In 2006 I was asked to speak at a camp for high school students, the material I produced for the gig was based around call and vocation.  Using segments from the television series “Joan of Arcadia” I was able to produce four sessions, tree of which I’ve decided to release in a package for people to use as they wish, in the package is the powerpoint for each session including a breakdown of the presentation, the student handbook for the camp that will provide some help in forming small groups to discuss the sessions and an episode guide for each episode I used for the sessions.

The fourth session was a session in which I tied all the previous sessions together, I’ll try and piece that together for people in the near future, we didn’t use a particular episode for this session, instead I included a number of scenes of God approaching Joan from the entire series. This is why not as much has been done on this session than on the others. I hope you find the sessions useful, if you want to provide feedback please email me.  Feel free to use in your ministries at no cost..

Joan of Arcadia and Vocation / Call Session 1

Here’s the first of four sessions on Vocation and Call using Joan of Arcadia as a discussion helper. I’ve included leaders notes in the Power Point presentation as well as the time settings for each clip from the dvd.

This session’s the first of four sessions on prophecy, call and vocation. During this session we’re introducing people to the stories of Moses, Gideon, Matthew and Jeremiah all who were called by God/Jesus to be prophets among the nations. One of the features of the call narrative is the discussion between the caller who appears and the callee who then makes an excuse, for some it’s because they aren’t a good speaker, for others it’s their age and, for someone like Matthew it’s their unworthiness. We are all called by God to be prophets, to be people of God and, like Jeremiah and Gideon and Matthew and Moses and others before and after them we try to offer our own excuses, our own attempts at saying that we’re not worthy.

The Joan of Arcadia episode is Episode 1, “Pilot” and follows the first time that God appears to Joan and enlists her to help him in Arcadia, the discussion sheet is in the slide notes for the second slide and include the call narrative for Joan.

The key questions for small group discussion for this session are:

• What are my weaknesses?
• What have been/would be my excuses?
• Have I ever heard God calling me?
• How does God appear to me?

Download Session Powerpoint: Joan of Arcadia Session 01 ppt
Download Session Episode Guide: Joan of Arcadia Session Guide 01 pdf
Download Series Student Handbook: Joan of Arcadia Student Handbook pdf

Joan of Arcadia and Vocation / Call Session 2

One of the things that’s common in the call narratives of the prophets is the reassurance that while they are called to do something big they are not being called to do it alone. Jeremiah is reassured by God as is Moses and Gideon, Peter finds himself being reminded that he’s going to be doing it all with Jesus and his friends. So after we offer our excuses God has a tendency to say “that’s cool, but together those excuses don’t mean a thing, I’m going with you.” God never asks us to do something without God being with us, without being given the skills to do what we’re called to do.

This session delves into that, it asks what people are good at, what skills that God’s given them, and how those skills have grown and changed over time.

The Joan of Arcadia episode deals with precisely this, God calls Joan to build a boat, something that she shows no aptitude for, she even has a conversation with God later in the episode about finding that she has some gifts, but they’re the wrong gifts, can she “make a gift exchange”?…

Bruce Van Blair writes that “Always God assumes that we are going to do this in partnership with him” and it’s this that we seem to constantly forget.

The session also asks about what gifts we’d like to swap, what would we swap them for, and also goes into asking how we feel when we’re all alone and when others have put down our skills and gifts.

The end message is that we’re called, but we’re not called to do things alone, that God is always present and wanting to be involved, no matter what it is that we’ve been called to, whether it be building a boat, saving a nation or loving a enemy.

Download Session Powerpoint: Joan of Arcadia Session 02 ppt
Download Session Episode Guide: Joan of Arcadia Session Guide 02 pdf
Download Series Student Handbook: Joan of Arcadia Student Handbook pdf

Joan of Arcadia and Vocation / Call Session 3

I’m not sure what I fear more, failure or success, I guess it all depends on the meanings that I give them really. But if I’m being called to be a prophet to the nations then success would probably mean hanging around people that I don’t want to, eating with people who are my enemies, possibly it’d mean being homeless, or being poor, or leaving home or moving somewhere I don’t want to live. Failure would at least mean that I can stay home, earn money, buy all the things that I need, eat a lot of food, have a good job…

I should say that to be a prophet one might be called to stay at home and have a good job, but the reality is that for Moses through to Peter this wasn’t the case, they were asked to go on a journey, a long journey.

