Lectionary Links For Summer
This feature, appearing at the back of every issue of Visual Parables, is
beamed at the pastor looking for film material that connects with one of
the passages of the Common Lectionary. This one is from the Summer 2008
issue.
Jul 06, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 11:16-19,25-30.
In his invitation to the weary to come to him Jesus describes himself as “gentle
and humble in heart.
The image given of God in the film Bruce Almighty is one who is “gentle
and humble of heart.” Morgan Freeman portrays God, and when the skeptical
TV reeporter Bruce Nolan (played by Jim Carrey) shows up at the building
where he has been invited to meet God, it is Freeman/God clad in a janitor’s
coveralls whom he first sees while looking for the elevator. God is sweeping
up the floor. The two talk for a minute, and when Bruce starts for the elevator
God asks him if he would like to help him sweep up. Of course, the self-important
Bruce—he is a reporter on a Buffalo television station—declines.
It is only after going through a series of calamitous misadventures that
at the end of the film Bruce accepts “the yoke” and joins God
in cleaning up a floor. The “burden” is indeed easy and light,
the two enjoying each other’s company.
Jul 13, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 13:1-9,18-23. Parable of seed
and soils.
The retelling of the Parable of the Seed and Soils in Godspell is delightfully
inventive. As Jesus tells it, the disciples act it out, some of them lying
on the ground and rising up when he talks about the plants, and then when
some wither, they fall back to the ground. Watching this again might give
you some ideas for presenting the parable to children.
Jul 20, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 13:24-30,36-43. Parable of wheat
and weeds.
In the movie Friendly Persuasion, set in southern Indiana in 1862 when a
Confederate force was threatening the area, a leader in the local Quaker
church was like the servants who would tear out the weeds. His target (or
weed) was the character played by Gary Cooper, Jesse Birdwell. Quaker practice
was to refuse to fight, a position loudly proclaimed by the deacon (or whatever
he was), but Jesse admitted that he was not so certain that he could remain
non-violent if his family and home were threatened. The leader would gladly
have cast out such a member who would not unequivocally affirm the official
policy of the church.
Modern believers have trouble with this passage because they have seen the
policy of casting out an offender abused so often by rigidly dogmatic church
leaders. Such is the case with the elders in the film Breaking the Waves,
who cannot comprehend the love between simple-minded Bess McNeil and her
husband Jan. The latter is an outsider in the northern Scottish community
in which the church is the center of activities, so their marriage was not
welcomed by the church members. Bess possesses a deep faith that leads her
to thank God for the man who loves both her body and her soul. When Jan becomes
paralyzed as the result of an oil rig accident, he begs his young wife to
have sex with another man and then share the experience with him. Bess is
repelled by the idea at first, but when she sees that this will keep alive
her husband’s spirit, she reluctantly does so, but with disastrous
results, part of which is her condemnation and expulsion from the church—boys
even throw rocks at her when she walks by. The bizarre miracle at the end
of the film challenges us to enlarge our compassion to match that of Jesus,
who understood the workings of the human heart and spirit of those whom others
would condemn as hopeless sinners.
Jul 27, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 13:31-33,44-52. Parable of mustard
seed.
In the film Gandhi the fearless Mahatma (“Great Soul”) started
out as insignificant as the mustard seed in the parable. What the film does
not tell us is that in his native India, after returning from England with
his law credentials, Gandhi failed at the practice. He was so shy that he
had trouble acquiring clients, and when others referred one to him, Gandhi
could not summon up the nerve or energy to speak in court, His older brother
who had been supporting him since the death of their father several years
earlier was exasperated with him. Thus when Gandhi received the offer from
a Muslim businessman to come to South Africa to file a legal claim against
a business associate who had cheated him, he readily accepted it. Arriving
by sea, he had to take a long train ride to reach his employer, and it was
on that train that the event that was to change his life, and that of the
world’s, took place. Gandhi had purchased a first class ticket, but
when a white man came to ride in the compartment, he objected to the conductor
the presence of a “colored” man. Gandhi protested, but when he
refused to move to a third class car, he and his baggage was ejected from
the train at small station in the middle of nowhere. He spent the night shivering
without his coat because he did not want to undergo possible further humiliation
from asking the agent for his luggage. When he finally met his employer,
as the movie shows, he learned that his mistreatment was the ordinary experience
of non-Europeans. Astonished that his new friends all accepted such injustice,
Gandhi determined to change things, organizing the Indians of the country
with rallies and writing articles and pamphlets. In the face of injustice
this man who had been too shy to speak in court blossomed into the man who
fearlessly addressed large throngs and stood up to the brutality of the police
when he led public demonstrations.
