9th Sunday after Pentecost
2nd Sunday in “Behind the Mask: Our
Christian Identity”
Spider-Man and Accountability
July 26, 2015
Exodus 4:1-17; Canticle of Christ’s Obedience; Galatians
6:1-5; Luke 12:48b
This morning we continue our summer sermon series on
superheroes, focusing on Spiderman. Now,
Spiderman is the one comic book character whose comics I’ve actually read
because they used to be in the comics section in the newspaper! Growing up we got the local newspaper
delivered every morning to our house, and while my parents read pretty much all
the sections, from late elementary school through high school I read two
sections: the sports page, to check on last night’s baseball scores, and the
comics. I’m not sure what drew my eye to
Spiderman, along with Peanuts and Garfield and Family Circus, but it was one of
the comics I read on a regular basis.
And I remember learning in the Sunday paper that Mary Jane, Peter
Parker’s girlfriend, and then wife, is a redhead, since the Sunday funnies are
in color! I also remember when the first
live action movie came out, in 2002, because I went to see it with a guy who’s
tall and skinny, and his comment was that he liked Spiderman because the hero
isn’t a muscular, chiseled, super-handsome guy but a scrawny kid with
acne. And that was the main
distinguishing mark between Spiderman and all the superheroes who came before
him. When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko first
floated the idea for Spiderman to their editor, they were shot down for three reasons:[1] One
was that the hero, Peter Parker, was a teenager, and teenagers had only ever
been a sidekick before, never the main superhero. Two, was the problem with spiders. Most people don’t really like spiders. And three, that Peter Parker is this scrawny,
pimply, nerdy high school student who doesn’t know how to talk to girls, and
their editor said, “Don’t you understand what a hero is?” However, they went with it, and Spiderman was
such a huge success that he became the comic book company’s flagship
character.
The reason for Spiderman’s success was two of those three
reasons the editor didn’t think the concept would work. First, in 1962, more and more teenagers were
reading comic books, more than ever before.
Previously, it was an adult market, and even the comic book Spiderman
was published in, Amazing Adult Fantasy,
was renamed when Spiderman was added to Amazing
Fantasy. So the authors had a good
idea of their audience. Second,
teenagers and adults liked Peter Parker because he was someone they could
relate to. He isn’t godlike, like
Superman. Instead, he works to help his
Aunt May pay the bills, like many teenagers do.
He is the first superhero who has flaws and personal problems. He doesn’t have it all together. What was original about Spiderman weren’t his
superpowers, but the fact that his real identity was a nerdy high school
student. And because of that, people
like the guy I saw the movie with, could identify with him. Spiderman is the flawed superhero with
everyday problems.
Now, part of the flaws you see is that he doesn’t know
what to do with his superpowers when he first gets them. Unlike other superheroes, he isn’t born with
his powers, he doesn’t create or invent them, and he doesn’t choose them. In stark contrast, his superpowers are thrust
upon him. Peter’s bit by a radioactive spider,
and all of a sudden, he can do amazing things.
And at first, he does not use his powers wisely. In the movie we gathered to watch this past
week, the first thing he sets out to do is take vengeance on the high school
jock who beat him up. He shows him up on
the basketball court, flaunts his powers and gets payback. As Christians, we know that God says,
“Vengeance is mine,” and we are not to seek revenge. God will take care of that for us. Instead, Jesus says if someone strikes you on
the cheek, we are to turn the other cheek, and if someone takes your shirt, to
offer them your coat as well.[2] We don’t repay evil with evil, but respond
to evil with a blessing.[3] Or, if you need a third bible quote, check
out Romans, where Paul writes, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful
to do what is right in the eyes of everyone… Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave
room for God’s wrath. It is written, ‘Revenge belongs to me; I will pay it
back,’ says the Lord. Instead, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is
thirsty, give him a drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on
their heads. Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.”[4] So, in case you’re bit by a radioactive spider, just keep that in mind.
Peter’s initial response actually reminds me of lottery
winners who spend all their cash and then, just a few years later, have to
declare bankruptcy. “It’s not uncommon
for lottery winners to end up with even less than they had before their
windfall and sometimes they even end up with nothing at all,”[5]
because they flaunt it and blow it all.
It’s also pretty common among many professional athletes when they get
that first big signing bonus, and they spend the money freely, and then
something like an injury happens, they end up broke as well. These pro athletes and lottery winners act
irresponsibly and then they have nothing left.
In the Bible, Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son, who takes his
half of his inheritance and blows it traveling and partying and doing what he
wants.[6] Being irresponsible is a good way to go
broke. Peter doesn’t go broke, but he
does lose his Uncle Ben. Peter is an
orphan being raised by his aunt and uncle, and one of these early nights when
he first got his powers, he sees robber running away and he doesn’t stop
him. That robber, later in his getaway,
runs into Peter’s uncle and kills him.
