The other day some one said with no small amount of surprise in his voice, "Joel, you are just a regular guy. You are like everyone else." The surprise in his voice stemmed from the fact that I am a pastor, yet apparently I don't act much like one. Guiltily, I flashed-back to my first year of seminary and my first course on Pastoral Care. In one of these classes my professor went around the room and made us each say aloud our name and soon to be earned pastoral title. When it was my turn I proclaimed, "I am Reverend Joel Renkema." It was an awkward moment for me, for all of us, which of course was the point of the exercise. Our professor wanted us to learn to embrace our new pastoral identity, even though it seemed awkward. Only in embracing our pastoral identity could we ever become effective pastors. It reminds me a little of when I first was married. I couldn't stop fidgeting with my wedding ring. I had to suppress a giggle every time I looked at Alison and realized that she was my WIFE and I was now a HUSBAND. Weird. Awkward. Yet I could only hope to be a good husband if and when I fully embraced this identity. I wonder what my pastoral care professor would say to me if he heard that people see me just like some regular guy who is like everyone else. He might shake his head with disappointment that I did not act more pastoral, whatever that looks like. But then again, does embracing an identity really mean that we must change who we are? When I married Alison and became a husband I did not stop being me. In fact I think marriage has made me a better me. I wonder about the ultimate identity we can carry: Christian. The title Christian means different things to different people these days. Even so, we who are Christians, how quick are we to own our identity? It is easy to say, "Jesus Loves Me." But say out loud, "I love Jesus." It is amazing to me, when I think about it, that I can go a week or even a day without saying this out loud. After all it defines who I am as a Christian. It defines who I am period. But how well do I embrace it?
I wonder if why more people don't look at me and other Christians say, "I want to be like that!" is because we don't embrace our identity as fully as we could. I wonder if it is because we treat our faith like a product that we are trying to sell. I think to outsiders Christianity often seems like something we use or something we do. The truth of the matter, however, is that Christianity is who we are. Our faith, our love of Jesus is not a product. It is a relationship. It is an identity. Our world is filled with things to buy. Materials abound for the consumer to attain. Ask any businessperson and they will tell you that it is a competitive, dog eat dog, cutthroat world out there. It is no wonder then that when we turn our faith into another product to sell and begin looking for a consumer demographic that we are going to struggle. There is enough competition out there without Christianity joining the mix of self-help fixes or purchases that bring happiness. But we also live a the most insulated and lonely culture in the history of humanity. Our technology (twitter, email, drive-through pharmacies, etc) makes actual human interaction less important. We live days and miles away from our nearest family. Our world is packed full of lonely people who bump past each other, desperate for relationships. And what identifies us Christians above all else is THE relationship. Perhaps this is our niche.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Gran Torino And Knowing
It has been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog. First a vacation, then business and finally a lack of inspiration have lead to this failing of mine. But, as Ann Lamott, or perhaps it was Stepen King, I can't remember which, stated in a book on writing, you gotta write through the proverbial block or lack of inspiration. So, in an effort to do so I'm turning to a mainstay of mine. Movies. I love movies. I love them because they are stories that I often relate too or because they make me think about an issue. That said, I am in no way a good movie critic. Bad acting, poor directing, abismal scripts and horrendous special effects are not usually things that I notice if I can get into the plot. As a result, some movies I like many others more knowledgeable than myself will abhor.
Recently I have seen two movies that I wish to write about. One I liked very much. The other haunted me. The movie that I absolutely loved was Gran Torino. I would write a bit about it but Blake Heimstra, a much better writer than myself, already has some appropriate thoughts on the movie that I will "paste" here.
The movie, Gran Torino, (in case you haven’t had a chance to see it) featured Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who loses his wife and faces life as a widower living in a neighborhood that is becoming increasingly more ethnic. He’s a cantankerous, crotchety, curmudgeonous old man, proverbially giving the finger to everyone that he comes in contact with, be it the father from his church, his sons or any of the rest of his family. He’s “content” to live out the rest of his days in solitary existence until the Hmong boy next door gets threatened by a gang. Walt knows what’s right and comes to defend the boy, saving him from getting forcibly enmeshed into the gang and even later forgives the boy when he tries to steal Walt’s prized Gran Torino. Thus starts a friendship between Walt and Thao and between Walt and the boy’s family.