For some of us our fears may have been shown in our discussion on our excuses, for others it may run deeper than that, me, well I’m afraid of truly being alone, I’m also kind of afraid of what it’d mean to be called by God to go somewhere that I’ve never planned for. Others may be afraid of letting their friends know who they really are, I mean, how do you tell your skateboarding friends that you’re a Christian and that you’re being called to work in northern Australia in indigenous communities. Others might be afraid of ending up financially bankrupt, being handicapped, or suffering illness…

And then there are those who are afraid to let people into their lives, or afraid to enter into the lives of others…

Which is where we meet Joan and her friends in this session, a baby’s been found in a dumpster and while the police and school staff are trying to figure out who the mum is in order to save the girl’s life it seems that noone in the school, even Joan is paying enough attention to their peers, their friends in order to have even noticed that one of their own was pregnant. Are we too afraid to be close to each other? And what about the fears of the mother?

It helps us to talk about those things that we’re afraid of, to ask for help from others to get through it, to feel safe enough in a space to say “I’m not coping” and to not be berated because of it, this episode shows us that while school may sometimes not feel like that place it better become such a place or our fears will take over.

I wonder what Moses, Gideon, Peter and Jeremiah were afraid of.

I wonder what scares us, what REALLY scares us…

Today’s questions are:

• What do I fear?
• How do my fears control me?
• Am I more afraid of failing or succeeding?

Download Session Powerpoint: Joan of Arcadia Session 03 ppt
Download Session Episode Guide: Joan of Arcadia Session Guide 03 pdf
Download Series Student Handbook: Joan of Arcadia Student Handbook pdf

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

“Sometimes people think (that) to see that we are family is to be sentimental. But one has to say: This is one of the most radical things, actually. When we do what we think is charitable, it isn’t anything more than our obligation as family members.” - Desmond Tutu

Episode Guide

The episode starts with a flashback to when Simon and River were younger, they play a game of pretend, we realise just how intelligent River and Simon were in their younger years.  The flashback ends and we’re transported back onto the ship where River’s lost her temper because of her constant tests, Mal and Simon have a conversation about River’s behaviour and the experiments that were performed on her by the Alliance.

As the ship lands onto a planet to sell the cattle that they had picked up in the previous episode a group of men see Serenity and suggest that they should take the ship and it’s cargo.

After landing Simon, River, Kaylee and Inara venture into town to get out of Mal’s hair.  During the trip Kaylee and Simon have a bit of a fight over his arrogance and her feelings for the ship and crew, during which River disappears and Simon goes to search for her.

During his search both Simon finds River dancing with a number of locals with a big smile on her face, for a brief moment we see Simon watching his sister as if nothing has ever happened, she seems joyous and “normal”.  During this scene  both Simon and River are kidnapped by settlers in the hills who regularly snatch trades people that might be able to help them.  The settlers are very excited to see that they’d managed to kidnap a doctor to help them.

Meanwhile at the ship Mal, Jayne and Book make a deal with people to purchase the cattle, as the deal goes down the local law enforcement arrive on scene and a shoot up begins, during which Book is shot and critically injured.

Another flashback takes us back to when Simon became aware that something that was happening to River and starts an argument with their parents over their need to rescue her.

Back on the ship the crew decide that since Simon cannot be found they will need to leave  the planet in order to find facilities to help Book, Inara convinces Mal to head to an Alliance facility in order to save the Shepherd.  The crew reluctantly board the alliance ship and, just as it seems that the Alliance will refuse treatment Book pulls out his Identity Card which causes the Alliance to act quickly and operate on the Shepherd, the crew wonder why the Alliance changed their mind, what is the connection between the Alliance and Book?

On the planet River and Simon have a conversation about how she realises that Simon’s given up a lot for her, and that soon they’ll be rescued and she’ll get better.  Simon enjoys a conversation with his sister that seems normal and joyous, she had brought him berries from outside.  River reveals some of the story of a young mute girl in the community that leads the nurse to become afraid and begins to call her a witch.

Yet another flashback happens in which we see Simon and River’s father argue with Simon and disown his son.  The argument is over how Simon is trying to find ways that he can help River, including talking with rebels.

