Probably the
most unique movie debut of recent times took place this past week with the
release of “The Interview.” It’s a
comedy about two TV show hosts who decide to try and interview Kim Jong-Un, the
young, eccentric leader of the People’s Republic of North Korea. The plot twist involves the CIA, which
recruits them to assassinate Kim as they interview him. The film stars James
Franco, who I know from OZ and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He incidentally has 10 movies in
production. And Seth Rogen, who had a
continuing role in the TV series Arrested Development and played the Green
Hornet in – The Green Hornet.
What you
know if you’ve been listening anywhere is that Sony pictures suffered a
computer breach in the last weeks that was purportedly linked to the release of
the film. At first Sony halted the film’s
release over fears that acts of terrorism might take place at theatres. Since then it has been released and is doing
quite well, thank you.
It’s amazing
how these things work out, isn’t it?
Well, I
jotted down a list of much less frantic movies releases at Christmastime over
the past years and much better (I understand) movies. Here are a few: How about
raising your hand if you think you may have seen it first at Christmastime:
To Kill a
Mockingbird
The Sting
The Bucket
List
As Good as
It Gets
Les
Miserables
War Horse
The Aviator
The Trip to
Bountiful
Avatar
The Return
of the King
Alvin and
the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Marley and
Me
National
Treasure Part Three
Django
Unchained
Sherlock
Holmes
Babes in
Toyland
I was 6 when
my mother trundled us to downtown Minneapolis on the bus to watch “Babes in
Toyland,” what Walt Disney hoped would be a second “Wizard of Oz.”
And if you’re
a fan of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca the Wookie you
know already what’s coming out next Christmas:
Star Wars: The JJ Abrams’
version. (Light saper strokes here).
But here
enacted on this stage as it were is the ultimate Christmas drama. The irony is that across our culture today
there are millions of people, children especially, who don’t associate the day of
Christmas with Jesus at all. Between the
Grinch, and Santa, and Rudolph, and what have you, even if they hear the name “Jesus”
it’s liable to sound like one more character out of someone’s imagination.
The ability
to differentiate between what is real and what isn’t comes along somewhere in a
child’s early years, but for a significant time he or she won’t be able to tell
the difference between “believing in Santa” and believing in Jesus Christ. My wife Kristin tells how as a girl her
mother almost lost her faith entirely when she was told that Santa wasn’t real.
It’s why if
you name yourself a follower of Jesus I think it pays to ex-nay on the
anta-Say. Beyond being
able to present Jesus unambiguously to your child or grandchild, the other
reason to judicious about using Santa – even to inspire generosity - is that
Santa is a pawn of consumerism.
Everything from cars to computers to candy is in the big sack.
But it wasn’t
a movie studio that determined the “release date” of Jesus. As St. Paul said to the gathering of new
believers in the province of Galatia: “When
the right time finally came.”
Not
geological time. Certainly not human
timekeeping. God’s time. We were reminded a few Sundays ago by the
verse from Peter: With the
Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Something about that era met criteria of which we will
likely ever know except that in God’s timing it was “the right time.” And so came Jesus into human flesh.
In fact if you want to see a stunning depiction of
these things in a movie see The Nativity
Story starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, a young woman of Maori descent and Oscar
Isaac from Guatemala.
As we’ve been saying these past weeks. God was in the
process of fulfilling promises that he had made through his people, the nation
of Israel, for centuries. And they came
to pass in this place. No billboards, no fanfares, no parades. In fact, though we know about the star of
Bethlehem and angels and shepherds it was likely a modest group that knew
anything at all about this boy being born.
He wasn’t given his name, Jesus, for a week. That was Jewish custom. A child wasn’t named until it seemed as if he
or she would survive. He was given the
name the angel Gabriel had spoken to Mary.
Jesus. Jeshua. Joshua.
And they did what Jewish parents had been enjoined to
do since the days of the Exodus. Bring a
first-born son to the temple in Jerusalem and present him to the Lord. As a memorial to the Passover, when God freed
the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt.
So they were to offer a sacrifice. At the same time Mary fulfilled what she as a woman of
her day had to do to purify herself after having given birth.
What may be helpful to remember in all this is that
Luke is not writing the biography of Jesus here. He’s writing the Gospel – a telling of the
good news that Jesus embodied and lived out to the end of his life on earth and
beyond. So beyond the encounter we’ve
read today there is only one other account of Jesus during his growing years:
when Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple at the time of his Bar Mitzvah or
coming of age. And he disappeared from their company only to be found in the
temple talking with the elders. Who
marveled at his wisdom.
Here it was Anna, an 84 year old woman who sought God her whole life long,
including almost seventy years that she had lived as a widow. She saw Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus
and knew immediately that he was God’s answer to the pain of her people.
Like Anna, Simeon was a prophet, meaning he knew
something about putting God’s word to work in our lives. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, who had
revealed to Simeon that in his lifetime he would lay his eyes on the coming
Messiah.
Can you even imagine being promised something like
that? Wouldn’t it entirely captivate you and give direction to your life?
Here are some of the promises I’d like to make to young
people today:
In your lifetime you will see the end to our dependency
on fossil fuels.
In your lifetime you will see a human colony on another
planet.
In your lifetime you will see the perceived differences
between people of different skin colors disappear.
In your lifetime nuclear weapons will be turned into
engines for atomic power and that is all.
In your lifetime HIV/AIDS will be defeated, along with
malaria.
In your lifetime the conflict between Israel and
Palestine will be settled in a way that brings peaceful justice for all
parties.
I would love to say to someone who is young, in your
lifetime you will experience the coming again of Jesus Christ.
But we don’t know that and never will. Like a thief in the nights, scripture says.
And Simeon took the babe in his arms and held him close
and said, “Lord, let know Thy servant
depart in peace, according to Thy word.
For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before
the face of all people. A light to lighten
the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people, Israel.”
Come to think of it, I wonder if Simeon wasn’t simply
one of those people that we meet every day who are convinced beyond a doubt that,
as the old hymn says,
“God is working His purpose out as year draws into
year. God is working His purpose out,
and the time is drawing near. Yes,
nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be when the earth
will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.”
