Difference between revisions of "Sermon for February 4th, 2024"

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Genesis 1:26-27 (OT p.1)

26 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Romans 9:20-21, 25-26 (NT p.159)

20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?

25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” 26 “And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called children of the living God.”

Faith & Film XII: Barbie

[Film Clip #1: Trailer]

Three Minute Film Summary

Barbie opens with an homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey. Instead of primitive man playing with sticks and rocks, learning how to use them as tools (in the presence of a mysterious black monolith), and then using them to destroy each other... In Barbie, you have the same ancient scene, but with little girls playing with baby dolls. The narrator suggests that as long as the dolls were only babies, girls could only play at being mothers. But when a giant, monolithic Barbie Doll arrives on the scene... the little girls are entranced, and they begin to violently destroy their baby dolls, thereby breaking the chains of motherhood (at least as their sole option). Since Barbie dolls could be anything, the logic goes, so now could little girls.

Fast forward to present day Barbie Land--where all the barbies live in wonderful harmony, in beautiful plastic houses, doing whatever they enjoy doing--flying planes, being president, receiving Nobel prizes, or...in the case of our protagonist "stereotypical Barbie," throwing amazing dance parties and having slumber parties every night.

There are men, too in Barbie Land--all of them variations on the Ken doll--but while Barbie has a good day everyday, we are told that Ken only has a good day when Barbie notices him. Ken lives to dote on Barbie, but Barbie doesn't seem any more interested in Ken than she is in her house, her car, or various other accessories.

Things are perfect in Barbie Land (for the Barbies, not so much for the Kens), until Stereotypical Barbie begins to experience irrepressible thoughts of death, and cellulite, and flat feet, and things just plain going wrong. She visits "Weird Barbie" who functions a lot like the Biblical Prophets, living apart from society, but dispensing wisdom in strange and discomforting ways. Weird Barbie convinces Stereotypical Barbie that in order to return her life to is usual plastic perfection, she must travel to the "Real World" find the girl who is playing with her, and help her to cope with whatever fear, sadness, or anxiety she has that is bleeding over into Barbie Land.

Ken tags along for the journey, and in the process the meet some interesting people, they make profound discoveries about the "real world" and about themselves. When they return to Barbie Land, there is an epic showdown between the Barbies and the Kens--I won't tell you how it ends, but I will tell you that at the end, Barbie makes the decision to leave Barbie Land behind for the real world, with all its flaws and imperfections--to become a "real woman." Ken stays behind, but he too must decide what it means to be a "real man," his own person, apart from Barbie.

What Does It Mean to Be a Woman?

I have admitted to several of you that I was nervous at the idea of preaching on this film. I realized months ago that it was stirring up incredibly strong emotions for women across the country, and as a male, there are viewpoints represented here that I probably will never be able to experience, comprehend, or fully appreciate. Like, for example, this:

[Film Clip: Impossible to Be a Woman]

Of course, this is a huge part of why we do this sermon series every year: If 50% of the population are really resonating with something--an idea, a concept, a cultural moment--it's probably a good idea for the other 50% to at least sit up, listen and take note. This is true of gender, race, generation, class, and politics in our highly polarized world today. When I just now said "politics" I wonder how many of you instantly thought, "Yeah, THOSE Republicans need to listen to US Democrats" (or the other way around). Because that's not really what I meant.

Everyone wants to be heard, but we don't always want to listen--especially if we think we might not like what we're going to hear. I'd rather you ask the question, "Am I listening carefully to the voices of people who are not like me, who have different experiences and different perspectives?" Am I listening generously, with an open mind, not ready to to pounce and judge, but eager to understand and find common ground?

"Barbie" actually does a good job of this: It's first and foremost a film celebrating women, and exploring what it means to be a woman--but it also makes room at the table for men, inviting them to ask the same questions of themselves. And in looking at all the films that came out this year (not just the ones in our series) that seems to be a question we are ALL quite preoccupied with at the moment: What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a man?

Adam & Eve in the Garden

Greta Gerwig, the writer and director of this film, has stated in several interviews that her Catholic School upbringing influenced her take on this film. Before she wrote a single word of the script, she wrote an abstract poem to guide her, based on the Apostle's Creed. What's more, she has outright told us that it's the Genesis story from the Bible, but with reversed roles: Barbie (like Adam) was created first, and then Ken (like Eve) was created to be her companion. They live in a plastic "Garden of Eden" until Barbie's begins to have forbidden thoughts, and her increasing sense of self-awareness makes it impossible for them to remain. (think Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and realizing that they are naked and ashamed).

Meeting Your Maker

When Barbie is in the real world, she winds up at the corporate headquarters for Mattel, the toy company that makes Barbie. And in the clip we're about to see, she runs into a little old woman--who we later learn is Ruth Handler, the woman who invented Barbie. So basically, this is Barbie meeting her maker.

[Film Clip: Divine-Human Touch]

Notice how quaint, traditional, and un-Barbie-like Ruth Handler is... and yet she clearly loves her creation, imperfections and all. That's how God loves us--despite our flaws, our sinfulness, our inability to get even the simplest things right (like drinking tea!). It's worth noting here that despite the Bible's origins in a very Patriarchal time and place, the scriptures are full of feminine descriptions of God, like when Jesus compares himself to a mother hen, gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them.

What Were We Made For?

Near the end of the film, Barbie asks her creator (Ruth) if she can become human, a "real person." Ruth talks about her own daughter, and motherhood, then gives Barbie a glimpse of what it's like to be truly human. Watch the clip, and pay attention to what's in that "real human" montage that's missing in Barbie Land:

[Film Clip: What Was I Made For?]

At the very end of that clip, Barbie says, emphatically, "Yes" and I think this is a sort of conversion experience. When we align ourselves with our creator, with our divine purpose, and what we were made for...we become co-creators with God, in whose image we were made. The montage begins with a mother feeding her child, then parents playing with their children, then children playing with each other, then family birthdays and family parties, weddings, old couples dancing together. There were no airplanes, no cars or mansions, no presidents, doctors, or Nobel prizes--just a lot of family, a lot of community, a lot of love.

Barbie dolls promise young girls they can be whomever they want to be; they can have whatever they want to have. And that's important, for awhile, to a certain extent. But I suspect that most girls (and most boys, for that matter) when they have lived out their years, and when the end draws close--in their final moments they will not be thinking about what their careers were, or what possessions they had. No. They'll be thinking about who they loved in this life, and who loved them. That's what it means to be human. That's what we were made for: To love and be loved by our creator, and to love each other in turn.