Anyone who knows me, knows my family, knows that we enjoy going to the movies. We feel like we “need” to see every major, award-worthy film that comes out. We are not content to wait until it comes out on DVD or “live-stream’ or Netflix. It is the whole experience that is cool to us, kind of like baseball fans eager to “go out to the ole ballgame”. It engages our senses to do these things.

At seminary, I took an elective titled “Film and Theology.” Yes, we sat in the state-of-the-art lecture hall with its big screen, and it was almost like going to the movies. (we begged for popcorn, but the professor wasn’t buying). He made a point of emphasizing that the class was far beyond the perfunctory act of looking for the Jesus figure. We were encouraged to dig deep for truths about who we are, how we relate to each other, the moral message and all that. The purpose of the class was not to critically tear the film apart, but to realize that films are made because they have something to say. I like to dig deep, below the obvious. How might we appropriate, even divinely encounter, the message being conveyed?

Joseph Sittler, in “Gravity & Grace”, says that “God is interested in a lot of things beside religion…” we can find “the holy celebrated…in every aspect of the common life.” The Spirit happens, ever present in our imagination – and in the films we see. It is almost an ecstatic revelation. They are stories of how God acts, either in the film itself, or the feelings and emotions it conjures. All of the human experience, as in the book of Psalms, is fair game for being captured. So, whether it is the usual summer blockbuster, or an “indie” film, do not cast aspersions on those who go see movies. Rather than judge them or the films they see, look for the deeper ways that God affirms this favorite pastime as He loves you unconditionally.

Pastor Art