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Sermon 09-21-2014 - Sitting in the Fish Vomit
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2014 JONAH 3:10-4:11
A couple of weeks ago I received a DVD in the mail. It was a movie from the UK. Here it is. ‘The Foley Artist’, it’s called. By the look of the box it appeared to be a well-made production, although I’d never heard of it. On the back it has one of those snippets of reviews that you get in advertising for films, and it apparently received “Two thumbs” from a critic at something called the Mayhem Horror Film Festival. That disturbed me. Because, you see, I don’t do horror movies. When I was a kid I used to hide behind the sofa in Dr Who, which shows you how bad I am at anything vaguely scary. I also hate rollercoasters, because I just don’t get the appeal of being scared out of my wits. To me that just isn’t entertaining. And neither do I do all the blood and gore in slasher flix. I have to look away. Actually, I don’t need to look away because I have never even begun to look in the first place. There’s a reason why I’m a parish priest and not a hospital chaplain. So, if you’re ever in hospital and I come to visit you please spare me the graphic description of your surgery. Too much detail and they’ll have to whisk me off to the emergency room because I’ll faint and crack my head open on the floor. Then you’ll feel really guilty; so just don’t do it.
Now there were other signs from the DVD box that this film might not be my cup of tea. There’s the little red circle with the number 18 in it. That’s the highest censorship rating in the UK. And then there’s this warning on the back, “May contain graphic scenes of torture and violence”. ‘May contain’. What’s with that? Is that like those warnings on packets of chips, ‘May contain traces of nut’, or what?
But there was something that made me open the box, put the DVD into my computer and watch it. It was the identity of the film maker. This movie is directed by my son Rob, who is in his final year of his bachelor’s degree in film-making at the University of Nottingham. Where did I go wrong? What happened to my baby? One minute they’re playing in the sandbox, the next they’re getting two thumbs up from the Mayhem Horror Film Festival. Because it doesn’t matter how gross it is, (and actually, as it turns out it isn’t too gross because it is a spoof horror film), my lad did this. And it doesn’t matter what he does in life, I’ll be proud of him.
Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3197743/Jonah_3v10.htm
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By The Rev. Dr. Duncan H. Johnston, RectorFIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2014 JONAH 3:10-4:11
A couple of weeks ago I received a DVD in the mail. It was a movie from the UK. Here it is. ‘The Foley Artist’, it’s called. By the look of the box it appeared to be a well-made production, although I’d never heard of it. On the back it has one of those snippets of reviews that you get in advertising for films, and it apparently received “Two thumbs” from a critic at something called the Mayhem Horror Film Festival. That disturbed me. Because, you see, I don’t do horror movies. When I was a kid I used to hide behind the sofa in Dr Who, which shows you how bad I am at anything vaguely scary. I also hate rollercoasters, because I just don’t get the appeal of being scared out of my wits. To me that just isn’t entertaining. And neither do I do all the blood and gore in slasher flix. I have to look away. Actually, I don’t need to look away because I have never even begun to look in the first place. There’s a reason why I’m a parish priest and not a hospital chaplain. So, if you’re ever in hospital and I come to visit you please spare me the graphic description of your surgery. Too much detail and they’ll have to whisk me off to the emergency room because I’ll faint and crack my head open on the floor. Then you’ll feel really guilty; so just don’t do it.
Now there were other signs from the DVD box that this film might not be my cup of tea. There’s the little red circle with the number 18 in it. That’s the highest censorship rating in the UK. And then there’s this warning on the back, “May contain graphic scenes of torture and violence”. ‘May contain’. What’s with that? Is that like those warnings on packets of chips, ‘May contain traces of nut’, or what?
But there was something that made me open the box, put the DVD into my computer and watch it. It was the identity of the film maker. This movie is directed by my son Rob, who is in his final year of his bachelor’s degree in film-making at the University of Nottingham. Where did I go wrong? What happened to my baby? One minute they’re playing in the sandbox, the next they’re getting two thumbs up from the Mayhem Horror Film Festival. Because it doesn’t matter how gross it is, (and actually, as it turns out it isn’t too gross because it is a spoof horror film), my lad did this. And it doesn’t matter what he does in life, I’ll be proud of him.
Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3197743/Jonah_3v10.htm