It’s summer movie season!! I’ve already gone to see Avengers (twice!), and I’m (less than) patiently awaiting the arrival of the rest of the big summer blockbusters.
Here at the church, it’s also “Summer Blockbusters” season. This is the fourth summer that I’ll do a series on theological themes in popular movies. We’ll kick off on June 3rd with a film that moved its way to the top of my top ten list this past fall – Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Based on Brian Selznick’s beautifully illustrated children’s novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the film tells the story of a young boy living alone in Montparnasse Station in Paris, his attempt to complete the construction of his long-lost father’s last invention, and how that quest leads him to cross paths with film pioneer Georges Méliès. It’s a movie about getting lost and being found again (and it should have won Best Picture, in my humble opinion).
As always, we’ll have “Dinner and a Movie” nights on the Saturdays before each sermon, with dinner at 6 p.m. and the movie (with free admission) at 7. Watch your email and the website for more details on the dinners.
Now, you don’t need to see the whole film to appreciate the sermons – we’ll have plenty of clips to help illustrate the message on Sunday. However, the Saturday events are a wonderful way to socialize with friends and neighbors and get to know folks that maybe you haven’t connected with.
Our series continues on July 8th with last summer’s Super 8, a scifi adventure in the vein of E.T. This one didn’t get the recognition it deserved at the time, and was one of my favorites last year. It’s a movie about healing divides in relationships (I know, it looks like a movie about aliens – but, trust me, it’s about healing).
We’ll be back with two more in August: Moneyball on the 5th, and another TBA on the 26th.
I hope you can join us for at least one if not all four this year. The Blockbusters will go on hiatus next summer, so it’ll be a long wait for the next round.
I’ll be on vacation and study leave for much of the summer months. Typically, I’ll be in the office in the weeks leading up to the Blockbuster sermons. In most cases, I’ll be available by appointment if necessary.
See you in church.
Rev. John Cullinan
