A long time ago, one Summer which is now far, far away, I went to see the first Star Wars movie, which now has the subtitle: A New Hope. I was overwhelmed by the way the story unfolded along with the special effects which were introduced in the film. Industrial Light and Magic, the director’s production company, was created to bring George Lucas’ vision into reality. George also invented the THX sound system which was introduced to movie theaters in the 1980s. This innovative sound design also transformed how audience members experienced movies. Since the first Star Wars trilogy, the list of movies which have used Industrial Light and Magic and the THX sound is impressive. Most of us don’t stay long enough to view the end credits of a film, so we miss the significant number of people who help to bring words on a page to life.
Fast forward to December 20, 2019, when the 9th film in the series will premiere. Many of those who worked on the original films will not be listed in the end credits. They were the first and second generation of the new wave of special effects. Many of them created their own companies which continue to transform how we view film. Pixar and computer animated cartoons are just one example. Those who currently work in the industry still share the stories of the early innovators.
We can learn from their example. I believe the goal of Ancestry.com and other genealogy websites is to help us connect with our past and tell the stories of our many generations great grandparents. Like the credits at the end of the film, these websites only provide us with names. We have to dig a little deeper to learn the stories that accompany those names.
The same is true of our Holy Bible. There are so many people who we only know by name. The genealogies in 1st Chronicles are only one example. They are the first people of our faith heritage and yet there is so little we know about their relationships with our Lord. Over the centuries, we have lost why these persons’ names were included. Part of their story is missing.
I also believe that is true in our lives. We fail to tell the story of how our grandparents or parents lived a life of faith. We don’t always talk about how meaningful Sundays in church were as we grew up, or how the people who sat in the pews with us were like our family. We are not sharing our Christian heritage with one another. We are not learning how God is still shaping and molding us and the world. We are not celebrating answered prayers, ways we are in mission, and ways we have and continue to transform lives. That is the Good News the Lord asks us to announce. Not just once, but every time we gather together. I want to close with the words of an older hymn that encourages us to tell others about the Lord. “I’ll shout it from the mountain top, I want the world to know, the Lord of love, has come to me, I want to pass it on.” (#572 United Methodist Hymnal). And Amen.