Forgiveness In The Heart
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series V, Cycle C
Object:
When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." (22:14-19)
Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (23:34)
The 1984 movie, Places In The Heart, is set in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1935. Sally Field won an Oscar portraying Edna Spaulding, a woman who was suddenly widowed when a drunken, black gunman accidentally killed her sheriff husband. The locals claimed justice when they lynched the shooter.
But Edna wondered how a single mother of two could survive during the Great Depression. She had little time to grieve since she was on the verge of losing her farm with no income to pay off the mortgage.
To try and keep her farm and her kids together, she took in Moze, a wandering black sharecropper who helps her plant cotton on her forty acres. It was the only chance Edna had to keep her family together.
Meanwhile, Mr. Denby, an employee of the bank who holds the mortgage on the farm, is quick to extend a "hand of charity" to Mrs. Spalding by depositing his blind brother-in-law, Mr. Will, with her as a paying boarder. Together, these three misfit adults and the two children form a little family.
They endure setbacks, including a tornado. Next, the bottom falls out of the cotton market, and Edna's only chance to make the mortgage payment is to claim a $100 prize for being the first person to bring her crop to the cotton mill. Trying to block her is the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, which doesn't want a black man to be involved with beating any white man out of the prize money. They run Moze out of town.
The movie ends in a dream-like scene with Edna trying to find solace in church service. Edna is alone as she receives Holy Communion from a minister, but then she turns and offers the bread and cup to Moze, who not only already left town but as a black man shouldn't be in a white Baptist church in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1935. Moze then offers the elements to Edna's deceased husband, a somehow resurrected Sheriff Royce Spalding. The sheriff in turn offers communion to the drunk that had killed him, who was also resurrected and is now sober. There are others present: A woman who died in the tornado and a honky-tonk band who would be unlikely to be in church on a Sunday morning.
What's the meaning behind this strange ending of the movie? All those who belong to God are present. Because in the gift of the sacrifice of Christ, redemption is possible. Through the body and blood of Christ, forgiveness is possible. The Christian faith is a belief of hope and redemption. This is the message Christ gives us with the institution of Holy Communion before his death.
And Jesus drives the point home later in the passion when he offers forgiveness while hanging on the cross. He said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Jesus calls us to be forgiven and to forgive in such a way that Communion may become reality.
Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (23:34)
The 1984 movie, Places In The Heart, is set in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1935. Sally Field won an Oscar portraying Edna Spaulding, a woman who was suddenly widowed when a drunken, black gunman accidentally killed her sheriff husband. The locals claimed justice when they lynched the shooter.
But Edna wondered how a single mother of two could survive during the Great Depression. She had little time to grieve since she was on the verge of losing her farm with no income to pay off the mortgage.
To try and keep her farm and her kids together, she took in Moze, a wandering black sharecropper who helps her plant cotton on her forty acres. It was the only chance Edna had to keep her family together.
Meanwhile, Mr. Denby, an employee of the bank who holds the mortgage on the farm, is quick to extend a "hand of charity" to Mrs. Spalding by depositing his blind brother-in-law, Mr. Will, with her as a paying boarder. Together, these three misfit adults and the two children form a little family.
They endure setbacks, including a tornado. Next, the bottom falls out of the cotton market, and Edna's only chance to make the mortgage payment is to claim a $100 prize for being the first person to bring her crop to the cotton mill. Trying to block her is the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, which doesn't want a black man to be involved with beating any white man out of the prize money. They run Moze out of town.
The movie ends in a dream-like scene with Edna trying to find solace in church service. Edna is alone as she receives Holy Communion from a minister, but then she turns and offers the bread and cup to Moze, who not only already left town but as a black man shouldn't be in a white Baptist church in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1935. Moze then offers the elements to Edna's deceased husband, a somehow resurrected Sheriff Royce Spalding. The sheriff in turn offers communion to the drunk that had killed him, who was also resurrected and is now sober. There are others present: A woman who died in the tornado and a honky-tonk band who would be unlikely to be in church on a Sunday morning.
What's the meaning behind this strange ending of the movie? All those who belong to God are present. Because in the gift of the sacrifice of Christ, redemption is possible. Through the body and blood of Christ, forgiveness is possible. The Christian faith is a belief of hope and redemption. This is the message Christ gives us with the institution of Holy Communion before his death.
And Jesus drives the point home later in the passion when he offers forgiveness while hanging on the cross. He said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Jesus calls us to be forgiven and to forgive in such a way that Communion may become reality.
