He Lives in You: The Lion King

The Lion King is a fun movie for me.  It came out just weeks after Paul and I started dating.  His first gift to me was the soundtrack. 

We have since seen Lion King: The Musical three times--it's amazing.  The song "He Lives in You" (only in the musical, not movie) captured me.  Here is a YouTube video of the song, mixed with scenes from the movie.



I listen to the musical's soundtrack now and then, and several years ago, I realized that song would be great for a sermon.  (Note: this realization came long before I realized I was going to be a pastor for real.) 

For Mother's Day, I did pulpit supply at a few small churches, and re-worked a sermon I did on Isaiah 43, using an illustration from Disney's Toy Story about the exile.

A few weeks ago, I got asked to do pulpit supply for Father's Day, and I kind of thought, "Well maybe it's time to put that Lion King sermon together."  Toy Story for Mother's Day; Lion King for Father's Day.   But then I changed my mind, thinking I'd just preach from the lectionary, because that really helps me grapple with important Scripture.

So, I went to the lectionary, and surprise, Galatians 5:20 says, "...it is Christ who lives in me."  Ta-da!  Lion King it will be!  And I am still forced to work on a piece of Scripture that is extremely challenging--the translation is really hard and the Reformation did a doozy on it.  (Sorry Luther fans.)

Our identities are not defined by the boundaries we put between ourselves and others.  Instead, your identity/being is in Christ.  (To the pastors and seminarians reading, please note I'm in a Tillich class right now too.)  Crazy how it all comes together.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kids in spring!

Image
Faith missed her piano recital because her Girl Scout troop went to Mary Poppins in Minneapolis, but we recorded her song.  This is just a sample.  Samuel had a great spring concert.  He alone played the bass line for kids who "improv'd" on a song.  Can't seem to get a video up, but here's a pic of him hiding behind a music stand, blowing away.  Emilee turned 8!  A pic from her party. 
Read more

Was Jesus Polarizing?

Was Jesus a polarizing figure? My church will do a worship series on polarization during Lent.   Wish us luck!   People are already asking me, “Are you really going to ask me to interact with others whose views are so off course that they would become violent?”   That response is incredibly telling of the dynamics at play within our society—that people automatically go to the extreme without seeing the rest.   The goal of this series is to investigate whether the life of Jesus teaches us anything about polarization. I’ve been doing some scriptural research.   And I got to tell you: it’s been a tough day.   You know when you are reading a novel and you prescribe a personality, tone of voice, and temperament to a character?   It’s almost like you can hear their voice in your head as you are reading dialogue.   The author of the story, of course, plants all the seeds through their character development, but ultimately the reader’s own lens gives the character life.   (This is why p
Read more

PRIDE week communion

Image
It's PRIDE month.  For the last three years, June has been a really strange time in ministry for me.  People often refer friends, relatives, and colleagues to talk through issues around identity and gender diversity.  I get calls from people dissatisfied with their own church's stance who are trying to figure out steps to allyship.  I get calls from parents trying to do the right things.  But the most holy calls I get are from people from the LGBTQIA community, folks looking for hope after church rejection, spiritual trauma, and family rejection.   These folks are brave:  brave to recount the pain, brave to dare to accept themselves, brave to let themselves sense a glimmer of healing grace.  Their stories are sacred, and I feel nothing but gratitude that I'm let into this sacredness.   Recently I was asked by a group to provide a two-minute speech about the power of story-telling during a time of holy conferencing (the nice version of debate) at the gathering of Minnesota U
Read more