Keeping it Reel: Shawshank Redemption

We are starting  fun new series called “Keeping it Reel”. It’s about living what we believe—living like Christ. As we move through this series we’re going to be talking about the different tenants of a life in Christ—forgiveness, reconciliation, sacrifice, inclusion, and justice.  And we’ll see parts of different movies that help us see what that looks like in real terms.  Today we are starting with something basic…if we are going to live like Jesus, we have to put our old sinful ways behind us, and be loving, kind and forgiving…and that starts with one another in the church. 

Our first movie is Shawshank Redemption…which is probably not the movie that would first come to mind for many of us…it’s about Shawshank prison and a couple of the inmates there.  It’s not a Christian community. They aren’t committed to following Jesus or living differently. But there is one inmate Andy Dufraine, who lives in such a way that he stands out among the others.  He lives with kindness, thoughtfulness, and selflessness, even under the worst circumstances—-false imprisonment dealing with all of the atrocities one might experience in prison. 

Ephesians 5:25-32

In a lot of ways, the thrust of this passage is pretty straight forward. It seems like it might hardly be worth our time—I mean, it’s not like there’s a hidden secret meaning or something. It’s direct—be good to each other and leave any of your bad habits or sinful ways in the past. 

            We can all be on board with that, right?  So then why is it worth our time?  Well, for these simple reasons:

1)       People are people—no matter the country or the century. 

2)       Living the life of Christ doesn’t come naturally.

            What I mean is this: the book of Ephesians was written as a letter to the church in Ephesus in the first century.  And even nearly 2000 years later, we in the church still struggle with the same kind of issues.  People are people. We are sinful and broken and even when we want to be like Jesus it can be hard.  And we need to remember to love, be kind, and forgive. 

            And yes, even Christians need those reminders.  We aren’t here because we are perfect. We’re here because we know we need help getting it right.  And it matters that we get it right together.  Our relationships serve as our witness.  Other people hear the words of Christ, the rules we are supposed to live by, and they look to us to see if we do it, to see if it matters, to see if it changes anything to follow this Jesus guy. And if what they see is hypocrisy, judgment, anger, and sin, then they’re probably going to doubt Jesus and his power to do something good in our world.

            It matters how we live our lives.  We have to live what we believe.  And if we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and if we believe that we are called to be like him, then we have to practice that in our daily living.  Now, we aren’t perfect. We’ve said that.  We know that.  We are going to fall short. We are going to get it wrong. We will have our days when we don’t look a whole lot like Jesus.  BUT, that doesn’t mean we should give up on trying.  Living our faith matters.  

            If we think about the movie, we think about the guys at Shawshank prison, and what might we expect?—each man for himself. We’ve heard about the violence, the corruption, the insider rings that happen in prisons, and certainly when you watch the movie, you’ll see there’s a healthy dose of that.  And yet, we also see something distinctively different in Andy Dufraine. Andy wants good things for the other guys in the prison. He spent 6 years writing letters to get money to fund a library. He helped 6 guys pass their high school equivalency test.  He helped the guards do their taxes and set up trusts for their kids.  His heart could have been hardened by prison or the abuses he endured, and yet generosity and kindness won out in Andy’s heart.  So, it hardly came as a surprise when Tommy Williams came and Andy offered to help him change from a life of crime, to something better.  Andy took the time to not just help Tommy pass his tests, but to teach him to reach starting with learning his letters.  He taught him to read. And he taught him his high school basics.  Tommy passed the test with a C+ average.  He’d been in and out of prison since he was 13, probably because he was illiterate and could’t hang with a school crowd, but Andy gave him the opportunity to change that, to have something different, to live a life worthy of his family, of something more. 

            In them, I see our calling—to be like Christ and care about other people, to help them through hard circumstances, to be just and fair in our actions, to care and help them, even when we don’t “have” to, and to give of ourselves for the benefit of others.  It matters how we live, not just for our sake, not just because we are “supposed” to, but because our actions have the potential to change the world, one person at a time.  

            I have another scene for us to watch, it’s Andy with his friend Red. They’ve been together at Shawshank for 10 years and learned to be there for each other.  Red had played the harmonica as a kid, but gave it up and certainly wasn’t playing at Shawshank.  When Andy pressed him and asked why, Red said it wasn’t worth it.  Andy contradicted him and said this is when it’s worth it the most…because it tells the prison that it can’t have all of you, that there is a life beyond those walls—it gives you hope. 

            Let’s watch. 

            These two men learned to share hope and life with each other.  They marked life’s moments…even if it was yet another rejection from the parole board, or a full decade of life in prison, but even if those aren’t milestones you might want, they were part of life inside and they learned to roll with it. 

            Andy Dufraine lived what he believed and in some ways it rubbed off on the other guys.  Now, he wasn’t under the best of circumstances, things weren’t exactly going his way…his wife cheated on him and was then murdered and he was convicted for it….he could have been consumed with anger and bitterness, but he chose not to be.  He chose something different.  That may not be our story, in fact it’s probably not, but we all have stuff that could harden and poison our hearts.  We have things that happen that spoil what we strive for and what we think we should have and we would be justified to be bitter about it, or we could leave the bitterness and keep focusing on who Jesus invites us to be.  We could be hope and life in our world, with each other. 

