice his own life to preserve the massive assassination plot on the government. Aria has assumed that Rachel would have no problem “eliminating” Jerry when the time was right … due to Rachel’s deep hurt. Rachel cannot due to the respect she has for human life in general and the new-found respect she has developed for Jerry. For Rachel respect is synonymous with loyalty.

In secular-progressive culture faith is venerated … so long as it’s a faith in oneself … to face the world alone. Yet, we as believers know that the heart is desprately sick. Who can have faith in a doctor that is always sick. Our faith can be in the One who can not only redeem our sickness, but transform us into his holy-righteousness. Yes, this redemption and transformation process not only fits us for heaven. Yet, it also redeems and transforms our capacity to wisely love by bringing us into saving-fellowship with our one God who is eternally Three Persons who perfectly love one another.

Eagle Eye is a wild ride, but true faith … believing to see … can be wilder and create sight sharper than an eagle’s.

Coming of Age Can Come at Any Age

Just a few days ago my wife and I saw the recently released film, “Nim’s Island.” Trust me … do yourself a favor and see this at least once … if not twice.

A research scientist, Jack, lives with his 11-ish year old daughter, Nim, on a volcanic island in the middle of the South Pacific … away from the public … completely away … well almost. They receive shipments occasionally and communicate with the scientific community and National Geographic via satalight. Early in the movie Jack launches out into a two day expedition, leaving Nim alone … with her animal friends … and adventure novel featuring legendary hero, Alex Rover. Think Jason Bourne with Indiana Jones’s personality and swave. Well, maybe not Jason Bourne … as the kicker with Alex Rover is his famous escapes from impossible predicaments. On the other side of the world Alex Rover … the real Alex Rover … Alexandra Rover is attempting to complete yet another novel in her long-running series.

While Jack is out at sea doing research a surprise monsoon hits, keeping him stranded with no communication back to Nim. Nim is left to fend for herself and her animals … and her island. With Alex Rover as her archetype (the picture in her mind she’s striving make reality for her life) she faces brave challenges with swash-buckling courage.

Meanwhile a monsoon hits of another variety. Alexandra Rover is past her deadline for turning in yet another novel … and she is marooned on the island of writer’s block. If she could only get out for a while, perhaps she could scavenge up some fresh ideas. However, Alexandra … the mind behind Alex Rover … suffers from some variety of agoraphobia and possibly obsessive-compulsive disorder. In other words due to the workings of her brain, mind, and heart, she is physically paralyzed by fear to leave her apartment. She fears germs. She fears any food but Progresso Soup. Some kind of “progress” huh?

At any rate Alexandra and Nim make contact. Alexandra, believing Nim to be in trouble gets brave and decides to go to her. Meanwhile, Nim, believing her island is under attack by modern-day pirates, decides to live the Alex Rover life and fend her island off from the “invaders” (who are really tourists from Australia on a Pirate-themed cruise. So while Nim is leading the swash-buckling life created by Alexandra … Alexandra herself takes on swash-buckling courage just to turn the door knob of her front door.

One of the high points of the movie for me … and there are many … was seeing Nim and Alexandra (who does eventually make it, by the way) meet. Alexandra just about reaches the island, when her stolen row boat acquires a huge gash from some rocks. Nim, thinking Alexandra to be her still-missing father, swims out to save her from drowning. Once on the beach Alexandra informs Nim that she is the real Alex Rover.

Nim … looking paternalistically and quite disappointingly at the frail and pathetic Alexandra … is simply in disbelief. “No, Alex saves people. He doesn’t need saving.”

Yet over time Nim opens up her mind and heart to this wafe, who opened up her mind and heart to the wide world to come to her so that Nim would not be alone. Both females came of age, despite their age … and backgrounds.

What a lesson for us in the church … in particular those of us in dying, gray-haired, traditional churches. Jesus wants very badly for us to take him at his word and live a dangerous Christianity. There is still time, despite our ages and backgrounds, to come of age.

There are many other parallels and metaphors that could be discussed, which makes this movie so much richer in content, meaning, value, and values than what is normally put out by Hollywood. I’ll be meditating on this movie for some time to come. Please, do yourself a favor and see this movie at least once … if not twice … if not thrice.

