"Little Women" Academy Award Nominated Film
February 2, 2020 2 Samuel 13:23-29
Deborah Laforet Ephesians 4:22-5:2
“Little Women”
This is the third Sunday that we are exploring the movies that the Academy Awards nominated for best motion picture. Two weeks ago, I talked about Marriage Story and last week, we talked about Ford v Ferrari and how driving a car at 7000rpms can be spiritual.
This week. we will look at another nomination. a movie directed by Greta Gerwig, called Little Women. Next Sunday, Carolyn is excited to talk about Star Wars.
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 are phrases that we use that many attribute to the bible, phrases like, “Pride goest before the fall,” “God works in mysterious way,” “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” and “God loves those who help themselves.” None of these can actually be found in the bible. There is one phrase though that we hear in the movie Little Women, that we can find in the bible: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger,” found in the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 26. The phrase is used by Marmie, which is what the four March sisters call their mother.
How many of you have either read the book or seen one of the cinematic versions of “Little Women?” It’s amazing, and they touch on this fact in the movie, that such a simple book became so popular, a tale about four girls growing up in New England during the time of the civil war, and their shenanigans, their struggles, their heartaches, and their love for each other. This movie has been made for the big screen 5 times, 1918, 1933, 1949, 1994, and last year in 2019, not to mention the TV adaptations or other expressions created around this story. This most recent one is mostly from the viewpoint of Jo March, the second oldest sister, and goes back and forth between her present life in New York and her life growing up with her sisters.
There is one scene on which I want to focus this morning and it concerns that quote from Ephesians, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” I’m going to show you a clip from the movie. It’s only about sixteen seconds long, so I will set the scene.
There are four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Meg and Jo, the oldest sisters, have been invited out by two young men to the theatre, and Amy, the youngest, wants to join them. Amy feels excluded from a lot of what her big sisters do and hates having to stay home and miss it all. She begs and pleads to go with them, but she is not allowed, especially and emphatically by Jo, who does not want her little sister hanging around like a fifth wheel. When they finally leave, leaving Amy behind, Amy is hurt and wants to strike out at Jo. Jo is a prolific writer, and always has stories on the go. Amy find her most recent story, and burns every page. What I’m about to show you is the scene when Meg and Jo arrive home and Jo has discovered that her story is gone. Jo takes one look at Amy and knows she has done something. Clip. (The picture isn’t great and it’s not closed captioned. The script is below or is printed in the bulletin.)
Jo: Amy, you’ve got it.
Amy: No, I haven’t.
Joe: That’s a lie.
Amy: No, it isn’t. I haven’t got it. I don’t know where it is, and I don’t -
(Girls screaming.)
Amy: I burned it up! I burnt your book. I told you I’d make you pay and I did!
Amy follows that up by telling Jo that she wanted to hurt her. She couldn’t do anything to Jo’s dresses because she knew Jo wouldn’t care about dresses. It had to be her book. Jo is so angry that she refuses to talk to her sister, look at her, or be anywhere near her.
The next morning, Jo heads off to skate with her friend Laurie. Jo had previously promised Amy that she could join them, but of course, ignores Amy and goes off without her. Amy decides to follow anyway. When Jo and Laurie get on the ice, Laurie tells Jo to stay close to the edges because the ice is thin in the middle. As they go off, Jo sees Amy with her skates heading their way. She decides to say nothing and skates off with Laurie. You can probably guess what happens. Jo and Laurie hear a scream, look back, and see that Amy has fallen through the ice. Of course, all Jo’s anger dissipates and she hurries to Amy’s side. With Laurie’s help, they are able to pull Amy from the water and get her home safely, but Jo is devastated because of what could have happened. If anything more had happened to Amy, if she hadn’t made it out of the ice, it would have been Jo’s fault. Jo had let her anger blind her and it had caused her to risk her sister’s safety.
Ross read for us a story from the second book of Samuel. It’s a part of the David story that we don’t often hear. It’s a story of someone who lets his anger fester and it has catastrophic consequences on the lives of many. Just before the passage that Ross read for us, we read that David’s daughter, Tamar, is raped by her half-brother Amnon, David’s son. Tamar, in her grief, goes to her brother Absalom, Absalom hears her story, and tells her to remain quiet. As for King David, our bible reads that when he heard, he “became very angry, but he would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his firstborn. But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had raped his sister Tamar.” (2 Samuel 13:21-22)
The very first words of the story Ross read for us, that follows this passage, were, “After two full years….” Imagine. There had been no consequences to Amnon’s actions. Absalom had remained silent, with neither good or bad to say to Amnon. This is the worst kind of anger, the kind that waits, that simmers, that grows slowly, that is not expressed. It’s like a pressure cooker, where, unless you let that steam out slowly, it’s going to explode. In this story, after two years of waiting, Absalom tricks all of his brothers to come to a feast at his home. Absalom instructs his servants to kill Amnon when he is deep into his wine and they do so. This starts a chain of events for David’s family that does not end well.
