Little Miss Sunshine

Let me begin by saying if you did not like Little Miss Sunshine, in the words of my good friend Lee, "you didn't get it did you". Ok ok, so maybe you did get it and still didn't like it. Fine. But too often in Christian circles we judge films by shallow, moralistic, criteria. Many Christians believe good films have little to no vulgar language, no sex or violence, and a straight forward, preachy, message that is usually moralistic . Little attention is given to the art of film making, or the intricate interweaving of images, music, and dialogue. Recently, I showed clips from two films to students in the Engaging Culture course I teach. The first was from the film Time Changer - a so called Christian film, made by a Christian director, and distributed by a Christian film company. This film was moralistic, preachy, and the acting was horrible. (Not to mention a plot that was contrived and laughable.) The second was Pulp Fiction, a Quentin Tarantino film that focuses on thug hit men and the underbelly crime world of Los Angeles. The question I left students to ponder over spring break: Which of these films is a "good" film? My answer? Pulp Fiction - hands down. Which of these films is a Christian film? Pulp Fiction...without a doubt.

The first time I saw Little Miss Sunshine I left the theater moved by the gospel and stirred by the Spirit. As far as I am concerned, there are few better cinematic presentations of the gospel. It begins with brokenness; a family made up of people who by the standards of American culture are all losers. A suicidal homosexual, a drug snorting grandpa, a divorced mother, a desperate and bankrupt father, a depressed and nihilistic son, and a slightly overweight young daughter who wears the disproportionately large round glasses of a grandmother. They are all brought together around Olive, the daughter, who by default ends up in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The story focuses on their road trip to California, in an old, unreliable, Volkswagen van, trying to get Olive to the pageant on time.

At first glance there doesn't appear to be much that sets the film apart from other cheap laugh road trip films. But two important keys unlock the film: the Sufjan Stevens song playing as they begin their trip, and a discussion Olive has with her suicidal homosexual uncle. The Sufjan Stevens song is "Chicago", from the Come on Feel the Illinoise album. The film only includes the instrumentation, but listen to the lyrics and one discovers the song conveys a redemptive theme. The chorus begins with this refrain: "You came to save us....all things go, all things go. To recreate us...all things go, all things go." Eventually, the somber admission "I've made a lot of mistakes" gives way to a wonderful proclaimation of new creation. In this context we encounter the discussion between Olive and her uncle concerning the existence of heaven. Olive tells him that she believes there is a heaven, to which her uncle asks if he will get in. "Yes" Olive emphatically replies...too which her uncle, who has been depressed and suicidal, can only smile.

The Roman Catholic tradition has historically understood redemption as a pilgrimage, with the vehicle for this journey being the church. We come to her broken and battered, and are led through the wilderness of this world by her instruction as we encounter the crucified and risen Christ. Lately, the church has taken quite a beating, and most of the time, it is well deserved. The church is not perfect...and this is why the Volkswagen van in Little Miss Sunshine is a perfect symbol for her. It is old, battered, first gear doesn't work, and the horn keeps going off. But it is in this van, gathered around a child, the characters are transformed.

Throughout the film Olive provides a beautiful picture of incarnation. The most powerful example being her descent into Dwayne's (her brother) despair, and her silent solidarity with him in suffering. As the film ends, Olive is the one around whom the family rallies, hand in hand joyfully dancing. Every time I see these final scenes, I am reminded of Jeremiah's proclamation to the people of Israel, living with the despair of exile:

Yes, God's Message: 'You're going to look at this place, these empty and desolate towns of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, and say, "A wasteland. Unlivable. Not even a dog could live here." But the time is coming when you're going to hear laughter and celebration, marriage festivities, people exclaiming, "Thank God-of-the-Angel-Armies. He's so good! His love never quits," as they bring thank offerings into God's Temple. I'll restore everything that was lost in this land. I'll make everything as good as new.' I, God, say so. . (Jeremiah 33:10-11 from the Message)

Amen.