            It matters what we believe, but even more than that, it matters that we live what we believe.  If we believe in hope, we have to live hope. If we believe in forgiveness, we have to forgive. If we believe in second chances, we have to offer them, not just expect them for ourselves.  If we believe that following Jesus matters, then we have to act like it, we have to follow him and do what he asks, not just when it’s easy, not just when life is going our way, but as wholly and fully and often as we can. 

Triumphant Entry

A lot of people came when they heard that Jesus was there.  They also wanted to see Lazarus, because Jesus had raised him from the dead.  The next day a large crowd was in Jerusalem for Passover  When they heard that Jesus was coming for the festival, they took palm branches and went out to greet him.  They shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.  God bless the king of Israel.”

                                                                                          

The news of Lazarus being raised from the dead was pretty incredible and people were intrigued to get a look, both at the man who once was dead, and at the man who made it happen. 

​            Can you imagine meeting a man, who was walking around and eating with his friends, after being dead for 4 days?  Even his sisters were worried he was going to stink...can you imagine the curiosities of strangers?  What would he look like? What would he smell like?  Would he be healthy or sick? Look like life or look like death warmed over?  I'm pretty sure folks would have been lining up to see him.  And there was Jesus too....he'd be pretty cool to meet...after all he could bring people back from the dead.  

                As folks gathered for the Passover, I’m sure this story about Lazarus​ was then mixed and shared with the other stories…the ones of the other miracles…miracles of food, of healing, and of forgiveness. And it seems that people started to take hold of the hope and possibility of Jesus.  They wanted to believe. They wanted him to be something special and if others were behind

​ him​, maybe they should be too.  

So they ran to the streets, they picked up their palm branches, and they welcomed Jesus into the city. They celebrated him as a king. The​y​ shouted the ancient words of scripture: “Hosanna! Save us! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Holy is the one who is like David, who comes from his line, so that we might be led and saved from the Romans.  Hosanna! Save us Jesus!”  The people were excited and they were ready.  

Now, when we hear the story of the people on Palm Sunday, we often focus on them…what they did, and then how their tune changed later in the week. But today I want us to look at Jesus.  What was he experiencing that day?  Do you wonder if Jesus thought that maybe his story wouldn’t have to be what he believed would come to pass—that maybe the people did get it?  After all they were in the streets shouting Hosanna! And blessed be the one who comes in theme of the Lord.  Maybe they did see him for who he was—for what he’d come to do among them—for what God was doing.  I would think with celebration and acclamation Jesus probably enjoyed the moment—hopeful and joyful for the way people were responding to God’s work among them.  

But we know things didn’t stay so exuberant—not everyone was so joyful.  At the end of the day, the celebration ​of the palms ​was more hype and mob mentality than it was faithfulness and trust in God. 

 ​           That’s the bitter truth about people—we can be so flippant. We do what sounds good, what feels good, what’s popular. But we don’t always invest ourselves first. the crowds weren’t dedicated to Jesus.  Maybe they’d heard a story or two or maybe they came to use him—to see what he could do for them—but those were just surface things.  They didn’t know him. They didn’t get his work, his life, his ministry.  ​ The people did want God to do something....they wanted God to do what God had done before...to send a victor, a king, a conquerer who could take the Romans head on and kick them out of the promised land.  They wanted someone to restore what was, to bring back the past. 

​

But God doesn't go back to fix the past, God redeems it in the present and breathes new life into the future.  If we want to encounter God, we have to let go of what was, maybe with celebration or maybe with lament, but release our grip on the past so that we can move freely into the future God has designed.  ​

​                But the people weren't ready to let go.  They knew what they wanted from the past.  They knew what God had done before and so they looked for that.  Maybe Jesus could be like the former prophets...maybe he would restore Israel.  But Jesus wasn't there for the past, he was there for the present and the future.  He was focused on redeeming the present to free people to move into the future.  He was God at work among the people...just not like they anticipated, not like they remembered.  And so it was a challenge to see Jesus for who he really was, for what his ministry was for.  And the people didn't know him, they were committed​ and 

 so they were easily turned against him.

But ​Jesus  didn’t turn with them.  That’s the part that’s divine—even though the people were selfish, myopic, and uncommitted—Jesus wasn’t.  Jesus was loyal, invested, and dedicated to the bitter end—not for his sake but for theirs. He really did want the story to be different. He wanted people to invest in God, to see God at work among them, and to have hope when the world was against them.  And so he continued on…he pressed forward into the worst days of his life so he could change the worst days of our lives with hope, joy, and mercy.  

Jesus is the Way

5 Thomas said to Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. So how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father, too. But now you do know him, and you have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”
9 Jesus answered, “I have been with you a long time now. Do you still not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So why do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you don’t come from me, but the Father lives in me and does his own work.


