Please note, Encanto is rated PG. Recently, I learned of a family whose children declared Encanto their favorite movie. This is because Encanto is one of the few films out there without a real villain or a "bad guy". Instead, the conflict is centered around the family finding their way again.
As I reflected on this knowledge, my thoughts turned to Scripture. If we look at Scripture as a whole, there's not really a conflict with a villain per se. Yes there are times, such as with Jesus' temptation in the desert, where we see a direct conflict with evil through beings like Satan. It's also true that Revelation focuses on the battle of Heaven versus the forces of evil. There's even the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Yet that serpent is merely a tempter for the ones who really go against God: Adam and Eve. And while much of Torah, Joshua, and other books in the Tanakh are centered on the military skirmishes of the ancient Israelites, when we look deeper at Scripture, we see the main conflict is between the people and God. Really the main division in Scripture is between ourselves and God. There's not always a big bad guy for us to have to punch. Sometimes the real battle is the one within. Scripture teaches us that. While there are forces that seek to drive a wedge between us and God, it is ultimately ourselves who create that divide. Fortunately Scripture is also about the work God does to bring us back. For younger children movies like Encanto can be good because they are less scary. They can also teach an important lesson that sometimes the greatest conflict is within ourselves. What Scripture further teaches us, then, is that this battle can be won with God's help, for God is always by our side bringing us away from darkness back into light.
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Please note, Encanto is rated PG. In Encanto, all of the members of the Madrigal family poses some sort of power. They all use these gifts to help the family and their neighbors around them. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, speaks of the various gifts of the Spirit. These are gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit to help us do the work God has given us to do. Different people have different gifts, which are all needed as we come together as the community of God. Some gifts in Paul’s time were more valued than others. In a sense that’s true in Encanto too. Even though Mirabel seems not to have any powers, she possesses great wisdom which helps the family move forward together. Paul reminds the Corinthians, as well as us, that all gifts are important and needed, and sometimes the most valued gifts are not actually the greatest ones of all.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us that our gifts are useless with Love behind them. We see the same in Encanto. The Madrigals lose their way for a bit, causing their home to collapse and their powers to vanish. What brings them back is coming together as a family and uniting more fully with the community around them. What brings us back with our gifts is coming closer to God through the gift of our Lord’s Grace. In other words, we possess the love Paul speaks of as we draw deeper into God’s love for us. We need this love at the root of our gifts in order to use them as best we can for our Lord and for our community. Please note, Encanto is rated PG. Encanto is the story of a family, the Madrigals, who are blessed with superpowers. They use those powers to try and help their town. These powers are the result of a miracle candle found by Alma, the matriarch of the family, after she lost her husband when their family was trying to escape some sort of tragedy in their home. This miracle allowed them to rebuild and help others with the family's newfound powers. Unfortunately Alma lost her way. She worried so much about losing their gifts, she started putting a lot of pressure on her children and grandchildren. This pressure led to a rift in the family. The result was the miracle candle blew out and everyone lost their powers. For a moment Alma lost sense of the true purpose of the miracle. She lost sight that the miracle not only helped her family, but everyone else around them as well. The point of the miracle wasn't the superpowers they got, but the fresh start they had for going forward. We see a similar losing of our way in Scripture as well. In Nehemiah, the Israelites return to their homeland after years in exile. Hoping to never be exiled again, they focused on following the Law as diligently as possible. Unfortunately, at the end of Nehemiah, the Israelites decide they need to get rid of their foreign wives, not thinking about what will happen to these women when they do so. Ruth was actually written in response to this action, and the book demonstrates that the great King David’s own lineage contained a foreign wife who joined the people of Israel. The loss of their way did not end there. In Jesus’ time, He read from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah while visiting the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. Isaiah spoke not to the “righteous” or rule followers but instead spoke to the poor, the blind, and the captive. Basically, Isaiah and Jesus were speaking to those who needed it. The response to Jesus was to try and literally chase Him off a cliff. Of course, the leaders in His time worked to put Jesus to death instead of listening to Him. The Ancient Israelites in both these situations had the best of intentions. They wanted to follow God so that they would not face exile again. Yet they went too far with their zeal. They lost their way really. Alma does the same. Fortunately, she has her granddaughter Mirabel to help remind her what the miracle was really all about. We are fortunate to also have a miracle to help bring us back when we fall astray. That miracle is Jesus Christ. If we can listen to Him, unlike those who did not in His own hometown, and if we let Him into our hearts, He can bring us back when we’ve lost our way so that we can rediscover the original purpose that we had from our Lord and our miracle light. Please note, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is rated TV-14. Sam Wilson has gotten thrown into a lot in his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While out on a morning run, he meets Steve Rogers. Then Steve and Natasha show up at his house while on the run from Hydra. Then he ends up fighting alongside them, becoming an Avenger, running from the law as an unregistered hero, and being lost in the blip before returning 5 years later. In all this time, Sam is referred to as many things. Often his skills as a listener are overlooked as others in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier call him "naive". Yet Sam still has hope. Sam expresses why he has that hope in these words: What would be the point of all the pain and sacrifice if I wasn't willing to stand up and keep fighting? That pain is not only Sam's, but the