Tim Basselin - July 10, 2016
Fight Club
We don't like pain. In fact, our culture is filled with systems and structures that shield us from pain. The Church isn't exempt - we want to skip straight from the cross to the empty tomb. But the film FIGHT CLUB insists that pain is good, that pain invites us to stop and consider how we participate in injustice. How can we embrace the pain in our lives, and how might we find the Spirit at work in the midst of our pain to bring resurrection?
From Series: "Top 10: Movies"
Star Wars. Avatar. Up. When a story resonates with so many people it becomes a blockbuster, we should ask, "Why? What is it about this film that resonates with us?" People of faith can gain a window into desires of our culture, and we can discover how the Spirit is at work, that we might join in!
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I’m a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and I usually begin my classes with a devotional. Sometimes we pray for one another. Sometimes we talk about a piece of art or a poem. In choosing a devotional, I try to be sensitive to where my students are–maybe they’re feeling the pressure of the end of a semester or maybe something is occupying our cultural attention, like Houston and then Florida and the Peurto Rico and then Vegas. I try to create a space where we can at least speak these things out into the open.
Two and a half years ago I entered class with this intention. I pulled up a couple of news stories just to lay out the facts from the weekend. As I began to list some details, 21 Coptic Christians kneeling on a beach in Libya, executioners standing behind them with swords, I began to cry. I had been reading about this for a few days. I had been praying for the families affected and for the Coptic church.
Suddenly, speaking it aloud in my class, these kneeling men became my brothers and I began to lament.
This lamenting meant a couple of things. First, it was a dignifying of their humanity and a return of mine. It’s very difficult in an age of constant news to feel the humanity of disasters or evil actions around the world. We’re not built for constant grief. But this weeping also meant I had some serious questions for God. These 21, faithfully serving, choosing death over a denial of Christ! And yet it seemed like God was denying them. Is this the God I want to serve?
Today we’re introducing a new series on lament. Maybe you’ve had times where you have experienced disasters in your life that made you question God. Or maybe you’ve avoided some difficult questions and feelings about disasters, because you fear everything will come crashing down if you begin to question. If so, you’re not alone. We have built a society, and often even our religion, that tries to avoid pain at any cost.
