This Is It

"Let the one among you without sin be the one to cast the first stone." John 8:7

Michael Jackson left the world in late June 2009 - his voice silenced for the last time. But his spirit comes alive in This Is It, a film from concert producer Kenny Ortega who, with Jackson, was developing a London concert experience when the artist unexpectedly passed away.

The movie is part documentary and part music video - a delight to anyone who enjoyed Michael Jackson's music, dancing, and ground-breaking concert experiences.

But underneath the songs and choreography is the image of a simple child-like man who just wanted to perform for his fans. While it's true that Michael Jackson has endured much scrutiny in recent years (some deserved, most not), the musician-artist in this video is far from the monster that a number of people have painted him out to be.

Throughout the movie, you can hear Jackson apologizing to the dancers, musicians, and crew, not wanting to offend anyone by his direction - or gently telling others, with utmost sincerity, "God bless you." It seems all he wants to do is love others completely for who they are.

It's evident that the public negativity has affected Michael, despite his genteel demenour. With passion he belts out the troubling lyrics of "They Don't Really Care About Us"... You're raping me of my pride, O for God's sake, I look to heaven to fulfill its prophecy: set me free. These words (and the other haunting lyrics of the song) show us a Michael Jackson beat down by those who just didn't understand him or humiliated him before the world.

The situation that Michael Jackson had to undergo reminds me of the biblical story of the woman caught in adultery. In John's Gospel, the scribes and Pharisees chase an adulterous woman to the feet of Jesus who admonishes the crowd: "Let the one without sin be the one to cast the first stone." (John 8:7). Jesus reminds us that it's easy to point fingers in accusation, to see the speck of wood in another's eyes without tending to the beam in our own eyes (cf. Mt. 7:1-5) - so easy that we forget our place in judgement.

But in This Is It, we see a gentle spirit beaten down from years of hatred - one who responds not with vengence, but with reminders about the environment ("Earth Song"), about racism ("Black or White"), about war ("Heal the World"), about comforting others ("I'll Be There") and about self-reflection and discernment ("Man in the Mirror").

Michael Jackson was not perfect, but through his songs, he was a prophet and an inspiration. Seeing the impact he made on the crew and the other dancers on stage, we can see how he impacted the world for the better, no matter what insults came his way.

Let us all pray that we will be slow to judgement and abundant in kindness, that we might be as blessed as Michael Jackson to make a difference in this world.

Surrogates

"How beautiful you are... how pleasing... my love, my delight!" Song of Songs 8:7

Surrogates is set in the not-too-distant future when technology has advanced so much that humans can control a robot to walk around, go to work, and interact with others - to be their "surrogate" while they stay safely in the comfort of their bedroom all day long.

It doesn't seem hard to believe. If the internet can serve as our primary communications tool in the early 21st century, how much farther along will it be when we'll use the technology to do more than share information online?

In the movie, this comfortable cycle is interrupted by a brutal crime - where someone has found an even greater technology to destroy not just a surrogate robot, but the end user sitting in their bedroom far away. The surrogate of FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and his partner investigate, only to find that the problem goes deeper than they would have imagined.

Due to an accident with his surrogate, Greer is forced to face the world on his own. Initially shocked by this change of pace, Greer starts to open his literal eyes to the cold, impersonal universe that humanity has developed.

Greer longs to literally touch his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike) - and connect with her like they used to years ago. But like everyone else in this isolated world, she refuses such barbaric ideas.

With all the technological tools at our disposal (like this very blog), how much are we relying on it to make our mark on the world? While Facebook is a wonderful invention, is it starting to replace real social networking done in person? Neighborhoods are already impersonal, with neighbors hardly knowing the name of the person who lives five yards away.

When society starts turning impersonal, our faith challenges us to live without our surrogate technology. In the Scriptures, the beautiful wisdom book, The Song of Songs, expresses this desire for humans to be in touch with each other. The poet declares quite vividly, "How beautiful you are... how pleasing... my love, my delight. Your very figure is like a palm tree... I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its branches..." (Song of Songs 8:7-9a).

The poet here longs for real human interaction, to quite literally touch another person. The question comes back to us in today's world: when was the last time you were hugged? If you're in a relationship with someone else, when was the last time you held hands or kissed?

Sometimes we are too busy or too anxious to be close to someone else. It's much easier to write an email or make a comment on Facebook. It's quicker to text them than to actually talk to them. Or our impersonal nature prevents us from really showing someone else we care. But like the poet of Song of Songs, let's take hold of someone else and draw them close to us.

Surrogates shows us the dark future - when we have let machines do our connecting for us. That future doesn't have to happen. We have a choice. We have each other.

District 9 & Inglourious Basterds

Rewriting history...

This August, two movies asked audiences the "what if?" question, wondering what history would have been like had certain things happened.

