Since James Cameron’s Hollywood blockbuster Avatar became the highest grossing film in the world only a few weeks into its release, you have to think it’s saying something that speaks to people everywhere. Wikipedia says this about the theme of the film: “Avatar is an action-adventure journey of self-discovery in the context of imperialism and bio-diversity.” Put simply, it is a story about what makes us all one and, on the other hand, what tears us apart. It is a daring study into what connects us all in the human race and in the whole of creation and what threatens to plunge us all into disconnection. In the film, the aboriginal people of the planet Pandora say we are all connected. But will we see it or will we ignore it and suffer the devastating results?
We in the church should be attentive to the message of this film, not just because people all around us have collectively spent over a billion dollars to see it, but because it delves into an issue our generation is passionate about. People everywhere are watching Avatar because people everywhere care about what connects us and about what makes us one. People everywhere are concerned about the havoc that will be wrought if the human race does not come to terms with our connectivity to one another and to the world we call our home. The message of the movie is really the message of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. We are all parts of one body. We are different parts with different gifts and abilities but we are meant to share those gifts and allow the interconneting parts to work together. We are different parts held together by the glue Paul calls agape.
While I am writing this article, our world is attempting to respond to the horrors inflicted on the island nation of Haiti by the devastating January earthquake. The devastation is so great that nothing less than a global response will be sufficient to help this already poverty-stricken country cope and rebuild. If we in Canada and the affluent northern hemisphere do not see our connection to our brothers and sisters in Haiti, then they will be doomed to dwell in chaos and horrific hardship for generations to come. The fact of our common humanity connects us. The fact that we Canadians love to frolic on the beaches of the neighbouring Dominican Republic connects us. The fact that over 100,000 Haitians now call Canada home connects us. The fact that our Governor General Michaelle Jean is of Haitian descent connects us.
But most of all the truth of the gospel of God’s love, in the gift of his Son, for the entire human race connects us. When we declare, “God so loved the world,” we are speaking of not just Canadians but also Haitians and Asians and Africans, indeed all people everywhere. As the old Sunday school chorus declares, “Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight.” Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12 establish our connection, most especially when he speaks of how we are connected by suffering. “When one part suffers, all the other parts suffer with it.” And then Paul seals the deal when he declares, in 1 Corinthians 13, that agape is the essence of our connectivity.
Once again Presbyterian World Service and Development is taking the lead for us in the Presbyterian Church by expressing our connection to the Haitian people. As Moderator, I again find myself praising PWS&D for the service they are providing. In our thanksgiving we should be most generous. Nothing less will do for a people who have been given so much, for a church that has been given so very much in Christ Jesus.
