My wife Christie recently read the classic book Pollyanna to our kids. They enjoyed it and so we ordered the movie from NetFlix and were ready to go. As a result of my little girls’ (6 & 4) excitement, I was into it. However, I could not have anticipated the homiletical methodology of the ‘Reverend’ in the movie. This guy was awesome. He launches into Jonathan Edwards’ classic sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and this guy is lit up.
Watch for yourself:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UKhVRIi_yY]
Don’t you just love the guy sleeping, the chandelier rattling, and the folks tugging on their collars as they leave? This is just an awesome clip.
As many of you no doubt know, Pollyanna gets into the Rev’s head a bit and causes him to sand off his pointed sermons (or Edwards’ sermons) with a little Pollyanna gladness. The Rev then looks for “the good in every man” and expounds that. It is interesting to note that he says he found over 800 verses that talk about rejoicing or being happy in God, but neglected to tally the total number of verses that refer to the goodness in every man.
I have two points and reasons for dragging you through my movie experience.
First, I find it interesting that wrath, sin and God’s character are seen to be mutually exclusive or at least polemical from personal joy. As I thought about this it began to make sense. The reason for discomfort and frustration at the preaching of the character of God is the absence of Christ and his work. You will be tugging your collar and hating life if someone is preaching judgment and you have no wrath bearer!
However, true happiness, joy and gladness are not found through the avoidance of divine wrath and personal guilt but rather through divine wrath and the proper dealing with personal guilt. In other words, true Christian joy and happiness is experienced when we have seen God’s wrath consume Jesus, his Son and our Savior. Our sin has been dealt with; wrath has been satisfied and removed. God has been turned from angry to favorable towards us in the beloved (Rom. 3.24-27). So my joy is not divorced from divine wrath but rather it springs from the exercise of it along with the simultaneous employment of other divine attributes, namely, mercy, grace and love (Rom. 5).
Second, I find it ironic that the Rev had to get a divorce from Edwards to preach gladness. There is perhaps no other man in the church age, save the apostles, who taught more clearly about Christian joy than Edwards. If the Rev would have kept reading he might have made the connection (see Religious Affections). Then of course Pollyanna could not have been the Savior of the town. This of course probably would have prevented her from becoming an adjective.
In closing, my kids unanimously declare that the movie is not even close to as good as the book.