Proclaimer Blog
Changing the ending
I enjoyed reading the review of Saving Mr Banks in the paper this morning. It's the story of Walt Disney and PL Travers (authoress) and the fight to make Mary Poppins. The Hollywood film finishes with Travers at a premiere screening of the movie, crying with joy because of the success of the movie. Interesting. For as the paper points out, the exact opposite was true. She disliked the film. She disliked the animation. So much so that she wrote into her will that no one involved in the production was to have any input into her further work or a stage production. Quite a turnaround, even by Hollywood standards.
But changing the ending is not as rare as you might think. Christians do it all the time. We are especially weak, I observe, on judgement. It's not a nice message, it's the bad news of the gospel, but it is biblical and right to preach it when it comes up, however sobering it may feel. Churches which are weak on the ending, or even change the ending, quickly find that the gospel is robbed of its power. For if there is nothing to be saved from…..
I'm not calling for a return to pulpit thumping. But a measured, expository sermon through any book of the Bible will reveal both the holy and righteous wrath of an impartial Judge and the awesome mercy seen in Christ our propitiation.