Sermon for February 12th, 2023

John 15:12-17 (NT p. 109)

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Faith & Film XI - Top Gun: Maverick

• [Film Clip #1 - Trailer (2:24)]

Three Minute Film Summary

Top Gun Maverick takes place a little over thirty years after the events of the original Top Gun Film. Pete Mitchell, known by his call sign "Maverick" is now a test pilot whose military career seems to have stalled. Although he has a long list of achievements, he also has a long pattern of defying orders, getting in trouble, and then getting bailed out by his long-time friend and former rival, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (now Admiral Kazansky).

When this pattern repeats itself at the beginning of the film, Iceman recalls Maverick to to the Top Gun school where they first met. This time, his task is to train a group of young pilots (all recent graduates of the Top Gun program) for a dangerous mission over enemy territory. Among the young pilots is Bradley Bradshaw (call-sign Rooster) who is the son of Maverick's best friend and co-pilot Goose, who tragically died in the first film.

The heart of the film centers on the strained father-son-type relationship between Maverick and Rooster, the grueling challenges faced by the pilots as they train, and Maverick's struggle to let go of the past and face an ever-changing future with courage, humility, and grace. Well...that and some pretty harrowing flight maneuvers, lots of explosions, things going really fast, beach football, great one-liners, and...sunglasses.

Love of Country, Love of God

Patriotism has fallen on hard times the last decade or so. So it's refreshing to see a Hollywood blockbuster that celebrates the love of one's country and a willingness to defend it. I also like how this film doesn't feel the need to denigrate any other country in order to lift up our own--the "enemy" referenced in the film is never named or identified, because it doesn't really matter that much in the end.

In the bible, love for God always comes first, before anything else. But if you read the Psalms, you find that love for one's country comes in as a pretty strong second place. There are more psalms about Zion and Jerusalem than almost any other kind. The Psalmist will ask God to bless his homeland, to protect it, to avenge it, to restore it, or sometimes he'll just sing about how beautiful it is, and how much he misses it. It's okay for us to do the same.

This is Your Savior Speaking

Is there a Christ type in this film? Well, kind of? Maverick appears to die on a couple of occasions, and then almost miraculously comes back to life. He challenges authority and breaks the traditional rules, just like Jesus was known to do. And Maverick, also like Jesus, has disciples--his students that he leads, loves, and teaches. BUT...that said, I think this is a movie about valiant self-sacrifice, and so everyone gets to play savior to some extent, almost to comical effect.

[Film Clip #2 - I Saved Your Life (0:50)]

So Maverick saves Rooster; Rooster saves Maverick, and then just a little while later when they're both in trouble...

[Film Clip #3 - This Is Your Savior (0:48)]

No Greater Love

Jesus tells his disciples in John 15 that there is no greater love than this: to lay down your life for a friend. Self-sacrifice is at the heart of this film, and in fact, it's what makes this film different (and better) than the original Top Gun movie. In the original, Maverick's tendency to disobey orders and get in trouble was all in service to himself, to his own pride. That tendency hasn't changed in 30 years, but the motivation behind it has. This clip is from the beginning of the film, when an Admiral is threatening to shut down a program that supports many people:

[Film Clip #4 - Darkstar (1:12)]

And then later, when he meets with his friend, Iceman (Admiral Kazansky) we see the same kind of self-sacrifice, even when, like Jesus going to the cross, Maverick knows that he must make the difficult decision.

[Film Clip #5 - Send Me (0:34)]

Faith & Film: Epilogue

I do this series every year because sometimes (more often than you'd expect) our real lives intersect and intertwine with the films that we watch, sometimes over the course of 30 years.

I watched the original Top Gun movie in 1986 when it came out in theaters. I watched it several times, and like just about every other kid my age, I immediately decided I wanted to be a fighter pilot. My dad was a Navy veteran, and my mom was an Army officer, so they both set me straight pretty quickly about how I'd need to do really well in Math and Science in order to realize that dream. And that killed it. Almost. My new plan was to inspire my little sister, Emily, (who WAS good in math and science) to want to be a pilot, and then live vicariously through her. And that plan was a lot more successful.

Emily was accepted into the United States Air Force Academy, and when she graduated, she was admitted to pilot training. As a young officer, she flew the KC-10 on deployment in the Middle East, and then came home to train pilots as a flight instructor. Somewhere along the way, she met Mark Jennings, an F-16 pilot who flew in Iraq, and patrolled our own skies on September 11th, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Mark and Emily got married in August of 2008, and moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey--just 30 minutes away from me and Amy in Princeton, New Jersey, where I was starting seminary. Our two families made a lot of memories together during those days. Mark and Emily, both still flying, were like characters straight out of a Top Gun movie (only with fewer issues).

And then, just a few months after their first anniversary, Mark was hit by a runaway car while he was pruning a tree in his front yard, and he died. A few weeks after that, Emily discovered that she was pregnant. My niece, Katie, never got to meet her father, and my youngest son, Jonah, never got to meet his uncle Mark. Katie and Jonah, for what it's worth, are peas in a pod, BFF cousins, and major trouble whenever they are together.

So this Christmas, we sat the two of them down with all the family, and they watched the original Top Gun movie, both for the first time. Then we went to the theater and watched Top Gun Maverick. I got to watch them watching these movies in wide-eyed delight. I got to say to my niece, "yeah--that's what your dad did. That's what your mom does. Yeah, it IS super cool. And you should be so proud of both of them, just like I am.

It all started with a movie. A movie that captured a moment, and a mood, and a profession, and probably got a few things wrong, but certainly got a lot of things right. That story inspired an entire generation, now two generations, with an ideal of service and sacrifice, of competition and camaraderie.

Those ideals, those virtues don't originate from the movies themselves. They come from the God who created all good things. But the very best films are the ones that remind us of those virtues, that remind us who we are and what we aspire to be; the stories we keep coming back to over and over again, even though we can't always explain why.

The apostle Paul put it this way in his letter to the Philippians. He said: Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

And maybe look for them on the big screen, too!