Sermon for January 25th, 2015
Contents
Psalm 139:7-14
7Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? 8If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. 11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” 12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
Hebrews 1:1-2
1Long ago God spoke to our fathers in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created all worlds.
Faith & Film III: The Lego Movie
Three Minute Film Summary
The film begins with a prophecy. The prophet (or wizard) Vitruvius attempts to stop the evil Lord Business from acquiring a super-weapon named "The Kragle." When Vitruvius fails to stop Lord Business, he prophesies that someday, a person called "the Special" will find the Piece of Resistance capable of stopping the Kragle.
Eight and a half years later, we meet a simple construction worker named Emmet Brickowski. There appears to be nothing "special" about Emmet, and like most people in Legoland, he leads an ordinary life, and loves to follow the instructions. Until one day at work on his contruction site, he falls down a hole and discovers the Piece of Resistance. Compelled to touch it, Emmet experiences vivid visions and passes out. He awakens with the Piece of Resistance attached to his back in the custody of Bad Cop, Lord Business' henchman. There, Emmet learns of Lord Business' plans to freeze the world with the Kragle, (which is actually a tube of Krazy Glue with the label partially rubbed out).
Eventually, Emmet is rescued by a group of Master Builders, led by Vitruvius. Master Builders are lego characters capable of building anything they need without instruction manuals. They travel accross all the different Lego worlds, opposing Lord Business' attempts to suppress their creativity. And they are hopeful that Emmet might be the long awaited special. Hopeful, but also skeptical, and then disappointed when Emmet turns out to be about as ordinary as they come.
Nevertheless, after a few dramatic plot twists, Emmet comes up with a plan to infiltrate Business' headquarters and disarm the Kragle. His plan fails, he and his allies are captured, and Vitruvius is killed by Lord Business, who reveals to Emmet in his dying breaths that the prophecy was something he made up. At this point, just when defeat seems inevitable, Emmet makes a last, desperate sacrifice of his own life, saving his friends in the process.
He wakes up in the real world (our world), where the events of the story are being played out in a basement by a boy named Finn, on his father's Lego set. The father—revealed as "the Man Upstairs"—chastises his son for ruining the set by creating hodgepodges of different playsets, and proceeds to permanently glue his perceived perfect creations together. Realizing the danger his friends are in, Emmet wills himself to move and gains Finn's attention. Finn returns Emmet and the Piece of Resistance to the set, where Emmet now possesses the powers of a Master Builder and confronts Business. Meanwhile, Finn's father looks at his son's creations and realizes that Finn had based the villainous Business on him. Through a speech Emmet gives Business, Finn tells his father that he is special and has the power to change everything. Finn's father reconciles with his son, which plays out as Business having a change of heart, capping the Kragle with the Piece of Resistance, and ungluing his victims with mineral spirits. As a result of the father allowing Finn's younger sister to join them in playing with his Lego sets, aliens from the planet Duplo beam down and announce their plans to destroy everyone.
Obligatory Christ Type
You Are Special
"The prophecy states that you are the most important, most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe."
