03-may-09

Save Me The Rev. Joseph Winston May 3, 2009

Sermon Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1 About one year ago, Pixar Films released the critically acclaimed movie simply titled, WALL-E. The film’s largely silent plot tells us the powerful story of two robots working together to bring humans back home. Actually, the storyline is a bit more complicated than that. WALL-E really does not have a name. He is one of the countless “Waste Allocation Load LifterEarth class” robots otherwise known as WALL-E. Their prime directive is cleaning up the mess that we human made on earth. The movie’s starkly rendered landscapes quickly bring the enormity of this problem home. We have polluted the earth so much that it no longer supports life. That is why the human race built WALL-E and thousands of others like him. 1

Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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Their task is cleaning up after us. Every day, all these robots wake up, go out into the world and find the waste we made. They then take the trash, compact it, and neatly stack up the resulting cubes. Only one of the many of the WALL-Es survived the enormous task set before them. He is our star. Seven hundred years of toil also deeply affected WALL-E. His parts repeatedly wore out from all the work. In order to survive, WALL-E did what he could. He scavenged parts from other WALL-E robots and repaired himself. Despite WALL-E’s best efforts, errors slipped into his programming. WALLE is now deeply interested about the world around him. In order to satisfy this newly found curiosity, WALL-E took an old truck and filled it up with treasures. Some of them are spare parts while others of them are more personal in nature. They are items like toys that amuse him and things that address his second glitch. WALL-E now longs for companionship. But he in all the trash that is left in the world, he cannot find anything that satisfies his need for love. One day this changes. A rocket lands near WALL-E and from it comes a sleek and shiny robot. This is EVE or “Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator.” WALLE immediately falls in love with EVE and he does his best to win her over. He takes EVE to his truck and shows her treasure after treasure, but nothing seems to interest her. He then shows her a fragile plant that he found. EVE takes the plant from WALL-E and places it inside her. Now we know why EVE was sent. Her task is to discover if plants are once again growing on Earth. EVE returns to the rocket, which then makes it way back to the mother ship. 2

There aboard the space ship named Axiom, we see many different types of robots along with our first glimpse of humans. However, they do not look like you or I because they have spent their lives in zero-g luxury. Our attention quickly returns to EVE since she brings the tiny plant to the main computer for analysis. It does not take long for this computer to recognize the plant for what it is but there seems to be a problem with this knowledge. The computer does not want to inform the captain of this fact. The captain eventually learns of the plant that EVE brought and he wants the computer to execute its program of returning the ship along with its passengers to Earth for recolonization. However, the computer is not willing to relinquish control back to the captain. The rest of the movie tells us how WALL-E and EVE with a little bit of help from the other robots and the ship’s captain resolve this dilemma. By working together, they ultimately free humanity from their captivity and allow the passengers to finally return to their rightful place on Earth. It always amazes me when we see such strong parallels between what the world tells us is required for life and what we find in the Bible because all too often that type of understanding cannot be found. The movie WALL-E reminds us that we need someone to take care of us. Many different characters play this role in the movie. WALL-E works to save the Earth from pollution. WALL-E also teams up with EVE and the captain to free the passengers. Two of our lessons today clearly say the same thing. We need someone to watch over us. The twenty-third psalm normally attributed to King David contains these same 3

elements. In the poem, God takes the role of shepherd and His followers that of sheep (Psalm 23:1). You need to know that our part in the psalm is not very flattering. You see, sheep are vulnerable to attack. Sheep also get into trouble. They often follow the wrong leader. Our poor behavior does not deter the L ORD. Just like any other shepherd worth his salt, the L ORD gives the sheep food, water, and protection (Psalm 23:2-4). The Shepherd does this because He loves the sheep. No matter if we want it or not, God continues to give us the necessities for life (Psalm 23:2-4). These gifts of life come to us both the in the safe places that we find ourselves and amazingly enough we continue to have life given to us even when we are surrounded by those people who wish to harm us (Psalm 23:5). Today’s Gospel lesson continues with the same themes. Twice using the name that God gave Moses at the burning bush, Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11, 14). Once again, we are the sheep that need both protection and leadership. Jesus then explicitly tells us that there are not limits to His love for you and I. He is even willing to die for the sheep (John 10:11, 17).2 Think about that. God’s only Son will die for you so you might live. That is how much He loves you. Jesus will be right be you no matter what happens. Far too often, we turn down the protection of the Good Shepherd. When we do this, we forget who we are. We are sheep. Wool does little to keep sharp teeth and claws at bay. Short stubby legs cannot outrun most predators. And mutton is 2

This line has no parallel in the Old Testament or in any of the other Jewish texts that speak of a shepherd. S.D.B. Francis J. Moloney; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of John, Volume 4, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 304.