As the flashback ends the settlers are gathered as a lynch mob and decide to burn River as a witch. Simon begs the people to burn him in her place, they refuse and he yells at them because of their lunacy and ignorance, and as he does he turns around and holds onto his sister who has been tied to a pole above the wood to be burnt. As he holds onto her he tells the people to light the fire.

And this is where the rest of the crew arrive and save the Doctor and his sister.

Back on the ship Simon asks Mal why he came back to save them, as not having the fugitives on board might make their life easier for them and, after all Mal doesn’t even like Simon. Mal answers Simon with the words “You’re on my crew” and, when Simon asks again, Mal says “You’re on my crew, I don’t even know why we’re even having this conversation.” And the crew gather together over a meal at the table with a lot of conversation, laughter and food.

Scenes of Note:

a) One of the scenes that possibly could be overlooked in this episode is the argument between Simon and Kaylee in the shop over his mean comments about the ship, the crew and their life.  One of the fantastic things about this television program is the way in which the characters are built up, grow, develop and relate to one another.  The relationship between Kaylee and Simon is a relationship that we can explore over and over again in order to watch how they learn to relate, how she teaches him more than he teaches her, and how while she longs for him he is still learning about how he feels for her.

b) A number of scenes in this episode show just how deep the relationship is between Simon and River, we also see a number of scenes in which we learn just how much Simon had sacrificed for River.  In particular the scene between Simon and his parents arguing over River’s need to be rescued, the scene where River shares that she understands what he’d given up, and the final scene when Simon holds onto River before the lynch mob light the fire that would kill her. This is a fantastic scene to use in discussions around the nature of sacrifice and love.

c) We could be forgiven for thinking that Simon’s personality is fairly uncaring, except for where his sister is concerned, but in this episode we’re reminded that being a Doctor is a part of the way that he expresses his compassion towards others.  In a scene in the settlement Simon and River on arriving look around at the injured and sick in the community and, as he does we see a glimpse of compassion in his eyes for those people around him that are in need of assistance. His questions go from “why have you abducted us?” to “get me some equipment.”

d) One of the themes on the episode has me asking questions about the way that people move from “thanks” to “fear,” in particular, how quickly a community’s fear can soon cloud their love and compassion for one another.  The scene of the two arriving at the settlement and the words of faith “Thanks be to God” could be linked with the final scenes of the community calling out for the Witch to be burnt to death as a judgement from God.

e) The scenes of the ship arriving at the Alliance ship and Shepherd Book being accepted in for medical help could be linked with the scene  where Mal asks Book why he was accepted and treated so well by the Alliance, Book tells him that as a Shepherd he’s treated well and Mal responds with “No they don’t, men of God cause people to feel guilty and judged”

f) The final conversation in the ship between Mal and Simon “You’re on my crew”

Questions for Discussion:

Take that foot out of your mouth…

I really do appreciate the scene in which Simon accidentally insults Kaylee in the store, as someone who has his foot so firmly planted in his mouth regularly I can relate to Simon.  I feel for Simon, he’s in a different world to the one he grew up in, and he’s not really prepared for it.  He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to connecting with the opposite sex, and can’t we all relate to that?

In this scene Simon does something which is not all that abnormal for the men on Serenity, he opens his mouth and stuff comes out that hurts others, especially to his friends.

• How many times do you think you have made statements that have been hurtful to others?
• How often do you think about what you say before saying them?
• How often have people you love and care for hurt you in words they have used? How did that feel?
• Have you been forgiven for something stupid you’ve said?
• Have you forgiven others for things they might have said about or to you? How do you do this? How hard is it to forgive?

We’re also reminded of the cultural differences that face Simon on the ship, he did grow up in a different world, he rarely needed or wanted for anything, and now he’s experiencing life in different places and in different ways. He’s going through a bit of a culture shock, even though the might not name it as such.

• How would you describe the culture that you grew up in?
• Have you ever had to experience life in a different culture, or in a different way, how would you describe your experience? (you might have gone overseas, interstate, moved home from one place to a different place, changed schools, can you recall times where you had to learn a different way of doing things, different foods you might have had to eat, different lifestyles you had to get used to)
• How do you cope when you’re faced with people who have a very different view on life than you?

