Earlier this year the movie Black Panther was released to rave reviews and record-breaking box office receipts. The movie is commonly ranked as one of the top superhero films in the Marvel franchise and is third all-time in total box office receipts. It took in 1.3 *billion* dollars worldwide, whoa! On one level it’s just another superhero film, complete with epic battles of good versus evil, stunning CGI and plot twists aplenty.
But there’s more happening in this particular film, a subtext of sorts that tells another tale. Perhaps this subtext helps explain why Black Panther has been so wildly popular with so many.
Competing Ideals
The movie describes a fictional country in Africa called Wakanda. Long ago a meteorite deposited a mystical element there known as vibranium. Vibranium has some pretty cool properties, it can dissolve other metals; the suit Black Panther wears is made of it.
The Wakandans, historically, used vibranium to defend their country. This fictional metallic element makes for good shields and weapons of all types that help protect Wakanda. The metal is also incredibly valuable, keeping Wakandans safe, prosperous, and isolated, by choice, from the rest of the world.
But when the king of Wakanda dies it creates a power vacuum. Three potential leaders rise, each attempting to claim the crown. Each leader has their own ideas of how to guide this land.
The first is M’Baku, leader of one of the Wakandan tribes. M’Baku feels Wakanda has become too involved in international affairs. Instead he desires the country return to isolation, and a cloistered prosperity, solely within its borders.
The second potential leader is Erik Stevens, who goes by the name “Killmonger.” Erik, as his nickname suggests has other aspirations. He’s seen how his people have suffered across the world, and it’s time to right the wrongs of the past. He aspires to do this by conquering other lands, bringing them under his rule.
And then there is T’Challa, who sees the factions in his country, and seeks a third way. Instead of isolating, or conquering, T’Challa wants his people to relate to the world with a new, broader sense of purpose. We’ll talk about what those ways are a bit later, stay tuned.
Scriptural Backstory
I’d suggest that these three ideals, of isolation, of conquering, and this third way are all deeply connected to our human history. And also deeply connected to our scriptures.
Human history is rooted in our tribal identities. Tribes help define social norms, provide a common culture, and give us shared sets of values, shared religions too.
But tribes, by definition, create divisions. And divisions separate us from each other. By human nature we tend to side with our own tribe, whatever that is, at the expense of others.
If we are satisfied with how our tribe is running we may choose to isolate, desiring to keep things as they are.
And if we aren’t satisfied with the status quo we may desire more, to conquer other peoples, other lands.
History is replete with examples of both.
The story of the Israelites in our Old Testament is filled with this tribal narrative. At varying times they lived in isolation, or were the conquerors, or were the conquered. All tribes do this, either satisfied with their holdings or desiring more; the vicious cycle continues.
And at some point God looked down at this pattern, saw that the kids weren’t playing too well in the sandbox known as earth, and formulated this third way, also known as The Way, also known as Jesus Christ.
Christian Identity, Christian Freedom
This message closes out a four-week sermon series, The Freedom of a Christian, which makes for an excellent summary of what the way of Christ represents to our world. In this series we’re reminded that:
Salvation comes to us from God, no matter our earthly tribe. And that happens in the waters of our baptism. It is there we are claimed as a beloved child of our heavenly Father. We then have free will to choose what we do with this incredible gift.
And, no matter what we’ve done, the sins of our past, present, and yes, even our future, they are forgiven. Jesus paid for those sins, once and for all, with his life, death and resurrection. He made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may live. Because of this we are freed from sin, and the damage it causes, no longer shackled with feelings of shame and guilt.
This forgiveness isn’t just for one person or tribe, but for everyone. Galatians 3:28 tells us this, for “there is no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” For all of you are one.
This news of our identity as God’s own, and our forgiveness through Christ is really, really good news. So good that we are called to tell the story of our shared identity, and the forgiveness we have, with others, no matter their tribe. As a people both saved and forgiven this is our bondage of freedom, to speak these truths so that others may too become unshackled.
During the height of the civil rights movement the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King famously said this: no one is free until we are all free.
Our freedoms, both as citizens and Christians, are connected to each other.
And beyond being freed in our salvation, and freed from sin, and bound to share the news of this freedom with others, by spoken word, we are also freed to serve.
Freed, and Called to Serve
We know we’ve been freed for this because Christ modeled it. Freedom is a funny word, in our era we often understand it as a state of being, and not an imperative for doing. And we really are talking about doing, service is an action, so let’s change up the language, just a bit, and talk about the imperative of being called to serve.
Matthew 20:28 tells us the “Son of God came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Christ spent much of his ministry crossing social, political and religious boundaries with the express purpose of serving others.
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Unlike some of our Christian brethren from other faith settings Jesus didn’t solely approach people with talk of heaven and hell. Instead he built relationship, saying come, walk with me for a while. Christ entered people’s hell in the here and now. He then showed them what heaven, in the here and now, looks like. And he did this with a life of service to others.
Jesus healed, he fed, he took the lowly task of washing feet – eww yuck, from this particular pastor’s perspective – and it didn’t matter who you were or where you came from.
We commemorate this serving, every week, with a celebration of holy communion. Eating of the bread, and drinking of the cup isn’t just a look back in history to what Christ has done for you. And it isn’t just an individual act where we take Christ into us, becoming one with the divine, as awesome as that imagery is. It is also a look ahead, a call to action, a call to model what Christ has done for us. It’s a call for each of us, to model Christ, in our service to others.
Romans 12:13 implores us to contribute to the needs of the saints and to extend hospitality to strangers. Who are the saints? Let’s look back to Galatians 3, it’s the Jew the Greek, the slave the free, the male the female. And by extension the American and the Mexican. The El Salvadoran, the Guatemalan and the Columbian. The white and the brown. The mother, the father, the infant and the child.
And if we are to extend hospitality to strangers who exactly are these people?
Poet William Butler Yeats says it best:
There are no strangers here;
Only friends you haven’t yet met.
And we are called to extend hospitality to those yet unmet friends.
The Heavenly Ideal
As you might guess in the Black Panther film it is T’Challa, the leader seeking not to isolate or to conquer, that wins out. King T’Challa describes this third way with a closing speech to other world leaders. Here’s a bit of that speech.
We will be sharing our knowledge and resources with the outside world. Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows.
We cannot. We must not.
We will work to be an example of how we, as brothers and sisters on this earth, should treat each other. Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth.
More connects us than separates us.
But in times of crisis the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers.
We must find a way, to look after one another, as if we were one, single tribe.
This speech, from a secular, blockbuster superhero movie, is dripping in a Christian ethic.
We Christians are called to be an example, called to model how the brothers and sisters on this earth should treat each other.
We Christians know the truth: that more connects us than separates us. For we are all made in the image of our Creator. We are all children of God. We are all in the one, single tribe of God.
And we Christians must find a way to look after God’s children, and follow Christ’s call to serve. We do it best by healing, feeding, housing, and breaking the chains of bondage that keep some of God’s children down.
Close
Our national headlines of late have been downright dark, haven’t they. Those headlines, and the images they contain, place a mirror in front of us. And the reflection we see looking back right now isn’t too pretty.
But I’m not here to talk politics. That’s not what clergy are called to do. Instead it’s my job to explore with you the very nature of our God. And it’s my role to share the light of Christ with you, and then encourage you to go out and shine that light brightly the world round.
And I’m telling you, from one person of faith to another,
We people of faith are called to more. We are called –
Not to isolate
Not to conquer
Not to separate
But called to serve. Amen.
