THE SHACK, A FILM, MADE NEXT DOOR.

They are making the movie right here in lower mainland B.C., and I have been just metres away from some of the filming this week. This may be a good film, if it keeps to the script. John Fusco, best known for writing 1988's Young Guns, wrote its screenplay adaptation from the book by the same name by first-time author Paul Young which sold 22 million copies worldwide. Of course many in the evangelical world took issue with the 2007 best-selling book, The Shack, in the first place, castigating it and its Canadian author Paul Young for parodying God and the Trinity, perhaps even depreciating these entities.

SAM WORTHINGTON

I treated the read years ago as the novel that it was. You would throw out much of C.S. Lewis' fiction if you took the same reactionary stance against his material.  Young was not teaching theology, but telling a story, the account of a man's pain at the loss of a daughter as a result of a kidnapping and murder by a serial killer. Sam Worthington plays the lead role of Mackenzie "Mack" Allen Phillips who is plunged into a deep emotional abyss that embraces fury at God. Four years after the horror, he receives a letter from God called Papa. 

And of course this representation in the book set people off, because portrayed Papa as a woman, a black female who will be portrayed by Octavia Spencer, who has already won an Oscar for her role in the "The Help." Radha Mitchell is in the role of Phillips' wife and Amelie Eve is their missing daughter. I saw her in the canoe scene as it was being shot last night. The Shack and Papa's cabin tucked into the woods are all on site and the filming went on for the four days that we were close by holidaying in a cottage. Very fun.

Paul Young himself says that he is excited about the movie because he has been given the rare opportunity to invest his creative input into the filmmaking process. We will see how much his voice is heard.  Young calls the book a metaphor for “the house you build out of your own pain.” 

Will non-believers be confused, led astray from God’s true persona? Might viewers who never think about God, feel compelled to seek to know him outside the context of the novel? I will look forward to the movie. I won't fashion my theology, or my concept of God based upon its expressions for deity. I may however, learn to meditate more keenly on some aspects of the character of God as expressed by the three persons whom readers may discern as the Trinitarian God image. I may  be encouraged about the compassion of God for his human creatures when they suffer. 

THE REAL THING – RELATIONSHIP, NOT PERFORMANCE

A NEW LEARNING
The novel by William Paul Young called ‘The Shack’ is old news now but I am dusting the cover again because since it was self published in 2007 it has sold a bazillion copies, been translated into thirty languages, is available on the iPhone and as an audio book and has ridden the New York Times Best Seller List’s number one spot for about one year. It’s presently in the number two spot.

But what I want you to hear today is an interview with the author. CBC has a savvy journalist/interviewer in George Stromboulopoulous. His nightly show is an engaging 60 minutes because he is well informed, brings well crafted questions, is sharp witted and his show invites guests worth interviewing. In May 2009 George interviewed William P. Young. It is a superb exchange.

When you listen to these few minutes of the video clipped interview, listen for the reasons Young wrote the story which is subtitled, “where tragedy confronts eternity.” Hear how it was born out of his personal pain and the transforming realization of God’s unshakable love. Listen for reasons he chose to describe the Trinity with characters that have incensed some conservative Christian leaders and pastors. He is not teaching theology but employing an imaginative metaphor to inform readers about God so he chose to portray God the Father as an African American woman named Papa, Jesus Christ as a Mideastern carpenter and the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman named Sarayu. It’s not heresy. It’s fiction.

First and foremost for my purpose today I want you to hear Young’s description of the struggle that many people have within religious communities of the world, to be preoccupied with performance rather than a real relationship with the living God who loves us. And if you are one of those people who have felt trapped and censured by the expectations of religious people, know this. There is life and freedom and healing, and joy in knowing the love of God through a personal relationship of trust exclusively in Jesus Christ whose Holy Spirit will transform your life. There is more to say but I will get preachy.

Hit the bold underlined sentence to get to the interview link.)