I’m reminded of a few times where the disciples of Jesus were confronted with these types of experiences (Matt 16:21-27 or Luke 22:24),  I can even remember a time or two when Jesus needed to take the foot out of his mouth (Mark 7:24-37).  It’s kind of nice to know that everyone has foot in mouth disease, it makes me feel so not alone, and reminds me that there’s still a chance for people like me.

I’m also reminded that each of the disciples shared different experiences when they grew up, and that many had to overcome their own cultural hang-ups, much like the crew on Serenity.  Fishermen, Prostitutes, Taxmen, Religious leaders, Sons, Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Widows… They all were a part of a community that followed Jesus around, I wonder how well they got along, or if they had similar issues to the crew of Serenity. What do you think?

Just how much would you sacrifice?

Simon gives up a lot for his sister, in this episode we’re shown a glimpse of what he has sacrificed, his wealth, his family, his work and education.  The rest of the crew had to face a possible sacrifice as well when they decided to approach the Alliance for medical support for Shepherd Book.

Raise the questions:

• How much would you sacrifice for the people that you love?
• What sacrifices are you willing to make?
• How far would you go for your sister and brother?

Then I’m reminded of people like Mother Teresa who sacrificed much for people that she did not know, of people like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela who sacrificed much more than Simon ever could have, I’m reminded of many today who still sacrifice much for those who they do not know, and for those who might at times be their enemy.  I’m reminded of all of these people and wonder if I could do the same, if we could do the same…

• How far you would go, how much would you sacrifice for those you do not know?
• How much would you sacrifice for people that you do not like or those who are your enemies?
• What makes a sacrifice a “sacrifice?

When fear turns into anger

I’m always amazed at how quickly a community of people can move from celebration to fear and from fear to anger.  Our history is littered with times where communities became fearful of “the other” some people were once hunted and killed as witches, natives of countries were killed, crusades were held and, even now people fear people who are different. And this fear can quickly move to violence, around the world we see this in racial conflicts, religious conflicts, political conflicts….

• What makes you fear someone?
• Do you fear anyone? Why?
• Why do you think people fear others?
• How can we face our fears without them turning violent?
• How can we help others face their fears?

More….

I do want to explore the final two scenes I mentioned, but I think they might be a longer post, so I’ll continue the thinking and add them later…

Episode Guides for Shindig:

Shindig on wikipedia
Shindig on Scifi.com

Luke 6.36-46

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’

He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you?

Synopsis:

Mal, Jayne and Inara find themselves in yet another bar fight at the beginning of this episode, this time it’s because Mal decided that he’d steal money from some slave traders while they weren’t looking. We start to suspect that bar fights are pretty normal events for the crew.

The ship and crew land on a planet for a while while Mal looks out for some work and the rest of the crew decides to use their time by relaxing a bit, Inara however scans her messages for potential clients while she’s on land. As she is scanning her cliental list Mal walks in and makes a few comments about her clients and profession and she sends him away after pointing out that his moral high ground is pretty dodgy since he’d just participated in another bar fight and petty theft.

While walking through town Kaylee spots a pretty frilly dress that she’d love to wear, imagining that this is the kind of dress that other people, not like her might wear to a dance or party, her interest in the dress draws a rather inappropriate comment from Mal about why she would ever want to wear something like that, the exact words were “What are you going to do in that rig? Waltz around the engine room? It’d be like a sheep walking around on it’s hind legs.” At which time the crew leave him with Jayne wondering what he’d said to make them angry.

Mal gets asked to convince a rich and powerful man to use him and his ship to transport some cargo, to do this he will have to do some pretty sweet talking, and go to the local dance, which Inara and her client will also be attending. As a cover Mal takes Kaylee and has to buy her the pretty dress for the event, which pleases her to no end and seems to mend the friendship a bit. In the process of setting up the deal Mal insults Inara’s client and lures him into insulting Inara which gives him the excuse to punch the man. The punch is considered to be a challenge to a dual, with swords, to the death…

Mal has to fight for his life, for Inara’s honour, and for the smuggling job with a man who seems to know his fighting skills really well, and the crew aren’t going to help out at all due to another smuggler holding them as prisoners until the fight’s over.