One of the things I love about my job is the opportunity to reclaim and explain scripture.  

o   Too often it’s defined in black and white terms…but it’s not always so simple

·         I think we’ve heard this instead: You should be very troubled, because if you believe in God, but not me, you will be shut out of my Father’s house in heaven, where there are a few small rooms for the few who get it right.... Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, what about people who have never even heard of you? Will they go to heaven after they die?” Jesus said to him, “I am the only way to heaven, and the truth about me is the only truth that will get you to life after death. Not one person will go to heaven unless they personally understand and believe a clearly-defined message about me and personally and consciously ask me to come into their heart.”

·         That’s not the scripture.  That’s not what the Bible says. But that’s how people have interpreted it. So for a lot of us, when we hear this passage, we push back and say, I’m not going to read that scripture, or that isn’t the Bible that I read….

·         But much like most of the scriptures we’ve learned to skip over…this one deserves another look…

If you’ve been reading along with our 40 day study, you know that our author and many others struggle with this passage.  For a lot of years, by a lot of people, it’s been taken as a claim of truth and exclusivity in Christ that trumps all others. Meaning that if you don’t profess Christ with your lips…if you don’t claim him as your Lord and Savior, there is no heaven in your future.
A good number of us have heard, or had this passage interpreted in this way:
 
Now, that’s not what Bruce or ______ read, and it’s not what the Bible says, but it is what a lot of us have heard.  We’ve heard that Jesus is ruling people out, excluding them from the embrace of heaven unless they do x, y and z.  The challenge is, that that really isn’t what this passage is about.  This passage is answering a question, but the question isn’t “What about people of other religions?”  The question is “How do we follow you if we don’t know where you are going?”  Those are two very different questions.  To really understand, and trust, what Jesus says here, it’s important that we learn the crux of the passage.

Just like last week, Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples.  They are sharing a meal and Jesus is emphasizing the most important lessons of their time together before his betrayal and crucifixion.  This conversation is another part of that dialogue.  In the first part of this chapter Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them and that they know the way.

But Thomas, always thinking in real concrete terms says, “No  we don’t! We don’t even know where you are doing…how on earth could we know how to get there!?”

And, in essence, Jesus answers…you don’t need a map. You don’t need the name of a city. For “there” is not a place….it is a relationship….it is co-existence with God and the way to “there” is not by a process, or 12 steps, or 10 rules, but through the one who already has the relationship.  If they want to get “there”, then they need to look to Jesus and follow him.

To which Thomas would ask, “Follow him where?!  Where are we going?”  And Jesus would say, “Not follow me where but follow me how.”  It’s no longer about going from Galilee to Tiberias or from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.  It’s about following Jesus as an example and as a model. What matters is not where they walk, but how they live.  To follow Jesus as the way is to live and love like he did.
In their conversation Jesus tells the disciples they have had the opportunity to know the
Father and Phillip asks if they can just see God.  (Now, if you know anything about the scriptures, you know that’s not really something you want to ask for….anyone who ever sees God face to face dies.  Don’t ask to see God. God is too big, too magnificent, too much beyond our comprehension that it’s too much for us to handle.  We can’t bear to be face to face with God directly.  Don’t ask.)  Except, that Jesus says, you have seen God…you have seen God translated into human form. You have walked with him. You have shared meals with him. You have seen him heal the sick, and forgive the sinners. You have seen God, for you have seen me.  Jesus is God in the flesh….in a form we can see, and touch, and comprehend.  If we want to see the Father, if we want to understand God in who God is and how God acts, we need only look to Christ.  He is the embodiment of God.
That means if we want to see God, if we want to know God, if we want something tangible to hold onto about God…then we look to Jesus.  Seeing God face to face would still be too much for any of us.  BUT, Jesus is the revelation of God that makes it so that if we see him and understand him, then we can see and understand God.  And if we want to get close to God, then we need to get close to Jesus. And the way we do that is to live like Christ.

“Just trust me. Everything you need is in me. I will bring you to my Father’s house [whether that means heaven after death or the kingdom of God on earth]. ‘The way’ or ‘the truth’ or ‘the life’ aren’t things separate from me. I am these things, so you’ll find them in me! Whether or not you know what I’ve been talking about, if you know me, you know the Father, you know the way, you know the truth, you know the life.”

“The way is the truth, and the truth is the life, and the life is the truth, and the life is the way ... and all of these are found in me.”

“Guys,” he’s saying, “it’s not about knowing information, techniques, direc- tions, or instructions: it’s about knowing me, trusting me! Stay in relationship with me, abide in me, and I’ll get you to the place where you belong – the kingdom of God, knowing God, living in dynamic interactive relationship with God – the place that I’ve been telling you about from the begin- ning!” In this way, “I am the way ... there’s no other way apart from

me” is a restatement of reassurance: “Trust in God, trust also in me. Don’t let your hearts be troubled – trust me!”