It turns out that Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ has come top of the league of TV complaints! I have yet to work out what the complaints about this were actually about. The usual repot is that Jesus has sexual fantasies about Mary Magdalene, but this is misleading. The crucial temptation that Jesus faces is to give up his mission and settle down to raise a family with Mary. But if he wasn't tempted by this, if he felt no attachment to life as an ordinary human being, then in what sense was the incarnation anything more than a fantasy itself? Still, you can always trust certain parts of the Christian community to complain noisily about something that they don't actually understand.
Cages and Trees
A Sermon for the Feast of the Hallowing of Derby Cathedral Jeremiah 7.1-11 ; Luke 19.1-10 Nothing befits the solemn festivities of the feast of the Hallowing of Derby Cathedral more than a quotation from one of the foremost theologians of our age. So let me share this as a theological gift to mark this feast: “I may not know much about God, but we built a pretty nice cage for him”. “I may not know much about God, but we built a pretty nice cage for him”. The theologian, for those who did not spot it, is Homer Simpson, patriarch and star of the long running animated family saga The Simpsons . In one episode, Homer becomes a missionary in the South Pacific, and builds a chapel for the natives. As the final piece of the chapel is put into its place, Homer says “I may not know much about God, but we built a pretty nice cage for him”. Jeremiah would, I think, have recognised the satire behind Homer Simpson’s theology. ...
Comments