Aug 3, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Gen. 32:22-31. Ps. 17:1-7,15. Rom.
9:1-5. Matt. 14:13-21. Jesus feeds 5000.
There is a parallel to multiplying the loaves in the wonderful Danish/French
film Babette’s Feast. Babette, a celebrated Parisian chef in the mid-19th
century, is forced to flee the country when her husband is arrested and executed
during the turmoil of revolution. She finds refuge on the bleak coast of
Jutland with two elderly sisters who head the remnant of a religious sect
founded by their deceased father. The few remaining members are also elderly,
many of them depending on the sisters to deliver them meals each day. Not
knowing Babette’s background, the sisters take her on as a servant
and teach her how to prepare the insipid fish ale stew and bread which they
take around each day. Babette takes over both the preparation of the meals
and the buying the ingredients. The parishioners notice an immediate change,
her food being so far more savory that the recipients thank God for sending
them Babette. The sisters also note a big difference—they now have
more food, and more money. One remarks that it is a miracle. The “miracle” is
brought about because Babette is a far shrewder barterer than the naive sisters,
able to talk the sellers into more and better fish and vegetables.
Aug 10, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 14:22-33. The fearful disciples
and Jesus in the storm-tossed boat.
In the film Dead Man Walking Catholic nun Sr. Prejean serves as the spiritual
adviser of convicted rapist/killer Matthew Poncelet. After a protracted struggle
to get him to own up to his guilt and set things straight with God, Matthew
finally does so on the night of his execution. All his old bravado has disappeared,
and now he expresses his fear of his impending death. Sr. Prejean tells him
to look directly at her face when he is strapped down to the gurney and injected
with the lethal injection. She can no longer take his hand, but she wants
him to see her face, the last face he will see being that of one who loves
him. Thus she stands in for the Christ who banished the fear of the disciples
in the wind-tossed boat.
Just as fear is frequently a topic in the Scriptures, it is also often dealt
with in films and songs. In Anna and the King Anna Leonowens and her son
Louis are on a ship about to dock in Siam where Anna will become the teacher
of the children of the King of Siam. The two talk about fear of the unknown
that lies before them, and Anna offers some homey advice for dealing with
it. In the older musical version Anna and the King of Siam, Anna breaks into
the song “Whistle a Happy Tune,” which teaches that by pretending
not to be afraid while whistling, one will overcome the fear. Not so helpful
advice if one is so overcome with fear that she cannot pucker up her lips
or remember a tune, as the disciples must have been on Lake Galilee. A song
from the musical Carousel also seeks to overcome fear. “You’ll
Never Walk Alone” tells us that “when you walk through a storm” one
is to hold his head high. Fear of the night is to be replaced by assurance
that a golden sky and a singing lark lies ahead. There is no mention in this
secular carol of one who calls out to us and takes us by the hand, just the
belief that better days are ahead.
Aug 17, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 15:10-28. Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician
woman.
In the eyes of Jesus’ compatriots the Syro-Phoenician woman, not being
a Jew, was one of the disposable people, akin to sinners and tax collectors.
The film Rabbit Proof Fence is about two girls who are part of what the Australian
government in the last century regarded as disposable people, the Aborigines.
The official policy of the government at that time was to round up the Aborigines
children when they reached school age and transport them to a boarding school
where they would be trained for menial work. There was even a plan, shown
in the film, to eradicate the race by proper breeding. The story is about
two sisters who are kidnapped from their parents and transported to the school
hundreds of miles away. However, they run away and slowly, using a fence
that had been strung across the country to keep out rabbits, work their way
back to their family. Like the mother in the New Testament story, they have
an innate sense of their dignity and worth, despite what others think of
them.
Aug 24, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Exod. 1:8~2:10,
Hebrew midwives’ passive
resistance to Pharaoh’s orders. Matt. 16:13-20.
