From Sampler to Sower

A busy schedule has kept me from updating my blog recently, but I’m working to get back into the swing of posting regularly.  I’m going to go back a couple of weeks with my reviews to include all three sermons from our Avatar series.

Weekend Teaching Series: Avatar

Message Title: Avatars and Incarnation

Sermon in a Sentence: Avatar provides hints and glimpses of the greatest story ever told, but Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God in whom we can trust.

Text(s): John 1:1-14

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 3 out of 10, A pretty straightforward night with an enjoyable theme.

Message Summary:

In January we launched a three week mini-series inspired by themes from the new blockbuster movie Avatar.  In week one of our series we examined the story of the movie as a whole and asked the question “What makes this movie so compelling?”

We started by watching the trailer for the movie and summarizing the plot premise (attempting to avoid giving too much away.)  We explained the setting on Pandora, the concept of Avatars and the primary conflict of the story: the question over which faction of humans will shape the future of Pandora, the scientists who want to study the planet and do good for the people, or the corporate officials who wish to exploit the resources of the moon for financial gain.

Having summarized the premise of the movie we asked the question: “Why was this movie so compelling?”

Granted the movie is a bit predictable.  It isn’t a new plot, even if it is a technological triumph in filming.  Some have even noted it’s basically “Pocohontas” in space.  Granted it features 12 foot tall blue skined Na’vi, not brown skinned Native Americans, settlers who fly futuristic helicopters rather than 17^th century sailboats, and a hero named Jake Sully, not John Smith.  But other than that, it’s pretty much the same story.

And it contains some troubling connotations that go unnoticed while the viewer is enthralled by the cinematography.  Granted it is set in a fictional fantasy world where the people have their own religion, but the worldview it portrays and endorses reflects what we know as animism – the idea that everything in the world from the people, to the animals, to the plants and even the rocks and dirt itself, have a soul, and that god, known on Pandora as Eywa, and to animists as Gaia or Mother Earth, is the connection that exists between all these souls.  All life is linked together, and everything combined becomes the goddess that is worshipped and served.

What’s more, Avatar clearly also draws on Hindu beliefs as well.  The word Avatar, itself is drawn from Hinduism.  And one only needs to look at the pictures of the long haired, blue skinned incarnations of Vishnu from Hindu thought to see where the design of the Na’vi people came from.  In fact, the obvious connections with Hinduism have caused at least one American Hindu leader to ask James Cameron to put a disclaimer at the beginning and end of the movie that the movie itself has nothing to do with Hinduism and is not an accurate portrayal of what Hinduism believes.

But the moviegoer hardly even notices.  When all the Na’vi people get together and start praying around a tree, you find yourself hoping that Eywa will answer their prayers without even realizing that the movie is promoting an understanding of God that is at odds with our Christian faith.

So, is it all one great big conspiracy to try to force New Age paganism down the throats of audiences or to subtly slip a good dose of Hinduism into our entertainment diet?

Probably not.

James Cameron is a filmmaker, not a guru or a shaman.  His desire is to make the next blockbuster, not convert the world to a particular religion – especially since in a lot of ways he gets the religions to which he alludes wrong.  The religious themes of the movie probably reflect his syncretistic hodgepodge of personal religious beliefs, but Cameron is far more interested in getting you to buy a Blu-Ray than to have you baptized as a neo-pagan.

So given all these troubling features, why was the story so captivating?

Yes the technology of filming it is a stunning cinematic break through. But cutting edge special effects don’t necessarily create a captivating story.  Don’t believe me?  Take a look at Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones.  Cutting edge special effects, yet it sold less than a third of the tickets that Star Wars IV: A New Hope (the first star wars movie) sold. The technology alone can’t explain the fascination of the story.

And, quite frankly, it can’t be the dialog.  Check out the most memorable quote from the movie: “You are not in Kansas any more. You are on Pandora.”  Seriously.  It’s most memorable line is a rip off of The Wizard of Oz.  The movie had no great lines.  And only a few laugh lines.  It appears to have been written to make translation into other languages easy, not for the art of literature.

So why does everyone want to see it again?

I think it’s because at the heart of Cameron’s story, whether he wants to admit it or not, is another story.  Cameron’s story is great because in some ways it reminds us of the greatest story ever told.

As I said earlier, the core conflict that drives the plot of the movie are the competing concerns of the two groups of humans on the planet.  On the one had you have the scientists, who are on the planet to study the native plants and animals, and who also want to do good for the Na’vi who live there.  The scientists have built relationships with the Na’vi and built schools to teach Na’vi children English so they can communicate. The desire is to live with them and do good for them.

On the other hand you have the corporate military, who refer to the Na’vi at best as flea bitten savages and at worst a bunch of blue monkeys. There is no concern for Na’vi civilization or culture.  The guiding principle is the idea that might makes right, and morality boils down to the fact that whoever is the strongest gets to make the rules.

The question is: Which viewpoint will have the power to shape the world of Pandora – compassion and kindness, or violence and oppression?

What’s really interesting to me are the people James Cameron chooses to personify these two worldviews.  The head scientist on Pandora is a woman named Grace Augustine. Do you think it’s an accident that the name that compassion goes by in Avatar is Grace?

