How on earth might Elton John help us preach this Lent?
/How on earth might Elton John help us preach this Lent?
Let’s get this out of the way at the outset: Sir Elton Hercules John, musical superstar, self-acknowledged diva, and well-known shopaholic, does not look like a promising model for our preaching during Lent. Lent, that most astringent of seasons, is typically marked by calls to give up things or take on extra disciplines of prayer and action. As Elton says at one point in Rocketman, the musical biopic based on the first forty years of his life, ‘I’ve never resisted a thing in my life.’ At best, then, we might see Elton’s early life of drink, drugs and sex as something to preach against during Lent – an example of what might befall any of us if we do not show sufficient discipline or self-control in a wicked world. Frankly, I, for one, don’t think that’s an especially fruitful or positive line through which to preach.
So why have I written a Lent course based on Rocketman? Well, perhaps because underneath the drug-taking, the bad language, and the casual sexual encounters, Rocketman arguably presents the story of a person seeking not only redemption, but exploring what it means to rediscover their inner child, open to hope and love. Indeed, I’ve seen few films which better explore Jesus’ famous pronouncement in Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’ In the opening scenes of the movie, we encounter Elton, played by Taron Egerton, at his lowest point. He has just checked into rehab in order to address his many addictions and his personal demons. This framing device enables the viewer to join Elton as he looks back over his incredible and messy life. We witness how Elton – aka Reg Dwight – negotiates a problematic childhood only to find that, as a rock star, he never quite gets to grow up. The power of the film lies in Elton’s discovery that the more willing he is to face up to the consequences of half-a-lifetime’s poor decisions, the more he can become truly ‘child-like’ and can be reconciled with the sad child he cast off many years before.
What, as preachers, might we take away from this vision of human vulnerability seeking the fullness of life? Well, perhaps, we might find something of ourselves in this story. While few, if any of us, are rock stars or people who’ve lived lives of total excess, we all know what it is to wrestle with our sinfulness, limitations and brokenness. While I think it can be dangerous and unhelpful to put too many of our vulnerabilities into our preaching – it runs the risk of making the message about us, rather than about Jesus – surely one dimension of the most powerful preaching is its humanity. When I am in church (or tuning into a digital service!) I want to know that a preacher speaks as someone who has grown through the realities of life. In short, I think that humility about ourselves, including acknowledging our failings, may be crucial to the most fruitful kind of preaching. For, if we are to dare, during Lent, to preach about the gift of repentance or the joy of walking the Way of Christ towards the Cross, we daren’t be priggish or superior. We need to show we are people called on a journey with Christ and that we undertake this journey with all our baggage and our fragility and loss. We are people in need of healing and hope. This applies to us, as much as to Sir Elton. Preaching’s power draws on real life, even the life of Elton, as much as it depends on the Living Word of God.
Canon Rachel Mann
Rachel is an Anglican priest, poet, writer and broadcaster based in south Manchester. www.rachelmann.co.uk
Still Standing is a Lent course book by Rachel Mann, based on the Elton John movie Rocketman (available here http://www.dltbooks.com/titles/2310-9780232534917-still-standing and Amazon and other outlets should also have stock).
