March 5, 2017 – Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
La La Land – Lent at the Movies I
First Sunday in Lent – March 5, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
The man and the woman are put in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
It is, presumably, not onerous work. – I mean, they have everything that they need.
And most of all, they have one another.
They are one another’s heart’s delight.
Just a few verses ago, the man was exclaiming over the woman,
“Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh! This is what I’ve been waiting for!”
It was all the man wanted – a companion, a co-worker.
In the Hebrew, they are ezer kenegdos, literally “face to faces,” equals, partners.
But now – now, they want more.
The garden God gives them is not enough for them – and, more importantly,
the gift God gives them of one another is not enough.
They want more – they want, they think, everything,
and they encourage one another in that ambition.
It says the snake tempts them with being “like God” – which is really want they want and
which is really a short hand way of saying they want more, they want everything.
And in very short order, their relationship with God, their relationship with the garden, and
most importantly of all their relationship with one another unravels and comes undone.
This is an ancient, ancient story, probably at least 4000 years old.
And yet it is so modern, and so contemporary, and speaks to us so clearly across
all these years and cultures.
The recent multi-Oscar winning film La La Land tells exactly the same story.
A man, Sebastian, is a struggling jazz musician in Los Angeles.
A woman, Mia, is a struggling actress in the same city.
They meet on a freeway on a beautiful sunny day in L.A., and immediately dislike each other –
and so we know they will fall in love!
They keep running into each and eventually wonder what it means – probably nothing, they say.
But it does: they have found their ezer kenegdo – they have found their soul mate.
And their love blossoms in the spring-time of the city.
They encourage one another in their aspirations.
Mia encourages Sebastian in his dream of owning his own jazz club where he can play the
out of fashion traditional jazz he loves.
And Sebastian encourages Mia in her dream of becoming a famous screen star like
Ingrid Bergman and the starlets of old.
I’m not going to lie: I absolutely adore this film.
It’s a musical very much like Jacques Demy’s French musicals of the 60s,
full of high spirits and bright colours and catchy, singable tunes.
But, like those musicals, the film is bittersweet – oh so sweet in its beginning,
and oh so bitter in its ending.
I loved this film so much – and I hated the way it ends!
Spoiler alert – if you haven’t seen the film and don’t want to know how it ends
you should probably leave now – I won’t be offended.
In the end, the very ambitions Sebastian and Mia encourage one another in
ultimately tear them apart.
Sebastian finds success as a member of a band playing music he doesn’t really like,
but he does it in order to save money for club he wants to open,
even though it means touring on the road for months at a time.
Mia eventually finds success as a film actress with a job that takes her to Paris.
The ambitions they encouraged one another in eventually destroy their relationship,
and they heartbreakingly drift apart.
They probably had enough, and in their relationship they probably had more than
most people ever get to experience in love in this lifetime –
and yet, they want more, and it destroys their relationship.
The sorts of temptations the biblical story-tellers spoke of long ago
in the story of Adam and Eve are still very much with us.
The temptation to want more than we have been given.
Much later, in the wilderness, the Israelites will take a good long 40 years learning
how to be content with the daily manna God gives them and the simple daily work of
making sure everyone had enough manna for the day.
And when Jesus comes along, he knows enough to be content with what God provides
and with the work he has been given – he knows he is beloved and will be taken care of,
for just before he is led into the wilderness this morning he has been baptized,
and has heard the assurance that he is God’s beloved –
and that he will be given everything he needs, including meaningful if humble work –
and that will allow his relationships with all sorts of people to flourish.
The devil comes along and tempts him or tests him to stray from this work he’s been given,
Which is to till and keep the garden of the little patch that God has entrusted to him,
and to work with those whom God has given to him.
The devil tempts with more power, with being a big deal,
with all the worldly possessions he could handle.
But Jesus knows that if he took those things, it would separate him from the people he loves,
and from the work that God has called him to.
Jesus resists the temptation – and passes the test, and sure enough:
God sends the angels and they wait on him with some food, giving him all he needs.
Jesus resists the temptation – and passes the test.
And he invites his disciples – he invites us – to follow his example and do the same.
Lent is a time for refocussing our priorities and for spring-cleaning the soul as I often say.
It is a time for simplifying and culling.
It is a time for re-turning to those things that make us most fully and beautifully human.
To focus on the relationships we have been given, rather than chase after those we don’t have.
To delight in the simple things we have, rather than lust after those we don’t.
To wonder in the work we have been given, rather than chase the ambition for more.
It is a time to cull, to pray, and to care for the vulnerable in our midst.
To look at those around us right now, right here, in worship, at school, at work,
and realize that each person is a miracle, and to never take the love they give for granted.
To know that the present, given moment, is a miracle.
And that there is no higher ambition, no higher calling than the one we have been given
in the same baptism as Jesus: to participation with him in God’s mission to
love, bless, and heal this world and every person in it.
An ambition for more will – the storytellers and artists tell us – bring to ruin what we have.
At the end of the film, we see Mia in her current life, as a very famous movie star,
in one of at least two very lavish homes, with a daughter she loves and a husband she
seems content enough with – but she doesn’t seem happy.
We see Sebastian too, with his successful club – apparently alone.
And then, one night, Mia and her husband accidentally find themselves in Sebastian’s club.
Mia and Sebastian look at one another, and as he plays their song,
both dream of what might have been, of their life together in a fantasy sequence.
And you realize they are not living the dream.
You realize that their ambitions for more have killed the dream.
The story-tellers and artists tell us that we will always experience temptation.
Scripture tells us of God’s dream for us and our world and what a world it would be if
we loved one another and delighted in one another, just as we are.
For it is the way God loves us and it is the way God delights in us – and always will.
And God never tires of inviting us into that dream.
When Adam and Eve destroy what they have with their ambitions,
God still dreams the dream for them.
And God still dreams the dream for us.
In Jesus, God lives the dream – and continues to invite us into it,
just as Jesus invited the disciples into it all those years ago –
and still does through our baptisms into him.
In our baptisms, we have been given the Spirit that was at work in Jesus in the wilderness.
The Spirit to resist the temptations for more.
The Spirit to resist the temptation to be apathetic about our neighbours and about injustice.
The Spirit to resist the temptation to take those around us and their love for granted.
The Spirit to resist the temptation to think there is a higher purpose in this life than
the one God gives us to be blessing: to love and be loved in turn.
So let us enjoy this day.
Let us have light hearts knowing that God will give us what we need this day.
Let us trust God enough to know that today’s troubles are enough for today.
Let us give thanks for those around us, and let us be generous in our giving,
knowing that we have enough.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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