Scenes of Note:

a) Mal and Jayne’s fight at the pub at the start of the episode is an amusing situation, it shows off his double moral standards a bit and reminds us again that the people we’re watching are indeed criminals, but then again so seems everyone else…

b) If we were to match the conversation between Mal and Inara before they land while she’s searching through her cliental up with either the conversation during the dance between the two about her profession and life or the conversation Mal has with Inara while preparing for the dual we’d see two (of the) sides (as there are many more sides than just two) of the relationship between them.

On one hand we have Mal insulting Inara and her profession and in the other hear him saying he wanted to protect her honour. “He doesn’t respect you” “I might not show respect to your job, but he didn’t respect you, Inara he doesn’t even see you.”

c) Kaylee is enjoying being “on the other side of the fence” at the party, she feels all pretty and spoils herself with the food and music, during this time a group of women greet her and begin to insult her for not fitting in and not looking pretty enough. As this happens they’re approached by another man who stops the discussion by insulting the ladies and saving Kaylee from the situation, later in the night we find Kaylee with the man and others talking engines and ships while laughing and enjoying themselves with her at the centre of attention.

For Discussion:

The Log In Your Own Eye…

We could be forgiven if we occasionally forgot that Mal is a criminal, the odd “hoorah!” here and there as he punches a slave trader or pokes a bad man with a sword is possibly normal. But the cheer means we’re not on the side of the other guy doesn’t it?

Somehow we’ve developed a scale on which we measure bad and good, Mal is less bad because he’s likeable, because we know him a little, because… why? What about him makes him likeable? What makes us cheer for the smuggler over the slave trader? How do we measure good and bad in our own lives? How many times does the criminal get to be a hero in our world? How does this scale affect the way in which we live, the choices we make as to what is more evil than the other?

Mal does it too, he will regularly make comments about Inara’s profession, clients and life almost as if he has a higher moral ground. He also steals from and picks fights with slave traders and the like in bars claiming to be better than they are. Mal seems to forget the log in his own eye while making judgements of other people’s lives, his moral compass seems to be guided by his own ethics of right and wrong. How is this true with out own lives? How often do we try and take the moral high ground? How often do we judge our friends or family, or insult them while at other times being offended that others may do the same? How often have you thought “It’s ok for me to insult my sister, but for another to do it is wrong”? Why? What does it mean to judge? Why do you think the bible constantly reminds us not to judge others?

As I type this I want to say also that I love the character of Mal, I too cheer at times, laugh at others and am glad he lives for another day, yes he’s flawed, but so am I, so are we all. And that is pretty normal…

R.E.S.P.E.C.T Found Out What It Means To Me

Kaylee meets some women at the ball that make fun of her dress, and her being there, they also show disrespect for whoever made the dress. I’m sure we’ve all been like Kaylee here at one point of time or other. How often do you feel disrespected by others? How many times have you shared a similar experience, how did you feel, why?

Mal has perpetual foot in mouth disease, especially while he is around Inara, but he also shows his ability to disrespect others like Kaylee in this episode. His ethics seem to think that it’s ok for him to do it as he’s a friend, or family, or in a relationship with the person, but doesn’t like it when others show a similar disrespect to the same people. How often do you disrespect your friends or family while thinking it’s ok because it’s you, because they know you? How many times have you taken offense to someone insulting someone you love because “only you can get away with saying that?”

And back at the party are still some well dressed women who had made fun of Kaylee, and an older man who defended Kaylee’s honour by insulting the insulters… How often do you disrespect others you might not know? How often do you defend others by putting others down?

Feeling Pretty, Feeling Out Of Place
Kaylee seems to peer into Inara’s world and romanticises it, thinking that she gets some rich clients who give her things and make her feel pretty, the rest of the world seems to think this is the case too as her profession has a high status in the planets. Looking in from outside Kaylee wishes that she could have pretty things, be a “normal” girl, wear pretty dresses, dance with men to nice music. Kaylee wants to live in the world beyond her own fence, the grass is always greener over there. How often do you look over the fence at other people’s lives and wish that it were yours? Who do you envy? Who’s lives do you wish you could have?