pain of all who have come before him and all who look like him out there in the world. Sam's hope was to go out and change the world, even before he became the Falcon. He continues that journey not because he is naive about the world, but because he wants to take the heartache of life and transform it. This willingness to keep standing is what allowed Paul to continue to preach the Gospel even when he was in prison. It is what kept Paul going even when he was about to be sentenced to death. It is also what led Jesus to die on the Cross. Through that suffering, Jesus knew He would transform all of our lives so we could finally live for the better. Sam is willing to keep on fighting the good fight in order to make the world a better place. Our hope is that we might do the same. Please note, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is rated TV-14. Throughout his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sam Wilson has shown that, aside from his flying skills, he has one of the greatest superpowers out there: listening. Part of this comes from his training as counselor. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we see Sam's listening skill as a genuine attempt to understand. Most powerfully, Sam takes time to even listen to his enemies. This follows the example Jesus gave to us. Jesus sat and listened to and conversed with His enemies, even those who eventually had a hand in his death. Jesus even told us to "love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Sam wants to maintain peace, if at all possible. This is unfortunately not always possible in his world. Yet it is amazing to find a superhero who doesn't immediate go to punch his way our of all his problems. Sam's approach is rooted in the Civil Rights Movement, itself influenced strongly by the teachings of Christ Jesus. The Civil Rights Movement teaches peace while standing firm against racism and oppression. Sam does the same by being willing to find a peaceful solution first, yet fighting to ensure the bad guys don't take any more lives. Sam's greatest superpower is listening. Jesus shows the importance of this skill during His own life and ministry. We would do well to follow both of their examples, even if it means we have to listen to our enemies too. We'll continue to look at Sam Wilson as an example to us of how to be a hero.
Please note, Sky: Children of the Light is rated 9+. Please also note, this post discusses Substance Abuse. During Sky's season for The Little Prince, the game took inspiration for it's seasonal spirits from the characters the Little Prince visits in his journeys outside his astroid world. One of these spirits is known as the Slouching Soldier. This soldier is inspired by the character dubbed "the Ashamed Man". This character in The Little Prince drinks primarily to forget his shame of drinking. Sky, being an all-ages game, has the Slouching Soldier be addicted to "the black water" instead of alcohol. First, because of the seriousness of this topic, let me say that if you find yourself struggling with any sort of addiction, please get help for yourself and your loved ones. The Twelve Steps are a great recovery tool geared towards people of faith. You can learn more about the steps at the Alcoholics Anonymous website, or you can get in contact with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services in the United States through the SAMHSA website. If you are in another country or need other resources, you can use your favorite search engine on your browser for ways to find help with any addiction you are going through. The truth is we all find ourselves falling prey to things that are not always healthy for us. That, in a way, is the brilliance of Sky's "black water" concept. It reminds us that we are all susceptible to addiction, even if we don't struggle with substance abuse, which itself can be the result of genetic factors. Sin, or that which draws us away from God, often works in a similar way. We find ourselves hating ourselves for what we are doing yet, like the Slouching Soldier, we can fall into the pattern of repeating the sin out of our shame. Paul speaks of this in Romans 7:19 when he says "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." Paul also speaks of the grace we receive to continue to persevere at the end of Romans 7. Grace is the redemption we receive from God as a free gift which we did nothing ourselves to earn. It means placing our trust in something beyond ourselves, mainly God, as the only thing that can get us out of the mess we find ourselves in. This also mirrors the beginning of the Twelve Steps: that we are powerless and need to turn to a higher power for help and guidance. We should also remember Jesus' words in Matthew 7:1 during the Sermon on the Mount: "Judge not, that you be not judged." We all have our struggles with our own black water. We are called to help each other with those struggles as others help us so that we might all grow stronger together and be better able to serve our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Please note, Sky: Children of the Light is rated 9+. Previously in Sky, we saw the Giant Manatee, who might be a stand-in for God, and talked with the Little Prince about being "tamed". Today we see both these thing coming together.
During the Season of the Little Prince in Sky, the Prince meets with the player in an area below the Hidden Forest, the area where we've seen the Giant Manatee. The Prince immediately comments on the Manatee, saying how magnificent the creature is and wondering if it too can be tamed. If we think of the Manatee as a God stand-in, this seems like a very odd comment. How can God be tamed? The answer is God cannot be tamed. God cannot be tamed unless God allows it. As we saw before, being tamed means establishing ties. We certainly see that between God and ourselves. We see that in the emotions expressed in the Psalms ranging from joy to despair and gratitude to anger. We also see that from the surrender people like Paul go through as well as the deeply personal relationships prophets like Samuel and Elijah have with God. We see ties established with God in a fully human way through the Disciples' connection with Jesus. God establishes ties with us as well, and we see that most clearly in Jesus. Even though God did not have to, God chose to come down to this world and become a human being in order to bring us all back into established ties with Him. So while we cannot tame God, God can allow Himself to be tamed through establishing closer ties of love with each and every one of us. That is the depth of God's love for us. Hopefully we can begin to mirror God's love by allowing ourselves to be tamed by our Lord by growing closer in our love, relationship, and ties to Christ Jesus. |
Please note, there maybe Spoilers in the Posts below!
The Rev. Trey KennedyHere is my take on how Superheroes and other characters can help us know God better. Categories
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