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tasty. They all know it. When we leave the fold, one by one, we will be picked off until no one is left in the herd. At other times, we follow the wrong leader. It might be that we want to follow another sheep. They might be taking a path that looks promising to us. So, off we go without a shepherd. Soon, we will find out what the shepherd actually does for us. In addition to protection from the animals that wish to harm us, he leads us to food and drink. Without the good grass and fresh water, we will die. The genuine hero in the movie WALL-E is not any named character like the captain, EVE, or even WALL-E himself. The unspoken force in the movie that really saves humanity from its plight is technology. It is technology that created WALL-E and others like him who cleaned up the earth. It is technology that designed and implemented EVE who found life on Earth. It is technology that built the ship and the robots, which protected and fed humanity for seven hundred years. Unfortunately, technology as portrayed in the movie also has its dark side. Remember, technology in the form of the computer kept the humans as virtual prisoners aboard the space ship. How then does one tell the difference between the two types of technology? How does one make the right decision since one way brings freedom to return to the Earth and the other does not? In our lives here on Earth, we each have the exact same question before us. How do we determine who is the real shepherd? How do we identify who is the hired hand and who is Jesus? How do we know who will save us and who will hurt us? 5

Today’s Gospel lesson gives us an important insight on who is the true Shepherd.3 The One who will save us is the One who is willing to die for us (John 10:17). The good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep is the scandal of the cross. We believe that God died for you. This message is unbelievable because we have been taught our whole lives the exact opposite. We serve the gods so they may live. We inherited this worldview from the Greeks and the Romans. In their mythology, all the gods first live and then they die. A dead god is powerless. They cannot help their followers. They cannot protect their disciples from the unwanted advances of other gods in the pantheon. They cannot give their acolytes what they need. There is only one way for the dead god to live again. Their followers must obey strict rituals that will eventually awaken the sleeping god. Sometimes this took offering food to the god. At other times, it required the dedication of children to the deceased deity. And it might even be necessary to give the god our life. Literally, the sacrifice of humans brought the dead god back to life. Once revived, the god would richly reward all its disciples who brought it back to life and strictly punish those who did not pitch in and help. This of course motivated people. Slaves stood ready to help the god move from death to life. Fertility rites provided the gods with the food, drink, and children that they needed 3

Central to the Gospel according to John is that “it is impossible for anyone to see God or come to the knowledge of God” unless Jesus, that is God, reveals it. Ibid., p. 295-296.

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to live. We are not all that different today. We all know of gods that cannot die. Their name is large companies that are too big to fail. The United States’ government has plainly told us this and has backed up their word with trillions of dollars. Their name is governments of every nation, state, and city. They live through the sacrifice of others. They must live to bring stability, peace, and prosperity. Imagine then the surprise, both two thousand years ago and every other time this Gospel is heard, when Jesus turns the tables upside down and tells everyone that He, the Son of God, has come to die for ordinary people like you and I. That is how we know the real shepherd from the fake. The real one has died for you. That is how you tell the difference between the hired hand and Jesus. Jesus died for you. That is how you know who will save us and who will hurt us. Christ died to give you true life. Another part of the movie that closely follows our life with Jesus is the rescue of the passengers because no one knows that they need to be saved. For generations, they have been happy aboard the space ship Axiom. Every need has been fulfilled. Their salvation finally comes through the work of the captain. He firmly believes that everyone will be better off at a place that he has never experienced before. We can say the same thing about many people living next to us. They are just like the passengers on the Axiom. They have no idea that they need to be saved. They have come to this mistaken conclusion because they are mostly happy with 7

their situation. Working with the Holy Spirit, we need to tell them of a different reality – one that we believe in even though we have not seen it. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”4

References Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B.; Harrington, S.J., Daniel J., editor, The Gospel of John, Volume 4, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998).

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Philippians 4:7.

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