District 9 is the story of an alien spacecraft that stalled out over Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1990 and the strained interspecies relations that marked an alternative history over the past two decades. By this creative take on the alien movie, this film wonders if humans would actully treat extraterrestrials as poorly as they treat one another.

In a movie set in a totally different universe, Inglourious Basterds is director Quentin Tarantino's creative vision of how he would have ended Adolph Hitler's reign in World War II in the 1940s. In this revisionist history, an assassination squad of Americans and Jews (not the Allied armies marching across Europe) are the real threat to the Third Reich - a fitting take considering Hitler's horrible actions in real history.

District 9 looks at human nature and throws up its hands, resigning itself to the fact that humanity cannot change its stripes - and will always trend evil. Basterds takes another approach - answering humanity's evil with equal parts evil ("an eye for an eye"), thinking that somehow balances the scales of history.

These two parables mirror real reactions. In response to trouble or hurt, many people live with regret, wishing they could re-write history and, as Sam Beckett did in Quantum Leap, "put things right that once went wrong." In response, some think it's all fatalistic and that it doesn't really matter anyway, while other people seek vengence or violence to satistfy their anger.

The Gospel, though, says neither response leads anywhere.

When we are hurt, we are called to forgive all others ("Offer no resistance to one who is evil." Mt. 5:39a), and yes, that even includes Hitler. And fatalism, the belief that we never learn and history continues to repeat itself, allows no room for good works and God's grace.

Instead, Jesus challenged his disciples to "go forth" to "cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out deams" (Mt. 10:8) With those actions, history won't be re-written, but it will be changed and affected for the better. Instead of wishing the Jews killed Hitler, the gospel charge is to affect the present world so that anti-Semetism or hatred of any kind might be eradicated. Instead of giving up on people and their prejudices, the gospel charge is to be different, serving the poor and welcoming all people in Christian love.

So instead of looking backward and re-writing history, Jesus calls on us to change history - to make our mark on the world for the sake of the Gospel. We can all look forwad to that future.

******* Postscript 9/15/09

As I continued to reflect on these films, I noticed something else that was lacking: an attitude of gratitude. When we look back on the past in regret, we aren't thankful for the gift that the event or day or experience was to us.

Approaching the past, no matter how great or how sinful or hurtful it was, with gratitude to God can lift the heavy burden of anger or frustration from our lives. I am grateful to God for the sins of the past because they teach me a better way to head into the future. I am grateful for the way history was written because the world today would not be the same without the past.

Reviewing the day, the year, and the past in thanksgiving is a good discipline to have. St. Ignatius of Loyola instructed his students to do the same in their evening prayers. Reviewing the day (or anything in the past) with regret serves little purpose. Looking at yesterday with gratitude allows us to discover the face of God moving about in the world with greater clarity.

Julie & Julia

"I have called you by name. You are mine... You are precious in my eyes." Isaiah 43:1,4

Julie & Julia is the story of two real-life people half a century apart in their journey into cooking.

Julia Child, as most anyone knows, is a chef and television personality and the author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). Julie Powell, on the other hand, is an average American woman who succeeded in cooking all of Julia Child's 524 recipes in one year and documented the experience in her own book, Julie & Julia (2005).

The movie is a delightful back-and-forth between the two women's lives. One critic scolded the film for equating a young adult novice cook from Queens with the accomplished and infamous Julia Child, saying that the two were far from equals.

In terms of accomplishment, I would say the critic has a point. But I don't think that's what he meant, and that's where I have a problem.

The life story of Julia Child (played in the film wonderfully by Meryl Streep) reveals that she was not born a cook. In fact, she did not learn the art of French cooking until she was well into her 40s and began on television in her 50s. The film shows that she stumbled upon culinary interests when she was trying to figure out what to do with her time in Paris while her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) worked as an officer for the U.S. Information Agency. She then struggled to get anyone to publish the 700+ page cookbook she and her French co-writers had developed.

Julia's experiences reveal that she was very much human, just like anyone else... just like a young adult such as Julie Powell (Amy Adams) just trying to make her own way in the world in the early 2000s. Julia's story may give us an insight into a genius cook, but Julie's story gives us hope. For average, everyday people, Julie's story is all-too-familiar.

Like so many others, Julie feels lost in her bureaucratic cubicle job. Like so many others, Julie is trying to figure out what she's really passionate about. Like so many others, Julie feels just a little bit cramped in her home, with never enough room to move around. And like so many others, Julie just wants her voice to matter in the world.

Julie's story is one that I can identify with. She's a fellow blogger, only her love is Julia Child's cooking whereas mine is popular movies. The blog was Julie's way of sharing her insights with others, hoping it might make a difference for someone - just as this blog is my way of sharing my insights with you, hoping that it might make some difference in your life.

