family stuff/pastoral stuff/a movie
It is a quiet Friday evening in Advent, the flurry of parties having passed, the Lessons and Carols service coming this Sunday (Advent III, Joy), and thus no sermon to prepare this week (!), and then the week leading to Christmas Eve, falling on a Sunday this year. Our older daughter returns from college tomorrow (yeah), our younger daughter is at the movies...it is quiet.
Tomorrow evening a young man named Jacques from Haiti comes to live with us, as he begins his studies at Central Piedmont Community College. We have known Jacques through our church's medical work in northern Haiti (see the links to the right), and we are excited that he will join our family and pursue his dream of a college education. Jacques, or Jack, is one of the translators for the medical teams that serve in Cap Haitien, and some in our church have known him all of his life. The Christian life is an adventure, for Jack and for us, but we sense that this is something good. We are excited...stay tuned!
My wife and I went to see The Queen earlier in the week. It is a plausible/fictional retelling of the response of the Royal Family in England to the death of Princess Diana. It is a movie about traditions, and how they can become divorced from the yearnings of the people; it is a story about privilege, and the insulation that can lead to strange behaviors; it is also a tale of leadership, particularly in the actions of Tony Blair, recently elected Prime Minister. A couple of scenes in the film are especially poignant: Elizabeth is able to muster compassion for a deer that has been killed by a hunter, but cannot find any depth of feeling for the deceased mother of her grandchildren. And in another moment, she warns Tony Blair that the people will turn on him, at some point, in the same way they have turned on her. One thinks of Blair's embrace of the war in Iraq, a position that severed him from the yearnings of the masses of England.
There are learnings in this movie for anyone in a position of leadership, especially leadership in the church. When Blair appeals to the Queen to come down to London, to become engaged in the experience of the people, to help them in their grief, one thinks of a God who who leaves heaven, who enters into the human race in the form of a child who will become a King, and yet who will know great suffering. And one thinks of the ordinary call that comes to a pastor---as it did in our church this week---to meet with two adult daughters in the death of their father.
I am behind in attending movies, of late---I hope to correct this omission after Christmas---but I do recommend The Queen.
Tomorrow evening a young man named Jacques from Haiti comes to live with us, as he begins his studies at Central Piedmont Community College. We have known Jacques through our church's medical work in northern Haiti (see the links to the right), and we are excited that he will join our family and pursue his dream of a college education. Jacques, or Jack, is one of the translators for the medical teams that serve in Cap Haitien, and some in our church have known him all of his life. The Christian life is an adventure, for Jack and for us, but we sense that this is something good. We are excited...stay tuned!
My wife and I went to see The Queen earlier in the week. It is a plausible/fictional retelling of the response of the Royal Family in England to the death of Princess Diana. It is a movie about traditions, and how they can become divorced from the yearnings of the people; it is a story about privilege, and the insulation that can lead to strange behaviors; it is also a tale of leadership, particularly in the actions of Tony Blair, recently elected Prime Minister. A couple of scenes in the film are especially poignant: Elizabeth is able to muster compassion for a deer that has been killed by a hunter, but cannot find any depth of feeling for the deceased mother of her grandchildren. And in another moment, she warns Tony Blair that the people will turn on him, at some point, in the same way they have turned on her. One thinks of Blair's embrace of the war in Iraq, a position that severed him from the yearnings of the masses of England.
There are learnings in this movie for anyone in a position of leadership, especially leadership in the church. When Blair appeals to the Queen to come down to London, to become engaged in the experience of the people, to help them in their grief, one thinks of a God who who leaves heaven, who enters into the human race in the form of a child who will become a King, and yet who will know great suffering. And one thinks of the ordinary call that comes to a pastor---as it did in our church this week---to meet with two adult daughters in the death of their father.
I am behind in attending movies, of late---I hope to correct this omission after Christmas---but I do recommend The Queen.
posted by Ken Carter at 5:35 PM
Carter's Roost
1 Comments:
I was surprised by just how much I liked The Queen .. I knew Helen Mirren, but the interaction between the two leaders, as you pointed out, was very revealing
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