Wonka

Dan Osborn

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Welcome

NEW TO LP

Introduce the Series

Set up the trailer

Invite people to grab candy

60 Second Countdown

Trailer

The trailer plays as people are settling back in.

Introduction

Alright, in case you didn’t see the film yourself, here’s a quick summary.

This origin story of Willy Wonka focuses on his struggles, resourcefulness, and the importance of pursuing dreams even in the face of adversity.

Aspiring young chocolatier Willy Wonka dreams of opening his own shop in Europe, but faces fierce competition from a cartel of established chocolatiers. He struggles financially and overcomes challenges like working in a laundry factory. Along the way, he befriends a resourceful orphan named Noodle who becomes his partner in adventure.

Willy's unique chocolate creations, including "hoverchocs" that allow people to fly, spark controversy and attract the attention of the authorities. Despite facing obstacles and sabotage from the cartel, Willy's determination and passion for chocolate never waver. He eventually finds a way to stand out and showcase his innovative spirit, paving the way for a brighter future for both him and Noodle.

Relationship to Original/Book

This is a good movie. If you want to have a nice evening and be entertained for an hour and 56 minutes, watch this movie. There’s music - dancing - cool sets - and nice colors.

As I was looking into this film, to get a better idea about some of the commentary around the movie, I noticed that many of the major reviews, were not overly positive. None of them had overtly negative things to say about it - but the resounding theme in all the reviews I read was that this Wonka (image) is not that Wonka.

Input images.

This Wonka is young, dashing, and an aspiring dreamer who looks to help those around him while at the same time relentlessly pursuing his dream.

In a lot of ways, he’s like what we want to be!

That Wonka is more of a recluse. He’s exploitive - the Oompa-Loompas. He’s guilty of child-endangerment. Shows little to no empathy and, sometimes, down right cruelty along with flashes of outrage.

He actually scary.

So what gives?

Well, as Linda Holmes points out in her NPR review, the major appeal for this latest adaptation to the “wonka-verse” is precisely that this Wonka is not like that Wonka! As she sees it, we have enough of the those fear-tactics kind of stories in our cultural today - stories that try and manipulate people into good behavior based on not much more than the fear of what happens if they don’t comply.

Playfully, she points directly to Elf-on-a-Shelf or the Santa Clause who watches you when you’re sleeping and awake…and the underlying goal is you (or more likely) your children change behavior so that you don’t miss out and end, ending up in the some chocolate purgatory at the hands of a menacing Willy Wonka.

We have progressed passed THAT Wonka. We want this Wonka.

And I’ve been almost transfixed this week thinking about this. Because while I think there are several directions I could have taken while looking at this movie from a biblical perspective, the one that has gripped me really comes from the comparison between the two Wonkas. And it’s primarily because I think we live in a cultural moment in which many many people have the very same kind of thoughts, not just about That Wonka, but about God Himself.

And in the same way THAT Wonka has a reputation as someone to be afraid of, I think God has the same reputation in the hearts and minds of a lot people.

And, without a doubt, fear has a powerful impact in how anyone would picture God. And I think it is far more common than we might first recognize -for some of you, it’s the reason you’re not sure you can believe in God at all and it can be true of you even if you’ve been a follower of Jesus for YEARS!

Today, I want to take some time to explore this idea of the Fear of God.

And to do that, I want us to take a look at fascinating passage in the bible that I think, counterintuitively challenges what we think it means to fear God; 1 Peter 1.

And if there’s anything I want you to walk away thinking about, it’s this: God wants to be the father we revere, not the dad we fear.

Let me say that again:

He wants to be the father we revere, not the dad we fear.

So if you have a bible with you, meet me in 1 Peter 1:14-19.

I’ll read the passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

1 Peter 1:14–19 ESV

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

PRAY

The Dad we Fear

Alright, let’s get started.

Let me give you a little context for what we’re looking at.

1 Peter is letter written to a number of churches by one of the first followers of Jesus named Peter. This is the same Peter who shows up in the Gospel accounts. And he’s writing this letter to Christians living in under the rule of the Roman Empire, helping them to understand what it looks like to follow Jesus under a regime that doesn’t. And in this first part of the letter, Peter is trying to help them reframe their idea of who God is.

Now, like I said, this if we’re going to talk about God as the father we revere and not the dad we fear, this passage seems a little counter intuitive.

I mean the very high-point of this passage says it directly.

Look with me at v. 17 (1 Peter 1:17)

1 Peter 1:17 ESV

17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

In other words, Peter seems to be telling us if God is our father, we need to live in fear.

Now, there are DEFINITELY some things we need to clarify to actually understand what Peter’s saying, but before we do that, I think it’s important we sit here for a moment. Because the reality is, so many of us have had this thought: that he is one to be feared. Either because that his been explicitly taught OR because that’s the kind of religious life that’s been modeled for us. Whatever the means, it undoubtedly has a huge influence on how you view God.