So in this film about two women's adventures into cooking, one story is not better than another. Julia Child might be more famous, but Julie Powell proves that God mades us all worthy of our story being put to celluloid.

To God, all our stories are special and worthy of a Friday night at the movies. To God, each of us has a unique journey to take - and watches with great anticipation what our next move might be. Society today has a way of extolling the rich, famous, and powerful, as if their stories are better than ours - even when your story and my story might be more interesting than those of the celebraties on TMZ.com or the world leaders at a G-8 Summit.

That movie reviewer who critized the film for making Julie and Julia equals doesn't see people as God sees people - as all incredibly special in their own right. But what about you? Do you think that your story - and the stories of those average everyday people around you today - are just as great as your role models', heroes', and favorite movie stars' stories? God does.

It is God that says to us: "I have called you by name. You are mine... You are precious in my eyes" (Isaiah 43:1,4) God has called Julia Child by name and Julie Powell by name, and they are both precious in God's eyes, each unique and wonderful in their own way.

God has called you by name. God knows you and you are His. You, just like Julia & Julie, the President and the Pope, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams and any famous actor, the saints, the prophets, and all the great people of history, are precious in God's eyes. He is waiting to see what you'll do next in the great movie of your life... and so am I and all those around you.

So go ahead, and make your next move. Make your life as extraordinary as God knows it is.

Funny People

"...in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health..."

In Funny People, we find out right away that famous comic George Simmons (Adalm Sandler) has been diagnosed with an untreatable blood disorder - not a very funny circumstance, to be sure.

Before this revelation, George Simmons seemed to live life to the fullest - making a lot of money, staring in several successful movies, living in an opulant mansion, being connected to all sorts of celebraties, taking different girls to bed each night, and so forth. But upon discovering the news that he was dying, his life screeched to a halt. He started to re-examine what he had done and began to make amends for the mistakes of his past.

He decides to return to his roots by doing stand-up comedy like he used to - and to do this well, he grooms an up-and-coming comic named Ira Wright (Seth Rogan) to write his new jokes but also to accompany him on this final leg of the journey. Upon Ira's advice, he strengthens the bonds between himself and his celeb friends. In effect, he becomes a new man.

In my work in the church, I have seen so many people come back to God and rediscover a new version of themselves when times are rough. Sickness, job loss, grieving, economic hardships, persecution, and uncertainty can bring people into a deeper relationship with God and help them become a better person in the process. The image of God as a gentle comforter, or a "good shepherd" who looks out for his sheep, is very important to those who are struggling through life.

SPOILER ALERT: But what happens when times are good? In Funny People, George finds out that the experimental medicine he was taking is actually working - and he is cured. Sadly, this news makes George revert back to his old ways, even though he claims he is a changed man. He falls back into old habits and rejects those who are trying to help him.

In the Christian wedding ceremony, the officiant asks the bride and groom whether or not they will be with each other in all circumstances, "...in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health..." Using that popular phrase and applying it to our relationship with God, are we with Him in good times and in bad times, in sickness and in health, when we're down on our luck and when we're doing well, when we're alone and when we're surrounded by friends...?

It's common to come to God and be a stronger person when life isn't going so well. But it's uncommon to return to the gospel and become honorable and just when life is great.

Sadly, our churches do not have enough rituals to celebrate the good times and to, as St. Paul says in Romans 12: 15, "laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep." We have great pastoral care to comfort the broken-hearted and to tend to the sick, but do we have the tools to be with people when things are going smooth?

Regardless, I urge you to come to God and be a part of a faith community even when things are fantastic. George Simmons missed the point and took the easy route by coming to his senses when things were rough while falling into bad habits when things looked great. Don't repeat George Simmons' mistakes.

Instead, let us pray for each other that we may turn to God in all circumstances, at all times, and in all ways.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

"He who fears the Lord honors his father and serves him... Even if his mind should fail, be considerate towards him, and with all your strength, do not revile him. For kindness to a father will not be forgotten - it will serve as an offering to God and take lasting root." Sirach 4:7, 13-14

For six years, Harry Potter has struggled to find (and keep) a father figure since learning about the tragic death of his parents to save his life. Characters like Hagrid, Lupin, and Sirius Black have served as temporary guardians over the course of six films, but none has had the lasting impact as Hogwarts Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

In this sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) has decided to stop the games and start sharing important lessons and memories with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) - so to prepare him for what must come next.

Up until now, Harry and the Headmaster have had a challenging relationship. In past years, Dumbledore stayed distant from his prize student to protect him from harm - although Harry incorrectly interpreted this as indifference. Now in Harry's sixth year as a student at Hogwarts, Dumbledore must become the father figure and mentor that Potter deseprately needs.

This caused me to think back to the teachers and father figures in my own life - the people who have passed on their wisdom through their words or deeds.

