Media Observation: Classic Western, "Hang 'Em High"

I saw a western with some theology in the mix. One scene grabbed me in particular and got me listening more closely.

“In God’s name Cooper!!”
“God’s got nothing to do with it judge”, says Cooper, played by Clint Eastwood.
So is our lesson of Christianity in “Hang ‘Em High”, the 1968 Western with Clint Eastwood. God demands justice, Clint Eastwood seeks revenge for the men who mistakenly tried to lynch him.
Then there is the hanging scene. Dano, from Hawaii 5-0, plays the minister is leading the people in “Shall We Gather By the River”, then “Rock of Ages” in front of the scaffolding where six men are going to be hung that morning. And juxtaposed with that is a large crowd of sightseers dressed in their “Sunday” best, with the cold beer being sold prominently mid-screen, and the ladies fro the brothel coming out from the Keno Club to witness the day’s festivities.
The judge has the final theological word. Toward the end, he wishes powerfully that there was someone else standing between him and God, between him and the power to bring justice, life and death, to ‘hang ‘em high’. And Clint Eastwood, who by this moment in the movie has captured or killed most of the men who tried to hang him, has pushed beyond his vengeance.
Two of his attackers are still out there and he wants to turn in his badge. One turned himself in, an old man, who gave up the rest of the lynch mob. He is sick, dying in the prison. Clint forgives the old man and gets the judge to release him.
And Clint gets the man released, but in exchange for taking back the badge.

This isn’t the only time Christian themes show up in Clint Eastwood westerns. He plays a preacher in ‘Pale Rider’, but he doesn’t say much-and really doesn’t preach. And aside from making him take longer to get his guns before he shoots all the bad guys, there isn’t much theological content.

‘Unforgiven’ is the other western that comes to my mind with theological content. The title speaks volumes to the content of the movie. Most revenge motif films have the revenger (I refuse to say ‘good guy’ or ‘hero’) walk away triumphantly or die in operatic tragedy. This one doesn’t. Violence is not glorified. The consequences are not held back. It tells the story of what life is without our Lord.

When I see them again, I can speak with more authority.

The Devil is Sterile in His Own Designs

That is something to think about. I don’t even remember where I heard that line expressed quite that way. The devil has no original control in this world. The devil has no independent agenda. What the devil does is to play off what humans do. Granted, that provides enough ammunition for total self-destruction as a species, but it closes an important door.

It closes the door of the cosmic war between heaven and hell spilling over our heads and hearts. Rather, that battle is fought in and for our heads and hearts.

This accounts for a couple of things. First, why there is very little ‘back story’ in the bible concerning the cosmic battle raging beyond our reality. What we do have then becomes very, very tantalizing. Second, that the devil has manipulated the popular media to pull our attention away from the real battle of good and evil.

For example, take Roman Polanski’s movie “The Ninth Gate” with Johnny Depp. It contains elements of the plots of so many of the apocalyptic supernatural thrillers. It assumes there is a supernatural conspiracy beyond the natural conspiracy toward sin and evil in the souls of humanity.

Footnote: Media Observation-The movie captured me in its pacing, I was disappointed by the ending.

All these supernatural movies and television shows and books and websites, they all draw on a fascination within us that there is something bigger and more conspiratorial going on ‘out there’. And when these stories remain in the real of escapist fiction that we can view with a healthy desire to be entertained, they can be kept in proper context.

But I think our very fascination with the supernatural and the occult is a play on our being in the image of God, an image now corrupted. We have hearts for ‘greater things’. We have echoes of the divine in our very makeup. So says Genesis.

In the New Testament, demons were exorcized in two ways, they were cast out in the name of God and, when that was not enough, through the use of prayer, a more prolonged exposure to the power of the Living God. We don’t armor up with cosmic talismans or ally ourselves with beings of higher (or lower) orders to get the job done.

I think the devil just uses the contents of our imaginations to throw us off the true path to bring in the Kingdom of God.

“Thy Kingdom Come”

This may be the most underrated line of the Lord’s Prayer. Three words usually shoved off into the distant future of the Second Coming. And while we, as Christians, will never openly say it, after two thousand years, the prospect of an imminent return has lost some of its luster, may God prove me wrong!!!

What is the Kingdom but all that is good and wonderful and loving and expected from our God for God’s creation? It is not yet complete, but it is already here.

A recent theological exposition got me thinking about this. The book of Revelation talks about a New Heaven and a New Earth, for the old will pass away. The Greek translates better “Renewed” Heaven and “Renewed” Earth. Thus the old passing away is NOT the complete destruction of what we have for something new.

Thy kingdom come is a call for the renewal of our world. Thy kingdom come is a prayer from our lips to God’s ears that the beauty and sanctity of God’s kingdom may be realized here and now. We are calling for the old to pass away in order to be renewed in God’s all encompassing grace.

That’s assuming we really want it. My fear is that we are so used to our own ways that we don’t want to give them up. We live in the richest country in the world. We can get more than anybody else in the whole world. Best of all, we have so many things to distract us, for example, the internet, television, video games, that we can ignore and tune out all the yucky stuff that might bother us.

