Monday, June 19, 2006

I know a buttload of crap about the Gospel...


nacho_libre
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.
They don't think I know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do. -Nacho Libre

If you see the movie from the right angle, you just might see a great discussion about the gospel as it relates to living out the kingdom of God in every arena of our lives, especially as it relates to our hopes and dreams.

I saw Nacho Libre opening day...what a geek, I know but I have been waiting for this movie to come out. I have been downloading the itunes "confessionals" by Jack Black and was anxious to see the next installment from the director of Napoleon Dynamite.

I have been ruminating on Nacho for a few days and today it all gelled together. At first I thought I didn't like it as much as Napoleon but as I meditate on the themes more and more...I am seeing much more that makes me appreciate the film on different levels.

At first I approached it purely from a humor level but now I see much more or at least I think I do, which really doesn't matter, I see stuff in all kinds of places whether or not people put it there or not.
I see popular culture through thematic lenses' a lot.

“Poetry (or movies in my opinion) is ultimately mythology, the telling of stories of the soul," he wrote. "The old myths, the old gods, the old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our minds, waiting for our call. We have need of them, for in their sum they epitomize the wisdom and experience of the race.” -Stanley Kunitz

One of the things that I have been dwelling on is how so often we are told in the church that God doesn’t use this or that. How often we have heard people say that certain things are “sinful” or are somehow not an arena that God would work within. Places, things and even people get marginalized by religious thinking and practice and a deep cultural chasm opens up that keeps the holy peeps and the unholy creeps a part from each other.

This movie delves into that idea. Can God use a Mexican Luchadore to feed orphans? The answer in this movie is...Yes He can!
How many people have felt like second rate citizens in the church because their interests or profession or dream doesn’t fit the accepted paradigm of religious thought or expectations?
Can God use anything or anyone to care for the least of these? Yes, He can and does. God chooses weak things to confound the strong and He can even use a man in “stretchy pants”...

When you are a man, sometimes, you wear stretchy pants. -Nacho

3 comments:

Matt said...

oh man, gotta see that one. I need a good laugh. I heard some Monty Python a few months ago that was so good I almost wet myself. Something about the "holy hand gernade... If it is thy will, blow them to bits..." Some idiots learning how to use a hand gernade.

Unknown said...

If you liked napoleon than you will like nacho...if not, you wont. It takes a certain type of person to appreciate this kind of humor. Some love it...some hate it.

Anonymous said...

Nachoooooo! you should make a print
on a t-shirt about knowing a buttload about the gospels!