Stranger Than Fiction

"My soul is sorrowful, even unto death... My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet, not as I will, but as you will." Matt. 26: 38, 39

In this great film, the main character Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is upset to find out his life is actually the plot of a great book by novelist Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson). If we were in his shoes, I suppose we would feel that same disturbed feeling, too.

But throughout the course of the movie, Crick goes from annoyance to acceptance, to outright willingness to follow where his narrated life is leading him.

Are we getting a glimpse into the life of Jesus himself?

Like Harold Crick, Jesus of Nazareth knew the life and passion that awaited him, authored by an omniscient narrator he called “Abba, Father.” This film, in some respects, is the Christ story, but it is also a challenge to us to make it our story.

In his letter in the New Testament, James challenges his audience to not just be hearers of the word, but to be “doers of the word” as well (James 1:22-27). It is not enough just to look upon the life of Christ and appreciate it, but to take the mantle of Christ upon ourselves. It is not enough to reflect on the self-sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, but we must take up the cross ourselves and lay down our own lives, if necessary.

In other words, the Christian goal should be to become “Christ-like.”

It’s not easy, even for Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his death, Jesus begged his Father to “Let this cup pass from me.” (Matt. 26:39). His human side did not want to end life, but he knew the story must go on. The gospel makes it sound instantaneous, but I am sure the next line (“Yet, not as I will, but as you will.” Matt. 26:39) took more pain and agony to deliver than we hear in the gospel text.

If we truly want to be “Christ-like,” we will no doubt encounter this doubt and agony. But the story of the Christ figure is already written for us. Will we, like Christ (and like Harold Crick), accept the cross, or will we run from it? Christ made a choice, and so did Harold, and we believe God gives us a choice as well.

So the question lies with us: How will God write your story?

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

“Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” Matt. 24:42

This movie is not for everyone, but it should be.

In this crass and in-your-face comedy, fictional Kazak journalist Borat Sagdiyev (played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) travels across the United States to learn about and to experience American culture in order to help his fellow countrymen learn about their global neighbors.

However, what really happens with Borat is that we in America get a snapshot of our own country in this, the early twenty-first century, and that picture is not pretty.

This movie reveals that there are people in this country who are still rude, ignorant, bigoted, sexist, racist, homophobic, and as anti-Semitic as ever. It reveals that underneath our niceties and politically correct ways, there are Americans who would condone (and even promote) the killing of Jews, gays, and Muslims, if not others.

When I see this film, putting aside the outlandish and crude humor of the protagonist Borat, I see this as a real-life example of Christ’s warning in the Scriptures: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Matt. 24:42-44).

One of the worst bumper stickers I ever saw for Christian was one with the quote “Jesus is coming. Look busy.” It’s a horrible statement because there is this societal notion that we are modern Jonahs, trying to pretend that somehow we can escape the eye of God in our lives and only live gospel-oriented lives when someone is watching.

Many people try to avoid having to answer for their prejudices, but Borat is like the thief in the night that Jesus warns about; the public we encounter in this film do not know Cohen is coming or what he was doing, and they allowed themselves to expose their true and ugly nature.

I have heard others have been offended by Cohen’s crass actions in this movie. However, I am even more offended by the people Cohen meets in this movie. Those people, not Cohen and his camera crew, are the ones that should be ashamed.

This film serves as a reminder to all of us to heed Christ’s warnings. Where will we be when our opinions are held on the line? It is one thing to have prejudices exposed on movie screens across the country, but what will we say when Christ looks into our eye and seeks us out? For the real people in this film, Borat was like Christ’s omniscient eye; let us pray that we, too, will be prepared at all times and in all ways.

Monster House

Reacting to anger and fear with love and compassion.

While I thoroughly enjoy the holiday of trick-or-treating, I did not see this Halloween-set movie in the theatres when it opened this past summer because it was being released in an odd time of year for such a haunted movie.

So I saw Monster House this past week on DVD, and it was much more rewarding to have waited until the autumn season to experience it.

