Golden Globes
I didn’t watch the Golden Globes, but I followed along by reading commentary on Twitter.
Meryl Streep gave an award acceptance speech that was nothing if not political. Social media lit up immediately.
The sound bite that most people heard or will read today is this one: “When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”
In the diversity of my Twitter stream, most people responded favorably.
A few, however, were upset. One, in particular, felt it was a great insult that Hollywood would dare lecture the rest of us on matters of morality.
As I read this public defender of Christian values comment on who can and cannot speak up for what is good and right, a line from the Bible flashed across my mind:
“The rocks will cry out.”
You can find these words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke 19.40. In the story, Jesus is entering Jerusalem and the people are giving him a king’s welcome. Multitudes are crowding the road as Jesus rides into the city. The people who had followed him to Jerusalem from Galilee began to praise God “for all the deeds of power they had seen.” The whole crowd begins to chant and sing: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!”
The religious leaders see this scene and demand Jesus put a stop to it: “Make this rabble be quiet! They don’t know what they’re talking about! Have they forgotten that we are God’s spokespersons? When the real parade starts, we’ll be the ones leading it. You don’t want these kinds of people speaking for you, do you, Jesus? You’d rather have someone with the right credentials. Like us. Right, Jesus? Right?”
And Jesus says to those great public defenders of morality and traditional values: “If these people were to stop saying what they are saying, the rocks would say it instead!”
Another commenter from Twitter responded to the complaints about Hollywood speaking up for morality. She asked: What does it say about the Christian community in the United States when it finally has to be Hollywood that says what Jesus has been trying to say?
Exactly.
And the rocks cry out.
Grace and peace.