Thoughts on Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire (SDM) tells the life (and love) story of an Indian teen through his appearance on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The questions he faces all provide a window into short and long vignettes about his life.

The best part of SDM is that it is not void of hope. Great story doesn't just leave you bummed out. It paints a sobering picture of India and its amazing discrepancy between the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak. One interesting aspect of the story is the transformation of the police officers who interrogate the main character. They start out as thugs and eventually one of them becomes more humane.

I liked it.

What does God being in the change feel like?

The second insightful question I had after the service on Sunday was from my wife, Heather. She asked, "What does it feel like to have God in the change?" I thought this question very insightful because at times I think we over-interpret our emotional responses. For example, when we feel anxiety through times of serious illness, is that what God's presence feels like? Most would guess no, and so may interpret that anxiety as evidence of God's absence. I don't feel God because I feel anxiety. Now, it may or may not be true that anxiety shows God's absence (I'm inclined to think No), but it's still an open question.

Any thoughts on what God being in the changing world would feel like for individuals? Is it peace? Hope? Optimism? Joy?

How do Christians look different?

I had two excellent questions posed to me yesterday after the sermon and our opportunity to talk it out. First was from Kellie Tompkins and the second was from Heather. I'll share on Kellie's today and Heather's Thursday. Kellie asked, What can Christians do to set themselves aside, to make themselves look different? The last stanza of the poem, "Mad Farmer's Liberation Front" by Wendell Berry provides some beginning reflections.

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

First, a story. In the early 2000s there was a lot of terrorism associated with the #18 bus route in Jerusalem. Suicide bombers and other horrors. Some Christians, a significant minority in the area, decided to hold a prayer vigil. Not your average vigil, though. A vigil on the #18 bus route. They prayed for peace in the place of fear. Did it end terrorism? Of course not. Did it set them aside as strange? Sure.

The challenge of Christians is to live out of the hope for a renewed world because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The wisdom of Daniel was that he did it in the simplest of things: What he would eat. Was what you ate serious to Daniel? Of course. But it was simple and daily and formative--it shaped who he was. What Christians do on a daily basis is what will set them aside and generate the impetus to be set aside--daily things like what we eat, where we shop, whether we exercise, how we parent, where we live, what we drive.... Daniel could have gone unnoticed in his eating regimen for many people in the kingdom. I think many Christians, in their desire and activity to be set aside, may go unnoticed, as well.

Jesus and Joshua

Sometimes revelation catches us by surprise. I have been reading through the Old Testament for a few months and I am now in Joshua. One story struck me. It's the story of Joshua and his brilliant military strategy in conquering the city of Ai (Joshua 8). Joshua is about to attack the city and separates off 5,000 men while the remaining 25,000 make like they are going to attack the city. The King of Ai, obviously a very brave man, and his fighting men (less than 12,000!) empty out of the city to engage these 25,000 men, unaware of the 5,000 laying in ambush. Joshua allows this smaller army from Ai to begin defeating this larger group of Israelites, pushing them further and further from the city, until he gives a signal for the remaining 5,000 to rush into the city, setting it ablaze and killing women and children. The men of Ai are now trapped--devastated by the loss of their city and hopelessly outnumbered. The account ends with the king of Ai, likely already dead, hung on a tree outside the city, and then buried under a pile of rocks, two symbolic reminders of the destruction and shaming of this city.

It's a brutal account. Death all around. Women and children killed under the leadership of Israel. It's all very easy to read this as 21st century people and condemn its horror without thinking of its historal context. Of course it's brutal; of course it's horrific--it's 4000 years ago! But doesn't it leave us with questions about God? God has instructed them to take away plunder, but not to spare people (8:29). Why would God do this?

I don't think there are many answers to these questions. At least, not answers that shape the whole thing up and make it more palatable. But what struck me in this was the contrast of Jesus. While Joshua hangs the shamed king from a tree, Jesus gives himself to be killed. While Joshua buries the King of Ai under rocks, Jesus is entombed behind a stone. Ironic that Jesus' life would not identify with his namesake--Joshua (Jesus = Yeshua in Aramaic, a sister language to Hebrew that Jewish people spoke under the reign of the Greeks)--but with the King of Ai. Sometimes you just have to let the story play out and be surprised by the ending.