Family conflict. Our attempts to force a good outcome. So often our all too human messes and efforts leave life looking like a train wreck that gives sin the final word. Yet Genesis 35 closes Isaac’s story by calling him “old and full of days” and placing his divided sons together at his burial. Maybe even our broken lives still have hope of being full?
We are good at recognizing what is wrong—and remarkably bad at fixing it. Isaiah 1 warns that the strong become tinder and their work a spark, exposing every human effort we trust to make life secure and lasting. What hope does Easter offer when the things we build, the solutions we devise, and even our own strength end in ash?
Most of us have never gone without a meal, yet Jesus in Matthew 5:6 calls us to feel that ravenous, stomach-aching hunger—not for food, but for righteousness. Do we feel that craving?
We all load our suitcases for life with what the world promises will make us wise—predictions, solutions, human answers—yet when Revelation calls for wisdom to understand the beast, it’s asking something far more unsettling: whose wisdom are we actually following?
The decorations come down, the calendar turns, and Christmas recedes into memory—but Matthew 2 insists there’s something that doesn’t go out of season. And if the Gospel doesn’t go out of season, are we keeping ourselves focused on where it is pointing us?
We forget so quickly—and when we forget what God has done, we start to feel alone. That’s exactly why, in Numbers 9, God tells Israel it’s time to keep the Passover: not because the exodus needs to happen again, but because his people need to taste his faithfulness again.
There’s a blind man sitting by the road outside Jericho in Luke 18, and the crowd wants him to be quiet—he’s an embarrassment, a distraction from something more important. He cries out anyway: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Whatever it is that makes you feel like the person everyone else wants to go away, this passage is for you.
We can be full of hope and still put that hope in plans, forecasts, and outcomes that never arrive. When disappointment turns us into expert worriers—or convinces us that life will only get worse—we’re reminded to look to our true hope and the Power behind it.
FaithTree at the Movies explores deep questions about faith through the discussion of notable films. Each of our events features a special guest theologian or theologians who chooses a film and helps us to explore that film's content in a Gospel oriented light. We begin each night with an opening interview of our presenter, followed by a screening of that evening's film, and an open Q&A time to discuss the topics raised by the film and presenter.
The films are open to the community and admission is free.
