a reforming state of mind

After 19 years, it’s delightful to see Indiana Jones on the big screen again in “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls.”  Sure, Indiana and those who brought him to life (Ford, Spielberg, Lucas) are older which means neither the character or the story are quite as sharp as they once were.  There are a couple of characters who, by no fault of the actor’s themselves, aren’t given much to do and there is a spot or two of awful dialogue. The film’s ending is anti-climatic, a bit syrupy and seems as disorienting as, well, an aging adventurer trying to adjust to radical technilogical and social-poltical changes in post WWII.

And yet there’s still something exhilirating about seeing the man with the fedora and whip staring at the face of evil in the most improbable of circumstances…while the triumphant Raider’s March is playing, of course…Ba-De-Da, Ba-De-Da-De-Daaaa

I was introduced to Indiana Jones when I was 5 years old. My parents returned from seeing “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with wide eyes and smiles. “It’s the best adventure movie that’s ever been made,” they said.  I was captivated by their excitement and their words held true when I was finally allowed to see the film three years later when it was released on video tape and the sequel “Temple of Doom” hit theaters. 

Watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” immediately hooked me, line and sinker, into the world of Indiana Jones.  The first one is so amazing it’s hard to name just one favorite scene…the swapping of the golden idol with a bag of sand that results in Indiana being chased out of the cave by a huge boulder (which the comedian Eddie Izzard swears is a giant spider with no legs)…Indiana shooting the swordsman…the intense action sequence where Indiana and Marion are escaping from the Nazi’s…the love scene where Marion takes off an injured Indiana’s shirt as the hero looks into the mirror and says, “Honey, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”  And let’s not forget that the whole plot revolves around the Ark of the Covenant–I mean, how cool is that?  (The scene where God melts the evil Nazis still to this day grosses me out and although I’m a firm believer in grace for everyone, I admit that these guy got what was coming. You just don’t mess with God like that.)

I enjoyed the second Indiana adventure just as much, although “Temple of Doom” didn’t have Marion nor contained a more familliar or even Biblical artifact. Still, it met the criteria of a movie-watching 8-year-old: blood, guts, insects, slime, and monkey brains….ewwwwwww.

By the time the third film was released, I was finishing up 8th grade and on the cusp of entering high school.  Indiana was also taking a huge step in his life by bringing his father (played brilliantly by Sean Connery) on the adventure–this time to find the Holy Grail. “The Last Crusade” works so beautifully due to the chemistry Connery and Ford have as father and son as well as the powerful themes of sacrifice and redemption in the film.  And it was comforting for me as an 8th grader to know that even Indiana had it rough as a teen (as viewers discover in the opening minutes of the film, a flashback to younger days). I even had the movie poster on my bedroom wall throughout high school. (The poster is long gone, but I recently bought the Indiana Jones’ version of Mr. Potato Head; when you press down on the hat, the “Raiders March” plays)

During the summer following my freshman year of college at Auburn University, I worked as a counselor for the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley’s summer camping program at Gulftreat Conference Center in Panama City, Fla.  One day, my friend and supervisor Carter Haun and I were talking about the lack of heroes on the screen (It was 1999, many years before Harry Potter and Jack Sparrow would enter the imagination or new & improved superheroes would swing into action).  We lamented the absence of heroes like Indiana Jones. The rough and tough and fallible adventurers who always tried to do what was right in the face of adversity and still manage to get the girl in the end or at least save his friends.

While there have been some great heroes to light up the screen since “The Last Crusade,” ones that I’ve paid to see at midnight or opening day showings, none of them give me quite the thrill as Indiana Jones.

Indy’s wit, sarcasm, ingenuity and sheer courage to fight a Russian brute while surrounded by thousands of “big damn ants” or defend against possessed Mayan grave dwellers who dive in and out of burroughs with poison-tipped blow-darts is what hero-making and hero-watching is all about.  Indy’s adventures at its best are grand escapist fun that have you leaving the theater with a lesson (even a little one) about doing good v. evil in your mind & soul, a smile on your face, and a Ba-De-Da, Ba-De-Da-De-Daaaa in your heart.

Like one film reviewer said, it’s good to see an ole friend again.

Indeed it is.

Historians suggest in an Associated Press story, posted on MSN, that MLK’s complexity is greatly ignored these days and that the Civil Rights martyr is known more for his “I Have A Dream” speech (which has lately been co-opted by the Democratic presidential candidates) than his many speeches and sermons that opposed in addition to racism, war, violence and poverty. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22758159/

Here’s a sampling from a post on Beliefnet.com:

“The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore”
(On the theme of God)

“We must be reminded anew that God is at work in his universe. He is not outside the world looking on with a sort of cold indifference. Here on all the roads of life, he is striving in our striving. Like an ever-loving Father, he is working through history for the salvation of his children. As we struggle to defeat the forces of evil, the God of the universe struggles with us.”

