Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Jul 12, 2015

Sister Act

Sister Act

Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

Series: Faith at the Movies

Category: Faith

Keywords: faith, movies, sister act

Delores Van Cartier is a Diana Ross wannabe lounge singer whose career is sliding toward oblivion as Sister Act opens. She witnesses a murder ordered by her married lover, the owner of the casino where her cheesy Motown-style group performs. Delores goes to the police and is immediately sent into “witness protection” – in a convent of old-style nuns in full habit – as Delores says, “enguin-style.” The convent, church and the community are foundering in a sea of blight and decay, and the convent is seriously threatened, so they are struggling to “stay alive.” It is a parable for the church in our day and time.

Faith at the Movies 2: Sister Act

July 12, 2015

 Over the last 30 years, the Christian Church, particularly the mainline denominations, has changed dramatically.  Countless church leaders, lay and clergy alike, have come to grips with the need for the church to speak a new language – to sing the Lord’s song in ne w ways.  Change is no longer optional.  It’s crucial.

Some of us grew up at a time when TV was new.  It has become a constant.  My mother talks about how when she was a girl the radio offered stories that fueled her imagination.  Communication has changed in ways that I could never have imagined as a child.  We learn of news instantly – never mind that sometimes the “instant” story is full of inaccurate impressions and it sometimes takes a day or two to get the facts right.  The faster the better.

Gone are the days when people flock to the church or realize their need to be part of a faith family – that the “village” that will gather around in support as we raise our biological families should be a village founded on the grace and love of God so our children will have faith.  We are at least 1 and maybe 2-and-a-half generations beyond the time when people thought they “should” go to church.  Never mind that they didn’t always have a relationship with Jesus Christ or realize that such a relationship was possible.  Many people have gone and still go to church because they think it’s a duty or it’s an expectation, perhaps of their parents, or because of a perception that going to church will save them from the fiery furnace when they die.  So, fewer people are going to church – and many of us who consider ourselves members or at least regular attendees of a church once came 3 or 4 Sundays every month are now coming (according to national statistics) 1 or 2 times a month.

And the church has reacted in a number of ways – many of them not helpful.  We often want to keep the church that we know – sing the songs that we like – worship in the ways that we are accustomed – keep the same leaders in place because it’s what we know.  Vitality fades – especially when the church gets stuck in a 30 or 40-year-ago mindset and practice.  Keep that warm and fuzzy feeling we had when we first became part of a congregation.  Keep our circle of friends.  People become afraid and “circle the wagons.”  Far too often, the people of the church, including leaders, become more and more rigid as they become more and more fearful that they are losing something that they may not even be able to define.

Delores Van Cartier is an imitation Diana Ross lounge singer in Reno who finds herself in need of witness protection when she witnesses a murder – by her married boyfriend.  She is sent to a failing convent in a run-down neighborhood with Adult bookstores, bars, graffiti and every conceivable urban blight.  The church is locked up tight with fencing and padlocks and a very small order of nuns who are hanging on by their teeth, fearing that their beloved little convent will be closed.

Delores arrives at the convent, is given a new name – Sister Mary Clarence –and after a disastrous first meal with the sisters where Mary Clarence prays a verrrrrry interesting, if mixed-up, blessing and is punished for her attitude and behavior by the imposition of a fast from both food and conversation, the Mother Superior leads her to her “cell,” and Mary Clarence gets a taste of life in the parish.

Clip #1 – roughly 23:20 (cue picture of city at dusk – no dialogue) to 27:11 (cue just after choir ends their awful song, sour look on MC’s face then same on priest’s face)

Sister Mary Lazarus is a woman after the Mother Superior’s own heart.  She knew what it meant to be a REAL nun – how a church should always be.  She took pride in her own inflexibility, discipline, the “old ways”:  clip #2 – 28:24 MC saying you would’ve loved us – we were a pioneering kind of order…it was hell on earth, I loved it – this place is a Hilton at 28:57

Mary Clarence, THE outsider of all outsiders is a woman of insight.  Her outlandish behavior and worldview coupled with the natural curiosity and deep desire of several of the nuns to truly serve God’s people  begin to hint at Mary Clarence’s unlikely and perhaps uncanny ability to get to the heart of the matter.  Her insights begin to peel open this closed society, and the nuns begin to open up to her.  Sister Mary Robert is young and eager.  She wears her heart on her sleeve, and even though she is painfully shy and always looks like she just needs to fade into the background, she reaches out to Mary Clarence in a deeply heartwarming way.

Clip #3 – 31:36 (cue –youngest/novice nun goes to see MC with flower clock….) To 33:40 (cue – novice leaving room and closing door after saying “times when you have to be yourself or you’re just burst?” )

Of course Delores – or Mary Clarence – understands more than Mary Robert could ever guess.  Feeling alone and overwhelmed and completely out of her element, she makes a field trip to the bar across the street, not realizing that Sister Mary Robert and Sister Mary Patrick have followed her to join her in her ministry to the winos.  As you can imagine, the visit did not go unnoticed by the Rev. Mother.

Clip #3  - 37:41 (cue - Scene of city at dawn) to  38:06 (cue – “These robes no longer protect the sisters – the walls do)

So, in an effort to corral Mary Clarence, The Reverend Mother tells her that from that day on she was to do nothing but sing – and inadvertently unleashes a tidal wave of change to her beloved convent.  Mary Clarence goes to choir practice and is thrust by the singing nuns into the role of director.  As Mary Clarence works with the nuns and helps them to discover their voices, she brings out the “real” Sister Mary Robert, tames and beautifies Mary Patrick’s huge voice, and moves the choir to sing from their hearts about their love for God – in a very upbeat, unexpected style and the priest and community are astounded.  In the place of despair, the church speaks a new word of joy and hope…

Clip #4 - 44:51 – (cue – MC settling down to sleep fades to priest starting worship service after MC takes over choir) to 48:06 (cue: end of Salve Regina – Whoopi turns and smiles at congregation)

I’m sure you have heard again and again the scripture text that says, “God is the same – yesterday, today and forever.”  I will humbly point out that while God’s character has never changed and never changes, God has used many different ways to speak to God’s people.  Mary Clarence is a vehicle for change at St. Katherine’s Parish.  As I alluded to earlier, this sister is an unlikely agent of God’s voice and change in the church.  Her normal slinky clothes and big hair and, as the Mother Superior calls it, “boogie-woogie” music were certainly different – radically so.  But she just had to let it out – of her own soul and out of the souls of the sisters who longed to serve God’s people rather than watch their church and convent dissolve.  (Be sure to listen to the words of the song that is playing!)

Clip #5 - 48:56 (cue – priest knocking and entering Rev Mother’s office) – 52:40 (cue- Mother looking out from behind her window – all other nuns out with community)

I’m not going to spoil the ending of this one.  The last clip is just one of the turn-around scenes of this movie.  God is not finished by any means, with the sisters and the community – and Delores.  I hope you’ll be here on Wednesday to watch the movie together!