Reflections-Coincidence: Bible, Film, and Sandy Hook

A biblical text; the reminder of the classic Sophia Loren film, and the terrible tragedy of all of those children and adults being senselessly slaughtered in Sandy Hook (Newtown, CT) have stimulated these thoughts.

First, I was working on the biblical readings for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (Luke 1:39-56).  I had decided to preach on this text.  I was well on the way to developing a sermon with the title, "Put Mary back into Christmas."  Obviously a play on the popular song putting Christ back into Christmas.

The biblical story focuses on the meeting of two women, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Mary, the teenager who is pregnant and from the "does anything good come out of Nazareth" hick town meets the older Elizabeth, the wife of a priest probably from a more upscale, well-to-do, sophisticated and educated background.  Luke's account focuses more on Mary than on Elizabeth.  But the story is built around the relationships of two women from dissimilar and similar circumstances.

Second, comes the Sophia Loren Italian film, "Two Women, English title." Loren won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Actress.  The story depicts a mother and teen age daughter's relationship during World War II.  The terror, rape, loss of home, and all of the atrocities of war bring ever more problems to these two women.  I do not think the film glorifies violence to women as a few have indicated.  It does depict how women are the victims of the powerful and ruthless but the focus is on the complexities of the relationships of two women who are related, certainly differently than Elizabeth and Mary.

Third, we have all been assaulted by the images--and suggestions of even more disturbing pictures--of violence perpetrated on the children and women teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.  The special bond between teacher and child, in more than half the cases little girls (in no way do I wish to diminish the little boys and the many male police and first responders) presents vivid pictures.  The relationships of teacher, predominantly women, and student in the face of the powerful aggressor with a bundle of guns and ammunition calls to mind the relationships of "two women."  Then there are the mother's of those children caught up in the aftermath of the violence.  Again there were the fathers with the same looks of horror as their wives.

Each of these sets of images calls to mind the beauty and fragility of human relationships.  Of course explicitly in the biblical account God has played a role.  That role is on the one hand miraculous but not without its own complications given a teenager who was probably ostracized by her community after becoming pregnant.  Playing behind the film and the current events at Newtown are the inevitable questions of where God is and why do these things happen. In the coincidental meeting for me of these three stories many questions are raised beyond the where and why.  The presence and absence, whether of God or another human being, the relationships in these stories call us forth to not just seek some singular meaning but to discover the web of meanings that are intertwined in our own self's presence and absence.  This Advent Season punctuated by the tragedies of war and especially by the elementary classroom deaths reminds us of the need to never let the other in these stories go unattended.         

Newtown and Christmas Bells

From a friend I was reminded of Longfellow's "Christmas Bells."  The second of the three stanzas below contains what many of us must feel this day after the terrible violence in Newtown, CT.  And we await for our neighbors and ourselves the feelings of the third stanza.  Our waiting must be active and not passive.  We have much to do to with regard to finding new ways to deal with the violence in our culture that interrupts like an earthquake even those places that seem so tranquil.

It was as if an earthquake rent 
The hearth-stones of a continent, 
    And made forlorn 
    The households born 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! 

And in despair I bowed my head; 
"There is no peace on earth," I said; 
    "For hate is strong, 
    And mocks the song 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; 
    The Wrong shall fail, 
    The Right prevail, 
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

"Christmas Bells," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Newtown, CT Tragedy

VIGIL FOR OUR NEIGHBORS IN NEWTOWN

DECEMBER 14, 2012  7:00 PM 

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

23 WILLOW STREET  MYSTIC, CT 06355 

All are invited to share the loss of so many in a senseless act of violence and to offer hope for the future.  

Elisabeth Von Trapp

 

For Elisabeth von Trapp, “the sounds of music “ are part of her earliest memories. Born and raised in Vermont, Elisabeth is the granddaughter of the legendary Maria and Baron von Trapp, whose story inspired The Sound of Music. Singing professionally since childhood, Elisabeth has enthralled audiences from European cathedrals to Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.

