{"id":2362,"date":"2010-05-16T10:55:34","date_gmt":"2010-05-16T17:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegatheringcincinnati.org\/?p=338"},"modified":"2010-05-16T10:55:34","modified_gmt":"2010-05-16T17:55:34","slug":"may-16-2010-superhero-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/2010\/05\/16\/may-16-2010-superhero-values\/","title":{"rendered":"May 16, 2010, Superhero Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Message 21, \u201cSuperhero Values\u201d, 5-16-10\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

download program: Service Program, 5-16-10<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC<\/p>\n\n

For those of you who have been here over the last two weeks and heard the messages on heroism \u2013 or those who have read them \u2013 perhaps you have thought about the topic and whom we call heroes.\u00a0 Two weeks ago we considered the idea of everyday heroes and how we can practice heroic imagination \u2013 how we must think about and plan ahead – how we will act in situations where we face significant risk and danger.\u00a0 Last week, as we focused on women and their roles, we sought to redefine what it means to be a heroic female or male in our culture.\u00a0 The hero is not necessarily the mother who sacrifices all for the sake of family nor is it necessarily the woman who pursues a career outside the home.\u00a0 It is the person who freely and boldly chooses his or her own path in life despite what cultural norms might say.<\/p>\n

In order to conclude this series on heroism, I want to consider today some of those mythical and fictional heroes of books, television and movies who often personify our cultural heroic ideals.\u00a0 These are figures like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or Spiderman – who still capture our imagination.\u00a0 Young boys and girls over the last hundred years have dreamed that they too could grow up to be just like Superman \u2013 a mythic figure admired by millions, who flies through the air, who possesses great strength and who stands for peace and justice.\u00a0 (show superman clip)<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Many of us want to be like Superman because of his many heroic qualities like his strength and his goodness.\u00a0 And that is generally the case with the many other fictional superheroes who have become a part of our popular culture.\u00a0 Batman and Spiderman fight the bad guys.\u00a0 Wonder Woman is a beautiful but strong and intelligent woman.\u00a0 It is interesting for us to note, however, that all of the pop-culture superheroes, as well as the several Bible heroes we know, are also vulnerable and flawed in certain ways.\u00a0 When we idolize a superhero, we do not want him or her to be god-like in perfection.\u00a0 They must retain aspects of humanity that allow them to be accessible and identifiable.\u00a0 In that regard, our heroes can be great but they must not be so great as to make them individuals we cannot emulate.\u00a0 The writers and creators of the superhero stories designed them to reflect us in our greatest aspirations about ourselves and, also, to reflect us in our so called feet of clay.\u00a0 To be a hero is not to be strictly god-like but to also be very human.<\/p>\n

Superman, as we all know, spent much of his life disguised as his alter-ego Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter.\u00a0 Clark is usually depicted as the classic 1950\u2019s nerd \u2013 with large glasses, bumbling ways, and a lack of confidence around women like Lois Lane.\u00a0 The superhero Batman likewise spends most of his life disguised as Bruce Wayne who was orphaned as a child when he personally witnessed his parents being murdered.\u00a0 Batman fights crime but he has a dark and sinister side that is not afraid to use violence to fight violence.\u00a0 Spiderman is an ordinary teenager in disguise named Peter Parker and Wonder Woman is the alter-ego of a demure and old-maidish secretary named Diana Prince.\u00a0 From the Bible, Moses, as the preeminent Jewish hero, was at first a confused and indecisive figure.\u00a0 David was the classic ninety pound teenage weakling before he killed the giant Goliath.\u00a0 And Jesus was also a soft and compassionate man who anguished over his impending arrest and who cried out to God on the cross complaining about the unfairness of his death.\u00a0 A consistent and important part of our cultural hero stories and myths, indeed of how we look at heroes in general, is that he or she must be someone we can relate to in terms of their human frailties.<\/p>\n

We see, in them, reflections of ourselves who yearn to be great and powerful but who are too often weak, vulnerable, shy or morally confused. The reality of life and the reality of ourselves is that while we aspire to be better, we are also human.\u00a0 Too often we are constrained from acting heroically by our failures and our flaws.\u00a0 The heroes we admire do not shrink from fighting for what is right.\u00a0 They do not refuse to be powerful or heroic.\u00a0 What is distinctive about any hero we admire is that they act in heroic ways despite their flaws and despite their humanity.\u00a0 They rise above their basic humanity \u2013 their weaknesses \u2013 to act in ways that are seen as superhuman.<\/p>\n

Many of the fictional heroes will also only appear in public wearing a costume that accentuates their powers.\u00a0 During the rest of their lives they remain hidden and closeted and fearful of the wider world understanding or knowing who they really are.\u00a0 Clark Kent even says about Superman \u2013 and ultimately about himself, that \u201cmaybe he keeps a part of himself hidden so he doesn\u2019t scare people away.\u201d<\/strong> We can all identify with the idea of wearing a mask or a symbolic costume to prevent the world from knowing who we really are \u2013 what are our flaws and real thoughts.\u00a0 We can also identify with how we show only a part of ourselves to the world \u2013 the good side that is culturally acceptable.<\/p>\n

The message of the fictional superheroes, I believe, and the lesson we can learn from the topic of heroism is not to simply copy all of the qualities we admire \u2013 like bravery, strength and power.\u00a0 Even when we honor real life heroes, we must not turn them into persons so unlike ourselves that it is impossible to be like them.\u00a0 Heroes are not gods.\u00a0 They are human beings who simply act in ways that we admire.\u00a0 As I have proposed many times, the Jesus we honor and study is not a heroic god.\u00a0 He is us.\u00a0 We are him.\u00a0 In spite of his humanity, in spite of his humble birth and in spite of the several ways he acted less than heroically \u2013 when he cried, when he revealed his temper and when he showed fear \u2013 Jesus could still point us to the high ideals of compassion, forgiveness and advocacy for social justice.<\/p>\n

On the night before his execution, just a few days after he overturned tables in the Temple in a fit of temper against greedy religious merchants, Jesus knew he would soon be arrested.\u00a0 The Bible story says that Jesus was highly agitated and even sweat blood in his anguish over whether to flee or submit to arrest.\u00a0 And, on the cross, the Bible stories say Jesus cried out to God asking why he was being subjected to such a death.\u00a0 Indeed, I believe it does Jesus an injustice to call him a god for in doing so we have made him perfect and thus all of his great attributes are no longer extraordinary.\u00a0 A god should act perfectly.\u00a0 But a flawed and weak human being must struggle and overcome long odds in order to be heroic.\u00a0 We can admire Jesus all the more because, as a human being and not a god, he acted compassionately and was able to forgive his enemies and those who hurt him.\u00a0 He rose above his humanity and his weaknesses to be a hero \u2013 a man whose teachings resonate for us still today.<\/p>\n

And that is precisely what Superman achieves.\u00a0 Out of the human nerdiness and bumbling ways of Clark Kent emerges a hero who fights for decency and justice.\u00a0 Out of the closet of his identity as Clark Kent he becomes a powerful and capable hero.\u00a0 And the same is true of Wonder Woman \u2013 another superhero in our popular culture.\u00a0 She was created not as a feminist hero who is equal with men but as one who is superior to men.\u00a0 As William Marston, the psychologist who created her said, our culture has come to despise many of the traditional feminine characteristics because they are perceived to be weak.\u00a0 He said, \u201cthe obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.\u201d<\/strong> (show Wonder Woman clip)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Echoing what we considered last Sunday on Mother\u2019s Day, in a fun and campy way, the message of Wonder Woman is that the demure, soft and bookish woman can also be feminine and strong.\u00a0 Even though much of how Wonder Woman is portrayed panders to some of our cultural stereotypes for women \u2013 that they be sexy, have flowing hair and wear perfect make-up – the other message from her is that women can also be smarter and stronger than men.\u00a0 From the apparent weakness of an overly feminine nature can emerge a hero \u2013 to be admired by girls and boys alike.<\/p>\n

