Planet of the Other

8th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12

Caesar, er… Moses

The best Biblical epic that I’ve seen recently is by far, War for the Planet of the Apes. It’s an Exodus story. Caesar is Moses, leading his apes to the promised land, a place free from persecution. Unlike the Planet of the Apes movies from the 60’s and 70’s that I watched ad nauseam with my sisters growing up these apes are the good guys and are a wonderful metaphor for how we as God’s loving creation are working toward the beloved community where all are welcomed. The apes of this story are in that liminal space between bondage and freedom, looking for a home. We see the perspective of the “other”, the ones that have been persecuted and vilified by the powerful.

I’ve been delighted to see that movie and culture critics are also acknowledging this and it’s not just me interpreting too much from the two things I most love reading, films and scripture. Alisa Wilkinson from VOX[1] observes that it “evokes not just the children of Israel in Egyptian enslavement but also movements that have used that story as inspiration for their own struggle for freedom during the American Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. It also consciously calls to mind the Holocaust, with homages to The Great Escape and soldiers styled to look like both Nazis and white-supremacist militants.”

There is some very clever theological writing in this film, even a nod to the parting of the red sea and a scene straight out of Deuteronomy 34 (hint, maybe a spoiler, Caesar’s protégée is named Joshua). The premise starts small: Leave us alone. Let us be in peace. Then evolves into “let my people (or apes in this case) go”. Resistance to oppression and push back against powers of domination often begin very small then grow and sometimes in the most unlikely of places hidden in plain sight. Does this remind you if something we heard today?[2]

The kingdom of heaven is like…

…something that starts off small and then grows into something large and useful.

A mustard seed. Starts small but grows big to provide much shelter to all.

A little yeast put into bread until all is leavened.

The kingdom of heaven is like…

…something hidden then found.

Like a treasure hidden in a field.

Or like a merchant finding a great pearl.

In these parables there is something of great value that is not appreciated because of it is either small or hidden. These things (the seed, yeast, treasure, pearl) are like the ones we do not recognize: the poor, the young, the elderly, the alien, the disenfranchised. Yet there is something so valuable in all of these things if given the opportunity, that will prove very valuable to the world. These parables encourage us to look for God’s transformative work in the world in the most unlikely of places through welcoming those that are different than we — the disabled, the foreigner, those with few resources, those that are overlooked and disregarded.

When I was in college I volunteered at the Union Station Homeless Mission in Pasadena, CA. We had a carwash fundraiser one Saturday. The volunteers, the people that both worked and lived in the mission, all of us were washing cars. Someone in their infinite wisdom had given me a clipboard with a list of donations on it and asked me to tally it up. This was a mistake. Math is, hands down, my weakest subject. I can’t even do long division. I’m worthless in helping my own children with their math homework. So here I was struggling with a pencil and one of the guys that I’d known from around the shelter came up to me to see what I was doing. He looked like a text book homeless person from a movie filmed in LA, straight out of Central Casting. The carwash had cleaned him up a bit that day. He leans over my shoulder and starts mumbling something about carrying numbers and breaking things into portions. I finally just gave him the clipboard and he had everything tallied within seconds. I look at it and say “Thanks, man. Looks like you know math.” And he replies, “I better. I was a CPA.” I think the guy’s crazy so I find a calculator and take about 10 minutes to add up the numbers and sure enough he was right. I go over to the woman running the car wash and I tell her what happened. And she’s not surprised. “Oh, Jerry?”, she says. “Yeah he’s got an MBA from the University of Southern California.” Now how Jerry got from the halls of academia to the streets of Los Angeles is another story. The point of my sharing is that God’s transformative work in the world happens in the most unlikely of places through welcoming those that are different than we are.

I have to constantly remind myself of this. I often have to get my own prejudices in check. (I shudder to think of the train wreck I’d be if it weren’t for the continual acknowledgment of God’s presence in my life) We can all fall into that tendency of situating ourselves in comfort zones that allow us to view others from afar or from within a comfortable lens that we establish ourselves. But here’s the thing, we don’t live in a cause and effect world that holds us only accountable for ourselves. As Christians we’re called to a more loving relationship with our neighbors.

