As it is in Heaven

As it is in Heaven is a Swedish film about a famous composer who, after suffering health problems, decides to return to the village of his youth - a place he hasn't seen since the age of 9.  He buys the empty school building, sets up a piano, his violins, and a place to sleep.  The first person to "welcome" him was the village pastor - offering him a bible and invited him over to dinner.  As it turns out - the pastor becomes one of the primary antagonists - obsessed with sin and guilt.  The stranger, at the invitation of one of the locals who recognizes him, attends a church choir rehearsal session - and long story short - eventually agrees to become the church cantor and choir director.  The choir is made up of a cross section of the village - young, old, businessman, housewife, cognitive disability, pastor's wife - the list goes on.  As the movie progresses we find out they are all dealing significant issues and the music seems to draw out the passions and the hurts, turning choir practice into mass therapy sessions.

The film has something to say about what it means to be and do church.  On the one side is the dogmatic pastor obsessed with law and sin... and on the other the artistic choir director who, through music, opens members - as well as himself - up to life, love, and passion.  One of the more powerful scenes is a tense "conversation" between the pastor and his wife.  She, having come home from a church choir party filled with laughter and dancing, is confronted by her husband - who tells her to ask God for forgiveness.  She responds with an impassioned speech railing against sin and guilt and the propensity of the church, symbolized by her husband, to hold people captive through such things.

One scene seems to sum it up - the church is empty and mass is canceled, while many have gathered at the old school to sing and dance... in a very important sense to worship.  Once again I'm reminded of the work of Vattimo and Badiou who see in Christianity, Paul specifically, the possibility of freedom and new life.  They read Paul as a "rupture" with the status quo - breaking free from the cycle of law and violence into the event of the resurrection - the possibility of new beginning.  This, to me, is what this film is about - new beginning, life, what the church is supposed to be about as the community of the resurrected Christ.  See for yourself - I recommend the film.