The Faith of a Mockingbird: A Small Group Study Connecting Christ and Culture (The Pop in Culture Series) - Softcover

Rawle, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501803697 ISBN 13: 9781501803697

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Pastor and author Matt Rawle is on a mission. He sees Christ all around him—in books, movies, TV shows, rock music—and he wants to share what he sees. As Matt says, "God offers the raw ingredients, and 'culture' is whatever we cook up." In The Faith of a Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, pastor and author Matt Rawle uses Lee’s beloved characters to explore Christian faith, theology, and ethics. Join Scout, Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson in this four-week study considering God’s world and what it all means. The Faith of a Mockingbird is part of The Pop in Culture Series of Bible studies in which Matt Rawle stirs up a tasty gumbo of insight, humor, and inspiration based on some of your favorite pop culture classics. A DVD featuring four sessions with the author, a full Leader Guide, and a Worship Resources Flash Drive also are available for group study.

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Matt Rawle is Lead Pastor at Asbury United Methodist Church in Bossier City, Louisiana. Matt is an international speaker who loves to tell an old story in a new way, especially at the intersection of pop culture and the church. He is the author of a new series of books titled The Pop in Culture Series. The series includes The Faith of a Mockingbird, Hollywood Jesus, The Salvation of Doctor Who, The Redemption of Scrooge, What Makes a Hero?, and The Gift of the Nutcracker.

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The Faith of a Mockingbird

A Small Group Study Connecting Christ and Culture

By Matt Rawle

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2015 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-0369-7

Contents

Introduction, 
To Kill a Mockingbird: A Quick Refresher, 
1. Scout Finch: Telling Your Story, 
2. Atticus Finch: When Your Story Is Challenged, 
3. Tom Robinson: When Challenge Is Defining, 
4. Boo Radley: Defining a Mystery, 
Notes, 
Acknowledgments, 

CHAPTER 1

Scout Finch

Telling Your Story

There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries and the same Lord; and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. – 1 Corinthians 12:4–6

Have you ever returned to your childhood elementary school and marveled at how everything is smaller than you remembered? When I was in the third grade, the cafeteria seemed wide as a great hall, the outside doors were as heavy as fortified castle walls, and the principal's desk was a grand altar. Of course, I see things differently now. When I go back there, the ceilings are lower, the doorways more narrow, the desks and sinks miniature versions of the real thing. I can hardly squeeze into the plastic cafeteria seats. Those fortified entry doors are now propped open with a small wooden triangle, allowing a new generation of children to invade the hallways. And the principal's desk ... well, okay, it still looks like an altar.

To Kill a Mockingbird is Scout's story, told through her childhood perspective of the world around her. Some of her memories are simple: steamy summer afternoons playing with friends, early evening dinners with family, classroom struggles with teachers who just don't understand. Other memories are more difficult: her father leaving home late at night to protect the prisoner inside the Maycomb jail, the seemingly ordained difference between blacks and whites, the way an innocent man such as Tom Robinson could be ruled guilty. Then there are the memories that are mysterious, memories that Scout seems almost reluctant to share, such as those involving the haunting figure of Boo Radley.

We too carry memories. Some are easy to recall, trivial, and superficial. Other memories lead us to consider an alternate reality, asking "What if?" Scout's story reminds us that, over time, our understanding of the world changes. The grade-school water fountains are not nearly so tall, and unrequited love doesn't bring about the end of the world. Scout has her story, we have ours, and both are changing as we grow.

Did you ever think that God has a story too? It's the story of life, and all of us are part of it — growing, changing, helping in our own small ways to determine what will happen next. In this book of reflections, we'll talk about the story Scout tells in To Kill a Mockingbird. If we pay attention, maybe we'll learn something about our own stories and, ultimately, about God's great story of faith, love, and sacrifice.

* * *

Scout's Story

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow." HYPERLINK "note. – Scout

Whether or not you have read Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, or have seen the Academy Award–winning movie starring Gregory Peck, a brief overview of the story quickly reveals that it connects deeply at a heart level. It is the story of a young girl, Scout, and her older brother, Jem, growing up in the fictional Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout narrates her preadolescent journey through the difficulty of the Great Depression and the confusing and systemic racism pervasive in the Jim Crow South.

Much of Scout's story reflects characters and events from Lee's own history as a young girl growing up in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee's father was a lawyer, which offered her great insight in crafting the character of Scout's father, Atticus Finch. The climax of the story, the trial of Tom Robinson, is reminiscent of the 1931 trial of nine African American men in Scottsboro, Alabama, in which five of the nine men received lengthy prison terms that many suggested were the result of racial prejudice. Lee's own reflections about growing up in the 1930s South created the framework for Scout's narrative, a story that challenges each of us to reflect on our own stories. The various characters in To Kill a Mockingbird invite us to consider how we each understand our place in the world, how we play a role in God's story, and what it means to live out a hopeful faith in a broken world. The book begins with Scout recalling the time Jem broke his arm, though we don't find out how that actually happens until the final scenes of the book.

Brokenness frames the entire story of Mockingbird in much the same way that brokenness is central to the Christian faith — Jesus' body was broken on the cross for our sin, and it is through his life, suffering, death, and resurrection that we have access to God's grace. I was reminded of this one Sunday when, before our church's worship time, a woman met me in the back of the sanctuary. She confessed that she had lost hope because her failing body was causing her almost constant pain. After I invited her to sit, we held hands for prayer and briefly talked about how our church could meet her needs. Near the end of the service, during Holy Communion, this now-tearful woman came to our prayer station. We again held hands as she offered another confession. She said, "Forgive me. When you broke the bread at the table, I realized for the first time in my life that salvation is offered through a broken body, not one that is whole. Though my health is failing, my hope has been restored." Through Jesus' brokenness and resurrection, our severed relationship with God is mended and made whole.

Early in To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout describes her father, Atticus, in simple and broad strokes, revealing him to be a man of great character and selflessness. As Scout's story grows, so do her memories of Atticus. We first experience Atticus through his profound parental poise, answering Scout's pointed questions with timeless wisdom about the importance of defending the defenseless and making an effort to really understand another person from his or her point of view. As the story continues, Atticus as a father figure gives way to Atticus the Civil Rights saint. Watching Tom Robinson's trial from the "Colored" balcony, Scout remembers Reverend Sykes asking her to stand in figurative salute with the rest of Maycomb's African American residents as Atticus walks the lonely aisle at the end of the trial.

It is interesting that Scout had to be encouraged to stand as a show of respect for Atticus, but then we remember that, from Scout's perspective, Atticus was simply her father; and it reminds me that the way we see the world affects the stories we tell. Consider the complementary pictures of God in the Bible's two creation accounts. In Genesis 1, God is revealed in his power. God speaks and things happen. Humanity is mentioned only briefly, which emphasizes God's almighty status. Genesis 2 reveals a more human creator, a God who kneels down in the dirt, fashions people from the clay, and walks with them in the garden. Those in the courthouse balcony stood with a kind of holy reverence toward Atticus; but Scout remained crouched, not out of irreverence, but because her Atticus was a bit more down-to-earth. He was someone...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1501803697
• ISBN 13: 9781501803697
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 112
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar