March 31, 2019 (Lent at the Movies 4) – Joshua 5:9-12
Joshua 5:9-12
Lent at the Movies 4 – Bohemian Rhapsody
4th Sunday in Lent – March 31, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
There is a scene early in the film Bohemian Rhapsody that is key to everything that comes after.
Freddie Mercury is about to begin a new life as lead singer of the rock band Queen.
He has to tell his conservative Parsi father that he has changed his name from his given
name Farrokh Bulsara to Freddie Mercury.
So now, his father says to him, the family name is not good enough for you?
And Freddie replies, I’ve changed it legally. No going back.
Names changes often signify a new identity.
From Abram to Abraham. From Sarai to Sarah. From Jacob to Israel. From Saul to Paul.
From Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan – name changes signify a new beginning and
often a new purpose.
They also signify a break from the past.
Freddie is far from the only rock musician to go through a name change.
In fact the new Motley Crue biopic also makes a big deal of its bassist’s name change from
Frank Feranna, Jr. to Nikki Six.
In Freddie Mercury’s case, at least, the film makes clear that in order to become
the artist he believes he is called to be, he needs to break from his conservatively
religious upbringing in a Parsi home.
Unlike Nikki Six, it’s not Freddie’s home life is depicted as bad or as any way evil,
just that it is too confining for Freddie’s ambitions as an artist.
It’s the moment of transition from Farrokh to Freddie that is so interesting in the film.
He was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar to a Parsi family and educated in Bombay.
He moved to England with his parents in his late teens.
He is an outsider, mis-identified as Pakistani, and poor.
Moreover – he’s gay and he’s from a culture and in a culture where that is not acceptable.
And yet – he has ambitions as a musician.
One night his break comes when a band he admires loses its lead singer.
He auditions outside after a gig in a club they are playing.
The band, too, changes its name, from Smile to Queen – and the rest is history.
It is as if Freddie felt he needed more freedom from his upbringing and from his past in order
fully express all the music that was welling up inside of him –
and to be the entertainer he longed to be.
The film’s title is also the name of one the band’s biggest hits, “Bohemian Rhapsody,”
from Queen’s 1975 album “A Night at the Opera.”
It is a song written by Freddie Mercury – a song he had worked on on and off for years,
since the late 1960s.
Evidently it meant a great deal to Mercury personally but what it means exactly is not clear.
He was never forthcoming about what it meant, and yet it is thrillingly moving.
Ostensibly it is about a person killing a man and the consequences of that,
with a court scene – perhaps set in hell – functioning as a climax where his fate is
fought over before he finally comes to accept his lot as “nothing really matters.”
I have come to the conclusion that the song is perhaps about
Freddie’s killing his old self Farroukh, about his coming to terms with that –
and about his moving on.
When he sings “Mama, just killed a man” you feel it could be Farroukh he killed,
and when he continues “Mama, I’ve got to go” you feel he could indeed be singing about
breaking with parts of his family upbringing.
Leaving Farroukh behind in the film,
Freddie is free to become the musician he longs to be.
And, indeed, he becomes a colossal and beloved rock star, seemingly fulfilling his ambition.
For sure, leaving Farroukh behind means he has a great deal of freedom.
And he often revels in that freedom, especially on stage and in the recording studio,
which are scenes that shine in the film.
But that freedom is also very difficult for Freddie to navigate –
and he makes many many mistakes with his newfound freedom,
as a result of which both he and those he loves suffer.
Well, while he lived many many people identified with Freddie Mercury.
He appealed to those who felt oppressed and alienated – namely every teenager who ever lived.
He communicated so well with his audiences because he knew what it was like to be
humiliated and frustrated and what it was to have strivings and dreams of grandeur.
“We are the Champions” anyone?
Freddie made lots of mistakes with his newfound freedom – but at least he never forgot
what it was like to be alienated, and frustrated, and discriminated against, and poor.
If only one could say the same for the people of Israel.
The First Reading today catches them, as well, at a very significant moment of transition.
They have been liberated from slavery in Egypt where they knew oppression and poverty.
They have wandered for 40 years, during which time they have been schooled by God in
a new way of being human and living in community, the way of manna sharing and
mercy giving.
And now, finally the day has come to put their education to use,
to live what they have learned, so that they can finally become
the people God called them long ago to be: a blessing to all the peoples on earth.
Like Freddie, they have a calling.
Like Freddie, they have experienced oppression and prejudice and poverty.
Like Freddie, they need freedom to become what they are called to be.
Like Freddie, they need to transition from an old life to a new life.
Their transition in this case is not marked by a name change but by . . .
circumcision for all their men! Ahahahahahahaha!
I will spare you the details –
those are readily available in your Bibles in the verses just preceding today’s reading.
The transition is also marked by a celebration of the Passover meal.
The Passover meal originally marked their exodus from Egypt and
now it marks their entry into the long-promised land.
They are now free to be the people God has called them to be – they are free to be blessing to
all the peoples on earth.
Well – the story of how the people use that freedom is sometimes depressing to us.
I will also spare you these details – but in their greed for land the people do much more
harm than blessing to the people currently inhabiting the land God brings them to.
Unlike Freddie, they often forget what it was like to be oppressed and discriminated against as
They continually lord it over others the way they were lorded over in Egypt.
At their best, though, they are of course capable of bringing blessing.
Their prophets call for justice and fairness and compassion for the vulnerable.
And when the people are true to the best within themselves they respond and bring blessing.
But the transition from an old life to a new one is not easy.
The freedom of a new identity is not easy to navigate.
Well, we are all called to grow and to transition from one phase of life into another.
Transition and change is part of life – we are called by God to continuously grow and evolve
into the people God calls us to be.
We are called to grow and evolve into becoming the very likeness of Jesus –
who in turn is the very image of the God of all compassion and care.
We have the freedom to do that because of God’s unconditional love for us, no matter what.
Freddie’s friends finally stuck by him and allowed him the freedom to become
the artist he was called to become.
God stuck by the people of Israel – bless God for that – when
they were not always the people they were called to be.
God stuck with the church when it was often – very often – not
the agent of reconciliation and justice it is called to be.
And God sticks by you in all your transitions, granting you freedom –
freedom to make mistakes – yes, absolutely – but freedom most of all to
bring blessing, to make this day special by just being you,
to be true to the very best that is inside of you, to quote Fred Rogers from last week.
At every stage of life, no matter how old or young you are, you are being called to
be true to the very best inside of you.
As you transition from child to teenager and from teenager to adult.
As you transition from single to coupled and perhaps from coupled to having children.
Or perhaps as you transition from coupled to de-coupled or from married to divorced.
As you transition from illness to wellness or from wellness to illness.
Or as you transition from student to worker or from worker to retired.
All these transitions – and countless others: they are difficult.
Freddie Mercury enjoyed tremendous success and was beloved by millions.
But the film captures what went along with all of that in Rami Malek’s superb performance,
especially in his eyes: the loneliness, the isolation,
and the difficulty in coming to terms with his sexuality.
Still – he moves forward into his freedom and says he’ll be happy
“when I know I’m exactly the person I’ve always meant to be.”
The final 20 minutes of the film show exactly that as he performs at the Live Aid concert
for Ethiopian famine relief.
May we all find this happiness in becoming true to the person we’ve always meant to be.
In staying true to the very best inside us.
In leaving behind whatever in our past is holding us back from that.
And in moving forward, using our freedom to bring blessing to all those around us.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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