The Hunger Games, from which the book gets its title, is a fictitious annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. The book was inspired by gladiatorial games and reality TV.
While some think there is Christian symbolism in the book, I think the connection is somewhat tenuous.
The transcendent having been carefully excised from Anglican Church of Canada’s gospel, it – ever striving to be relevant – sees the temporal battle between the poor and wealthy in the book as a fitting centrepiece for a Eucharist.
What next after the U2charist and the Hunger Games Eucharist? I’m surprised we haven’t already seen a Matrix Eucharist, a Harry Potter Eucharist and a Hobbit Eucharist. There is still time.
From here:
About 130 young people gathered in a heavily fortified bank vault in the depths of the ‘Diefenbunker’ near Carp, Ont., on Nov. 17, 2013. They were there for a Eucharist and sermon comparing the pacifism of Christ and the “redemptive violence” of the bestselling novel and movie The Hunger Games.
The once-secret underground bunker near Carp, Ont., was built more than 50 years ago to protect the Canadian government from nuclear attack.
“The Hunger Games is a book about juxtaposition,” said the Rev. Monique Stone, organizer of the service and incumbent of the Anglican Parish of Huntley, in her sermon. “It’s a book in which we see a community in dire poverty pushed up against a community of privilege—in which we hear about a community that is starving, and [another] that has so much excess that at times they actually want to make themselves sick so they can fit in more food.”
Too late. The Hobbit Baptism has already been done in the US….
http://stgeorgesmedina.com/2012/12/19/an-invitation-to-an-unexpected-journey/
While the issue of poverty is very genuine this so-called Eucharist is nothing less than fraudulent. The Eucharist has a much more significant meaning and is solely a recognition and remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our redemption. For a claimed clergy person to participate in such a fraudulent exercise is nothing but despicable. However, considering the apostate leadership from the primate on down I am not surprised.
What exactly is fraudulent about having a sermon that references movies like The Hunger Games or the Hobbit as illustrations?
The fraud is a portrayal of the Holy Sacrament of Communion, as Christ taught it the men whom the Holy Ghost would ordain into the Priesthood, into some sort of socialists activism. It takes what God did and corrupts it into a piece of propaganda for a socialist political agenda.
Silence, everyone… In a milestone archaeological discovery, we are the privileged witnesses to the skulls of homo erectus speaking…
Thanks for your response AMP. I would disagree with both you and Frank on this one.
First, the article talks about using movie references in the sermon illustrations. (David’s title of the post places the emphasis on the movie and the Eucharist while the article suggests that it was part of the sermon beforehand. In fact, the article says that it was a 7 week course on spirituality).
Regardless, Christ does compel us to think of the social needs in addition to the spiritual. 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 does suggest that the Lord’s Supper has an element of considering the poverty of your brothers and sisters (esp 20-21). Act 2:44-47 talks about sharing while breaking bread together. There are many other verses in the Bible about being concerned about poverty but these two specifically are linked to communion.
In any case, if you still disagree with using movie references in sermons like this, I would suggest that you contact St George’s Anglican as they are an ACNA church doing a similar thing with the Hobbit (see my link above).
Hmm. The Hunger Games is not the first book I’d think of to illustrate a sermon.