Finding the Contaminated World “out there” Inside the Sacred “Here”

The first lesson we learn as we come into this world is that there is a world beyond our spheres of comfort. Unfortunately, we in the Church either have yet to learn this lesson … or we have forgotten it … or we simply have excommunicated it to the “no-man’s-land” of the barbarian wilderness.

Ironically this seems to be the main message of the recently released film “Doomsday.” An efficiently deadly virus “the Reaper Virus” has infected parts of Scotland. The government of the United Kingdom makes the decision to quarantine Scotland by building a wall that follows the old Roman wall, built by Emperor Hadrian. The government decides to simply let the people wallow and die inside the wall. The wall is efficient at keeping the people in … but not in keeping the virus at bay. It resurfaces some 30 years later in London. The government begins to take a similar route in dealing with London … keep the contagion (ie. virus, people, etc) inside the quarantined area, seal it off, let the people rot and die.

Satellite imagery shows vehicle activity in Glasgow, and the government decides to send in a specialized team to find a long-forgotten scientist who was supposedly working on a cure inside the walled area. However, the photos are three years old, and only now are being acted upon.

The team is sent in and are overcome by the barbarian inhabitants living in the forgotten area. They are lawless, cannibals. Indeed one of the last recordings of the scientist is his grieving over the loss of personal and social morality of the survivors being absolute. Some of the team escapes from the cannibal clutches with the daughter of the scientist. She was also being held by the Cannibals … evidently as some sort of ransom in dealing with her father … who we eventually find out as taken the role of a medieval despot (king with absolute authority).

They flee to northern Scotland and encounter the long lost scientist … and his fiefdom. His society is exactly that of a medieval kingdom … castle, robes, knights, toothless women and all. The team is taken prisoner and interrogated by the scientist-turned-historic-Dracula-type. He has no cure. He quit trying to find one. He and many others fled to the north. He had convinced them that life did not exist outside the walls. Indeed he had grown to such an agoraphobia that life did not exist outside the walls of his castle. He very poignantly says, “We have survived through evolution. We have earned the right to keep to ourselves, isolated from corruption.”

The team manages to valiantly escape the Scottish Dracula’s Castle with the scientists daughter. They radio back to headquarters in London that they are ready to be picked up. After evading the cannibals one more time they are rescued by helicopter … except the leader of the team (she remains in the walled-country). She records a conversation with the English head honcho who came to rescue them. He confesses his plan to let the Londoners rot and only later present the cure to the world … as if he developed it. The recording manages to find its way to the media outlets all over the world … and his career … possibly his very life … is roasted.

While this movie was quite hard to watch, it carries a certain veracity in juxtapositioning three “societies” (contemporary civilization, utter barbarism, and medieval draconian serfdom). The common thread running through is human greed and selfishness … what the Scriptures teach is good-ole human sin nature. Despite our technological sophistication, we are all not that far removed from utter barbarism.

I am Wesleyan through and through to the core. Wesleyan Christianity teaches that the process of Salvation is victory over sin and transformation into the righteousness of God and thus increasingly greater fellowship with the Community of the Godhead (Father, Son, & Spirit) and increasingly greater fellowship with the community of the saints. I believe this with all my heart. This is what wakes me up in the morning and sends me to bed in the evening … to get rested for another day of practicing this type of Christianity. However, many of my Wesleyan friends have too greatly underestimated that stubborn sin nature that persistently haunts all people … Christian and non-Christian alike. Certainly it is true that we are to walk with increasing victory over sin and self and Satan in our lives. Yet, we have to remember we are not all at the same level of holiness, nor are we even all Christians. Human sin nature has to be taken seriously in our ministry … to one another as believers and to the world outside the walls of our church.

However, we must never forget that we are saved by God’s grace and Jesus’s blood and the Holy Spirit’s transformation of us. We must be humble, treading very lightly on distinguishing ourselves from those in the world. We are called to be a separate people … but only in how we live our lives, not necessarily where we live our lives. Our primary duty as Christian believers is to love God and love our neighbors (which means walking among our neighbors). Jesus defined our neighbor as anyone in need. “Anyone” includes those inside our walls of comfort and those behind the walls of contamination. If we are not careful to practice a “Great Commandments” Christianity, we may find the contaminated world “out there” is actually inside the sacred “here.”

Integrity: A Timeless Concept

Last Friday, I watched the recently released, “10,000 BC.” While this movie seemed to demand that organized religion be sacrificed on the altar of extinction, the producer-priests may not have been able to get the fire started. Self-sacrifice for the community, the very value-system of the movie, is the heart and soul of the community ethos in Christianity.

One scene in particular comes to mind. Dei-lay (sp?) is a young boy competing in his village for the lead hunter position as well as for the right to marry his secrete sweet heart. The group of boys coxes a group of mammoths to charge. The boy who is successful in bringing down the chosen mammoth will be the winner. A mishap occurs, and the netting used to trap the beast gives way. Several boys, including Dei-lay, jump on the net hoping to find a way to kill the mammoth. Shortly all boys jump off, but Dei-lay gets stuck. Eventually the beast is stopped by the edge of a canyon, and throws the remaining netting off. Dei-lay attempts to spear him, but is unsuccessful. The mammoth charges him in between some rocks, but is stopped due to a large spear stuck in the ground (left stuck in the netting). The other boys come running and congratulate Dei-lay for his successful kill, crowning him the winner of the coveted position and woman. However, his conscience bothers him, and a short while later he relinquishes his position and woman. He explains that he did not truly win the contest, so he cannot truly claim the coveted position nor the woman (though he loved her more than life itself … she loved him as well).

“It is not the way of the Egal to claim the White Spear with a lie.”

Later in the movie he gets the opportunity to demonstrate his love for her with the solid integrity that is the character of his people. Social and personal integrity … what a novel concept for Christianity and Christian leaders.

Since organized religion was successfully presented in a very oppressive light … and nature/tribal spirituality was presented with great fragrance, there is the possibility that many people in our culture will be further discouraged from fully embracing the Old Time Religion of their grandparents. We have this rather unpleasant issue with our skeptical youth today.

The challenge for us who truly love the Church (holy warts and all) is not to completely shrug off our teenagers’ complaints. They are actually drowning in our hyper-individualistic culture and are seeking a liferaft of personal and social integrity in others, especially adults.

Mystery Alien in Theopolis

Today … well, yesterday (I’m writing this at 1:00 am), I went to see the recently released movie, “Cloverfield.” For a more complete review of the movie follow this link: http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0003601.cfm.

The movie is an emotional and visual roller coaster. From start to finish it takes the form of a home movie shot under the breath of Godzilla’s cousins. The “video tape” is supposedly recovered from “what is formally known as Central Park.” After an hour of hollaring (silently of course) “no you idiot, don’t go in there!!!” the “secret video tape” ends rather abruptly when the those doing the filming are bombed, while hiding under a bridge. They don’t escape … at least you don’t think they do. You don’t know what exactly happened to New York City afterwards. You don’t know where Godzilla’s kinfolk came from. There’s so much mystery that is breathing fire over you.

Needless to say, I left the movie feeling like I had hungrily bought a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream only to arrive home and find that it had melted and poured all over the back seat. What a waste.

But as I thought about the movie, I came to realize how brilliant the creators were; for all I could think about was the movie. Even now I still have the feel of running helplessly through the streets trying to keep the main characters from entering stupid alleys. Even now I still feel the weight of sadness at the “loss” of their lives. Even now I am wondering what exactly happened in Manhattan. Did the US military finally kill that thing?

Mystery is so wonderous. It’s painful … not knowing all the details. Yet mystery is what holds all the known and unknown details together. Mystery is frequently known by its alias: “Beauty.”

In this series of posts that is considering the relationship between faith and politics, I believe we can lose an appropriate appreciation for how messy real life can be. Yet it is in this every-day-ness of life that God became man and redeemed his people. This every-day-ness is full of depravity … is messy … is where the dots are not all connected. Yet it is in this every-day-ness which he builds his people together as his temple. How?????

I don’t know. How do I live as a believer in the midst of a depraved society? How do I live with other believers in the midst of a depraved society? How do we make disciples out of reprobates? How do we fight for good and against evil with good and evil people? I don’t know.

Appreciating mystery is certainly alien to many in our culture. Yes, I know that it is not right to use mystery as an incubator for spiritual and intellectual laziness. But it need not be feared like an alien on the loose in Manhatten. Nuking mystery actually incinerates our ability to worship our mysterious Triune God–Father, Son, Spirit.