At right are some of the monster characters from the movie Monsters, Inc., which I reference in my sermon. Click below to read the sermon.
Vicar Brett Wilson – Epiphany 4A – 1/30/11 – 1 Cor. 1:18-31 – CELC Lancaster
The animated movie Monsters, Inc., is told from the perspective of the world of monsters that live in children's closets waiting to scare them at night. It isn't their fault – this troop of monsters are specially trained “scarers” who collect the screams of children in canisters which power the electrical grid of the monster world. The world of the monsters is literally powered by violence, intimidation, and fear – and that is the source of power, and hence success and money in the monster world.
But is our world really that different? Yes, perhaps a cynical view, but our world too is powered by violence, or at least threat of it. Even while we live in relative peace here in Lancaster and regard our world as modern and a little more sophisticated than just brute violence, there are still reminders of this. Dictators and leaders across the world hold power by force. Even an uprising of the people, such as in Egypt right now, resorts to force and leads to weapons and looting in the streets, as in Cairo yesterday. Like in the monsters' world in the movie, fear creates power. And it's not just in terms of governments or leaders – fear equals power in a lot of ways. Part of every marketing campaign for an item is an aspect that creates a fear that without this item, your life will be harder, or less cool/stylish, or incomplete.
The people of the Corinthian Christian congregation didn't hold the power in their city. Paul writes to them, Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. And let's be honest, we look around our own congregation, and we don't hold the sum of worldly power either. Noble birth? Powerful? Presidents? Rocket scientists? Not so much. All of us get by, but we're not the most powerful or elite, either. We use the term the “powers that be” - often not to refer to God, but the structures that keep us from a job – a promotion, whatever it is we want.
The power of the world, power attained by fear, violence, or status, is power over others. Power over others like the monsters in the movie have power over their fearful, sleepy children who they scare. Power over others like advertisements try to create with the fear that you have to have this or else you won't be accepted, or smart, or successful. Power over others is present in every form of violence – power over like Jared Loughner had for the few minutes of terror he caused with an automatic weapon outside an Arizona grocery store.
Back to the movie, the monsters' city starts to have blackouts, and the power supply starts to fail. The source of electricity is in danger of giving out – because their power comes from fear, and the children, with video games and violent movies, are getting harder and harder to scare by the furry monster from the closet. While I don't generally take my wisdom from Disney movies, this is true that power-over only results in a constant ratcheting-up of the threshold. It's a story told over and over in our history books and in our own lives – when you hold power over by fear or violence, you have to keep raising the bar.
From the beginning, the monsters had been taught that children, these toddlers, were their biggest fear. They were the victims of their scaring, but the monsters were taught the children were dangerous and would hurt them. But then one child escapes into the monsters' world and two monsters, one in particular, fall in love with the child. Through this they realize that the greatest power, electrical and otherwise, comes from love. They learn that the laughter of the children can power their city, and is thousands of times more potent than their screams.
This is the same shape as the story of the cross. We, like the ancient people, have all been taught about power, how to climb the ladder, intimidate and influence others, and to consider outsiders and competitors as dangerous. We expect, therefore, to know what a savior would look like. The one who saves us from our sin and the brokenness of the world would be forceful, all powerful, coercive.
But then the reverse happens, just like in the movie. On the cross, God works in the last place we'd expect. Through dying, God conquers sin and death for you. The power of cross is foolishness because it seems backward to all of our wisdom – which is based on power from fear and violence. The power of the cross is love.
Paul writes that the message of the cross is the power of God. Power of love. Power with you and for you, present every moment. The cross is not power that is over you or you can own and use against others. It is the power of the love that created us, strengthens us, and died so that we may live.
This type of power, with and for, instead of power over, is unusual in our world. The power of strong love stops the cycles of fear and violence created by the usual patterns of power and so-called wisdom in our world. People like Martin Luther King Jr. stopped this cycle of fear and refused to participate in this power over system any more. Holding the cross at the center and Christ's love as guide, King believed in power with and for the people, and the difference is made by the nonviolent stance. Ghandi, German Christians who resisted nonviolently and defended Jews during the Holocaust, and anyone who shares of what they have, all stood up for power with and for people instead of holding it over them. Power comes from the last place you'd look – from giving it up – sharing what you have, and knowing that your power comes from the biggest loser – the one who died on the cross taking on all our sin. When you share what you have, when you hand someone a meal at a community meal or shake someone's hand in fellowship, this is the power of love found in the cross. In being vulnerable. When you are vulnerable to someone else and reach out in love, to admit how you feel, help someone out, or listen to a friend, there is Christ's power with you changing the world. Jesus is the greatest example of this. He stands for you, for power with you, defeating the power of violence on the cross.
There is power in love, the power of God in the message of the cross. Jesus demonstrates it in all of his ministry and in the life of the church today. Like electricity, this power is shocking – because God's action in Christ on the cross is unbelievable. It is the source of your life. To be a follower of the cross, then, means to stand with those who do not have power. The power of love makes us a little vulnerable, and that is the power of the cross that strengthens us to serve and make a difference for others. It's working right here, in my life and yours. The world says it's better to be feared than loved, but this only leads back to fear and death. The cross proves that love is more powerful than fear, and that through Christ God is powerfully present for you every moment of your life.
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