 

Inspired by her father Werner von Trapp’s guitar playing and singing, Elisabeth began taking piano lessons when she was eight and by the age of sixteen she was playing guitar and traveling the back roads of New England performing.

 

Building on her famed family’s passion for music, Elisabeth has created her own artistic style, at once ethereal and earthy, delicate and powerful. Listeners have likened her to Judy Collins and Loreena McKennitt. Critics have called her voice ...“ hauntingly clear “ “ joyfully expressive “ and “ simply beautiful.”

 

Elisabeth’s concert repertoire ranges from Bach to Broadway ... Schubert to Sting. With equal ease and eloquence she sings timeless wonders like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Favorite Things and Edelweiss, Lieder by Mozart, Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, soaring gospel tunes, pop classics like A Whiter Shade of Pale and her own stunning compositions.

 

Elisabeth’s music has been featured on National Public Radio, BBC-Radio, Japanese National Radio and CNN Spanish Radio. She has appeared on CBS’s Eye on People, ABC’s Good Morning America and BBC-TV.

 

No one leaves an Elisabeth von Trapp performance unchanged ... audiences of all ages are drawn by the promise of her famous name ... awed by the beauty of her voice and musical arrangements ... their hearts touched forever by the astonishing sound of her unique new music.

 

Come and join us for an enthralling concert.  A freewill offering of $10 per person is suggested.  Her cds will also be available for purchase.  Ten percent of all proceeds will go toward the mission of the First United Methodist Church to serve others in Mystic and around the world.

TAG AND BAKE SALE FRIDAY, OCT 12, 6-8 pm SATURDAY, OCT 13, 9 am - 1 pm First United Methodist Church 23 Willow Street Mystic, CT 06355                               SUPPORT CHURCH MISSIONS Delicious home baked goods Hand made items and those hard to find tag sale items Donations accepted now. Call the office 860 536 3394 or email office@firstumcmystic.org

Jesus and .......... :Small Fragment Evokes Big Story!

The small piece of papyrus above has come bounding into the news, even in small regional newspapers like The Day newspaper. On Sunday September 22, 2012, The Day ran an Associated Press piece from Jay Lindsay under the title, "Harvard not yet publishing finding that Jesus had wife."  I call these kinds of headlines and articles titillating.  The papyrus contains the incomplete line "Jesus said, my wife......"    This fragment could be followed by a host of verbs and objects that in no way complete a sentence or thought that even implies Jesus had a wife.  It is provocative and worth studying.

Karen King, an excellent scholar, read a paper at a conference in Rome that included the initial discussion of this new found piece of papyrus.  The fragment from an anonymous collector seems to be from the fourth century CE (AD).  So far no one has questioned the fragment's authenticity.  In no way was King's paper suggesting that this small piece of papyrus proved Jesus was married.  In fact it may not even suggest that point at all.

Certainly we all want to learn more about the fragment but there is much to be done before even initial observations beyond King's paper can be presented.  It is too bad that it is the "titillating" news that draws attention to itself.  We need more substantive discussions central to understanding Jesus message or any important religious figure's words.  Some of the other more complex life and death issues across the globe need to be in our purview.  Fortunately this story in the media is less likely to provoke battles on the streets.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012 7:00 – 8:30 PM
“JERUSALEM AS DAVID AND SOLOMON KNEW IT” – DR. ANDY VAUGHN

Be sure to keep open this date on your calendars because you are going to find out about all of the latest perspectives on the remarkable city of Jerusalem. It is one of the most extensively excavated cities in the entire world. Do you know the city’s altitude? Do you know how big it was and is? Before it was the central city of ancient Israel do you know what it was? Do you know what the name means? Do you know what latitude it is on as compared to major America East Coast cities? Come and get your questions answered by one of the world’s leading experts.