A word on where we've been and where we're going in the latest sermon series, Relevant Discord: tommorrow, John and I will be discussing The Battle Within, themes from our fascination with superheroes and Spiderman 3 and next week Randy and I will be tackling the intersection of themes in music with the Story of Jesus. So feel free to offer any thoughts.
Here's the basic assumption we're working off of: the Story of God can be seen in culture and not just brought to it. So, we're trying to begin by allowing the gospel to affirm what's healthy in expressions, themes and practices of popular culture and only then move on to critque and complete those themes with the larger Story of God. Any musings on where we've been or where we're going?
By the way, there are some cool clips & study guides to Spidey 3 at http://www.sermonspice.com/search?fpage=1&q=spiderman%203
Dean
3 comments:
Number of observations, but I'll make several short ones instead of the book I usually send Dean.
Hearing the film clip in the conversation from yesterday made me think of an interesting contrast in modern society. This blogging format is designed to emphasize the desire for newness, novelty, the authority of the here and now. Yet embedded in this culture, it seems to me, is a desire to draw wisdom from something that has continuity and stamina. We seek the counsel of the dead.
Peter is seeking Aunt May's imprimatur, but she responds with what Peter's uncle would have wanted to have happen. Uncle Ben has a special authority because he stayed true to the end. Counsel from the living is dangerous because their own inability to follow it can undermine it. But what is more powerful than moral examples from those who have died well?
This shows up in our culture because it must, because we have a yearning; if we don't get it with our meal, we'll take it as a snack. Hence Spider-Man. Hence Harry Potter (Harry stops an argubably just execution in the third book, saying , "I don't think my father would have wanted [his friends] to become murderers of account of [his father's betrayer.]")
Where can the church enter the conversation? How about with the counsel of a man who died well? There's the "yes" to affirm there. The "more" is, as Dean loves to call it, the rest of the story about the man who wouldn't stay dead.
A few more thoughts on Spider-Man before I hear the conversation on music....
Full disclosure: I haven't seen the movie. I am, however, passing familiar with the Venom storyline, and I've seen some of the clips and such. The costume makes a pretty good metaphor for sin, don't you think? It's an outside influence that mimics what we've chosen to be and purports to make us even more of what we've chosen: more powerful, more confident, more independent, more worthy. Why, it even gives us the self-assurance to think that we can dictate right and wrong, that we can decree rewards and punishment based on our own wisdom and authority. Oh, but sin is insidious.
But sin, just as the Venom suit, is an imposition. It is alien to our nature. It is a parasite. Indeed, it truly is a poison: a sweet poison, to be sure, a slow-acting poison that kills over time even as the pleasures it offers diminishes. And to finally try to separate from sin is like tearing part of ourselves away from the rest of us. Even when discarded, sin can try to work its way back into our lives, even to conquer us, sometimes through other people.
Of course, where the analogy departs from reality is how Peter Parker can tear the suit away all by himself. We can't do that with sin. But while the cinematic creation of Spider-Man usually doesn't have super-powerful allies (unlike the DC world), in reality, we do.
(Now just put up a music post so I can comment on the latest conversation!)
Jason, I totally agree with the Venom as sin metaphor. In fact, Terry Smith, one of my collegues in minstry here, had an interesting insight. He noticed that Venom never attached itself in the movie to anyone until after they had already "opened themselves up to the dark side." Venom was in Parker's room for a long time before he connected to him (and only after Parker let himself go down the revenge road in his heart). Same with the photographer guy whose name I forgot--he gets the parasite after his prayer of vengence.
All that to say, it reminds me of the biblical description that the battle with sin is lost in the mind before it works itself out in our behavior. I am incredibly impressed with the imagery in the movie.
Dean
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