July 27, 2008
sermon: sixteen candles
Once again I am preaching without a manuscript. So, I cannot give you a full post. But let me try to sum up what I see in the movie. You could re-title the movie The Land of the Lost and be fine. Then again, there was that show about dinosaurs. Alas...
Samantha has been forgotten. It's her sixteenth birthday and because of her sister's wedding and the ensuing chaos, her family has completely forgotten her sixteenth birthday. She's an outcast at school, the focus of the inspired but oddly communicated lust of The Geek, and in love with a boy who she thinks does not love her back, Jake. She's lost, abandoned and outcast. Ain't High School grand?
Jake, too, is lost and forgotten. He's been forgotten by his parents (they leave him alone...perhaps substituting their love and affection with a very sleek red Porsche), taken for granted by his girlfriend, and abused by all of his so-called friends at school. Popularity is no escape from being forgotten. Who knew? Popularity is no guarantee of love.
The Geek, well he may not be forgotten but he is lost. No, he's forgotten...shoved underneath a glass coffee table. He's forgotten himself as well.
The movie is about people who are lost or forgotten or both...and how they are asked to change in response to love. Hughes' gospel lesson comes to us in the end as Jake and Samantha finally discover one another, parents apologize, and the Geek grows up (maybe a little). Love is what rescues them. Love is what keeps us from being forgotten or lost. And love is what asks them to change...they are take to a new place.
10“Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. 12What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.Matthew's gospel also speaks of this kind of love. It is hidden in the midst of the 18th chapter. There's talk of fire and forgiveness and reconciliation. And in the midst of the passage is the promise that God does not abandon us to life. God does not neglect us. And if there is judgment it falls upon those who do...including ourselves. Matthew, we should note, is kind enough to point out how one seeks forgiveness and reconciliation immediately following this pronouncement. He does not, well, leave us for lost.
The Gospel According to John Hughes this morning is this: God does not give us up for lost. Being found will cost us something, of course, but change is like that.
So, there you have it...that's the sermon in a nutshell. Now, I have this line about distraction that I might try to weave in there. But I dunno. These characters each have a God-shaped hole that they have been filling with crap. They are distracted by all the other things available to them...just like those of us (just me?) who watched the movie Wednesday night were distracted by all the chaos and funny debauchery (Oh, Long Duk Dong is lost and forgotten as well.). How can you preach on a film that seems to be about debauchery and teen lust-filled angst? The trick is (wait for it) to not get lost in the distractions.
Have a great Sunday. We have an ice cream social this afternoon. I hope you'll join us!
Posted by tripp at July 27, 2008 07:07 AM