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Michael Uslan has been an executive producer for all the Batman films thus far, though he got his start in a way that you might not expect. While he was a student at Indiana University, the school allowed students to propose and lead classes of their choice. These choices, of course, had to be approved. Uslan decided to lead a course titles “The Comic Book in Society”.
Now the Dean at Indiana University wasn’t so sure about this. He wasn’t sure that comic books would hold up to high academic standards. Thus Uslan was called in to defend his class.
Uslan walked the leaders at Indiana like this: He started by asking them to envision the story of Moses in the Bible, the very story we read today. He talked about Moses, in danger of his life, being put as a baby into a basket and being sent down the Nile from his parents to his new adoptive mother in the Egyptian palace.
Then Uslan asked the facility to just switch a few details. Instead of a basket, you have a rocket and instead of the palace in Egypt you have a farm in Smallville. With those few changes, you have the story of Superman. With that, Uslan got his class.
You may wonder why each week myself, and many of my colleagues, use stories, whether from our own lives, the news, or even fiction, to frame our unpacking of our Scripture in our preaching. It’s not because these stories are better than what we see in Scripture. These stories have overtones that resonate with our Scripture. Sometimes they are directly inspired by Scripture.
Take Superman for example. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the young men who created this beloved hero, were good Jewish boys. They would have known the story of Moses. It would have permeated through their consciousnesses, whether they realized it or not. With their parents having immigrated to America, Moses’ journey would be one that would speak to them very deeply.
Superman doesn’t make the story of Moses better. It takes the story and makes it relevant to our time, to the love of science-fiction that Siegel and Shuster possessed.
It goes beyond just our reading from Exodus. The idea of superheroes can help us understand many things in Scripture. In our Gospel today, Jesus has a secret identity that he reveals only to His Disciples. It is an identity that His Disciples have to tease out even. Superman too has a secret identity in the guise of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. It is a secret that at the time of his creation almost no one in his life knew.
When we tell stories to frame our understanding of Scripture, we do so not because those stories are better. We do so because those stories can help us relate to the truths of Scripture. It is an old tradition, one older than the founding of our Faith. After all, Jesus told Parables to showcase the difficult concepts of Faith, even if those listening did not always understand.
Paul this morning says to us, “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” We are to take all that we do and all that we are in use of God’s service. That includes the stories that surround us. We are called to use all that we have around us in better service to God.
We’re not called to be trapped by the understanding of the world when it comes to such things and to such stories. After all, Paul also tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect.” With all that we are and all that we have, we are called to transform those things, to renew our understanding, and to use them as a signpost back to God. We do not use them as the world wants us to, but as God wants us to.
The world is transforming around us. You may find yourselves struggling to understand the culture around us now. I find myself doing the same at times. Because of all that is occurring around us, we are called to find new and creative ways to share our Faith. It is not that our Lord Jesus Christ has changed, for as the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” It is not that tales of Scripture have lost their luster. I hope this Season after Pentecost has proved to you how powerful those words still ring in our lives today. What is lacking is not the Word of God. What is lacking is ourselves.
Sometimes we need a little push to understand and relate to the stories of Scripture. Sometimes we need a reminder of God’s work before, just as Pharaoh needed a reminder of what Joseph had done for his people as we see at the start of Exodus today. Sometimes we need something new and different to bring people in so that they can know the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ just as, I hope, we do.
We are called to take all that we have and all that we are to spread the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes that means taking something new and different to form signposts pointing back to our God. Don’t be afraid to channel something new into one of those signs. Embrace all that God has given you and use it to help bring others back to our Lord.