This computer animated film, about three neighborhood kids who grow suspicious about a “haunted house” across the street (they have eyewitness proof that the house has devoured kids’ toys, a pet dog, and their babysitter’s boyfriend), is, at its heart, simply a story of how we deal with anger and fear.

The kids experience a mix of that anger and fear toward the house (voiced by Kathleen Turner) and its owner, Mr. Nebbercracker (voiced by Steve Buscemi). In this swirl of emotions, the three kids resort to spying, panic, and invasion of private property.

Almost in reaction to their fears, the house itself becomes angry and ultimately eats them (yes, you read that right).

We learn that the house became “haunted” because of an unresolved anger and fear that Constance, Nebbercracker’s wife, had as she died. She was abused and laughed at in life, was killed when she fell into concrete due to that same abuse; she then carried that same resentment and anger into the afterlife, into the very fiber of her husband’s home.

This non-stop reactivity between the neighborhood kids and the haunted house has fed into a seemingly endless and vicious cycle. That is, until one day when one of the kids realizes that compassion and understanding are what is truly required for all of this to end.

In our own lives, we experience much of the same. We are tempted to return anger for more anger. Sometimes we interpret Jesus’ message to “do onto others what you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31) as “if someone doesn’t like you, you don’t have to like them either.”

What’s so bad about that, you might ask? On the global stage, this cycle has erupted into Shi’ite and Sunni infighting (or Israeli and Palestinian wars) in the Middle East, or in our country, the polarization of Democrats and Republicans in Washington D.C., especially right around national elections like we have this very year.

The cycle, whether personally or in the world, ends when hatred is greeted with compassion.

It’s not easy, though, as the film suggests. In the movie, we see that the compassion of the kids was rejected by the house; the home gets even more angry and tries to kill the kids and her husband. It would have been easy to give up the compassion route then, but the kids and Mr. Nebbercracker continued to fight fire and anger with water and love.

It eventually paid off in the end of the story, but it took serious effort and unconditional understanding. This is what forgiveness is all about, and this is the very principle that Christ died for, and continues to offer up to us: stop this vicious cycle, forgive one another, offer compassion for hatred and understanding for anger and fear, thereby leaving any vengeance to God, and we can be busy working for peace and justice.

This and only this is the true way of the Gospel.

The Departed

“…when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you.” Matt. 5:11

I won’t give anything away about The Departed, but I will say that its ending was a letdown.

Up until the final scene, this was a well-acted, well-directed movie about two double agents (Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon) who work for two leaders in the Boston community, one a police captain (Martin Sheen), another a mob boss (Jack Nicholson), whose agents go undercover in the other’s organization. It sounds confusing, but it works for a great work of cinema by one of Hollywood’s greatest directors, Martin Scorsese.

In the days following seeing this movie, as I was wrestling with its letdown ending, it occurred to me: life is not really full of happy moments that wrap up neatly in two hours.

Life has awkward, difficult, and challenging moments, and resolutions don’t come for days, weeks, even years. In the meantime, the road can be hard.

When Christ talked about the Kingdom of God, he did not talk about harp-stringing angels and cloudless sunny skies; instead, in the weeks preceding his death, he talked to those in Jerusalem about the coming persecutions and even prepared his disciples for these times: “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven will be great.” (Matt. 5:11-12).

In life we aim for the resurrection, as Christ did in his ministry. But resurrection cannot be achieved unless there is sacrifice, hardship, and even death to self. At any moment in our life, we can get discouraged because, like The Departed, it isn’t wrapping up nicely.

As I write this, it has been weeks since we have put our house on the market to be sold; in those weeks, very few people have visited and we are far from selling our home. Every evening I come home from work without having sold our place, it seems like a bad, uncomfortable, awkward ending to the day. That’s how life is, in big and small ways.

I know I have wanted to just give up at times like that. It’s natural and it’s human to want to do that. But we are called to higher standards. We are called to hope in our own resurrection.

These pain, suffering, and death experiences in our lives are known as “the paschal mystery,” mirroring our life with the life of Christ who at his last Passover, had to suffer and die before rising again. When our lives are judged, we will not be judged for having bad days, but how we got through them and how we believed in the hope of resurrection.

