Film Comment: Sinners (2025)

 

Sinners is a movie which is intended to be about racism, cultural oppression, colonialism, black culture, anti-religion, and anti-Christianity. As usual, I can make Christian observations about the film which are probably unintended by the director.

“Son, you keep dancin’ with the Devil, one day, he’s gonna follow you home,” from a pastor father to Sammie, nicknamed Preacherboy, who is aching to become famous for his outstanding blues guitar and singing talent. Sammie hooks up with two morally fluid brothers who are opening a juke joint. This sets up a conflict when two white men and a woman show up that night wanting to join in the fun. The problem is that they are vampires.

One man about to be killed/turned into a vampire begins to loudly quote the Lord’s Prayer. All the vampires join in and help complete the quotation. This seems to be intended to show that Christianity has no power against evil.

A Christian response: the frightened man’s words were just that, words, and they did have no power. There is a difference between knowing and believing. The power is not in the words. They are not a Magick spell. God is not our genie in a bottle. The words have power only as they are used by the Holy Spirit.

The theologian, Martin Luther, noted that "The Devil can quote scripture to his own ends." Satan quoted Psalms 91:11-12 while tempting Jesus to misuse his authority (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Jesus responded to Satan's attack by quoting scripture back to him, Matthew 4:7, which quotes Deuteronomy 6:16..

May God Bestow on Us His Grace

In 1523, Martin Luther (1483-1546) wrote the lyrics of the hymn "Es woll' uns Gott genadig sein" (“It wanted us to be God Genade”) Genade is a Dutch word meaning “grace” or “mercy.”  The English title is “May God Bestow on Us His Grace.”

The song has been called “the first missionary hymn of Protestantism.” "Timeline of Christian Missions," Wikipedia.  The hymn is inspired by Psalm 67:1.  It is Hymn 500 in the Lutheran Hymnal.

http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/a/maygodbs.htm 

Martin Luther on The Word

"In the matter of faith one must let everything go and cling to the Word alone.  When we have gripped that, let the world, death, sin, hell and every misfortune storm and rage.  But if you let go of the Word, you will be doomed."  Martin Luther

I found this quotation on the blog of Pastor Heath Pukallus , a Lutheran minister in Western Australia.  I didn't understand the bibliographical listing for the quotation, SL.XI. 1767, 15, so I asked Pastor Pukallus about it.  His kind response told me, "SL refers to the Saint Louis Edition (translation) of Luther's works.  There are four different editions, St. Louis (SL), American (AE or LW), Weimar (WA), and Erlangen."

Since I am a "library rat," I set out to learn more about this.  I found a very informative 2009 article, "Cracking the Code: Making Sense of References to Martin Luther's Works. " The writer of the article, Pastor Paul T. McCain, calls sorting out references to Luther's writings "an alphabet soup kind of situation."  McCain lists twelve additional editions which you might see as bibliographical listings.

Many people find bibliographies and library studies to be as dry as the Mojave Desert, but for those of us who thrive on the stuff, this is a very interesting avenue of study.

Book Comment: Profiles of Protestant Saints

In my 17 November 2009 comments on Butler's Lives of the Saints I briefly discussed the Protestant understanding of "saint." Cardinal Richard Cushing, the Catholic Archbishop of Boston, admitted in 1968 that the idea of Protestant saints may seem to be "novel." In his preface to Profiles of Protestant Saints, he acknowledged that Paul declared all believers to be saints and also that God raises up whomever He pleases to perform whatever tasks He wishes.

Profiles of protestant saints was written by a Roman Catholic for a Roman Catholic audience and details the stories of nineteen individuals who were raised up by God for service in times which called for that service. It was as if just the right person were placed in just the right situation at just the right time. Exactly.

Those profiled include Martin Luther (1483-1546), a disgruntled Roman Catholic priest; Adoniram Judson (1788-1850), who evangelized Burma; Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), the founder of the Disciples of Christ; Richard Allen (1760-1831), a highly educated Eighteenth Century African-American theologian and church founder; and Samuel Schereschewsky (1831-1906), a Lithuanian rabbinical student whose last words were, "I thank thee, Lord, for the scholarship, and for the time - and for the finger." You'll have to read the book.