A sermon based on Philippians 3:4-14
By Rev. Dr. Bradley Gabriel
Indiana Jones, legendary hero of the movie screen and DVD.
Like millions of other people, I enjoyed the films. Some more than others. For today, I want to look at the films as if they are an analogy of how our faith works in our life, not an allegory to explain faith.
Let’s start, then, with a word of warning. J.R.R. Tolkien [of Lord Of The Rings fame] reportedly got tired of readers claiming that his entire LOTR trilogy was an allegory of World War II.
He is quoted as saying: “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history—true or feigned—…”
Let’s treat the Jones stories with the respect Prof. Tolkien asked for his stories. They are tools to consider our faith, not substitutes for it. And I won’t try to take the analogy too far. Steven Spielberg, responsible for these and other great movies, was once asked about the meaning of some things in a movie of his.
He answered: “You tell me what they mean. I’m always interested in the things people see in my films that I never knew were there.”
To start, we need to have the films in their correct chronological order, not the order of their release. Raiders of the Lost Ark came out first. But Raiders is set in 1936. The second film released is actually set a year earlier than Raiders, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is set in 1935. The Last Crusade is set in 1938. Crystal Skull is 1957 and the last Dial of Destiny is 1969. Why does this matter? Because the movies show Indy in different stages of moral development concluding, possibly, with his redemption.
In the first, chronologically at least, film, Temple of Doom we are introduced to a remote village in India where children are disappearing and a land is dying. Jones’ companion, a young Asian boy (dismissively nicknamed “Short Round”) discovers what is happening and reports to Indy. Indy’s response is that missing Shankara stones, ancient and sacred stones, that were invented for the film are at the root of the problems.
Short Round asks what the Shankara stones are, and Jones replies, “Fortune and glory, kid.”
In “Raiders,” we are quickly introduced to government officials from Army Intelligence who visit Indy at the University where he teaches. The officials flatter Indy and set in action his quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant. Prior to that conversation, however, Jones is shown negotiating with a university official to buy items of dubious ethical provenance.
A scant two years after Raiders, at least in the Indiana Jones universe, Indy is recruited to find no less than the Holy Grail, not the item sought by the Monty Python troupe, but the actual chalice, the cup of Christ. This is the “Last Crusade.”
Indy starts out as little better than a grave robber. Children may be at risk. Children may be dying. What matters to Indy? “Fortune and glory.” Those are his desires. By the end he is a bit better, but only a bit.
He hasn’t grown much spiritually at the beginning of Raiders. He steals antiquities from indigenous people, sells them to finance his adventures and takes more pride in being an adventurer than a teacher.
Government agents interview Indy and call him, “Professor of archeology, expert on the occult, and, uh, how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities.” Indy is a star. A mere two years after “Raiders,” Dr. Jones is sought out for another quest, this time to find the Holy Grail, the Cup of Christ. The film ends with four comrades in adventure riding off into the sunset, heroic music playing. WOW. Talk about being a star!
Now, the trilogy is where a lot of us thought the stories should end. But Spielberg and company decided that having found artifacts sacred to Hindus, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, defeated Nazis, always a good thing to do, both in 1938 and today, and having earned his father’s love and respect, Indy needed to defeat the Soviet threat and find space aliens here on earth. That film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, ends with Indy reconciled with his estranged son and married to his lost love. But there is a snake in the garden. Indy cannot get out of his own way. He takes his trademark fedora from his son at the end of the movie. What matters first for Indy is still Indy. Is there anything wrong with achieving, with being a star? Not necessarily. But there are limits.
We have a letter about stardom and its limits from one of Jesus’ first followers. He is the one we call Saint Paul. A portion of a letter that he wrote to the church in the ancient city of Phillippi goes like this.
“Others may brag about themselves, but I have more reason to brag than anyone else. I was circumcised when I was eight days old, and I am from the nation of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a true Hebrew. As a Pharisee, I strictly obeyed the Law of Moses. And I was so eager I even made trouble for the church. I did everything the Law demands in order to please God.“
Paul thinks well of what he achieved. He was a star. A Roman citizen, a rising light in the established faith, learned, and able to have official papers allowing him arrest those he deemed to be troublemakers. That was then. His life now, at the writing of this letter, has new meaning.
“But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, so that somehow, I also may be raised to life.”
Paul writes that he now has something greater than stardom, greater than fame, more important than fortune, or glory. Paul now knows the love that God has for him and for every one of us. God, who creates the great barrier reef and the Angel Falls, the One who fashioned the rings of Saturn and hummingbirds, the Creator responsible for the beauty of a field of wildflowers and the staggering immensity of an Elk, looks at this creation and decides that it will not be complete without you. Each of you. Paul discovers that God loves him, Paul, as he is.
Paul knows the healing and the meaning that come with being loved absolutely, unambiguously, and eternally. Known in that love, Paul continues his life with as much vigor as before. Only now, Paul is seeking healed relationships, a sense of creative purpose, and centered in the peace that comes when we trust in God’s future. Come what may, Paul has what is needed for a whole life, a holy life.