I recall the charismatic pastor of my church growing up, who exemplified what it means to serve others and lead with inspired vision. He baptized me as an infant and was a powerful presence in my childhood and adolescence - and remained a role model in my young adult years. Sadly, he passed away a short while ago. What I regret is that I am no longer able to learn from him or watch his example. That priviledge I enjoyed as a youth has been taken away from me.

What role models and mentors do you have? Who has had a profound impact on you? And who continues to make a difference in your life story? - in other words, who is your Dumbledore? As you reflect on this, ask yourself if you spent enough time "at the foot of the master," whoever that might be for you. Are you living up to being the person that your role models and father figures would expect of you?

On the flip side, are you a Dumbledore to someone else? Perhaps you are, but don't realize the mark you have made on others' lives. How have you helped someone else, and even more importantly for you, what have you learned from those you lead?

In addition, when people come to you with questions or the desire to be guided, do you shut them off or do you embrace that relationship? From my personal experience, I have had other role models in my life who have been "too busy" to teach me. This has caused me some distress and uncertainty - so if you find yourself doing that to someone, be sure to heal those wounds.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, The Book of Sirach (a lesser-known work found in Catholic Bibles and in the Apocrapha of Protestant ones) talks about the lessons of one generation to the next. In it, the author states: "He who fears the Lord honors his father and serves him" (Sirach 4:7). Honoring past generations and teachers is key for those of all ages.

"Even if his mind should fail him, be considerate towards him, and with all your strength, do not revile him," says the author - bringing to mind a key climactic scene in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. "For kindness to a father will not be forgotten - it will serve as an offering to God and take lasting root." (Sirach 4:13-14)

Be kind to the generations who have gone before you. Learn from them. If you have a mentor or father figure, cling to them and listen to what they have to say. If you do not have such a person in your life, find one before they pass by. And if you have lost touch with that teacher, reconnect before it's too late.

I wish I had another moment with the one in my life who passed away too soon. But God has given us memories to guide our way when we're on our own. Like diving into the Headmaster's Pensieve in the movie, take time to reflect on the past and continue learning from it. As Sirach says, let it take lasting root - and you will be forever changed.

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Going deeper with the dinosaurs...

When I advise people on figuring out what God might be saying in the movies, there are a five major things to look out for: the plot, the characters, the setting, the overall movie-going experience, and a fifth option: the thrill of the sights and sounds.

For Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, what connected to me was the fifth item: the excitement of seeing dinosaurs rumble around on screen.

When I was a kid, one of the things I wanted to do when I grew up was become a paleontologist, a scientist that digs up and studies dinosaur bones. While I never got into the scientific stuff, I still to this day enjoy a good dinosaur tale -and this film is no different.

In this Ice Age movie, the familiar woolly characters Manny (Ray Ramono) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), the anything-but-slothful Sid (John Leguizamo) and the sabre-toothed Diego (Denis Leary) stumble upon some tyrannosaur eggs (don't mind the fact that millions of years seperated these creatures; we are led to believe, in this movie, that a whole "lost world" of ancient dinoaurs exists under all that ice in the ice age).

As the film progresses, the eggs hatch and little tyrannosaurs pop out, and of course, the mother Rex comes to reclaim her hatchlings - along with Sid, which causes the rest of the ice age team to race after their friend and have their own adventures underground.

But the plot didn't really matter. I just wanted to see the dinosaurs.

So how is this spiritual? Well, when it comes to the sights and sounds, it's very much about a personal experience. What is it about that fun, quirky sight or sound that gets to you? And why might your mind keep going in that direction?

For Ice Age, the fun-loving strool through the Mesazoic Era reminded me of my own childhood, and why I was so captivated by these age-old monsters. For me, the dinosaurs were my imaginary protectors - and no problem was too big that a T-Rex couldn't solve. Well, I've grown up and I now realize that dinosaurs aren't coming back anytime soon.

So I pray on this. And then it occurs to me that I still have a Tyrannosaurus in my corner. My Rex is God, who is truly larger than life and can devour any problem the world might bring.

That leads me to the Scriptures where I read the psalmist as he says, "Tremble before Him, all the earth and say among the nations, 'The Lord is king.' He has made the earth firm, not to be moved and governs all creation with equity... Then shall all the trees of forest and the creatures of the earth exult before the Lord, for He comes to rule the whole earth." (Ps. 96:9-10,12-13).

My prayer is complete. The might and power of the dinosaurs still live within my world, only this time that strength comes not from the fossils, but from the heavens. God is the one that will protect, defend, and rumble beside me.

This conclusion reminds me that no fun sight or sound that appeals to me in the movies is too trivial, and all thoughts can lead to a deeper spirituality. I learn never to underestimate the smallest aspect of an enjoyable film, for God is so big he can roar through anything.