Home 
Miracles, Faith, and the Green Mile
WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE
July 19, 2009
Miracles, Faith, and the Green Mile
Open your Bible
Light a candle
OPENING SONG
"I Will Not Go Quietly"
from the movie, The Apostle
READINGS
From the Bible
Genesis 1:14, 15, 16, 17. And God said, “Let there be lights in the
expanse of the heavens to make a distinction between day and night; and
they will act as signals and will be used for seasons for both the days and
the years. And they will be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to shed light
on the earth,” and so it was done. And God made two great lights: the
greater light to rule by day and the smaller light to rule by night; and the
stars. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens, to shed light on
the earth.
From Swedenborg
This show us that a faith caused by miracles is not a real faith but only second-hand belief.
DP NCE #131
The effect of miracles on good people is different from their effect on evil people. Good people have no desire for mircles, but they believe the mircles in the Word. If they do her anything about miracle, they think of it only as a minor rgument tht strengthens their faith, because they base their thinking on the Word and therefore on the Lord and not on the mircle.
It is different for evil people. They can actully be constrined and compelled to faith and even to worship and devotion by miracles. This lasts only a short while, though, because their evils re pent up inside, and the compulsions nd gratifications of those evils are constantly working away inside their outwrd worship and devotion.
DP NCE #133
MESSAGE
Miracles, Faith, and the Green Mile
Miracles, Faith, and the Green Mile
Background
I started my relationship with this month’s movie [The Green Mile] by skipping over violent scenes. I have now reached the point where I am sobbing through the rest of them.
I started my relationship with this month’s movie [The Green Mile] by skipping over violent scenes. I have now reached the point where I am sobbing through the rest of them.
I’ve read the book by Stephen King, as well as having seen the movie again [including most of the violent scenes]. I am not totally certain why the impact of this story has hit me so deeply. The book-movie combo is quite intense. The movie uses light and color in dramatic ways to indicate the presence of the Divine. The book provides more detail on the spiritual lives of the characters. They go together well.
This story is not “religious,” but it does have powerful and moving spiritual themes. They include: good and evil; life and death; heaven and hell; faith, miracles, healing, and salvation! We could, actually, spend weeks delving into them.
However, our plan is to use a movie each month to help us explore our theme in the lives of people [real or fictional.]
So …. What is our theme this month?
If it is not on the tip of your tongue, then here is the answer. Each month this year we are:
using one stage of Swedenborg’s regeneration as based on the creation, and comparing it with
one of the 12 steps from A.A.
using one stage of Swedenborg’s regeneration as based on the creation, and comparing it with
one of the 12 steps from A.A.
So you’ll see that under the “Worship” heading we now have a category for “This Month’s Theme”, which includes Swedenborgian readings as well as other worship resources [including information on the movie].
We also have a blog on the monthly theme!
We also have a blog on the monthly theme!
It can be complicated to compare a 12-step system with a 7-stage system! It’s helpful to keep looking at the yearly chart.
Our theme for this month:
A.A.Step #7: Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
Regeneration Stage: #4: Two lights of faith and love
Movie: The Green Mile.
Our focus from the movie that corresponds to our theme is:
Faith and love as they unfold in the life Paul Edgeecomb, main chacter in the Green Mile.
Paul’s faith journey
The book give us fascinating insight into Paul's childhood religion:
p. 190
p. 190
“As a boy who’d grown up going to whatever Batpist or Pentecostl church my mother and her sisters happened to be in favor of during any given month. I had heard plenty of Praise Jesus, The Lord is Mighty miracle stories. I didn’t believe all of them, but there were plenty of people I did believe … …
“I grew up in a tradition of miracles and healing. I grew up believing in gris-gris, as well as… stump water for wrts, moss under your pillow to ease the heartache of lost love, and, of course, what we used to call haints."
I had never heard the terms gris-gris or haints. Time to do some research!
Gris-gris: These are like charms or talismans.
Haints: These are ghosts.