Including the Excluded

This past week has been an interesting one for Dordt College. On Thursday the campus was visited by the group Soulforce as a part of their Equality Ride. Soulforce is a group that promotes issues of justice and equality on behalf of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and trans-gender people. While I believe the group has Christian roots (I think it was founded by Mel White), technically I do not believe they claim to be a Christian organization. The Equality ride is a bus tour that visits Christian college campuses in order to challenge what are believed to be unjust policies toward GLBT individuals. But the main focus of thier campaign is to dialouge with Christians about the issue of homoseuxality.

The issue of homosexuality is both controversial and complicated. There are so many factors that influence how people percieve the issue. This visit forced the Dordt community to move the issue from the abstract to the concrete. It's one thing to talk about it in the context of a classroom, constructing "homosexuals" into some type of artifical abstraction. But to come face to face with a real person, to talk to them, and interact with them, changes things. A friend and I were able to talk with a couple of members of the Soulforce team in a local coffee shop the Friday after they visited. It was a good conversation. We disagreed about some things...but I think we found some very important common ground.

The gospel of Luke does not allow us to turn a blind eye to the plight of the homosexual community. Throughout Luke's gospel, Jesus redraws the social boundaries and structures as he ministers to those who have been excluded. Luke's birth account establishes Jesus' place amongst the excluded - he is the ultimate outcast, forced to be born amongst the stink of livestock, because there was "no room in the inn". In Luke 4, Jesus defines his own ministry in the context of Jubilee. He has come to set the captives free - to proclaim the Year of the Lord's favor...to break down the barriers that keep people on the outside, and bring them home. Read through the gospel and you see Jesus touches the lepers, he eats with sinners and tax collectors, he allows women to sit at his feet and learn (the Mary and Martha story); everywhere he goes he challenges the status quo and aligns himself with the oppressed. He proclaims a new order - a new Kingdom - the Kingdom of God, and throws the doors of His royal banquet wide open so all may come and eat at the table.

Regardless of how we view homsexuality Luke's gospel does not allow us to shut the door on our homosexual brothers and sisters. We don't have to agree with them...but we had better be ready to love them. We had better be ready to stand alongside of them and advocate for them in the face of oppression and exlcusion. We had better be ready to proclaim the good news of the gospel - that the grace of God does not depend upon our sexual orientation. The grace of God in Jesus Christ comes to all of us - broken and inwardly turned - in order to make us new creations.

Youth Ministry as Truth Telling

In the book Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon give an assessment of the Christ and Culture problem. From their perspective, the church tends to fall off on either side. We either withdraw from the world content to let it all "go to hell", or we accommodate ourselves so much to the prevailing cultural winds, the gospel is no longer recognizable. Resident Aliens calls us to a different way - the way of being the Christian community. A community within which our identity is formed by the Christ event, and the Biblical testimony concerning that event. But this community does not exist for itself...it must never become an inwardly turned community. The Christian community exists for the world...to remind the world who it really is, and who it will one day once again will be. This is what it means to proclaim the Kingdom of God.

I am using this book with Youth Ministry students, trying to help them grapple with the essence of Christian Youth Ministry. So many youth ministry programs want to meet the needs of young people - emotional, relational, sometimes even physical needs. What else can we expect from a consumer culture? EVERYTHING is about meeting my needs. Maybe we are asking the wrong things from our youth leaders. The last thing young people need is another person to give them strokes, to tell them how great they are, to tell them they can and should do anything they want to. Maybe what they need are people who will tell them the truth. People who will help them question, discern, and probe the culture that is coming at them. People who are more interested in helping them remember who they are; leaders who are more interested in helping them form a Christian identity rooted in the scriptures and born out in Christian community. After all, isn't this what Christian ministry is about? Prophetically proclaiming the new reality that has come upon us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ...not the affirmation of the way things are.

Is this easier said then done? Of course...but most things worth doing are.