Indiana Jones at the beginning of the last movie, not so much. Indy does not have Saint Paul’s awareness of God’s love that makes life good. The movie starts with Indy retiring a bit past his 70th birthday. (That hits a little too close to home for some of us.) He lives in a small apartment with noisy neighbors, in a society focused on the future, and with students who find both archeology in general and him in particular boring. His marriage is crumbling. He has lost his son. What Indy, the once upon a time star, must learn if he is to have any peace or any meaning in his life, is that life is about more than himself and his achievements. What he forgot, if he ever knew it, is that a person all wrapped up in themself makes a very small package, easily overlooked and quickly forgotten.
Paul, on the other hand, discovered the delight of a life spent following Jesus. He finds himself in the mission of living for Jesus. He gains peace simply by walking in the way of Jesus and sharing the good news of Jesus. The good news is clear.
The healing, the purpose, the peace that come with living in the way of Jesus reveal the ultimate truth. And the truth is that love wins.
Living in the compassionate love of God that is shown in the life of Jesus lets us see that life is more than a short shuffle to the grave. The truth is that the Jesus way of compassionate love is the way of life, abundant and peaceful and meaningful.
Indy dealt with several kingdoms: criminal enterprises, authoritarian regimes, the Nazi’s white supremacy, corporate fascism. Those kingdoms keep coming back. They always do when we rely on ourselves.
Saint Paul discovers that following Jesus builds an alternate kingdom, a kingdom on earth that is like the one in heaven. This is not a kingdom of statues or artifacts, neither space aliens nor antiquities. This kingdom is seen in healed relationships and just living. This is a kingdom marked by compassionate love. This is the kingdom Jesus seems to have had in mind when he taught the Disciples what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” In his life, Jesus taught and demonstrated to everyone who was willing to learn that the practice of compassionate love begins the healing presence and the just kingdom of God that is available now not simply in the next life.
The compassionate love of Jesus, both his and that of his followers in all history, creates an openness to offer hospitality and full welcome to all people, to those in and out, to family and friends, even to those whom others would call alien or enemy. Paul learns this and lives it for the rest of his life. What Indy must learn for his redemption is what Paul discovered. A whole and healthy life is lived through practices of compassionate love. Our message about Jesus, that his life is the way to live fully in the way of God’s compassionate love, is found by the rest of the world in what has been called the medium through which that message is expressed. The message and medium are your life. What we say and how we live must constantly be brought into greater harmony until there is no gap between what we claim we believe and how we live.
How does all this tie back to Indian Jones?
Dial of Destiny has its share of theology, and reviewers have explored that. The most important point, though, is its central message. Near the end, after far too many lengthy detours, foolish mistakes, and obvious errors, Indiana discovers that compassionate love is honestly more important than all the knowledge, all the acclaim, all the star power, all the fortune and glory in the world. The end of Dial has Jones with his one true love, a new and expanded family, stability in the face of chaotic change, and at peace with the world. He finds this truth when belief in and use of the central object of the film are combined by a person who is invested in his ultimate wellbeing and who acts out of compassionate love for him. Jesus of Nazareth, then, by analogy, is our Dial of Destiny, the one most fully invested in our ultimate well-being and fully willing to act on our behalf.
The compassionate love of Jesus, our “dial of destiny,” transforms the human heart and so the human life. Compassionate love in daily life will take many forms. Will we feed the hungry. Yes. Do we house the homeless? Of course. Are you finding ways to visit people who are sick and people in jail? No need to ask. Jesus names these acts and more acts of compassionate love. Acts like these can be found throughout the scriptures.
Are there other ways of expressing compassionate love through our actions? Of course. Some will be great and bring acclaim. For most of us, our acts will be intimate, possibly unknown to anyone beside than you and the other person. Have you not heard from a friend or family member in a while? Don’t assume the other person is unhappy with you. Sometimes life is overwhelming them.
Don’t wait for that someone to make the first move. Pick up the phone and call them. They may need your support. Has someone hurt you by what they either said or did, or maybe didn’t say or do? Rather than thinking that person is malicious, consider that they may be careless. Take the first step, take the risk, and reach out to attempt healing the hurt. Accept the simple truth that none of us is all that we need. Together, through our actions, we create a community that gives life. Listen to understand. Be kind. Act in love.
The summer after my first year of Divinity School, I had a job as Chaplain at the Knoxville World’s Fair, the Energy Exposition. One day an older man came into the office where some of us worked. He said that he had lost his wife. He said that she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. He said that they had separated to use the toilets in a building and had agreed that they would meet by a bridge just outside of that building. He had been overly long, and when he arrived, she was not at the bridge. Could we help?
Those of us in the office agreed what parts of the Fair we would search and when we would report back. For some reason I was unusually thoughtful that day. I thought about what I knew. The man and woman agreed to meet at a certain spot. He had been delayed. He did not see her at that spot. She was dealing with Alzheimer’s and may have wandered off. Maybe not, I thought. Maybe she had been delayed. I walked back to the bridge.
If Hollywood needed a character to play an older woman waiting for her husband, the woman I saw at the bridge would have been her. Wearing a blue print dress and holding her handbag in front of her, the look on her face showed that she would wait on that spot until the earth dissolved or her husband returned, whichever came first. Patient commitment was the way she acted out compassionate love. Her husband’s act of compassionate love was to recruit total strangers in ever increasing numbers until his wife was found.
There is nothing wrong with being a star. Go into the world and do the best you can. Compete, strive, achieve, win. Become the best you possible. And never forget as you do, the best you is always the one who allows the compassionate love of Jesus to guide you in all your words and deeds. That’s your destiny.
Why not set your dial to get there sooner rather than later.
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