Faith Works 6-26

Faith Works 6-26-10

Jeff Gill

 

Like a Spider, Dangling By a Thread Over a Furnace

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Some 65 years before the Granville, Massachusetts settlers crossed into Licking County in 1805, a mentor of their hometown pastor preached a famous sermon, titled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

 

Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon in 1739 that some credit with launching the first Great Awakening, a season of revival that swept through the early American colonies, and shaped the worldview and concepts of personhood and identity in the nascent United States. He asked his hearers to contemplate their place, their situation, from the position of a holy and almighty God, and to acknowledge their utter . . . well, contingency would be the five dollar word for it.

 

As finite, limited, created creatures, participating in eternity but ultimately destined to die and be forgotten, Edwards suggested that our plight is directly comparable to that of an unwanted, noxious insect held, for a moment, over a vast burning pit.

 

It was through consideration of that image that Edwards, in Northampton, MA and Timothy Mather Cooley after him, in Granville, MA, hoped to bring souls into an awareness of their need to find a path for their feet and an orientation for their hearts to follow God's guidance. Only God could keep them from the fire of oblivion, and it would be simple justice in the cosmic sense if an orderly and consistent Creator would sweep them into the chute of doom.

 

Now, you may read that and think this is an archaic and ancient understanding of Divine Providence that might have come into Licking County with Jacob Little in 1827, but surely is not to be found in our more brightly lit and compassionate world of today.

 

But through my tears, I found myself wondering if Jonathan Edwards, Puritan preacher of the early American frontier, would enjoy "Toy Story 3." And if I turned to him after the searing but ultimately joyful conclusion (no spoilers here, sorry, that's all I'll tell you), and said "Sir, you had a hand in the imaginative landscape and the narrative line of that movie," would he gravely agree?

 

Trust me: if you have any general, working knowledge of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (you can find the text at edwards.yale.edu and elsewhere online), and its place in American intellectual history, I think you'd be forced to agree that Dr. Edwards deserved a small credit somewhere in Pixar's closing along with Cheryl Burke for choreography.

 

Where do you find ultimate meaning, and what is the meaning of your life, when you are facing obliteration? Yes, it's a sequel to a sequel of an animated kids movie, but the question couldn't be asked more clearly than "Toy Story 3" does, even to a Puritan Christian viewpoint.

 

And the answer? Well, being a Disney/Pixar production, you can probably guess what the answer is, which leaves lots of marginal space for you to write your own details into the general proposal. It'll preach, up to a point.

 

The core question remains, and the form of the asking, on the silver screen this past week, traces back to a lonely preacher wondering if his message would be heard, out from the deep wilderness and distant frontier where he served over 250 years ago.

 

You can almost feel his hand reaching out for yours over the centuries, seeking the comfort and reassurance of knowing he is not alone. Is there a connection that can pull us out of the pit, or will it inexorably swallow us all?

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; he and his family enjoyed "Toy Story 3" very much, and parents need to take tissues if they're going to see it. Lots of tissues. E-mail him at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow Knapsack @Twitter.