"Ford v Ferrari" Academy Award Nominated Film
January 26, 2020 1 Kings 19:1-13a
Deborah Laforet Song of Solomon 4:1-7
“Ford v Ferrari”
As most of you already know, this Epiphany season, we are exploring the movies that the Academy Awards nominated for best motion picture. Last week, I talked about Marriage Story and explored how we, as a church, support marriages in crisis or that are ending and how, if we agree to be an Affirming congregation. we will strive to make St. Paul’s a space of inclusiveness and welcome people with differences. including marital status and family configurations.
This week. we will look at another nomination. a movie directed by James Mangold called Ford v Ferrari. Next Sunday, we’ll explore Little Women.
Let us pray. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14) Amen.
“There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. It disappears. All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time. At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you.”
Ford v Ferrari is a two and a half hour movie about cars and racing. or at least, that’s how I thought of it before I went to see it at the theatre. One of the reasons I like watching movies nominated for Oscars is that it usually takes me out of my comfort zone. This would be one of those times. There are certain shows I don’t watch; I think we all have those shows we don’t watch. A movie about cars and racing had no appeal for me, but, off I went, to watch this movie, with no expectations except that I was willing to make this sacrifice for my work.
It was a pleasure to watch this movie. This movie wasn’t just about cars. It was about a family, especially the relationship between a father and son; it was the story of corporate executives using their power to get what they wanted; it was the story of the under dog striving to beat the one who always came out on top, and it was about knowing when to let go. This morning, I’m not going to focus on any of these themes. I’m going to explore the quote that I shared with you at the very beginning:
“There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. It disappears. All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time. At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you.”
It sounds very elusive, doesn’t it? Meet what? What is waiting for us? What is this mysterious “it” and do we have to hit 7000 RPMs in order to find out?
We heard a couple of interesting bible passages today. The first one is about the prophet Elijah and is a passage used often when reflecting on how we find God. This whole story is an interesting one, between Elijah, King Ahab and his queen, Jezebel. I encourage you to read it. In this story, Elijah has just bested 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, who are both gods that Queen Jezebel worships. In this story, after proof of Yahweh’s superiority and power over these insignificant gods, Elijah has all the prophets of Baal brought down to the river and killed. After it’s reported to Jezebel what Elijah has done to her prophets, Jezebel then threatens to do the same and more to Elijah, so Elijah runs away in fear.
Elijah then calls it quits. That’s enough, he says. He asks God to let him die, but God is not finished with him yet. An angel comes and cares for him, giving him food and water, enough to sustain him in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. Now, this time line of forty days and forty nights should be like a code to us, as people of the bible. Forty days and forty is not really a specified time. It’s more like a phrase that speaks of a significant time away on a spiritual quest and every time we hear this phrase we should know that some spiritual insight or revelation is coming forth.
After forty days and forty nights, Elijah reaches Mount Horeb. The word of the Lord, probably the same angel, then tells Elijah to go to the top of the mountain. Three things happen on that mountain. First, a great wind, breaking rocks in pieces. We are told that God was not in the wind. Second, there was an earthquake but God was not in the earthquake. Then there was a fire, but God was not in the fire. Now you have to wonder, after this wind, earthquake, and fire, whether Elijah thought God had changed God’s mind and had decided to take his life. After all of this though, there was the sound of sheer silence. The bible reads that when Elijah heard it, heard this sheer silence, he wrapped his face in his mantle, as most holy men would do as only death would follow someone who saw the face of God, and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, where Elijah heard God’s voice.
Elijah, one after the other, had experienced triumph, fear, a journey through the wilderness with little food and water, and then heavy winds, an earthquake, and fire, and is now surrounded with silence. Elijah experiences that brief moment, when everything fades away, everything disappears, and all that’s left is a body moving through space, and time. That’s where he meets it. That’s where it waits for him.
Our second reading is one we don’t hear in church often. It’s a passage from the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon is a lover’s poem and today we heard the groom’s praises of his bride. One of the reasons I chose this passage is because it reminds me of how some men love their cars and talk of their beauty and performance and their love for that car, even using female pronouns. This is a stereotype of men and their cars but often there are times when any gender will feel a love for an object for which they hold a deep passion, and might use words of love and beauty and perfection. This passage from Song of Solomon speaks of a woman but I imagine that some of the people in Ford v Ferrari might speak with such love and passion for some of the cars in this movie, like the Ferrari and the GT40.
The last verse from the passage read for us is, “You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” I want to share with you a clip from the movie. This is a father and son moment, a moment where Ken Miles, the driver in this movie played by Christian Bale, talks to his son about the perfect lap. Clip
He asks his son, “Do you see it? Most people can’t. Most people don’t even know it’s out there. It’s there.” What’s he talking about? What’s out there? Ken Miles is talking about the perfect lap but I think he’s talking about more than just the perfect lap. To me, it sounds spiritual; it feels sacred.
Sometimes we think this sacredness can only be found in church, or that only really, holy people can experience it. Sometimes we think that you have to sit and meditate for hours before you can find experience this spiritual moment, but it’s just not true. I heard one story of a surfer who stood still and silent on her board as a large whale passed beneath her. I’ve heard dancers, painters, or musicians who try to describe those brief and rare moments, when everything falls away and it’s just them and their art. I’ve heard athletes, runners, cyclists, who reach a certain point in their activity where the world around them doesn’t exist. I know parents who have had a moment with their child that felt like a holy moment. Near death experiences or people watching their loved one die will sometimes describe a moment of such clarity and awareness, where all else just melts away.
I’m going to say that quote one more time: “There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. It disappears. All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time. At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you.”
That moment, brief, rare, and magical. It isn’t reserved for holy people and it isn’t only found in sheer silence and contemplation. Everyone will find it in their own way, in their own space and time. Being open to it is key. You can’t struggle to find it. You cannot force it. You have to be able to let go, be able to release all that you hold tightly, and that can be scary and it can be difficult to do, but definitely not impossible, for anyone. And although they are brief and rare, they are worth the time.
The key is letting everything go. That’s why these moments are so brief and rare. Letting go is one of the most difficult things we do, and it’s only getting more difficult with the number of distractions that fill our lives, the number of thoughts that fill our brains. It’s why people stress that the discipline of meditation and prayer are so important. They help us to slow down, open our bodies and our minds, and listen.
Ford v Ferrari is not about finding God. It is not a religious movie and probably wouldn’t even be categorized as spiritual. As a minister, I tend to look for the spiritual in the world around me, and this is what I saw in this movie. If you get an opportunity to watch this movie, see if you can see what I saw. And if you’ve already seen it, watch it again and let me know what you find.
As you navigate the joys and sorrows of this world, the distractions and the busyness, may you find the time to simply be. May you find those moments where everything falls away, where it all disappears. May you meet it, whoever or whatever it is that is waiting for you. Remember that we are spiritual beings; may you find that Spirit in simply being. May it be so. Amen.