And when she’s faced with the reality she meets people that want to keep her on the other side of the fence, people who look pretty on the outside but are not too pretty on the inside. These people make her feel unwelcome, unpretty. While she also meets others who seem to find her enchanting for who she really is at the same party. What makes you feel pretty? What makes you feel unpretty? Can you share stories that are similar to Kaylee’s? Have you ever “jumped over to the other side of the fence” only to find that you don’t fit? How, why, when, where?

And at the end, we find that Kaylee’s happy at home with her pretty dress on the wall and music in the background, how often do things like dresses, jeans, shoes, jackets, hoodies make us feel good, make us feel pretty or handsome, or special? How often is it stuff that makes us feel good rather than people? Why might this be the case? When do you feel pretty with the simple things in life?

Mercy Is The Mark Of A Great Man

I have to admit, I do chuckle when I see the final fight scene and hear Mal say “Mercy is the mark of a great man… Guess I’m just a good man… Well, I’m all right. ..”

What does make a person great?

In the story of this series, what makes us think Mal is greater than the other people he associates with? What makes us like Inara more than others? What makes a character in a story great?

Why Is Love So Hard?

It’s obvious there’s something going on with Inara and Mal, how often have you been in similar situations? Why is it so hard to say “I love you?” Have you ever found yourself in a relationship where it’s hard to tell someone how you feel? Have you ever hurt someone you love because it’s easier to do that than it is to tell them?

Episode Guides:

Bushwhacked on Wikipedia

Bushwhacked on Scifi.com

Romans 7:15-21

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.

Synopsis:

Serenity comes across what seems to be an empty and abandoned star ship and decide to board it to search for equipment that might be of use or of worth. In the search the crew becomes aware that the ship was not actually abandoned, but instead was attacked by a people called “Reavers” who not only practice cannibalism and rape but also many other frightening versions of torture on their victims.

After finding all the dead bodies of the deceased crew and passengers of the ship Jayne is attacked by a survivor who seems to have been forced to watch the terror and is extremely tormented by what he saw. Mal seems uneasy about taking on the survivor as a passenger and suggests that they might be best to kill him there after what he’s been forced to see.

After putting the survivor under sedation the crew start to deal with the dead, disable a booby-trap that the Reavers had set and empty the ghost ship of equipment and supplies, and then are startled by an Alliance ship as it hails them.

The arrival of the alliance forces them to hide the two fugitives (the Tams) while the ship is searched and the crew are questioned. To make matters worse the survivor becomes so tormented by his torture that he has started mutilating himself an killing the crew of the Alliance ship. Mal and the Alliance crew have to team up and catch the survivor before he kills again, and before the Tams are found.

Scenes of Note:

a) Simon and Inara have a conversation at the beginning of the episode in which he shares with her that he’s not sure if he’s able to look after his sister, he feels as if he has failed and that he doesn’t know if the ship is the right place for River. Inara comforts him and tells him that he’s given up everything for his sister and that is admirable.

b) The crew have an argument about if they will look after the dead on the ship, Book says “How we deal with our dead is what differs us from those who did the killing” and they go ahead with the plan to look after the dead.

c) The Alliance ship arrives sending Mal into a frenzy of giving orders, Simon gets scared that he is going to give up his sister to the Alliance and starts to argue and fight. Jayne seems to understand Mal’s intentions include using the Tams as a bargain chip so that they might be released. Instead Mal and Book convince Simon to calm down and get his sister so he can hide them from the authorities.

d) While being interrogated Mal realises that the survivor has become one of the creatures that originally tortured him and killed the passengers of the original ship. Mal tells the commander that the only way someone can respond to that kind of torture is to become that which tortured him.

For Discussion:

Sacrifice:

One of the things that this episode encouraged me to ask is what does it mean to give it all up for someone you love, and to then ask what it would mean to give it all up for someone you don’t know?

In one of the initial scenes Inara has a conversation with Simon about what happened to River and what seems to be affecting her. Simon reflects that he’s not sure if he’s doing the right thing, or enough and Inara tells him that he’s done a selfless thing to sacrifice everything for his sister.

I want to ask if it’s more selfless to give up one’s life for someone they love, or for someone they don’t even know, and this is a massive question that we are constantly faced with during the Firefly series.

The crew of the ship Serenity are constantly faced with the opportunity to risk everything, sometimes for each other, other times for friends, and, eventually for people they don’t even know, and possibly will never get to know (see the discussion on the film later).

