MOVIE & BOOK CORNER

I just want to talk about one movie this month. We will all have time off for Independence Day and it’s a perfect time to reflect on beginning of our country. The Patriot, with Mel Gibson is a fair choice for such a purpose.

I realize that it is a bloody movie with a lot of gruesome battle footage but it captures a few elelments that other movies ignore. Because of the violence, you would want to keep very young childern away. However, for those who can handle it, it’s a great movie.

Mel Gibson plays a reluctant hero who leads a ragtag malitia against the might of the Britsh Army, in this stirring, lavishly mounted historical epic set during the Revolutionary War. He's perfectly cast as Benjamin Martin, a colonial farmer, widowed father, and veteran of the French and Indian War who stubbornly resists joining the Continental Army. He wants nothing more than to simply farm his land.

The truth is that few really wanted to fight. As a new country, we really didn’t have the resources or the experience to fight the world’s biggest superpower of the day. The movie covers the stories of the French helping us and it addresses slavery and the Black soldiers as well. Other movies talk about that much, but the one element that other movies ignore is that clergymen volunteered to lead troops into battle.

Priests and Pastors were educated and easily learned and understood battle plans. They really were used well in that war as company commanders. They chose to fight because their freedom of religion had been challenged in the past and they knew the stakes at hand. I’ve known some military chaplains that would have done well in that capacity.

Martin eventually enters the conflict to save his eldest son, Gabriel, a rebel courier captured by British troops. The loose-knit band of guerrillas he organizes bedevils the redcoats, and sets up the rousing bad guy vs. mad guy climax. Director Roland Emmerich re-creates the Revolution and vividly captures the carnage and confusion of pitched battles that often took place in the backyards of colonial settlers. His historically accurate rebels are gentlemen farmers, vagabonds, and brigands, united by their disdain for the arrogant English king and determined to gain their freedom at any cost.

That war literally took place in citizen’s own backyards. I don’t know if people today could have fought like that, but with God in our hearts, we may never have to and we will last as a nation for many more centuries.

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:8

LIFE IN CHRIST

I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

Whenever there is trouble, many of us expect only the worst possible outcome. Troubles beset Paul in Rome. In prison, he knew many deprivations and faced serious uncertainties. The city was in turmoil. Cruel Nero was still in power. Awaiting trial, Paul did not yet know what troubles the authorities would bring him, or whether he would live.

Yet his letter to his beloved converts conveys no complaints. It tells only of confidence that the Father who began a good work in them will bring it to completion. Paul knows no worst outcomes, only the best outcomes for believers. He is chiefly concerned with “higher things”, not the mundane. He sends joyful thanks to the Philippians for their gift, for sharing the Gospel with him, and he expresses love for each of them. He conveys the hope that through his trials, he will always continue to witness to Christ’s power.

Living his life so deeply in Christ, Paul dwells on the power God delivered to the world through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Rooted in Christ in good times and bad, we too can rest assured that our Lord Jesus will bring to completion the plans He has for each of us.

Father, let our lives witness to Your love. Amen.

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Here are a few words to ponder during a soft summer evening. As different as all people may seem, they have a common thread; a lust for life.

"Many public-school children seem to know only two dates: 1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don't know what happened on either occasion."
- Mark Twain

"An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh."
- Will Rogers
(Rutabagas come close though.)

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."
Cherokee Expression

"Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit."
– Henry David Thoreau

There is no death; only a change of worlds.
- Chief Seattle