Sr. Wantabee has suggested to the pastor of her church that a summer community discussion group be run by her during July. If God doesn’t get to take a vacation from caring for us, why should we take a vacation from adoring and thanking Him? Early church to avoid the heat and then an intergenerational share time to talk about Avatar and perhaps compare it to Habbakuk.
Habbakuk is a minor prophet in the Old Testament who bemoans God’s absence during trials and distress, not unsimilar to the Na’vi distress at seeing Home Tree destroyed. How can disaster like this befall us. A commentary Sr. Wantabee read this week offered a two point response to evil offered by God in Habbakuk. First, evil will eventually burn out and be destroyed by its own methods. The evil general in the end is speared and dies. Secondly God and good will eventually prevail. In Pandora when it looks like evil is winning the pseudo-rhinoceroses coming charging through with their body plating that cannot be penetrated by bullets and set the military to flight.
The group could ponder whether our good Avatar, Jake Sulley, was really a Christ figure. What is the nature of connections – to see the world through another’s eyes or to control, how does prayer work? There could be a discussion on the mechanistic vs the naturalistic view of reality. As youth, is there a similarity to the sheroe who refuses to fly her helicopter to kill the Na’vi and eventually dies. “I had hoped there was a way out of this that did not involve martrydom!” There are many good hooks for conversation beside the obvious Western vs Hinduistic faith stances. The role of the saints-sacred memories or active agents?
Let’s do it!
Posted by srwantabee 
On the Way to Wonder 