This week the sign that Christmas is coming is the steady stream of Christmas movies on TV. My daughters return from college, set the DVR to record seemingly every Christmas movie, and then watch them continuously. I can move in and out of the TV room and pick up the plot in a second, even if it's a different movie. They all seem the same, at least on the Hallmark station. Either children are setting their parents up with a stranger, someone is bringing home the person pretending to be their boyfriend or girlfriend, or long lost family members are reunited.
What is your favorite Christmas movie? Does it have the perfect ending? Probably.
The prophet Zephaniah finishes the vision of what God is going to do by describing a time when "all those painful partings turned into reunions!” (The Message, Zephaniah 3: 20). When we turn to the biblical texts, the hopes for the coming of Christ involve more than fairy tale themes, they speak of God acting decisively to change the world and save God's people. The coming of Christ is not an excuse to escape the reality of the world, but the call to engage in God's saving work in the world.
I have lots of favorite Christmas movies. White Christmas with Bing Crosby singing and dancing his way into the heart of his woman and the climactic finish when she returns to join him on stage and it begins to snow, all the while saving the retired general's business at the inn. We always watch Christmas Vacation at some point during the holidays as Chevy Chase entertains us and follow the adventures of the young boy Kevin in Home Alone. I might watch It's a Wonderful Life at some point and sneak a peek at the action-filled Bruce Willis Diehard Christmas movies (my daughters won't join me for the action movies). We generally do not watch animated movies, which rules out watching The Grinch, Frosty, or Rudolph. We also have not joined with the throngs of Clevelanders who watch In recent years we have watched This Christmas (note to potential viewers, it is R-rated for language and adult themes). It is less a fairy-tale than the story of a family dealing with issues such as infidelity, interracial marriage, broken relationships, and sibling rivalries. While panned by the critics, I find it a bit refreshing because it ends on a note of hope, but with some issues still unresolved. It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies, The Gathering, starring Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton. It is not longer shown each Christmas, and I have not been able to find it to purchase, except at an exorbitant price for a VHS collectible item. No wonder it is not shown every year -- it deals with dying, divorce, and broken relationships. It ends with hope, but no escape from the reality of life and death. The Christmas story as told in the gospels has themes of fear (the angels keep saying, "Do not be afraid") and death (remember King Herod tries to kill all the male babies out of fear of the newborn king). But, also the word of hope -- not inf the perfect fairy tale ending, but hope in the God who acts to redeem us, hope in the God who calls us to right relationship, the God who will turn our "painful partings into reunions."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment