The Philosophy of Groundhog Day

When I was in high school, one of my favorite movies was Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. If you haven't seen the movie, first of all, see it. The somewhat silly “holiday” of Groundhog Day is about ready to happen, and what a better opportunity to honor this hypo-terrainian rodent than to watch the quintessential movie featuring the day that acknowledges him (the only movie that features this day)? Anyway, in the film, the main character played by Murray, named Phil ('Yes, like the groundhog Phil!') is a veteran weather forecaster who does an annual feel-good story on the official groundhog shadow-viewing that happens in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Only this particular year Phil doesn't feel all that good about this project, or any other thing in his life. He is going through the motions of his job, he has no friends, and his dating life is non-existent. Even doing something fun like going to Punxsutawney with his good-spirited producer makes him more cynical. He feels like his life is nothing more than a repeated series of events and that nothing that he does matters much to the world. Once in Punxsutawney, however, he literally experiences what it is like to live the same day over and over and over and over... He goes through the pain of acknowledging that this is the reality of his life (re-living Groundhog Day EVERY day), and is forced to begin that same day EVERY day with the same expectations people have of him: that he is a cynical schmuck who doesn't belong. The repetitive nature of the film gets on some people's nerves, but it is the repetition that drives home the point of the film. His experience of repeating the same day over and over again is a metaphor for his own life, and for many of our lives, feeling “stuck in a rut.” Nothing in his life was interesting anymore, and yet he was unwilling to do anything about it. Unwilling, that is, until he is splashed with the cold water of this harsh metaphor. So he decides to change the one thing he does have control over: himself. He takes his bad situation and decides to make the most of it, learning new languages and musical skills, being a good Samaritan, and learning to love and respect himself so that he could fall in love again.

As I will watch this movie again this year, I will ponder how the church and I are like Phil in a lot of ways, feeling stuck in the ruts we have dug out for ourselves. At one point in the film, Phil is lamenting his situation with some locals at the bar and says, “I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas... That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over...” I think we do a lot of lamenting that things aren't the way they once were back in the good ol' days, or wishing that our current situation could be better.

At the United Methodist district training event in Forest Grove, I heard a woman from another congregation lamenting, “We used to have such a vibrant youth program in the 70's. What can we do to get them to come back?” Many churches share the same lament. The problem is twofold: first, the youth of the 70's aren't youth anymore. In fact, they have children who are youth; there's no going back to the 70's youth groups. Secondly, the reason things don't work is because church is not the automatic activity that people do anymore. Even in the 70's, the church was fading in terms of its prominence in American culture. We just didn't know it yet. We can't expect to hire a youth director, put out a sign and yell, “Youth group! Come and get it!”

So, just like Phil didn't get to choose what kind of rut he was stuck in, we don't get to choose our reality, either. We can't wish for things to get better, or that culture will just revert back to the days when computers didn't exist or kids didn't txt msg while their parents talked to them. The truth is that if we really want to be in “ministry” with children and youth in our communities, we will have to do a lot more with them in the places where they already are: not in the church. If we are unwilling to do that, then the church could very well end up like Phil, lonely at the bar, wondering why things couldn't be different, but unwilling to do anything about it in the moment.

I'm glad the film didn't end there. I am glad that our story is not over, either. We can change how we are. Instead of wishing or lamenting, what if we spent some time evaluating what skills we have to offer and how we can respond to real needs in our community? If you are retired or have a lot of free time during the day, is it possible that we can sit with a child over their lunch time for one day a week? Maybe you could be a mentor for one of the youth, scheduling a time to meet and talk about their lives? If you are already extremely busy, what are some ways that you can be the church in your existing community activities? Can you let people know that you are praying for them in their times of crisis? Are you being a calming Christ-like presence in stress-filled meetings?

The next time you find yourself lamenting the good ol' days, either in your personal life or in the life of the church, consider Phil. Then consider that this is your reality and that its up to you to answer the call and do something about it, to the glory of God!

Re-doing "gospel"

"I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned with the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, 'Now is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread." - Desmond Tutu

I read this on the daily Sojourners.com e-mailing sent to me today. It tugs at my heart because so much of what Christian leaders do seems to have to be tempered so that "everybody can get on board", or where church leadership is encouraged to balance "fun" activities with "service" activities. I have read the gospel often, and would love for someone to point out to me where Jesus watered down his message or activity or made sure to include "game time" so his disciples wouldn't get bored. Those who wanted to be on board got on board - the rest remained either disinterested or were prompting his crucifixion. The earliest disciples saw the work they were engaged in as so important that they, well, just did it. Imagine: they didn't have either the time or the notion to stop and say, "Am I having fun? Shouldn't we have a party or something to keep morale up?"

I am not suggesting that we shouldn't try to get others involved in ministry, or that we can't have fun. But maybe we could get more accomplished if we quit trying to convince the unconvinceable; we stopped tempering the important projects we see in our midst to get to the lowest common denominator; and stopped distracting ourselves from God's call in our lives by replacing it with mindless and soul-less recreation.

Instead, let us see the gospel as what it really is: Good News. Good news is not just that you will get "pie in the sky when you die. Bye and Bye. That's a lie" (the latter addition is to quote the great Utah Phillips). This "pie in the sky" kind of message was meant to keep poor people content with their life's lot so they wouldn't stir the waters too much against the hierarchy. No, Good News is not just about eternal salvation, but its about living the life and teaching of Christ in real and tangible ways. Delivering good news is giving a basket of food to the hungry with a smile and a warm heart. Good news is taking your wheel chair down the hall and grieving with the woman whose husband just died. Good news is learning to speak a different language so that you can help your neighbor figure out her taxes. Good news is taking extra time to help a dyslexic child with his reading. Good news might be calling recently-elected, local politicians to task who are behaving like 4 year olds. I would argue that the gospel is always social and always inter-active.

Is your idea of living Christian to sit at home and "develop your own spiritual relationship" and that's it? Study harder, because Jesus in his life and teaching is calling you to get off your duff and make the gospel come alive. What ways can you be the deliverer of the Good News?

Is Church Life Stifling Your Creativity?

A great post that Don Miller gave to the world. Important for us all, pastor and laity alike, to evaluate...

Is Church Life Stifling Your Creativity?