And that is what we find important when we consider how hero stories and myths apply to us. Humanity and imperfection are what make us real. \u00a0But we need not be held captive by such weakness.\u00a0 Superheroes, like many of us, feel a need to mask their vulnerability and that part of themselves which is despised by the prevailing culture.\u00a0 Superheroes nevertheless are able to transcend such weakness and act with power and ability.\u00a0 Moses was a man who fled from responsibility only to become the one who would lead the Jews out of slavery.\u00a0 Jesus was a poor, sensitive kid conceived out of wedlock who became, arguably, one of the greatest prophets and moral leaders in history.\u00a0 Superman is an alien, from a distant planet, who is raised on a small farm and who grows up to be a cowardly reporter, hiding his identity.\u00a0 He has, however, become the archetype of the masculine ideal \u2013 a man who is strong, handsome, moral and works for good in the world.\u00a0 Wonder Woman is a bookish and weak secretary who becomes a sexy and powerful crime fighter.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the same standards that we apply to our cultural superheroes are what we apply to our leaders and our President.\u00a0 We want them to be handsome, strong and intelligent.\u00a0 But, what often makes them great in our eyes is not their heroic attributes but when they are able to transcend their flaws.\u00a0 Abraham Lincoln was a strong and resolute leader despite his ordinary and awkward appearance and his modest small town background.\u00a0 FDR pulled the country out of a depression and acted as a bold commander in chief despite being a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair.\u00a0 Lyndon Johnson became only second to Lincoln in advancing civil and equal rights for African-Americans despite his southern, racist roots.\u00a0 \u00a0And, despite being a deeply flawed man, only Richard Nixon, who made his career as a communist baiting colleague of Joseph McCarthy, could open relations with Red China and begin substantive nuclear disarmament treaties with the Soviet Union \u2013 both of which have made the world safer.\u00a0 We see, therefore, a common thread even in our leaders whom history applauds.<\/p>\n

What heroic actions are in us, hidden by our ordinary and flawed masks?\u00a0 What muscular and strong caped crusader who fights against injustice in this world lurks in our mild mannered bodies?\u00a0 I certainly do not claim to be a hero \u2013 far from it \u2013 but I have had to step beyond my hidden and inner flaws to become more genuine and true to the world.\u00a0 It was not easy coming out.\u00a0 It was not fun to leave a comfort zone where the world considered me normal.\u00a0 But I am finding that in my weaknesses and in my humanity are the elements of what can make me strong.<\/p>\n

For this month of May, when we celebrate both Mother\u2019s Day and Memorial Day, I believe we can better define what constitutes a hero.\u00a0 In doing so, we can better understand ourselves and how we too are called to everyday heroism.\u00a0 We see that in being heroic we must not just act in a good or courageous manner.\u00a0 We must risk ourselves \u2013 our lives or our reputations.\u00a0 We must transcend that which is within us that tells us we are too weak or too afraid or too confused to act.\u00a0 And we must then choose the path or the action that is our own way and not subject to what the culture defines for us.\u00a0 As women move beyond tradition and feminism to embrace the strength to choose what is good for them, as gays and straights defy cultural norms to be honest and loving citizens, fully equal in society, as any person who moves beyond past weaknesses or hurts, we can transcend our flawed humanity.\u00a0 Despite our fears, we can boldly serve this inner city community, despite our own needs and wants, we can generously give of our time and resources, and despite that which makes us weak \u2013 our past hurts \u2013 we can be heroically transformed.\u00a0 There is a quote at the Freedom Center exhibit on lynching, by Thee Smith, which says, \u201cLet\u2019s work together to rescue ourselves and our children from the fate of becoming bystanders in a world without sanctuary.\u201d<\/strong> The superhero in each of us must transcend our own human fears and weaknesses and refuse to any longer be a bystander to inequality and injustice in this world.\u00a0 I propose to us today that this church, as an entity itself, must refuse to be a bystander and it too must commit itself to heroic deeds.\u00a0 That <\/span><\/strong>hero in us, and in our church, yearns to be free, to come out of the closet, and to act boldly and compassionately to change the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message 21, \u201cSuperhero Values\u201d, 5-16-10 download program: Service Program, 5-16-10 \u00a9 Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC For those of you who have been here over the last two weeks and heard the messages on heroism \u2013 or those who have read them \u2013 perhaps you have thought about the topic and whom we call […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}