And to be clear, when I talk about this kind of fear of God, I mean something like being afraid of Him.

This is what mere religion produces. It produces a set of beliefs that you adhere to or else. That you fall in line or else. I think this is the common thread running through every major religion.

You may be here today and this is the primary way you have viewed God all your life - a divine being who has simply set up a right and wrong way for you to live, who is waiting to catch you step out of line and will be swift to bring consequence when you do.

You may have grown up in a religious setting that was governed by rules - rigid lists of things you can and cannot do and always looming, like the Sword of Damocles right above your head is the threat of consequence.

I think this tends to create one of two responses in us - when this is our system - when this is our view of God.

The Fright or Fight response.

Fright

The fright response is the continuation of what we’ve been talking about and it weeds it’s way more and more into our spiritual lives.

And you probably wouldn’t ever openly identify it as fright, but you know this is you when, in your heart of hearts, as you image God, you see one who is fundamentally disappointed. He’s disappointed in the decisions you make. He’s disappointed in the effort you bring. He’s disappointed in the way you parent…the way you care for your spouse…disappointed in how much you’re able to do for him. And so even though the Gospel is supposed to be good news of great joy, it feels an awful lot like shame…it feels an awful lot like anxiety.

Fight

The other response being afraid of God produces is FIGHT. You push back against the very idea of Him.

I think this is part of what’s playing out on an enormous scale in our world today; the process “deconstruction.” Seeing more and more people not just question the faith they have grown up with (which is a good and healthy thing to do) but leaving it behind and rejecting it all together!

And the fight response goes on the attack against God. In his book “God is not Great” philosopher Christopher Hitchens says this about God and his people, “[He is] Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.”

And while not many have the eloquence of a Christopher Hitchens, in the minds of many, God has become, at best, an outdated mode of scare-tactics moral formation (on par with Elf on a Shelf, Santa and that Wonka) or, at worst, a monstrous moral mechanism antithetical to progress and responsible for the great injustices throughout the world.

And it may feel like I’m making too big a deal about this - but friends, we have to see that a millions and millions of people have been taught or caught the idea that you need to be afraid of God - that he like the parent who can’t control their anger, about the fly off the handle - that He is like the dad to be feared.

But friends, I want to make the case that 1 Peter is actually offering us something much different. That as Peter picks up his pen to write to these scattered churches - as he writes to us - he does not simply wish to help us blindly fall in line, to step up or else…

No he is writing to offer us a radically different picture of God, one that is actually unlike anything else the world has to offer…and confronts us with the stunning picture not of a dad to be feared, but a father to be revered.

A Father to be Revered

And when we really look closely at this passage, we see Peter leaving us clues all over the place!

First of all, what are we supposed to make of this word “fear” in verse 17?

Does it mean to be afraid? Or might there be something else going on?

Well, if you look at the original language of 1 Peter, which is Greek, not english, the word for fear is the word “φόβος” where we get the English word “phobia.”

And while that probably makes us think of words like arachnophobia — the fear of spiders — I think we should be careful about letting the way we use a word today inform how we think about someone using the same word 2000 years ago.

You see, Peter has in mind not so much something that should make us afraid but something that takes your breath away.

For example, a couple years ago, our family went out west on vacation to visit some of the National Parks - and we saw some unbelievably beautiful places! Joshua Tree National Park looks like you’ve been transported to another planet - the petrified forest where all the trees have been turned to stone - but the one site that stopped me in my tracks was The Grand Canyon. And I could show you a picture of it, but honestly, unless you were there yourself, nothing does it justice. I mean to stand there and gaze into something that is just so vast and enormous and unfathomably larger than yourself…there is no words for it. Now, I wouldn’t say that I was afraid of the Grand Canyon…but I don’t think it would be off to say there was an overwhelming sense of awe…an overwhelming sense of wonder…and at the same time a sense that you cannot mess around with this. And it’s not quite respect, and it’s not quite fear - I think the word is reverence.

Interestingly enough, the way this word is used in other parts of the bible, it shows about 50 times in all, it doesn’t mean fear like fright, it means wonder…or awe!

And friends, this is what Peter is inviting us into - not to be afraid of God, but live as those in absolute awe of Who He is and what he like and how He responds to us. And I think that word reverence is particularly helpful - because reverence, as difficult as it is to define - is complex combination of awe, respect, and love.

This is so different from that image of being afraid of him!

Look at the way he is described for us.

1 Peter 1:17 ESV

17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

Father

He is like a Father!

In all of the new testament, when God is depicted as a Father, it is always positive.

Like the father who knows what we need.

Like the father who runs after his children (prodigal son)

And we get to call on Him as father!

Redeemer

More than that, Peter says he is our redeemer, our rescuer.

1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

See the dad we fear is just disappointed with us. But the Father we revere comes after us!

Growing in Reverence

I think the only way for us to grow in this is:

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