August 18 Worship: "Man of Steel"

On Sunday, we gathered for another bright summer worship service, featuring another sermon from the "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series."  We also heard from the Robert Zornes, Executive Director of Mother's Refuge, a local social service agency that assists young mothers during their pregnancy and with their newborn children.  He thanked Eastgate for our ongoing support of Mother's Refuge and the positive work they are doing to give young mothers and their children a better chance at a stable, healthy, and productive life.

In the sermon, we considered possible religious themes from the new Superman movie, "Man of Steel."  After pointing to some of the parallels between the character of Superman and Jesus (which I think are mostly intentional), I suggested that a parallel in their development suggested a way we could better appreciate how Jesus chose to accept a life of suffering in order to fulfill his purpose as the Messiah -- not only through his crucifixion, but throughout his entire ministry.

Drawing upon the famous "Man of Sorrows" passage from the prophet Isaiah, which is the traditional Good Friday lesson, I suggested that God's gracious desire to forgive and save all of creation -- likely for the purpose of restoring the unity and wholeness of creation, as I talked about last Sunday -- put Jesus in a position where he had to suffer because he could not simply use force to compel people to follow him.  This is a lesson for us too, who would follow in Jesus' footsteps: in our efforts to lead by faithful example, we will sometimes be misunderstood, railed against, and caught in the middle.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, of if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

At the Lord's Table, I briefly reflected on how this understanding of Jesus' life as one of suffering, as opposed to just his death, ties into the meaning of the bread of Communion, as it parallels the meaning of the bread shared during a Passover Seder.  You can listen to this meditation here.