The Minister’s Movie Moment

After what seemed like interminable months, winter finally gave way to spring.  We’ve had a few delightfully warm, sunny days as well as some chilly, rainy spells.  Finally, there are leaves on the trees, flowers are blooming and the robins, red wing blackbirds and goldfinches have returned.  Can summer be far behind?

I know that summer is on its way, because the new action-movie season has begun.  “Black Panther” opened last month, “Avengers: Infinity War” premiers this Friday, followed by actions blockbusters like “Tomb Raider”, “Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom”, “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”  Not to be outdone, “Ocean’s 8” premiers with an all-female cast of felons.  It’s going to be a great summer for movies!

As we look forward to sampling this summer’s smorgasbord of rip-snorting, hero-laden, special effects extravaganzas, we realize that what makes them all so satisfying is a shared underlying theme (besides the popcorn we’ll indulge in): Good will triumph over evil.  There’s no mistaking it; all of these wonderful offerings serve up liberal doses of good guys and really bad guys. We can’t wait to cheer for Ryan Reynolds as Merc and his superhero buddies in “Deadpool 2” as they take on yet another panoply of evildoers to once again save the day.  As we cheer our heroes on we realize that a big part of why we enjoy these movies so much is their presentation of good triumphing over evil.

Would that life were so simple; wouldn’t it be great if we could recognize good and evil so clearly when they appear on the stage that is our lives?  Wouldn’t it be nice if with a super hero slash of our sword we could cut down evil before it touched our lives in any way?  The problem is life isn’t black and white; choices we make that seem innocuous or benign may turn out to be harmful to ourselves or others.  Conversely, decisions that seem small may bring great good into our lives and the lives of our families, our communities and our world.  As we live our lives before God, we prayerfully consider all our decisions, trying to weigh what will cause benefit rather than harm, both right now and in the long run.

We live in a complicated world; we are constantly presented with choices we must make – tough and not so tough.  No wonder we look forward to movies that allow us to cheer for good guys, boo at bad guys, and leave all the tough decisions in our lives at the door to the Cineplex for a while. So, bring on the summer!  Pass the popcorn!  The world can wait for a couple of hours while we cheer on our heroes and heroines as good triumphs over evil once again!

Faithfully,