Angels & Demons

So I saw Angels & Demons tonight with my El Paso friend, Susan. Wow. It was amazing on many levels.

I guess I want this post to be more or less a discussion about "these kind" of movies - yeah, you know what I'm talking about. They're the movies that we good Christians shouldn't see because they're obviously anti-everything we stand for.

Or so we say.

But don't knock it til you've tried it.

Angels & Demons has strongly religious overtones - and they're not anti-religious. Yeah, I think that maybe Dan Brown took a few too many knocks on the Catholic church.... But there's a line at the end of the movie that I loved. One of the Cardinals makes a comments to Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) about the church. He says, "The church is not perfect only because men are not perfect - all men."

So yes, we screw up. A lot. The Catholic church, the Orthodox church, the Protestant church. Maybe even our good Nazarene church. We are not perfect - and we are the Church. But at least Christ can work through fallible people like us.
At the beginning of the film, Ewan McGregor's character (the papal advisor - some Italian word I don't know...) asks Langdon if he believes in God. As Langdon begins to give a long and detailed explanation, McGregor cuts him off to ask the question again. Langdon says, "I'm an academic. My head tells me that I cannot comprehend God." McGregor: "What does your heart say?" Langdon replies, "Faith is a gift; and it's one that I haven't been given yet."

How many of us try to approach faith as if it weren't the greatest gift we could receive from our Maker? No, we cannot comprehend God: no matter how hard we try to explain Him we always fall short. Faith is not something we can get by ourselves. It's a gift - one we have to accept.

My faith is stored in the God who saves me from myself. My faith doesn't rest in the latest movie or book. I know that some refuse to read Brown's works because they are sacreligious. But they are works of fiction - my faith does not rest in what Dan Brown thinks about God and the church. My faith rests in Jesus Christ.

And honestly, I don't know what Brown thinks about God - but from some of the dialogue in Angels & Demons, he may not be as far off as some think he is.

Try it.