Sermon for February 18th, 2018
Contents
John 10:11-18
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
Faith & Film VI: Dunkirk / Darkest Hour
Three? Minute Film Synopsis(es)
Both of these tremendous films tell the same historical story, from different perspectives, from different sides of the English channel: the events of and leading up to the evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk in May of 1940 at the beginning of World War II.
The Darkest Hour begins with Winston Churchill's ascension to the position of Prime Minister in England--a position which no one else wanted at the time, and which no one thought Churchill particularly well-suited for. At one point, he tells his wife, "I’m getting the job only because the ship is sinking. It’s not a gift, it’s revenge."
Nevertheless, Churchill shows courage and resolve at a time when Britain's army faces near-certain defeat, and resists the call to begin "peace talks" (meaning, surrender to the Nazis).
The film Dunkirk, meanwhile, tells the story of those British forces, surrounded on all sides by the German Army. The film unfolds on three fronts: In the air, on sea, and on land. We see the heroic bravery of fighter pilots who continue to fight even when their fuel reserves run out, of civilians who pilot small boats across the channel to bring soldiers home, and the soldiers themselves as they wait anxiously and under fire on the beaches of Dunkirk in France.
Both films end with the successful evacuation of the British Army, and Churchill's famous speech promising that "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
Powerful Words, Powerful Silence
Despite both films ending with that famous speech, both take entirely different approaches to the use of words.
The Darkest Hour spends a great deal of time emphasising Churchill's skill as a wordsmith, and we see countless scenes of him writing, dictating, revising, and delivering his words. One of the best lines of the entire film comes at the very end, right after he has delivered his famous and stirring "on the beaches" speech. As the entire British Parliament rises in a standing ovation, someone asks Churchill's rival, Lord Halifax "what just happened?" Halfix responds that the prime minister "just mobilized the English language and sent it into battle."
Dunkirk, on the other hand, when it comes to the spoken word, is a study in minimalism. Just for fun, I downloaded the screenplay, cut out all the screen directions, and pasted the film's entire spoken dialog onto one page, single spaced, 12-pitch font. Christopher Nolan, the film's director, tells his story with striking images, with tense action, with jarring sound effects (including the sound of a ticking clock that fades in and out throughout the film) and often with a prolonged, eerie, uncomfortable silence.
Both of these approaches are powerful, and we find both echoed in scripture. Like Winston Churchill, Jesus was a dynamic public speaker, mobilizing crowds by the thousands with words that still resonate in our ears--the beatitudes, the sermon on the mount, the Lord's prayer, among them.
But there's also the story from 1 Kings, where we are told that the prophet Elijah hears God's voice not in the thunder, or the wind, the earthquake, or the fire...but in the silence that follows them. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that there is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence.
Divinity vs. Humanity
Growing up long after the history books had had plenty of time to process and weigh in on World War II, my enduring memory of Winston Churchill (and Great Britain) is this picture of him, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin that appears in a lot of textbooks. In the years since World War II, Churchill attained a legendary, larger-than-life status that borders on perfection. Gary Oldman, the actor who plays him in Darkest Hour, describes him as the most famous Englishman ever, and incomparable.
Joe Wright, the director of Darkest Hour, in an interview, talks about how most of the battle scenes in his film are depicted from high above, like you're seeing them on a map. He did this intentionally to emphasize how all the decisions were being made at a distance by these "godlike" figures (i.e. Winston Churchill).
By contrast, the film Dunkirk tells the story from the point of view of the soldiers, the pilots, the boat captains, the common, human, people who carried out their orders from on high. With the two films, we see both sides--divinity and humanity. And yet, it's not quite that simple.
The story of Dunkirk is often referred to as the "miracle" at Dunkirk, emphasizing a sense of divinity in the simple, brave actions of common people.
And The Darkest Hour is one of the first of many films about Winston Churchill to deliberately emphasize the human, fallible aspects of his personality. We see behind the powerful speeches to glimpse his doubts, his inner turmoil, his indecision.
- [http://youtube.com/watch?v=MRyq37Bcijw Film clip #?? - Imperfect
Where is it, in our own story, where the lines between perfect divinity and imperfect humanity become blurred and meet in one individual? This is, of course, in the person of Jesus, who was at once completely human--subject to pain, suffering, and death--and also completely divine, God incarnate, dwelling among us. This is also our own nature: We are fallible, fallen, human beings, painfully aware of our imperfections. And yet, we also bear within ourselves the Imago Dei, the perfect image of God, who created us and calls us to him.
The Good Shepherd
