Difference between revisions of "Sermon for January 5th, 2020"
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This man is Lloyd Vogel, a hard-hitting investigative journalist with a bad-boy reputation and a strained relationship with his father, who has been assigned the task of interviewing and writing a story about the "nicest man in the world." | This man is Lloyd Vogel, a hard-hitting investigative journalist with a bad-boy reputation and a strained relationship with his father, who has been assigned the task of interviewing and writing a story about the "nicest man in the world." | ||
| − | The film follows the development of their relationship, and its positive effect on Vogel's relationship with his father, his wife, and his own infant son. The character is loosely based on the real-life journalist Tom Junod, whose 1998 article on Mr. Rogers in Esquire magazine began a life-long friendship between the two and made a significant impact on | + | The film follows the development of their relationship, and its positive effect on Vogel's relationship with his father, his wife, and his own infant son, as he confronts the pain in his own childhood and learns how to love and forgive. The character is loosely based on the real-life journalist Tom Junod, whose 1998 article on Mr. Rogers in Esquire magazine began a life-long friendship between the two and made a significant impact on Junod's life and subsequent writing. |
====The Good Samaritan==== | ====The Good Samaritan==== | ||
| + | One of the reasons we do this series every year is to learn how to be "armchair theologians." You've probably heard the expression "armchair quarterback" in reference to football--someone who, although not a "professional" quarterback, still understands the game well enough to watch from the other side of the screen and recognize opportunities, strategies, and critical decisions that should (or shouldn't) be made. | ||
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| + | An armchair theologian is someone who can look at what's going on in the world--or on television, or in the movies--and recognize spiritual themes, messages, opportunities, then connect them to their own faith, and to their own study of the scriptures. | ||
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| + | One of the most famous stories that Jesus tells in scripture comes from the gospel of Luke, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Fred Rogers, as an ordained, seminary-educated Presbyterian minister would have been familiar with this story, and as someone whose entire message and philosophy was wrapped up in the concept of being a good neighbor, it shouldn't be lost on us that the parable of the Good Samaritan begins with the question, "who is my neighbor?" | ||
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| + | From start to finish, this film, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" functions like a modern day parable of the Good Samaritan, with Lloyd Vogel as the injured, wounded traveler, and Fred Rogers as the man who graciously takes him in, cares for his wounds, and shows him radical hospitality, setting him on the road to a life that is fully healed, fully whole. Watch in the following clip the first meeting between Fred Rogers and Lloyd Vogel, how Rogers, in the middle of filming his show, drops everything to embrace Vogel, notices his injury, and treats him like the most important person in the world. | ||
*[https://youtu.be/QuBQB_YKaFI Film Clip #?? - Nice to Meet You (0:55)] | *[https://youtu.be/QuBQB_YKaFI Film Clip #?? - Nice to Meet You (0:55)] | ||
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| + | In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan takes the wounded traveler to an inn and pays for his recuperation. In Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, when Vogel collapses on the set of Mr. Rogers' show, Fred Rogers takes him into his own home and lets him rest in his own bed while recovering. Later in the film, Mr. Rogers even makes a trip to visit Lloyd's dying father, acting as a pastor and a healer for Lloyd's internal wounds as well as his external ones. | ||
====Saints and Sinners==== | ====Saints and Sinners==== | ||
Revision as of 17:19, 4 January 2020
Contents
Luke 10:25-37 (NT p.71-72)
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Faith & Film VIII - A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Three Minute Film Synopsis
The film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, begins and ends just like every episode of the famous children's Television show, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood--with a kind man singing a song, speaking to us in simple language, inviting us to be his neighbor, while changing into (and then out) of a cardigan sweater and sneakers. But this film has been described as an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for adults, and its central character, Fred Rogers (played by Tom Hanks) is not the main character, not the protagonist of the film. Instead, Mr. Rogers introduces us to his "new friend" and shows the audience a picture of a man who is clearly injured, hurt on the outside but also with an expression that betrays a deep wound on the inside as well.
This man is Lloyd Vogel, a hard-hitting investigative journalist with a bad-boy reputation and a strained relationship with his father, who has been assigned the task of interviewing and writing a story about the "nicest man in the world."
The film follows the development of their relationship, and its positive effect on Vogel's relationship with his father, his wife, and his own infant son, as he confronts the pain in his own childhood and learns how to love and forgive. The character is loosely based on the real-life journalist Tom Junod, whose 1998 article on Mr. Rogers in Esquire magazine began a life-long friendship between the two and made a significant impact on Junod's life and subsequent writing.
The Good Samaritan
One of the reasons we do this series every year is to learn how to be "armchair theologians." You've probably heard the expression "armchair quarterback" in reference to football--someone who, although not a "professional" quarterback, still understands the game well enough to watch from the other side of the screen and recognize opportunities, strategies, and critical decisions that should (or shouldn't) be made.
An armchair theologian is someone who can look at what's going on in the world--or on television, or in the movies--and recognize spiritual themes, messages, opportunities, then connect them to their own faith, and to their own study of the scriptures.
One of the most famous stories that Jesus tells in scripture comes from the gospel of Luke, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Fred Rogers, as an ordained, seminary-educated Presbyterian minister would have been familiar with this story, and as someone whose entire message and philosophy was wrapped up in the concept of being a good neighbor, it shouldn't be lost on us that the parable of the Good Samaritan begins with the question, "who is my neighbor?"
From start to finish, this film, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" functions like a modern day parable of the Good Samaritan, with Lloyd Vogel as the injured, wounded traveler, and Fred Rogers as the man who graciously takes him in, cares for his wounds, and shows him radical hospitality, setting him on the road to a life that is fully healed, fully whole. Watch in the following clip the first meeting between Fred Rogers and Lloyd Vogel, how Rogers, in the middle of filming his show, drops everything to embrace Vogel, notices his injury, and treats him like the most important person in the world.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan takes the wounded traveler to an inn and pays for his recuperation. In Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, when Vogel collapses on the set of Mr. Rogers' show, Fred Rogers takes him into his own home and lets him rest in his own bed while recovering. Later in the film, Mr. Rogers even makes a trip to visit Lloyd's dying father, acting as a pastor and a healer for Lloyd's internal wounds as well as his external ones.