What struck us as powerful about the movie was the message about living with purpose. Walt is a bitter, lonely man . . . until he learns to not go through life nursing and feeding his own wounds, but rather living for others. Walt teaches Thao how to work and how to be a man and cares for him as his own son. Walt learns that life isn’t worth living unless it’s lived for something more than himself. This gradual shift from lonely, embittered war veteran to surrogate father moves Walt to become the family’s protector to (Warning: plot spoiler) ultimately giving his own life so that the family’s life can endure in peace, infringed not by gangs or violence.
Watching the movie reminded me why I love the Christian mind and the idea of being in the world but not of it. This is the type of movie that Roy Anker would love to discuss in a film class at Calvin. It’s far, far, far from being considered a Christian movie. Eastwood’s use of the English language tends much closer to the sailor end of the spectrum rather than the saint, though some of the cussing is remarkably creative. It is, however, filled with a theme that’s been infused in the greatest stories the world has known in the last 1000 years: sacrifice. Just as the Author of the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen showed us, life is about sacrificing for others. Through the sacrifice of one, others live. It’s the greatest story ever told, and the gospel just seems to reverberate when watching a story life this, when the raw power and emotion of true sacrifice pulses through a film and gives it life.
The other movie I saw that haunted me was "Knowing." This movie (spoiler alert) is about an MIT astrophysicist who happens upon a code written 50 years earlier by a young girl. Upon breaking the code he realizes that it reveals the date, location and death toll of every major disaster over the past 50 years. However, 3 series of numbers, 3 disasters have not yet occurred. The astrophysicist played by Nicholas Cage, desperately tries to find ways to stop these things from happening. He fails in the first two cases. The third case turns out to be the end of the world. Cage figures it out and hopelessly screams out "What is the point of my knowing the end is coming and not being able to stop it?" At the heart of this movie lies the question of free will verses determinism. How much of our fate is determined and how much is a free choice. The conclusion, is both. Some things, like the end of the world are determined and there is nothing one can do about it. But, how one meets this fate is free choice. This movie also uses much Christian imagery. Cage is the son of a pastor and he has turned on his faith. There are creepy white-haired men who appear often and they turn out to be alien like angels protecting the "Chosen." The chosen turn out to be people who can "hear." Of course this reminds me of Jesus' words in the bible where he says "Those who have ears, let them hear." These "Chosen" are rescued by the aliens from the earth just before it is destroyed by the fire of a solar flare. The Chosen are then deposited on a new planet, each pair carrying a pair of animals...kind of like a Noah's ark type of concept. As the final song plays and the screen dims the chosen are seen running through a field up to a massive and beautiful tree, which I can only assume is meant to be the tree of life.
As a mentioned, it is a movie laden with Christian imagery. In itself the movie is poorly acted and somewhat over the top and not very well produced. I mentioned that this movie haunted me. It haunted me because it forced me to think of the end. After the movie was done I sat on my new couch in my new house and stared at my newly painted walls and my newly installed carpet and I realized that I was living my life like it would never end. I was making plans for the future, assuming I would be around until I am a grandpa 50 years from now. I had grown comfortable with my life, with this world. The reality is that this is not our home. The reality is that life on this world is not something we should become too comfortable with. We shouldn't live like there are going to be a million tomorrows. As I thought about this Nicholas Cage's frustrated question came back to me, "What is the point of knowing the end is coming and not being able to do anything about it?" I think the point isn't that we have to stop the end from coming. The point in knowing that the end is coming is to get ready for it. To get others ready for it. We Christians know the end can happen at anytime, it will come like a thief in the night. We need to get ourselves and our community ready for that. That is point of knowing. The point is not to get too attached to these perishable things and this temporary life. The point is to point to others that there is more to life than just this life. The point is to know that the end isn't the end, but the beginning. So, thanks Nick Cage for your bad acting. It haunts me, as well as your question haunts me. I hope it never ceases to haunt me.
Recently I have seen two movies that I wish to write about. One I liked very much. The other haunted me. The movie that I absolutely loved was Gran Torino. I would write a bit about it but Blake Heimstra, a much better writer than myself, already has some appropriate thoughts on the movie that I will "paste" here.
