Sermon for February 5th, 2023

Matthew 13:10-17

10 Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

‘You will indeed listen but never understand, and you will indeed look but never perceive. 15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, so that they might not look with their eyes, and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.’

16 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Faith & Film XI: The Fabelmans

• [Film Clip #1 - Trailer]

Three Minute Film Summary

If you've ever heard of a guy named Steven Spielberg, this is his story--in more ways than one. Not only is Spielberg the director of the film, hence the one telling us the story, the film is a slightly fictionalized version of his story, the story of his childhood and his family, and how he came to be interested in, well, telling stories through the medium of film.

The story begins when little Sammy Fabelman (that's Spielberg) goes with his parents to see his very first moving picture. He watches a train crash on the giant screen and feels every bit as out of control as the train itself. Later, his parents buy him a model train set for Hanukkah (the Fabelmans, like the Spielbergs, are Jewish). Instead of playing with the train cars, Sammy tells his mother, "I need to watch them crash," and she realizes that what he really needs is to process and understand his fear. So she lets him use his father's video camera to record the crash, over and over again, from every angle, behind the relative safety of the camera...and in the process he begins his filmmaking career.

As Sammy grows throughout the film, we see him recording everything, recreating his favorite movies and techniques from his favorite directors, and attempting to understand the world and the people around him. He uses his family, his friends, his scout troop as his productions become more elaborate. At the same time, his life becomes more complicated, his family moves several times to follow his father's career, his parents' marriage begins to fall apart, and he struggles to make sense of relationships at school and at home, always going back to the camera to see, shape, and understand his story from every angle.