I should
have been suspicious when I realized that it was free. I don’t have Netflix, and so if it’s not on
CBC or Youtube or CTV websites, I don’t see it.
And that usually means pay per view.
Not this one. Especially when
it’s only a few years old. Normally the
copywrite police are all over movie sites that show free movies, and those
websites can be pretty sleezy. New
movies get taken off as fast as they get put on, but something like Gone with
the Wind or Casa Blanca are usually safe. So this was very unusual. And no wonder it was free.
The movie
was called “Left Behind”, based on the books of the same name, written about
what would happen at Jesus’ second coming when all the people who are born
again are taken up into heaven to save them from the coming end of the
world. The theology is dreadful, and
some of the best lines are spoken by the atheists -what kind of a God would
take children from their moms, airplane pilots out of their planes in mid
flight, they ask, and I asked too.
At one
point, the clue that the Nicholas Cage character finds which helps him figure
out why all the people have disappeared is a slip of paper with the words “John
3:16” written on it. That’s when he
realizes his born-again wife was right to nag him, and that he could have
spared himself and his daughter a lot of suffering.
But here’s
the thing: what kind of God would break apart families, steal fire fighters,
ambulance drivers, and airplane pilots regardless of what might happen to the
people around them when they disappear?
Jesus tells Nicodemus that God loved the whole world, not just some of
it, or a special few people who said the right words. And that Jesus came not to judge the world,
but to save it. One thing that is very
clear, Jesus constantly teaches people that they are not to judge. Yet the God of Left Behind does exactly that,
and the Christians are vindicated.
But if God
is love, not judgement, we Christians are called to love and serve and be
humble about it. We are adopted into
God’s family, not to be intolerant judgers, but to be compassionate servants
who are not afraid of a little suffering.
Caring servants who don’t need to be first or special or recognized or
famous. Caring people who are working
together at being part of God’s beloved family.
All our
scriptures today are about a mysterious God who calls. A God who is seen not just in the fleshy
down-to-earth images of loving parent, but also in wild poetry of flashing eyes
and wings and spirit and things too great for our human minds to
understand. A God who calls us into
childlike faith then loves us, and sends us out. That there is a time for admitting that we
are lost, we live in a world of broken hurting people and are broken hurting
humans ourselves. That we need a live
coal to burn our grumpy parts, our sour moods, our fearful and depressed
moments, our wounded ways, a live coal to clean us out. A spirit of newness, of rebirth into bravery,
into hope, into love. That we need help
and guidance to figure out the next steps in our journey as a community of
faith, as a people of God.
The one stark
realization from watching Left Behind is that I can’t imagine a just God of
love doing such a dreadful thing to the world that is beloved.
There’s
nothing loving in watching buildings exploding as planes fly into them, and
decent humans struggling with the horrific loss of life because of the ripple
effect of all these losses. And as a
mom, I know that if I was whisked off to Heaven and had to watch my young adult
daughter and son go through what was depicted in that movie, you bet I would
march up to that divine throne and give God a piece of my mind about the lack
of love that showed. And if my mother’s
heart, flawed and human as it is, would do that, think about how much more a
divine being however you like to poetically describe God as, would love those
children too. And those children swept
into Heaven without a by your leave would be crying out for their moms and dads
and brothers and sisters too. So I
reject that vision of God seen in Left Behind.
We humans
are addicted to judging others, whether it’s based on clothes or jobs or race
or nationality, and whenever we put judgement first, we do atrocious
things. The Japanese internment camps,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Auschwitz, and many other examples. But when we remember that God wants us to put
love at the core of all we do, noble and beautiful things result, public
education regardless of gender, the overthrowing of apartheid and communism,
the rise of the environmental movement, the work of truth and
reconciliation. Love always triumphs in
the end.
God calls
us, loves us, empowers us and sends us forth to build up love wherever we find
it and whatever it looks like. May we
know the spirit of love and it’s transforming power here in this place this
very day, helping us to make brave and holy decisions based on God loving the
whole world. Amen.
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