Thy kingdom come will challenge our current standing. The kingdom is not here. We are supposed to want it to come, that is what Jesus taught us. But do we really?

Remember how we talked about Spiritual Warfare? How is this for the devil winning without firing a shot?

Spiritual Warfare

A line in “Urban Ministry” by Harvie Conn and Mannie Ortiz caught my attention. It says we are not prepared to deal with spiritual warfare in the West because of our “present worldview and dysfunctional theology”. That is a challenging statement if I have ever heard one.

What is spiritual warfare? As I understand it, it is the devil fighting for the hearts and souls of people by any means at his disposal, temptation, deception, apathy. It has to do with the sin in us, our fallen condition, the sin outside us, a world governed by sin, and in the cosmic battle of Good and Evil, Angels and Demons, Satan and Michael. It assumes a layer of reality to the book of Revelations that makes some people very uncomfortable.

I do not want to argue with our lack of preparation, because I believe it. Spiritual warfare is the stuff of a Frank Peretti novel, not ‘reality’.

I think we reject it because of its militaristic language. The church has sought to become truly transformed by the power and imagery of the eternal Peace of heaven. I think that has been exploited by the devil to turn us away from believing in the possibility of a real, horrid, demonic entity that seeks our destruction.

So don’t think about ‘waging war’, think about ‘waging peace’. Think about all the things that we need to do as Christians to place a reasonable, dignified, just, loving, godly existence in this world. Every tool and strategy of Satan needs to be met with a counter tool and strategy from Jesus, carried out by Jesus through his followers-us.

Now comes the ‘means’ debate. To wage war is to engage in sinful activity. In the world of politics and world order, we use sinful means to overcome more sinful means. Is that acceptable in the realm of the cosmic? The bible uses war language, but is that allegorical to what the real ‘means’ should be? When Paul outlines the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6, is the implication that we should clink when we walk?

But we are not ready for that debate. The very question of whether or not we are at war is up for grabs. Many good and faithful Christians do not embrace this language or this idea. I do not know how we can look at the world around us with all its destructive tendencies and not see this cosmic battle for the hearts and souls of the people.

This does not mean a victory for the devil, although sowing discord is so damaging. The war goes on no matter what you call it. And God is on our side.

Prayer-It Does A Body Good

Since Easter, my sermons have been focused on prayer. I am not posting the sermons themselves, because I am finding that the preached word is far different (and hopefully more Spirit-filled) than the written manuscript. Besides, sermons are a different genre from blog entries. Of course, I have yet to define the genre of ‘blog entry’.

The fact is prayer shows up in many different genres of Scripture, in different contexts, for different purposes to the reader (although always communication with God in the biblical narrative) and its fundamental place in the Christian ADL’s (activities of daily living) cannot be overrated.

This is a three week series two thirds complete. It began in 1 Timothy 2, where Paul lists the stuff Timothy should be doing in his life of communication with God, supplications, intercessions, thanksgivings, and prayers. I always thought the first three were types of the fourth. Maybe they are, but not to Paul, not in this passage.

Paul builds a conflict into this passage. Against the backdrop of the church getting thrown out of the synagogue, against the backdrop of persecution, Paul is not making life easy for Timothy. First, he tells him to do these four things on our list, especially for the king or whoever is in charge, for the purpose of allowing Christians to live lives of peaceful dignity and godliness.

Except, of course except, that God wants the world to know the truth and to be saved. That is a problem because the message of salvation that Paul is preaching, the truth that he is proclaiming is an exclusive truth. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. No one gets to God but through Jesus. And he is preaching this in an empire that was probably more superstitious than religious, more syncretistic than diverse. Pretty much every god and religion was tolerated as long as they were tolerable in turn to the Pax Romana and the desire of Rome that everyone obey the Emperor.

This is not to say Christianity was not tolerable to the Pax Romana. And Jesus himself said to give to the emperor his due and to God, God’s due.

But back to Paul. He recognized the inherent disconnection between the kind of life God desires for God’s people and the reaction of the world to God’s truth. According to legend, he will be martyred because of that disconnection. And he begins Timothy’s instruction by telling him to engage in dialogue with the Divine, in supplication, intercession, thanksgiving, and prayer (the order is changed for effect).

Supplication is asking for things. Bring peace to Iraq. Bring new members to our church. Those are supplications. Intercessions are made on behalf of other people. Heal my loved one. Help my friend find a new job. These are intercessions. Thanksgivings are the most obvious, thanking God for what we have. If we don’t like our kings and those in authority over us, this might be the hardest thing to do before God.

But what are the prayers? How are they different from the rest? Are they? Could Paul simply be repeating language for effect?

I came to the conclusion that the prayer in that list was another category in how to communicate with God. I think at its most basic, it is just that, communicating with God, not asking for things, not offering up other people, not thanking God for something around us, but simple communication. Here I am, there is my God, we’re talking. I praise God’s name. I find strength in God’s power. I am just filling the well after spilling the living water all day.

But whatever it is, Paul tells Timothy to get in touch with God before taking on the world. We should take that advice.