Miracles of John Coffey
So Paul's childhood had prepared him for the miracles of John Coffey's healings. Were they the same type of mircles?
You may want to watch the "miracle", healing scenes from the movie. They were included last week.
Miracles of John Coffey
So Paul's childhood had prepared him for the miracles of John Coffey's healings. Were they the same type of mircles?
You may want to watch the "miracle", healing scenes from the movie. They were included last week.
Healing of Paul
[up to 5 mins., 25 seconds for just that scene]
Mouse brought back to life
[up to minute 3:00 for just that scene]
Healing of colleague's wife
[scene starts at 5:07]
Paul's reactions to the miracles
[up to 5 mins., 25 seconds for just that scene]
Mouse brought back to life
[up to minute 3:00 for just that scene]
Healing of colleague's wife
[scene starts at 5:07]
Paul's reactions to the miracles
Read again today's Swedenborgian reading. Swedenborg sees miracles as only a minor help for those who already have faith, and of no use to those who have no faith. Which kind of person was Paul? This will a good question for discussion. My sense is that he had a childhood of faith that included miracles. As an adult, he participated in the miracles differently: they were no longer an example of faith. They became part of love in Paul's life, and a major part of his life of "uses."
How do you see Paul's faith journey transformed when love comes to be at its center?
How is Paul changed as a person when he opens his heart to John Coffey?
These are themes for personal reflections, chats, forums, and blogs this month. In a general sense, I think that Paul's faith experience with Coffey is not so much about miracles. He grew up with miracles. But it was about opening his heart to an African-American prisoner on death row, convicted of rape and murder.
Paul reflected a lot -- esp. in the book -- on God's role in all of this. He says on page 191: "healing is never about the healing or the healed, but about God's will. For one to r ejoice at the sick made well is normal ... but the person healed than has an obligation to ask 'why," to meditate on God's will and the extraordinary lengths God has gone to realize His will."
What did God want of Paul? How was Paul to change his life to reflect this new integration of love and faith?
Paul's own personal healing took place early in the story. Much of the rest of the story is about his coming to terms with what it means for him.
How do you see Paul's faith journey transformed when love comes to be at its center?
How is Paul changed as a person when he opens his heart to John Coffey?
These are themes for personal reflections, chats, forums, and blogs this month. In a general sense, I think that Paul's faith experience with Coffey is not so much about miracles. He grew up with miracles. But it was about opening his heart to an African-American prisoner on death row, convicted of rape and murder.
Paul reflected a lot -- esp. in the book -- on God's role in all of this. He says on page 191: "healing is never about the healing or the healed, but about God's will. For one to r ejoice at the sick made well is normal ... but the person healed than has an obligation to ask 'why," to meditate on God's will and the extraordinary lengths God has gone to realize His will."
What did God want of Paul? How was Paul to change his life to reflect this new integration of love and faith?
Paul's own personal healing took place early in the story. Much of the rest of the story is about his coming to terms with what it means for him.
Paul's Old Age
The movie is a flashback that Paul is having about his life, as he ages slowly in a retirement home. He is filled with questions:
The movie is a flashback that Paul is having about his life, as he ages slowly in a retirement home. He is filled with questions:
What is life? Has God condemned him to a long life as punishment for participating in a death? Does God punish death with life?
How does he have gratitude for the miracles in his life, while also having anger at God [John Coffey] for not being offering a miracle at other times -- like when his wife is dying in an accident?
Is he condemned to hell for participating in Coffey's death? Or condemned to a long life on earth?
Did he thwart God's plan of love when he helped to kill Coffey? Or was he helping to fulfill God's will? [an interesting parllel here to the questions of Judas about the death of Jesus.]
How does God expect him to live out his life? Does he have any particular obligations because of the healing he received and the miracles he witnessed?
Your life
How do you answer these questions for your own life? How do faith and love intertwine as you live your life day by day?
CLOSING SONG
Fix me, Jesus
Extinguish your candles
And close the Bible. 
Go forth; allowing your faith and love to shine.