Anger. Are you one of those people who sits with their anger until it’s at a boiling point? Do you express it right away but maybe in a way that is scary or hurts people around you? Anger is an issue we see throughout the bible, from Cain killing his brother Abel, Jacob fleeing from his vengeful brother Esau, last week we heard a story about Queen Jezebel’s anger with the prophet Elijah, and today we hear about Absalom and his brother Amnon. Anger is not only biblical. It’s very human, so we hear about it in lots of stories throughout history and in different cultures around the world. Many cultures have attributed anger to their gods, in how the gods have treated people and each other. Anger is usually a byproduct of other feelings like jealousy, bruised egos, hurt, and fear, but it’s the anger that usually causes conflict and harm.
The letter that was written to the Ephesians, from which Laura read, talks about the old self and the new self, similar to the reading we heard last week from the letter to the Colossians. There is this recurring image of clothing ourselves differently. When one professes loyalty to Christ and decides to be a follower of the Way of Jesus, one is asked to put the former self aside.
“You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
We are to put aside all that is corrupt. In this letter, the author writes, “So, then, putting away all falsehood, let us all speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.” That goes back to that image in Paul’s letter to the community of Corinth, that we are all members of one body, and anything that affects one part of the body, affects the whole body.
The author continues with, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” Anger is a natural and healthy emotion. To be in conflict is natural and can be done in a healthy manner. Therefore, be angry. Anger is not a sin. Anger becomes a problem when we let it fester, when we let the sun go down on our anger, and when we make room for the devil, when we make room for thoughts that turn to harm of oneself or others.
For those of us watching Messiah on Netflix, in the first episode, El Masih is talking to someone who is interrogating him. El Masih can tell this man is angry and he says to him, “You were your hate like a prize; it is a weight around your neck.” Wise words. Anger, like hate, is heavy; it weighs us down. We need to express it and then we need to let it go.
Anger in our culture is not encouraged. We are encouraged to try and understand the others’ viewpoint, to forgive, and to move on. A healthy relationship though is one where you can express your feelings, express your hurt, your frustration without being told to just relax or calm down or get control of yourself. The next step would then be to talk it through. Talking it through doesn’t mean you will suddenly agree or that your hurt and frustration will magically disappear, but you’ve at least expressed your feelings, the other person knows how you feel, and you can hopefully walk away with some respect for each other.
In the story in our bible, we know that the men in Tamar’s life handled her situation badly. Her brother told her to be quiet about it, which we know now is the worst advice to give to someone who has been sexually assaulted, and then he also remains silent. And their father ignores the whole situation.
In the story of Little Women, Jo has a temper. She explodes and then holds onto that anger. Jo put her sister’s life in jeopardy and learned the hard way that she needs to work on letting go of her anger.
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. It’s not that easy. I wonder though if we were encouraged to express our anger, from the time we are toddlers, how much easier it would be to express it now and let it go. I saw a video recently where a father is sitting next to his toddler as the toddler screams and rages, and cries, and vents all the anger and frustration that is in that little body. The video actually goes on for a quite a while. But the whole time, the father just sits and waits. Eventually the child turns towards the father and just falls into his arms. The child weeps some more, rants a bit more, but eventually just falls exhausted into the arms of his father. The father then just holds his child. He expresses his love for that child, says a few words of comfort, but mostly just wraps his arms around that child.
May you be listened to and felt heard in your anger. May you never feel alone in your hurt. May you be offered words of comfort and signs of compassion during that vulnerable time when you have expressed your feelings. Afterwards, may you be held, wrapped in loving arms, kissed and hugged and cuddled. Even as adults, we sometimes just need a big hug. We sometimes just need that affirmation that we are loved and that we are worthy of love.
We are a part of a faith tradition that tells us that when this world was created, God proclaimed it all as very good. Every molecule, every particle in this universe is a part of the grand cosmos, which is all imprinted with the love of our Creator, and that includes us. That includes you. You are loved, and you can actually feel those arms wrapped around you, the arms of the universe, the cosmos, God, Christ, however you want to name it. They are always there, always holding you, always with you, even when you’re really, really angry, loving you. Thanks be to God. Amen.