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Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Change: a better path?

Three films and one letter (Galatians 3:23-29) offer hope to change for the better.

Context

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

  • The question raised by recent remakes of two popular animated children’s films is: should the original have been left well alone or are these new versions a change for the better? In terms of Disney’s live-action remake ‘Lilo & Stitch’ the question may well have been answered by takings at the box-office. Although the film didn’t go down well with the critics, it’s box-office takings are close to $1bn so far! The storyline is the typical Disney affair: little girl dreams of having a best friend; a cute-but-mischievous alien lands in her family home; much trouble ensues; all ends well according to the wise family motto, “‘Chana’ means family – family means nobody gets left behind!”. Paul’s message in Galatians 3:23-29 stresses the unity that comes through faith in Christ Jesus. Nobody is to be left behind or left out – even if they are blue and come from another planet! For Paul, finding new faith in Christ, means you belong to a bigger family and you are therefore heirs to God’s ancient promise to Abraham.
  • Setting aside any criticism that both ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ films (both 2010 and 2025 versions) take a very different path to Cressida Cowell’s original children’s story about the young Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, this film becomes a story about tribal culture change. Hiccup is heir-apparent to the tribe of Vikings who reside on the Isle of Berk. They have always hunted and been hunted by dragons. Although Hiccup (like Paul in some ways) was never going to be anyone’s first choices as a hero to his nation, his different approach to life from that of those around him challenges his people to consider whether they might be able to live in unity with dragons, rather than always fighting against them. In Galatians 3:23-29 Paul teaches that we are all heirs according to the promise God made to Abraham – that we are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Christ, says Paul, brings freedom from the Laws that have bound us in the past. Divisions which we have held onto for so long no longer apply – for we are all one in Christ Jesus. Where do we see Paul’s call for a culture change in terms of how we view others in our world today?
  • No-one wants to have their life turned upside down by financial disaster or the terminal illness of someone you love, but the true and life-affirming story of Raynor and Moth Winn leaves you with a sense of admiration for anyone who has change thrust upon them and yet who still has hope for something better. ‘The Salt Path’ tells the journey of two people coming to terms with grief on so many levels, but who manage to find a path (quite literally) to a new sense of belonging in the natural world. In doing so they discover healing from what they thought they had lost from their past. Like Paul’s description in Galatians 3:23 of how faith can set you free, Raynor and Moth left behind the conventions of normalised society and embraced the path that lay before them. It is often not until we are forced to step outside the norms and laws of society that we discover a new freedom to live life under a much bigger sky. To quote from the film: “People here fight the elements. But when you let it touch you, when you let it be, you’ll never be the same again.” So it is with God. We can discover, as Paul describes, that we are part of something much bigger – that we are all children of God through faith.

 

Questions for discussion

  • One question raised by recent remakes of two popular animated children’s films is: Should the original have been left well alone or are these new visual experiences of storytelling changing the story for the better? What changes for the better is God trying to show us in our lives?
  • In Galatians 3:23 Paul expresses the sentiment that our lives before knowing Christ Jesus were like living a life imprisoned, but how coming to really know Christ sets us free. Can you think of how your faith has set you free?
  • What changes for the better have you seen or heard about this week? Reflect, pray and (where appropriate) give thanks for stories you have seen or heard, or for events in the news this past week where there has been a definitive change for the better.

Tim Lowe is a minister of the United Reformed Church, serving in the Leeds URC Partnership. Tim loves watching films and training his dragon - well, a seven-year-old lurcher who looks a bit like a dragon if you use your imagination!.

 

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Change for the better 

I read an Instagram post this week which said:

“ ‘Oh I didn’t know you were Christian,’ was the worst possible insult to receive as a Christian.”

It took me a second to work out why, then I got it.

If we have been changed for the better for Jesus, because of Jesus and through Jesus, then we were not born to stay the same, we were born to stand out, be changed for the better. But, if we have put on Christ and are now free, how do we display this in today’s culture?

How do you respond to the culture around you? Are you easily caught up in the latest trends even if you know they are not living in the faith to which Jesus has called us? Do you live how you want for 6 days a week but only 1 day for the gospel? If so, then is that really changing? If so, is this really freedom?

This week scroll through your social media accounts:

  • Who are you following?
  • Who are you liking?
  • How are the opinions of the people or pages you follow or like affecting your identity?
  • Are you putting on the old ways, or dying to self to be changed for the better?
  • What is your response to the continuing Israeli bombardment of Gaza?
  • How are you affected by horrendous disasters and incidents such as the crashed Indian aircraft that had been due to land in London?
  • Do you listen to influencers telling you by which ‘laws,’ we should be living our lives?

I think it’s important to explore what being free and changed from the law looks like today also. For Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fullfil it (Matthew 5:17). Jesus firmly tells us to keep the law - meaning the 10 commandments given by Moses. These commandments are foundational and surely written on the hearts of everyone (Romans 2:14) enabling them to distinguish between what’s good and what’s bad even without having faith.

So what’s changed then? What does Jesus change for the better? He shows us how to live out those laws, and gives us grace when we mess it up, which we do, all the time!

As you're scrolling why not listen to Forrest Frank Your way's better. Or start each day this week listening to it, remembering all Jesus does for us and how he changed your life, for the better because his way IS better!

Natasia Bullock is Director of The B Tales

 

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