Going to the Movies

I LOVE going to the movies. The theatre experience is fantastic. I love the tremendous surround sound. I love being lost in an absorbing story totally cut off from the outside world for a couple of hours. I love movie theatre popcorn. And giant cokes the size of an Oscar right from the fountain. And where else can you enjoy a film on that big a screen?

People complain about the prices. But you'll pay $80 a hit to watch a 2 hour concert or a broadway play. For $5.75, I go on Monday afternoons and have a blast. I know the ticket people, and I'm a regular, so they don't mind if I bring in a Wendy's double cheeseburger with me, because they know I'm going buy the giant coke.

I have also discovered that spiritual truths are communicated in a movie even if it was unintended by the movie makers. I recently saw The Aviator on dvd, which was a movie about the life of the enigmatic Howard Hughes. The biopic showed how driven and self-centered Hughes was, and how he could never find true satisfaction and happiness in spite of his great wealth and his interest in flying machines and movies. Inadvertently, the movie showed how empty a person's life could be without God.

I also saw North Country, one of the better movies I have seen this year. I was especially struck by a scene early in the movie where the North Country girl goes back home to flee from an abusive boyfriend. She goes to church on Sunday, and the parishioners simply stare at her with looks of condemnation and judgment. And they whisper among themselves, "There's the girl who got pregnant out of wedlock. There's the girl who goes from one boyfriend to the next." It made me wonder if this was a parody of the small town church, or if there really is a tendency among blood bought believers to pass judgment on others simply because they have a notorious history.

I learn something almost every time I go to the movies, and I usually find something I can use in a future sermon. Except when I saw "Bewitched," one of the lamest movies I have ever seen in the theaters. Only the inspired performance of Will Ferrell kept me from falling asleep.