“A Knock at Midnight”
(On the church)

The church must be reminded once again that it is not to be the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state–never its tool. As long as the church is a tool of the state it will be unable to provide even a modicum of bread for men at midnight.”“A Knock at Midnight”
(On the church’s position about war)

“In the terrible midnight of war men have knocked on the door of the church to ask for the bread of peace, but the church has often disappointed them. What more pathetically reveals the irrelevancy of the church in present-day world affairs than its witness regarding war? In a world gone mad with arms buildup, chauvinistic passions and imperialistic exploitation, the church has either endorsed these activities or remained appallingly silent. …A weary world, pleading desperately for peace, has often found the church morally sanctioning war.”

“A Knock at Midnight”
(On the role of the black church)

“There are two types of Negro churches that have failed to provide the bread at midnight. One is a church that burns up with emotionalism and the other is a church that freezes up with classism. The former is a church that reduces worship to entertainment, and places more emphasis on volume than on content. It confuses spirituality with muscularity. The danger of this church is that its members will end up with more religion in their hands and feet than in their hearts and souls. So many people have gone by this type of church at midnight, and it had neither the vitality nor the relevant gospel to feed their hungry souls.The other type of Negro church that leaves men unfed at midnight is a church that develops a class system within. It boasts of the fact that it is a dignified church, and most of its members are professional people. It takes pride in its exclusiveness. In this church the worship service is cold and meaningless. …The tragedy of this type of church is that it fails to see that worship at its best is a social experience with people of all levels of life coming together to realize their oneness and unity under God.”

“A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart”
(On the race problem)

“This text has a great deal of bearing on our struggle for racial justice. We as Negroes must combine tough-mindedness and tender-heartedness if we are to move creatively toward the goal of freedom and justice. There are those soft-minded individuals among us who feel that the only way to deal with oppression is to adjust to it. …But this is not the way out. This soft-minded acquiescence is the way of the coward. My friends, we cannot win the respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if we are willing to sell the future of our children for our personal and immediate safety and comfort. Moreover, we must learn that the passive acceptance of an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby become a participant in its evil. Noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”

“Antidote for Fears”
(On the role of whites)

“If your white brothers are to master fear, they must depend not only on their commitment to Christian love but also on the Christ-like love which the Negro generates toward them. Only through our adherence to love and nonviolence will the fear in the white community be mitigated. A guilt-ridden white minority fears that if the Negro attains power, he will without restraint or pity act to revenge the accumulated injustices and brutality of the years. …Many white men fear retaliation. The Negro must show them that they have nothing to fear, for the Negro forgives and is willing to forget the past.”

“The Answer to a Perplexing Question”
(On overcoming a bad habit)

“What, then, is the way out? Not by our own efforts, and not by a purely external help from God. One cannot remove an evil habit by my resolution; nor can it be done by simply calling on God to do the job. It can be done only when a man lifts himself up until he can put his will into the hands of God’s will as an instrument.”

John Deering, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

During a recent Youth Council meeting, one of the youth shared for an opening devotional a Native American story known as “The Two Wolves.”  The story goes:

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil–he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority and ego. The other is good–he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is goign on inside you and every other person too.”

The grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied: “The one you feed.”

After reading the story, the youth asked the Council the following reflection questions:

*What is the moral of the story?

* How do we struggle to win this fight between the two wolves? What in life tempts the evil wolf?

* How can we as Christians help other people win the battle between the wolves?

The other youth on the Council said we all have the potential for doing good or evil and that our choices in life determine which wolf will get fed more than the other. They said everyone struggles with the decision to fill themselves up with anger or love; arrogance or humility; lies or honesty; resentment or compassion. When a friend starts rumors about you; when the boss says an unkind word to you; when a co-worker gets a promotion you deserved; when a motorist cuts you off in traffic; when a family member is dishonest, we have to decide which wolf gets fed in that moment. It’s all that simple and all that hard, isn’t it?

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit…The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”

And the apostle Paul, remembering Jesus’ teachings about choosing good over evil, says in his letter to the Romans: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.”

Being careful to do what is right, to not repay anyone evil for evil is hard. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished bad luck on people who made me angry or were unkind to me or were ignorant of people suffering or who were just plain annoying.

I actually gloat to myself sometimes when celebrities like Britney Spears lose their kids in court and find themselves in a mess. “She got what she deserved, crazy bald party chick dropping her kids when she gets out of cars…sheesh!” And there, in those few fleeting seconds of gloating or being irritated by someone on TV or who I encounter in daily life, I’ve fed that evil wolf a big pound of arrogance, resentment, superiority and ego. Out the abundance of my evil-filled heart the mouth spews unsavory remarks.

The good news is that God in Christ has given us the free and amazing gift of grace. Each hour, each moment, and each day is a new opportunity to make a different choice–to bear good fruit instead of bad, to speak from a heart filled abundantly with love and to feed the good wolf inside us. And of course, it helps to have a pack of good wolves around us.

We as Christians can only help ourselves and others make good choices in life by building and sustaining loving, honest, humble, peaceful, empathetic, generous and compassionate relationships with one another. And it is