The ending of The Departed leaves us hanging, leaves us wanting more. That’s great. That’s life. When we go to bed tonight, we will have some issues in life that we have not yet resolved; however, we live our lives in hope because we live for something more.

At times like that, we are called to rise to the occasion and gladly experience the passion; only then can we get to the resurrection that awaits each and every one of us.

Man of the Year

“Ephphatha! Be opened!” Mark 7:34

Politicians hear a lot of voices. It’s getting near to a national Election Day, and I can see this reflected in the hourly newscasts. Politicians and elected officials hear the voices of the voters and their families for sure, but also their special interest groups, their advisers, the other politicians, the media, and their donors and fundraisers.

But do they ever truly listen?

In Man of the Year, Robin Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a Jon Stewart-inspired late night comedian who decides to run for the Presidency of the United States. He hears a lot of voices swirling around him, including an unwelcome one from a woman who wants to inform him of illegal voting issues. His advisers tell him this is one voice he should not listen to. But Dobbs is an honest politician, and he decides to listen anyway.

What is inspirational is that this upstream voice is telling him that he shouldn’t even hold public office, and even more inspirational is that he actually listens to it. (Remember this is a fictional story of politics; we can only pray to God this can actually happen!).

In a world where we have talking heads on every cable channel, and where we are constantly talking and talking, where, when, and how is there time to listen clearly?

In the gospels, Christ opens the ears of the deaf on more than one occasion. But these miracles are not just medical breakthroughs, but a life lesson to those around him. By giving the deaf the gift of hearing, he is telling those around him: Open your ears, shut your mouths, and just listen for a change. And when we read those gospel passages, I think Christ is still imploring us to do the same, now more than ever.

So what are we listening for?

We stop to listen for the wisdom in others’ voices. Christ can use others to speak to us; therefore, the words of Christ might just be on the lips of the next person we run into.

In my life, I find that God speaks to me not through visions or even at Sunday mass, but more often than not, he speaks to me through those I meet in my daily routine. Perhaps it was the person behind the counter at Starbucks or the one sitting next to me on the train to work, or my wife when I come home from a long day at the office. God can use any of us to be the conduit through which he speaks.

We are called to open our ears, close our mouths, and let God through.

Postscript: We are also called to listen to all voices, even the ones we don’t want to hear. At election time, there are too many people listening only to voices that they enjoy hearing; we are challenged to hear what else might be out there. Unless we appreciate what all sides have to say, how can we truly make a well-informed vote or even a well-thought-out decision in our daily lives? Let’s challenge our own selves to, as Christ said, “Ephphatha! Be opened!” (Mark 7:34) and open our lives to all that God might be calling us to do.

Open Season

Is there life outside your comfort zone?

This film, aimed at younger audiences (but able to be appreciated by any age), gives us a valuable lesson we all need to hear: When we encounter change, sometimes we simply need discover our new selves.

Each of us is unique in that each of us has a purpose in life that is different than anyone else’s mission or vocation. But unless we break free of our comfort zone when change hits us, we might never discover that uniqueness which God so richly gives us.

Open Season is the story of one bear’s journey to find his own special calling.

For years, a human trainer (voiced by Debra Messing) cared for Boog the Bear (voiced by Martin Lawrence) and attended to his every need and desire; by an accident of fate (that is, meeting up with Elliot, a one-antlered mischievous deer voiced by Ashton Kutcher), Boog is forced out in the wild to fend for himself for the first time in his life. The unlucky coincidence is that he has also been released during open hunting season in the mountains. It’s his own baptism by fire.

At first, Boog hides from the dangers of the wild, and clings desperately to the home in the valley he once knew. The same goes for all of us when things change in life. We wish things could go back to the way they’ve always been. We wish we could press “rewind” on our lives and re-think the decision that caused this unwelcome change.

Slowly, as Boog discovers those hidden gifts, he finds his home is actually in the wilderness all along. He becomes the protector of the forest and of all the other animals; his God-given gifts are his leadership skills and, during that year’s open season, Boog leads his fellow forest critters to stand up to the vengeful hunters.

