Images for Advent from the Silver Screen: November 29

I’ve written a number of advent devotionals over the years as a pastor and author, focusing on prayers (We Hear the Angels), faces (Faces of Advent for Christ-seekers), Christmas carols (Advent Notes for Christ-seekers), and questions (Advent Questions for Christ-seekers), as well as a collection of stories I titled Christmas Memories: Reflections of a Smitten Believer.  This year I'm offering a series of thoughts for Advent that can be read within a few minutes each day. These short essays will draw from images found in a variety of Christmas movies to help us focus on what it means to open our hearts to the celebration of the coming of the Christ child to the world. 

Here is day 1, the first Sunday in Advent.

                                                November 29

Home Alone 2

 

When shopping recently for face masks with a message, one of the few joys of a long-lasting pandemic, I discovered one that said, “Wear your mask, ya filthy animal.” Immediately I thought of the Home Alone movies, as Kevin (Macauley Culkin) watches gangster movies while waiting for his family to come home. In Home Alone 2, the iconic phrase is “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.” Whenever our kids gather together, their conversation is peppered with quotations from movies, including this one, and so of course I had to purchase the masks inspired by that oft-quoted line. 

The imagery from film can impact our understanding of social issues, familial relationships, and even religious thoughts. We do not practice our faith on a desert island, nor do we read the Bible in a vacuum. What we see, hear, and experience can mold our understanding of scripture, our faithful living as a seeker after Jesus. We are impacted by the culture we live within, and images from that environment can expand our faith. 

That’s my hope with these writing – as well as to bring a glimpse of joy as we enter the magic of film and Christmas. Catherine Booth taught us: “Here is the principle – adapt your measures to the necessity of the people to whom you minister. You are to take the Gospel to them in such modes and circumstances as will gain for it from them a hearing.” In the movies we can see and hear the good news of the gospel, even if we might have to look for it a bit.

In Home Alone 2, Kevin reveals his heart and ours as he talks with the desk clerk at the Plaza. “And ma’am, sometimes I do get into mischief. We all do!” Substitute ‘sin’ for ‘mischief,’ and we see ourselves. That’s why Jesus came. That’s the good news of the gospel. 

 

The angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. 

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.”

                                                                Luke 2:10