The Neutral Zone Participle Vision Quest - Day 21
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs." (Exodus 8:2)
The book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us."
A new person in my life asked the other day how we can be salt of the earth without being too salty. Good question. Perhaps what she's asking has to do with being in the world, but not of the world. Christians have wrestled with that one since the days of Peter and John and Paul.
Me, I tend to err on the side of knowing culture well enough to be conversant. But I enjoy it. I really do. I don't listen to rock and roll in order to achieve an evangelism endgame with my fellow guitar players. I just like it.
It's a thin line, I know.
Nowhere is that thin line more apparent to me than when I watch the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, particularly Magnolia and There Will Be Blood. Both movies have very similar themes, if not the same exact ones. Both movies invite us to struggle with the characters as they struggle to figure out family. It is obvious the more I watch these two movies that PT has some serious issues with his dad.
The unexpected byproduct of Magnolia and There Will Be Blood is the gratuitous theology. In spite of the way Magnolia uses the "F" word every few seconds--(and yes, it is a very R rated movie)--also throughout the movie are references to the book of Exodus. The big one is the scene when it rains frogs. Strange, to be sure. But it did happen.
Remember when we were in captivity in Egypt, and we prayed to God to set us free. Let us go home. What did God do? Frogs. And then we went home. Set free. In Magnolia, it's the children of bad parents who are set free in the end. And after it rains, all of the cussing stops, and there is only caring and forgiveness and a simple request from a son to his father: "Dad, you need to be nicer to me."
Same thing happens in There Will Be Blood. Not the frogs; this time it's oil. More gratuitous theology, particularly by a Pentecostal preacher who has a bad relationship with his dad. He tries to minister to the other bad dad in the film. But in the end, the preacher is a charlatan, and so is everyone else for that matter. And the son is set free of his father in the end, even though in a very sad way. But as PT holds up the celluloid mirror to us as we sit and watch, his challenge is pointed directly at those in the theatre seats: Are we greedy charlatans; or do we love God and love our neighbor because that's what we are called to do and be, not as an endgame, but because that's who we are created to become throughout our lives?
We sit there watching as Paul Thomas Anderson unfolds for us this strange relationship we all have with a God we want to know so desperately, even when our difficult relationships from our past interfere with our heart's desires to be genuine followers of Christ and servants of one another. He motivates us to question ourselves like a good preacher who has the audacity to ask what stands in the way of your walk with Christ. And yes, we preachers ask that of ourselves all the time.
What stands in the way?
Rainer Maria Rilka said our fears are like dragons standing guard before what we treasure most.