Rosa Parks was tired and sitting on a segregated Montgomery bus when she,
like Shiphrah and Puah, said “No” to oppression. The Jim Crow
bus system, designed to humiliate “Negroes,” required black patrons
to buy their ticket from the driver, then exit and go to the side door where
they would enter into the “Colored” section. However, inside
the line dividing the races was movable. When the “Whites” section
filled up, blacks sitting in the front of the “Colored” seats
had to get up if a white passenger wanted the seat. This Mrs. Parks refused
to do. She sat still while the angry bus driver called the police. She refused
their orders, submitting to arrest, fingerprinting, and incarceration, rather
that to go along with an immoral law. Contrary to popular belief, she was
no simple seamstress, but a college graduate who served as secretary to the
local NAACP. Thus she realized what would be the consequence for her of her
act of resistance, but was unaware of the far-reaching outcome it would produce.
Because she said “No,” Martin Luther King, Jr. and his “Yes” to
Gandhi’s non-violent resistance spread from the small Alabama city
throughout the land, transforming racist America. (For dramatizations of
Rosa park’s act see either of the excellent made for TV films King
or Boycott.)
Aug 31, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 16:21-28. Jesus says to take
up the cross. The cross assumes many forms when a person stands against the
world.
The cross is very much a part of the scene in the setting of Man Dancin,’ the
mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland. Jimmy Kerrigan has just returned home
from prison where he has served time for a minor crime some years before.
not finding his brother terry or his mother at home, he sets forth to look
for them. he comes upon Terry at the moment when a gang of pursuers are about
to beat because he has failed to pay for some drugs. Jimmy offers to take
the beating instead, and the goons accept. Everyone expects Jimmy to return
to the gang, especially the local crime boss, who favors Jimmy, and a local
detective who has been bought by the criminal leader. Jimmy refuses because
of a spiritual experience in prison. When the local priest, who works with
the parole board, becomes his supervisor and assigns him to take part in
an anger management group, the two become close. To get out of the anger
management group Jimmy agrees to be in the church’s Passion Play the
priest is directing. He shocks the long-time thespians by choosing Jimmy
to take the role of Christ. When Jimmy criticizes the awfully sweet and light
text of the play, the other actors become upset by Jimmy’s suggestion
that Christ was a fiery prophet condemning hypocrisy. They threaten to walk
out if Jimmy is not replaced, but the priest sides with Jimmy—who has
also invited several prostitutes to take roles in the play, and to walk away
from their profession. The criminal boss and corrupt police officer meanwhile
plot to bring about Jimmy’s downfall, at first with humorous results,
but eventually ending in a modern form of the Crucifixion. Very much deserving
of its R-rating, it is nonetheless an excellent retelling of the Passion
story, perhaps on a par with Jesus of Montreal.
Sep 7, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 18:15-20. Jesus lays instructs
the church in disciplining wrong doers.
Breaking the Waves, described in the text for Jul 20, Matt. 13:24-30,36-43,
would work here, too, as a negative example of church discipline.
Sep 14, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 18:21-35. Peter asks Jesus how
many times he should forgive one who injures him.
The Power of Forgiveness is filled with examples of the incredible results
of people forgiving those who wronged them. See the review earlier in this
issue.
Sep 21, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 20:1-16. Parables of laborers
in vineyard.
Jesus’ concept of grace is so radical that it offends all conventional
minds, as can be seen in John Sayles excellent film Matewan, set in the mountains
of 1920s West Virginia where the miners have gone on strike against the unjust
practices of the mine owners. Teenage Danny Radnor works in the mines to
help his widowed mother, who manages a boarding house. Danny preaches in
local churches, mostly in “soft shell” Baptist churches, his
pro-union views not being acceptable in more conservative churches. One night
he is preaches just after the resident pastor (played by the director) denounces
unions as creations of the Devil. Danny starts out by reading this Sunday’s
lesson from Matthew, and then explaining that the writer in those days did
not understand labor conditions and what was fair. What they needed then
was a union, he asserts, so that the workers could obtain what was fair.
he can see out of the corner of his eye that the pastor is upset by this,
and so when the minister rises from his chair, Danny hastily ends the sermon
with a “Praise Jesus” before the man objects. Danny is too concerned
with the injustice of the mine owners that he cannot see what the parable
is really about, grace so radical that even the mine owners and their hired
thugs are within its scope.
Sep 28, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matt. 21:23-32.
Jesus’ authority
called into question.
Luther was challenged, as we see in the various films made about him (See
the two feature films Luther or Martin Luther concerning his authority to
call into question the practices of the church. Who was he, his adversaries
charged, to challenge the authority of the Pope and the tradition of a thousand
years that sanctioned the use of indulgences?