And the person who personifies the notion of might makes right is a soldier by the name of Colonel Miles Quaritch.  Interestingly Colonel Quaritch is a name that Cameron stole from a book by Henry Rider Haggard, who incidentally is the same 19^th century author who created the character of Allan Quartermain (one of my favorite literary adventurers).

But I’m more interested in his first name, Miles.  Appropriately, the name Miles is the Latin word for Soldier.

So essentially the story of Avatar is a story which asks the question, which power will shape the world, Grace, or Soldiers, Compassion or Violence?

And the movie is captivating because in the end, Miles, the soldier is defeated, and Grace wins out.

But how does Grace win in Pandora?

With an incarnation from the heavens named the Savior.

Doesn’t get much more obvious than that does it?

Of course the names have been changed for the movie.  The male lead for Avatar isn’t named Savior, he’s named Jake Sully.  But he is definitely a Christ figure.  So much so that in Cameron’s original screenplay his name wasn’t Jake, it was Josh, or Joshua, which means “God saves” and is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus.

And how does Joshua, er, Jake manage to help rescue the Na’vi people?

By becoming an Avatar.

Avatar isn’t a word that Cameron made up for the movie.  In fact you’ve probably heard of Avatars before.  We use the word to describe digital representations of ourselves that we send into a virtual world to embody us on the internet or in games.  But the word Avatar has been around a lot longer than that.

Avatar is actually a Sanskrit word which literally means “He descends.”  It has long been used by Hinduism to describe the incarnation of their deities.  A Hindu god comes into the world by taking on a human form and living alongside humanity.  In fact, it was the use of the word avatar that upset so many Hindus about Cameron’s movie.

Jake Sully becomes an Avatar to the Na’vi because he takes on their form, is embodied in their flesh, and for a time, becomes one of them.

Remind you of anyone you know?  Saving the world by taking on flesh?

John chapter one tells the story this way:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2, NIV)

John goes on to write:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, NIV)”

In a lot of ways, the story of Avatar reminds us about the story of Jesus. But Cameron’s story is what I call not quite true.  Despite the fact that the story line points to Jesus and the way in Christ God became human and lived with us, it’s not quite a faithful representation, or what the church would call a true image of Christ.  Despite their similarities, Jake isn’t Jesus.

In Jake we have someone who is strong and brave, but in many ways clueless. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, or how to do it.  And he is as apt to make a mistake as he is to succeed.  The Na’vi call him an infant to his face.  And behind his back they call him a moron.  Everywhere he goes, everything he does, he makes a fool of himself. At least at first.

But Jesus wasn’t a bumbling hero.  Clueless was never used to describe Christ. Not even from the start.  Luke tells us that when Jesus was 12, at the age when a Jewish boy became a man and took upon himself the responsibility of keeping the law, Mary and Joseph took him to Jerusalem.  There he got into some discussions with some aged experts in the law.  And even the men who had studied God’s word all their lives were amazed at his answers and had to admit that Jesus had special knowledge and understanding.  Unlike the Na’vi our fate doesn’t rest in the hands of someone who is likely to fail, and we don’t have to wait and worry to see if he pulls it off or not.

Likewise, Jake is a man torn by competing loyalties.  The driving force of his story line is the question what side will he choose? He’s a marine by training, so there is something about Colonel Quaritch and what he stands for that Jake admires and believes. But there is a growing sense within him that what Quaritch wants to do is wrong.  But as long as he’s trying to please two masters, he is bound to make mistakes.  Ultimately, Jake has to fail, has to betray the Na’vi before he can learn from his mistakes and rescue them.

Jesus on the other hand was not plagued by competing loyalties.  The Bible says that though he was tempted in every way just as we are, he never made the wrong choice.  His first and only allegiance was to God, and because of that he loved humanity.

Perhaps most the most disturbing point of comparison is the way in which the Avatar saves the world.  Despite the fact that in the end Jake represents Grace and what Grace stands for, the means by which they achieve victory is through violence. Jake wins because in the end, he (and his fellow Na’vi) are the last warriors left standing.  They take the fight to their enemies and eventually win.  Jake ultimately triumphs when someone manages to kill the Colonel.  Miles dies, and Jake lives.

However, it wasn’t by violence that the true incarnation of God changed our world.  Jesus didn’t come into our world as a warrior who would eventually win by killing everyone who got in his way or opposed his agenda.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  Jesus knew that lasting victory is not achieved by violence, but by love. Jesus isn’t the victor because he’s the last warrior standing.  Jesus wins when he lays down his life for the world. Unlike Cameron’s version, Jesus dies so that we might live.

So in a lot of ways, Avatar points us to the truth about Jesus.  It gives us hints and glimpses of the greatest story ever told.  Grace wins when a Savior takes on flesh and enters the world.

But in the end, it comes up short.  Jake Sully has nothing on Jesus Christ. His story is interesting and compelling, but on Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, can save our world.

If you’d like, you can listen to the full audio of this sermon by checking out our podcast on iTunes or by downloading it from our RSS feed.

My Apologies: Normally I’d wrap up a weekly review with a recap of our worship set and my favorite memory from the night, but it’s been a few weeks and all those things are running together in my mind.  I’ll go back to including these in future reviews, but they won’t be included in these “catch up” postings.  Sorry.