We have an amazing, diverse, open and affirming parish here at St. Paul’s. We have an inclusive Spanish language mass at 12:15 every Sunday that welcomes those in our Latino community. Just a week ago today in San Antonio a tractor-trailer filled with dozens of undocumented Latino immigrants was found parked outside a Walmart in the scorching heat[3]. Eight people were found dead inside the truck, and two died later after being hospitalized. The city’s fire chief said some others who were severely injured might suffer from “irreversible brain damage.” These were human beings. Human lives. Suffering. And for what purpose? Are they less than we are? Because they undocumented? Because they were Latino? Because of whatever reason? How did they arrive in such a violent and terrible position? This happens to all kinds of people from a broad diversity of life. Who among us has been demonized and for what purpose? Who among us has demonized another?

San Antonio police officers at a Walmart parking lot with the tractor-trailer where eight people were found dead. Credit:Eric Gay/Associated Press

There are two more parables in today’s reading from Matthew. Jesus continued by telling us that the kingdom of heaven is like the net cast into the sea. When pulled in it contained all varieties of fish. But it is not our job to separate. That belongs to the angels at the end of an age.

In the kingdom of heaven every scribe is like the master of a household and brings out of treasure both what is old and new. Today we are quick to dispose of the old in favor of early adoption of the most recent innovation. (Gotta have the iPhone 8!) What is old — whether it be people, ideas, or objects — as well as what is new both have value and a place among us.

My film students are recognizing the value of shooting on old analog technology like 16mm film stock and the warmth that it provides over more “advanced” technology like 4k video. Sure, sometimes it’s just a hipster/retro thing but to the artist something cast aside as worthless can often be significant.

Just like technology there are many people may seem insignificant in the eyes of the world. No prizes or recognitions, yet God, the greatest artist of all, knows and values them. If the world were wise enough to use their talents, we would all be better off. It is not for us to separate what we think is the “good” and the “bad”. This happens at the end of an age and is the responsibility of angels, not us.

Jesus’ audience was actually listening to him. They were paying attention. They were the ones his words were intended to inspire. They were the “little ones” living under oppressive rule in an occupied land. His preaching wasn’t just a distraction from the everyday world filled with multi-media utilized to escape from the daily grind at the end of the work shift. These were life changing words. They challenged the status quo. If we actually listen to what Jesus is saying to us… today… his words still are life changing and challenging. This is where theology gets really cool. That big cosmic creative consciousness that brought things into being and coagulated the waters of the universe into something tangibly present actually became incarnate in a walking talking human being, a human being that wasn’t afraid to push back against an oppressive system and show us the hope, the promise, and the justice that is God’s abiding love for all of creation. This is a love that promises a kingdom that usurps our petty worldly ambitions and supplants them with an unfathomable celebration of creation in its entirety.

God is working for the good in all things. This doesn’t necessarily mean that as Christians we are always going to experience good peachy keen things at all times. What is good may not always be what is painless, easy, or respectable by some cultural standards. Paul doesn’t talk about what is good for whom exactly. It is implicit that good is for all of God’s creation, not just us and our runnin’ partners. We’re talking about the good for the purposes of God.

This takes us back to the Planet of the Apes again and how Wilkinson from VOX notes “what it wants to say is a warning for us, specifically, in an age where everyone from our political opponents to the world’s refugees are categorized, shoved aside, demonized, and dehumanized. The responsibility that comes with having a soul — or however you prefer to conceive of moral culpability — is to not just our own kind but our neighbor. The Apes universe isn’t our own, just yet.[4]” God has bigger dreams for the kingdom.

As our patron saint, Paul, tells us today in his letter to the Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[5]

Amen.

[1] https://www.vox.com/summer-movies/2017/7/13/15955878/review-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-bible-moses-exodus

[2] Matthew 13:31–33,44–52 (RCL, 8th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12)

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/us/san-antonio-truck-walmart-trafficking.html

[4] ibid, Wilkinson

[5] Romans 8:39, NRSV

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