conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

the gospel according to john hughes: pretty in pink

At the time I came along, Hollywood's idea of teen movies meant there had to be a lot of nudity, usually involving boys in pursuit of sex, and pretty gross overall. Either that or a horror movie. And the last thing Hollywood wanted in their teen movies was teenagers!
- John Hughes, film maker

For the sermon series, I decided that each sermon will simply be named for the movie that they feature. This Sunday's sermon is called "Pretty in Pink." I'm so imaginative. The alternate title might be "Try a Little Tenderness." I think that is the crux of this story and the focus of John Hughes' gospel this week.

I'm delivering this sermon without the aid of a manuscript. I've been doing this most Sundays lately. It's fun. This week we'll read the Gospel of Matthew and his story of the rich young man. It's about wealth and poverty. It's also about systems of honor and shame. In essence, by asking the rich young man to give up his wealth and give it to the poor, Jesus is asking him to give up his honor and pass it on to someone else. He has to shame himself in the eyes of the world. Jesus, of course, is not asking for shame, but shame in the eyes of the world. What Jesus is asking for is something else. Jesus is asking the rich young man to seek another path: perfection.

I think that one can find a parallel to perfection in Jesus' notion of blessedness. Blessedness helps flesh this out a bit. John Hughes suggests that it's "tenderness" that marks this kind of perfection. This is the central idea in my sermon at least.

Hughes employs caracatures in his films...the geek, dork, richie, spaz etc. They have truth within them, but are less nuanced than real people. Hey, it's a movie. That's a totally fine approach. In Pretty in Pink we encounter people who wrestle with the labels they have been given and have taken on for themselves. They wrestle with their own sense of honor and shame around wealth and poverty...about being alternative or "richies." It matters where you live. It matters which door you walk out of at school. It is absurd on the surface, but if we are honest, these expectations, these barometers of honor and shame are real. John Hughes, through Duckie's genius karaoke rendition of "Tenderness" by Otis Redding, offers another path to the movie goer and shows how each character attempts to take this path in the end. They are each to try a little tenderness.

It's been fun to distill Hughes' message from this film. I may be asking more of the film than Hughes intended, but that's part of the the joy of this endeavor. It's a reinterpretation of a sort.

Next week we have a guest preacher coming in. So, John Hughes waits a week. This is actually a good thing. I am struggling with laryngitis right now. It's horrible. I croak and wheeze. God may be trying to tell me something. Heh. We'll see how it goes. We'll pick up with John Hughes again in two weeks with Sixteen Candles.

Posted by tripp at July 13, 2008 06:24 AM