The movie, Gran Torino, (in case you haven’t had a chance to see it) featured Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who loses his wife and faces life as a widower living in a neighborhood that is becoming increasingly more ethnic. He’s a cantankerous, crotchety, curmudgeonous old man, proverbially giving the finger to everyone that he comes in contact with, be it the father from his church, his sons or any of the rest of his family. He’s “content” to live out the rest of his days in solitary existence until the Hmong boy next door gets threatened by a gang. Walt knows what’s right and comes to defend the boy, saving him from getting forcibly enmeshed into the gang and even later forgives the boy when he tries to steal Walt’s prized Gran Torino. Thus starts a friendship between Walt and Thao and between Walt and the boy’s family.
What struck us as powerful about the movie was the message about living with purpose. Walt is a bitter, lonely man . . . until he learns to not go through life nursing and feeding his own wounds, but rather living for others. Walt teaches Thao how to work and how to be a man and cares for him as his own son. Walt learns that life isn’t worth living unless it’s lived for something more than himself. This gradual shift from lonely, embittered war veteran to surrogate father moves Walt to become the family’s protector to (Warning: plot spoiler) ultimately giving his own life so that the family’s life can endure in peace, infringed not by gangs or violence.
Watching the movie reminded me why I love the Christian mind and the idea of being in the world but not of it. This is the type of movie that Roy Anker would love to discuss in a film class at Calvin. It’s far, far, far from being considered a Christian movie. Eastwood’s use of the English language tends much closer to the sailor end of the spectrum rather than the saint, though some of the cussing is remarkably creative. It is, however, filled with a theme that’s been infused in the greatest stories the world has known in the last 1000 years: sacrifice. Just as the Author of the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen showed us, life is about sacrificing for others. Through the sacrifice of one, others live. It’s the greatest story ever told, and the gospel just seems to reverberate when watching a story life this, when the raw power and emotion of true sacrifice pulses through a film and gives it life.
The other movie I saw that haunted me was "Knowing." This movie (spoiler alert) is about an MIT astrophysicist who happens upon a code written 50 years earlier by a young girl. Upon breaking the code he realizes that it reveals the date, location and death toll of every major disaster over the past 50 years. However, 3 series of numbers, 3 disasters have not yet occurred. The astrophysicist played by Nicholas Cage, desperately tries to find ways to stop these things from happening. He fails in the first two cases. The third case turns out to be the end of the world. Cage figures it out and hopelessly screams out "What is the point of my knowing the end is coming and not being able to stop it?" At the heart of this movie lies the question of free will verses determinism. How much of our fate is determined and how much is a free choice. The conclusion, is both. Some things, like the end of the world are determined and there is nothing one can do about it. But, how one meets this fate is free choice. This movie also uses much Christian imagery. Cage is the son of a pastor and he has turned on his faith. There are creepy white-haired men who appear often and they turn out to be alien like angels protecting the "Chosen." The chosen turn out to be people who can "hear." Of course this reminds me of Jesus' words in the bible where he says "Those who have ears, let them hear." These "Chosen" are rescued by the aliens from the earth just before it is destroyed by the fire of a solar flare. The Chosen are then deposited on a new planet, each pair carrying a pair of animals...kind of like a Noah's ark type of concept. As the final song plays and the screen dims the chosen are seen running through a field up to a massive and beautiful tree, which I can only assume is meant to be the tree of life.
As a mentioned, it is a movie laden with Christian imagery. In itself the movie is poorly acted and somewhat over the top and not very well produced. I mentioned that this movie haunted me. It haunted me because it forced me to think of the end. After the movie was done I sat on my new couch in my new house and stared at my newly painted walls and my newly installed carpet and I realized that I was living my life like it would never end. I was making plans for the future, assuming I would be around until I am a grandpa 50 years from now. I had grown comfortable with my life, with this world. The reality is that this is not our home. The reality is that life on this world is not something we should become too comfortable with. We shouldn't live like there are going to be a million tomorrows. As I thought about this Nicholas Cage's frustrated question came back to me, "What is the point of knowing the end is coming and not being able to do anything about it?" I think the point isn't that we have to stop the end from coming. The point in knowing that the end is coming is to get ready for it. To get others ready for it. We Christians know the end can happen at anytime, it will come like a thief in the night. We need to get ourselves and our community ready for that. That is point of knowing. The point is not to get too attached to these perishable things and this temporary life. The point is to point to others that there is more to life than just this life. The point is to know that the end isn't the end, but the beginning. So, thanks Nick Cage for your bad acting. It haunts me, as well as your question haunts me. I hope it never ceases to haunt me.
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