What is the real sacrifice? Is there a difference? What makes a hero heroic?

Being Suffocated By Evil:

What happens when you come so close to evil that you become it?

I’m sure that there’s a part of us that says that there’s no way known that we’d become a Reaver, but how often are we tempted to become a part of the system that supports slavery, homelessness, poverty, death or environmental devastation? How often are we faced with evil, and how often are we tempted to cross the line, to become a participant, to become someone who creates the evil?

One of the realities of life is that we’re often tempted to participate in evil, and sometimes we fail to resist it. This is what we have called sin, the act of becoming a part of the evil of the world, of becoming an accomplice, or of becoming indifferent or even dependent on these injustices…

Looking After The Dead:

“How we treat our dead is what makes us different than those who did the slaughter…”

How much of this is true? Why, why not?

What would make us different from those that did the slaughter?

I actually got to write up the fourth episode “Shindig” last night, so I’ll post that tomorrow…

Full Episode Guides:

Episode 01 “Serenity” on Wikipedia

Episeode 01 “Serenity” on Scifi.com (part 01)

Episode 01 “Serenity” on Scifi.com (part 02)

Matthew 4

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.’
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Brief Synopsis:

This is a two part pilot (which didn’t make it into the original tv release until the series ended) that introduces each of the characters, the ship and the weird life of the cast and crew of a very different type of ship, (its definitely not the SS. Minnow) as it flies from job to job and avoids the Alliance and other bad characters on a very regular basis…

In this episode we meet each of the characters as the shop takes on new passengers, all of which seem to have their own secrets that they are wanting to be kept from the others, a Doctor with a strange package, a Traveler and a Shepherd (missionary). When the Alliance starts to track the ship down they realise that a traitor is on board and begin to look for them.

Scenes Of Note:

a) We first join Mal and Zoe in the battlefield, (for the Serenity History Buff it’s the battle of Serenity Valley) they are members of the Brown Coats, a rebel army fighting against a group known as The Alliance (wearing Blue Coats). As the battle is fought we see that Mal is wearing a cross on his neck, at one time he kisses it and seems as if he says a prayer. The battle soon becomes one that they cannot win when their troops pull out leaving them cold and dry as the Alliance ships land in the valley.

b) There’s a deleted scene which was replaced by the final intro scene where a tired and angry Mal, standing amongst the dead and dying waiting for medical ships to come and look after the wounded asks whose side God is on.

c) Kaylee is asked to find passengers who would like to book the ship for transport from one place to another, she does this by sitting outside the ship with an umbrella paying attention to those who walk on by and engaging a few in conversation. She enters into dialogue with Book, the Shepherd by noting that he wasn’t looking at the destinations of the ships around them, instead he was looking at the ships, book responds that he’s more interested in the journey than the destination and Kaylee convinces him to join their crew for his journey.

d) Book has a doubt about his place on the ship and expresses his concern to Inara, in an interesting scene the prostitute tells the preacher that he might be exactly what the ship needs.

For Discussion:

A Weird Community Doing Weird Stuff

One of the things I love about this series is how a weird mob of people, from the prostitute to the preacher, the smuggler to the doctor can all be gathered together in a small place and still form community and friendships.

Firefly has no illusions, smugglers are criminals, but sometimes it’s when we burst out of our own box that we become something different, perhaps even heroic, and in the end our question is always who is the (most) bad, the criminal who does good to the person in power that pretends to do good and does the opposite?

How did Jesus choose the people who followed him? Would we be hard pressed to not find people like the characters in Firefly in Jesus’s followers? The prostitute, the criminal, the priest, the lover, the husband, the mechanic, the doctor, the sick, the abused…

When God Disappoints Us

The scene where Mal meets with Shepherd Book and tells him that he has no place for God is an interesting scene, especially where we remember back to the beginning of the show where he kisses his cross during battle. Mal’s abandoned faith, as hope in something that jut won’t come… It makes me ask the questions of: How do we cope with disappointment? What are the ways we use to get over great disappointment? Have you ever felt abandoned by God? Perhaps we can explore some of the Laments within the Hebrew Scriptures and hear voices of many others before us who, like Mal, like us find it hard to believe sometimes.

