What's in a name....

So the last little while I have been watching some football movies. I must admit I have a weakness for football movies, mostly due to my high school football days. Maybe it is a form of reliving my past. Anyways the theme i find in these movies is what i am called 'redemptive stories.' Not sure if that is a phrase, but in post-modern/emergent fashion one is able to simply make up words.

In watching these movies(Gridiron Gang, Invincible, and We are Marshall) I am constantly brought to tears, which seems a bit messed up since they are fairly cheesy and the acting is not great by any stretch of the imagination. But I think redemptive stories are at the core of these movies...and to add to that is that my blog is called 'Another World is Possible.' This phrase I became aware of in reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, which is basically a testimony of Claiborne. The phrase 'another world is possible' comes from a project Claiborne is involved of exposing some of the justice issues in the world such as war, poverty, etc. I think what this phrase has grown to mean to me is stories that show a redemptive power in this world. I by no means believe these redemptive stories are only for the church. I find the Holy Spirit is at work in many ways in this world and many of those place are beyond the walls of the church. I imagine some would be uncomfortable with this idea, but I feel this is glaringly true in our age. Or maybe there are redemptive stories taking place, like those stories we find of Jesus redeeming people, in place that do not fit into the categories of agendas of the church.

Brian McLaren touches on what I mean by redemptive stories in his story of what it means to be a worker for the kingdom of God. In The Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren talks about a taxi driver that is not your normal taxi driver but a taxi driver with a kingdom purpose. I find forms of redemption are in these stories. In the Old Testament I get the sense of a cycle of people calling/crying to God and God responding. I wonder if God would limit a working to the people of God who are crying or finding a creative way to make the world better or shall i say find a way to redeem a broken people.

I think in the story of Invincible the city of Philadelphia is redeemed,given hope in a time of despair when many people were on strike and losing their livelihoods. These people are given hope when one of their native sons joins the team and gives the people hope. While that might seem like a stretch of a 'redemptive story.' I would suggest that possible our idea of redemption has been put in a straight jacket by the North American Church. The redemption is something to do with sin. Well i find this having to do with social sins or as Walter Wink calls them The Powers That Be. The city is involved in a sin of capitalism of dehumanizing the people working at plants arguing over money. But I think the movie Gridiron Gangs reveals a stronger story of redemption in the lives of people.

Gridiron gangs is about social workers working at a youth detention centre realizing that their method are not really reforming the youth since almost all the youth leave the detention and fall back into their lifestyle that brought them to the detention hall. The social workers feel that maybe forming a football team would give them a better chance to reform and teach these youth that seem to be caught in this cyclical life of living in poverty leading to crime leading to prison and thus leaving their kids to a life of poverty and so forth. This team by the end of the movie have learnt to live for something better. People who were forever called 'losers' are given a chance to be something different. This chance that i sense a lot of us feel is a right in a 'democratic' country, but is lost due to the life sucking force of poverty. These youth are transformed and 75% of the youth actually go onto a higher education or some kind of part of society. I find that these stories of youth brokenness being restored or given hope in a life of despair. If that isn't redemption...then i don't know what redemption is.....

I think while I watch these movies on a plane recently...I wondered if the glaring truth of these stories were not ordinary people acting extraordinarily. I know that may sound like a form of romanticizing on my part. While, I acknowledge truth in this statement I think the deeper thing is that Jesus is involved in giving people another way of doing things. Anyways it is late and i am drained...but God is good and faithful. Amen!