Peter could have prevented it.
The last panel of the first Spiderman comic had the quote
that Uncle Ben says in the movie, “With great power comes great
responsibility.” Put a different way is
our Gospel verse this morning, “from everyone to whom much has
been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been
entrusted, even more will be demanded.”[7] Jesus said it, after
relating a story about responsible and irresponsible servants. To whom much has been given, much will be
required. What are you doing with what
you’ve been given? It’s like another
parable Jesus tells, the one about the talents, or the bags of gold.[8] The master gives them out to
his servants before going on a trip.
When he comes back, he wants to see what the servants have done with the
money they were given. Two servants
invested and used it wisely and earned even more money. A third servant buried the money in the
ground and so at the end had to show the exact same gift he’d been given at the
beginning. The master says, “You could
have at least put it in the bank where it would have earned interest!” and is
extremely displeased. He takes away the
money from the third servant and throws him out. To whom much has been given, much will be
required. What are you doing with what
you’ve been given?
Now, it may be that you don’t like
the responsibility you’ve been given.
You don’t want it, it’s uncomfortable, it’s not what you would have
chosen for yourself, it’s not the hand you would have dealt yourself. It may
even be literally painful. Some
responsibilities are joys to carry out; other responsibilities feel more like
crosses to bear and you chafe at having to carry it. Why, God, do I have to be the one to do
this? Couldn’t you have asked someone
else? Why me? Please ask someone else. I don’t want to. I can’t.
Peter Parker isn’t really sure he wants his superpowers, at least not
all the time. And Moses in our Old
Testament reading this morning certainly does not want to be chosen. He did not
have his hand up for God to call on him.
What we read this morning was the end of the conversation between God
and Moses at the burning bush, where God calls Moses and tells him he’s going
to set his people free and Moses says, no thank you, you can call someone
else. Moses has a whole list of excuses:
the people won’t listen to him, he can’t speak well, who is he to lead his people? Moses actually
tells God no, and says, “Please send someone else.”[9]
It’s not a job Moses wants. It’s
not a responsibility Moses wants. He’d
rather continue on with his life as usual, not a very exciting one, under
slavery, but it’s safer than risking it all and completely changing his
life. Moses is too worried about the
risks. But it’s God who’s calling, it’s
God who’s giving him this responsibility.
To whom much has been given, much will be required, and Moses knew
that. He knew it would be hard. He knew it would be a cross to carry, leading
the people out of Egypt, away from the powerful Pharaoh, into the wilderness,
he knew it was going to be a huge responsibility, and he tried to say no. However, God’s call is compelling, as we
talked about last week, and eventually Moses agrees to do what God asks him to
do.
What are you doing with what you’ve
been given? Are you burying it, like the
one servant? Are you flaunting it, like
Spiderman first did? Or do you try to
use it wisely? There may be some trial
and error, and that’s ok. Don’t be
flippant and arrogant about your responsibilities, and don’t do someone else’s
job, either. We’re not all called to the
same tasks. We’re not all called to sing
with the choir or to be a trustee or to mow the lawn. We have different gifts and graces and God calls
us to use them as we’ve been given them.
If you haven’t been given a beautiful singing voice, then I don’t expect
you up here in the choir, although you’d certainly be welcome. You are to use and be responsible with the
gifts that you have been given. Figure out where your gifts and passions meet
the needs of our community. We’re not
all called to the same thing, and that’s ok.
Some gifts that we have, we’d rather not have, yet when we figure out
how to use them for God’s service, they become something we can enjoy and
appreciate. Peter Parker didn’t want his
superpowers. He had to come to accept
them and figure out how to work with them, and eventually came to embrace them
and all the responsibility that having those powers entailed. He designed and created his own costume, and
doing so was symbolic of that acceptance.
He had to learn to accept his powers, because they weren’t going
away. He had to learn to use them
responsibly, fixing mistakes, asking forgiveness. They did change his identity, and perhaps
your new responsibilities change yours as well.
You can grieve the old, if you need to; grieve what no longer is. But we don’t stay there. As the 23rd psalm says, we walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, we don’t pitch a tent or build a house there. New responsibilities, new roles can be hard
to adjust to. They can feel like a cross
to bear. And yet Jesus says, “Take up
your cross, and follow me.”[10]
If you need to make shoulder pads to rest your cross on, or web slingers
or a mask to help you shoulder your responsibility, let us know. It’s your responsibility, but you are not
alone.
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