Had Boog not discovered his gift, he would have never been able to save the forest creatures from certain death. Not only did his newfound vocation and calling benefit him, but it helped so many others as well.

When we, too, experience change, we can be tempted to stay in our comfort zone.

But God challenges us to live our lives not for our comfort, but for others. God has a unique purpose for each of us, and sometimes change is God’s way of nudging us along to find that vocation. What wondrous things await us if we only take on that challenge and find that inner bear.

Snakes on a Plane

"In my name, you will pick up snakes in your own hands and drink deadly poison, and none of that will hurt you." Mark 16:18

Even in the midst of snakes, there are no excuses.

Snakes? Well, Biblically-speaking, one of the most common animals in the Scriptures is the snake. Beginning with the Garden of Eden where the snake was "the most cunning of all the animals God had created" (Gen. 3:1) and continuing through Revelation where John saw in his vision "the ancient serpent which is the devil" (Rev. 20:2).

Snakes are everywhere.

Moses turned his staff into a snake (Exodus 4), then turned one into bronze in the desert to help heal the Israelites' snakebites (Numbers 21); Isaiah prophesized about the day of the Lord when children will play in the snake's den (Isaiah 11), and other prophets (Micah, Jeremiah) spoke of God's punishment in the form of serpents. Jesus gave his disciples the power to pick up snakes with their bare hands (Mark 16, Luke 10), which is literally fulfilled when Paul is bitten by a poisonous snake but feels no pain (Acts 28).

Snakes are everywhere. And now they've made their way from the pages of the Bible to the overhead compartments of our airplanes.

Snakes on a Plane, one of the most anticipated films this summer, is the story of a brave FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) who confidently leads a planeful of passangers in a test of survival when a crate of snakes are let loose on a red-eye flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles.

From the Scriptures to this action-packed movie, snakes continue to represent our deepest fears and the most dangerous situations imaginable. To be trapped in a pressurized cabin thousands of feet in the air over an endless ocean in the middle of the night with hundreds and hundreds of poisonous, charged up, hungry snakes? Talk about the epitome of fear and danger!

So in the face of danger and when we are paralyzed by fear, are we allowed to simply go into survival mode or are we still called and challenged to live the Gospel values?

In the movie, we see images of self-sacrafice in the face of deadly snakes, the same self-sacrfice Christ calls us all to: a flight attendent walks into a nest of snakes to save a baby; a passanger throws a woman on his back to save her from snakes in the aisle. Even our hero, Samuel L. Jackson, risks his own life in the underbelly of the plane so that he can turn on the air conditioning, without which the passengers will suffocate or die from heat exhaustion. Some of these brave people survive, some don't... but acts of heroism, sacrifice, and selflessness abound in all this slithery turmoil.

On the other hand, there are those who go into survival mode and care more about themselves than others. Snakes on a Plane is clear about what the fate awaits these people: some of the film's most grusome serpantine encounters are care of these selfish individuals.

Our own world may not be riddled with snakes in confined aircraft, but more often than not, even the smallest amount of trouble, fear, and anxiety tempts us to put our core gospel values (compassion, understanding, justice, selflessness, sacrifice, heroism, leadership, love, service, generosity, etc.) on hold until "things clear up."

But Christ constantly challenges us to rise above that spiritual laziness and procrastination... and start acting like Samuel L. Jackson in a pit of vipers.

From the everyday troubles we face to the improbable scenario of snakes on a plane, we don't have any excuse to avoid living to the highest standards and to being the best we can be.

Having a horrible day? Is life too busy? Worried and anxious? Got your own problems? Caught up in your own troubles? Sure, but do we use these as endless excuses to avoid living as Christ did? I know I fall into this trap from time to time.

But when I hear Jesus in the Gospel of Mark saying, "In my name, you will pick up snakes in your hands and drink deadly poison, and none of that will hurt you." (Mark 16:18), I hear him telling me that nothing, not even snakes on a plane, should come between me and the core gospel values that God has given to me.

There are simply no excuses, even in the midst of the worst fear and danger, to do the right thing, to love one another, and to transform the world through action and renewal.