Christianity, Reel or Real, Always Has an Audience

“Christianity, Reel or Real, Always Has an Audience”

            I love watching movies. Nothing beats the sensation when you get up out of your seat and your feet make a giant sucking noise because of the three-inch layer of spilled soft drinks, melted $12.00 chocolate bars, and dead gummi bears . . . and that’s just in my den. It is much worse at the theater.

            It is time for the Academy Awards show, the one that gives out the Oscars. I don’t watch the show but it is always interesting to watch the red carpet events before the ceremony. It is great fun to hear the descriptions of the clothing, or lack thereof.  One evening gown is described as a “strapless Carolina Herrera gown” and another as “a yellow belted Valentino.” Sounds like a songbird in the woods.

            Just once I want to hear something like this – Overdramatic fashion commentator: “Ooh, that is gorgeous. She is wearing a Guy Laroche pewter gown with matching tulle trim.” Bubba: “Uh, no. That there looks more like an exploding depth finder from “Bill Dance Outdoors.” Overdramatic fashion commentator: “Ooh! That is a Versace shoulder-grazing black gown. Bubba, what, exactly, is a shoulder-grazing black gown?” Bubba: “I don’t know, but on her I think it answers the question, ‘Where’s the beef’”?

            I have found a list of movies that never made it to the public. There was a movie about fictional firemen in Middle Earth who climbed ladders and put out fires by spraying them with water-logged hobbits. It was called, “Lord of the Rungs.”  Archeologists found a lost copy of Charlton Heston reprising his role as Moses in “Moles in the Floor of Heaven.” Moses is recalled to active duty to deal with an eleventh plague.

            One movie had intense drama surrounding the possible execution of a convicted serial killer, a former cook in a Chinese restaurant. It was called “Dead Man Wokking.” The tearjerker of the year would have been “Mr. Holland’s Porpoise.” A middle-aged music teacher, thinking his life is a waste, throws caution to the wind. The wind throws it back and Mr. Holland teaches his porpoise how to play the piano. The porpoise then runs away to the Ivory Coast and conveniently marries a piano tuna.    

            Movies are great fun, as long as we remember never to confuse the reel world with the real world. When I was little I had to be reminded, during a particularly scary scene of a horror movie, that it was only  a movie. The people on the screen were only playing a role. They were not really in danger. They were actors, people acting like somebody else.

            Maybe there is more similarity than we would like to think. Christians always have an audience. We often are guilty of saying one thing with our mouth but doing the opposite with our life. People notice. Titus 1:16 says, “They claim to know God but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (NIV).

            When we get to that point we must ask ourselves a question. Are we living in the real world and being genuine Christians, or are we just existing in the reel world and only playing the role of a Christian? To put it in movie terms, if our actions are full of “Pride and Prejudice” then our words will be “Gone With the Wind.”