Truly Paying Attention

The scene where Kaylee sits outside and has a conversation with Book leads me to questions of mission and ministry. How often do we just sit back and pay attention to those around us? How had do we need to really pay to people if we’re to notice things like they’re not really looking at the destination, but they’re looking for something different?

How open are we to people who are on a journey to a non-specified destination? In Kaylee we see a person who is really interested in others, who’s eye seems to be in tune with what we need to be in mission.

Doubting Is Common Ground

There’s a certain beauty in the sharing of one’s doubts to those around us, imagine sharing ourselves with the young people in which we are in ministry with, to really humble ourselves and say things like “I really don’t get it sometimes” or “i sometimes want to give it in.” This is what we see in the scene between Book and Inara, the preacher sharing his doubts with the prostitute… and in doing so finding wisdom in her words and support, the role reversal is not unnoticed here, our perceptions are turned upside down.

At The Table

The table is a space where the entire crew gathers, Joss speaks of his characters building family, something that he aims to do in every story he writes, at its basic form this show is about becoming a part of a family. How important is the table in building community? What happens when the television takes the place of the table? What is behind our gathering at the table? This will be a conversation that we’ll have again as the characters constantly return to the table and table fellowship.

Story Telling

I’m reminded of how we start stories, of how we introduce characters, of how we get to know people in stories. In particular I’m interested in how we introduce the characters in scripture, are we as eloquent as Joss? Do we give each character the space to grow and speak to us? Do we overlook the Books, the Rivers, the Kaylees in preference to concentrate on who we see to be the main character? Do we listen to the other voices in scripture, or do we focus on Jesus and only hear a part of the story?

Snap Judgments

And, if you were doing this as an extended study and watching the entire series I’d have the participants write down the names of each of the characters and to put alongside them their snap judgments abut their character. I’d possibly do this after each episode until we gather after watching the film and ask them to compare their judgments throughout the series to where they are at the end of the film.

Why do we judge? How do we judge? What do we judge? How do our judgments change (if at all)?

I’ll post the second episode “The Train Job” tomorrow…

I’ve been promising a study resource for the television series “Firefly” for a number of, well, years now and many (yes you Stephen) have even poked me occasionally to see where this resource was, and when I’d get time to complete it. I’d like to say that I’ve found the space now that I needed to get back into writing a little, and as a celebration of the new found energy I thought I’d actually get down to the business of writing the resource…

First of all I’ll upload a resource a friend of mine sent me a long while back to be a part of the resource, Toby Tan, a friend and theologian and youth ministry thinker and world traveler wrote this resource as a part of his reflections on Firefly after a conversation with me oh so long ago. I’ve only recently remembered that it was sitting here (oops). Check it out: Sergeant Reynolds and Captain Reynolds – Solidarity and Servant Leadership (pdf)

Secondly I’m impressed to see that there have been a lot of small mash up clips from the Firefly series and Serenity movie displayed on the Cowboy Jazz blog, the clips are incredibly well put together and could be used as devotional pieces alone, and I could see that many of them might be able to add to the discussion resource I’m piecing together now. The Cowboy Jazz blog has also written a few reflections on her faith and spirituality in dialogue with different episodes of Firefly that might be of interest to some of you out there. (ht Mary Hess over at Tensegrities)

Thirdly I’ll spend some time on the blog going through the series as the dvd pack publishes them (note originally the episode “The Train Job” was the pilot released on television after the executives decided that Serenity part 1 and 2 was too long). I figure I’ll go through it disk by disk addressing the episodes on each of the discs before I clean it up and piece it all together as a final pdf resource for use in your ministry and I’ll upload the final product as a booklet on DigitalOrthodoxy.com. Please give me your patience (if two or three years hasn’t been enough) as I might not get through them all in the next week… Perhaps I’ll do a disk a week, 4 disks, 4 weeks…

And finally, as I’m in a good mood I’ll finish off the resource with a study sheet based on the film “Serenity”

Then I can perhaps get back to writing some more Film Discussion Sheets and writing up more from series 1 and 2 of Joan of Arcadia and maybe start thinking about Dead Like Me.

I hope that you enjoy the series, and this makes you head back to the dvd pack and watch it all over again.

Episode 1 will be out in a minute…