The Prophetic Call to Community and Activity
Addiction to technology deepens our boredom and lack of purpose
Back when Pixar films were above the current social, cultural and political fray and pointing us to deeper universal values, my kids (young at the time) loved Wall-E.
This 2008 film of a trash compactor (Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class) looking for love and community just seemed goofy to me. The robots I grew up with fought off aliens or transformed into cars to fight other evil robots.
Sidenote: I tried to introduce my children to Goldar (left) and they clowned me so bad, I got mad and turned off the TV. They pointed out things that now I cannot unsee: The bad perm, his silly putty metal looking suit, etc. I look forward to the day that their children will do the same to them.
However, the Wall-E film was my least favorite.
It was very slow and melancholy for the first third of the film focusing on the destroyed junk filled planet earth, the old sentimental Hollywood love story Wall-E watched repeatedly, him trying to express love to another robot and his heartbreaking loneliness. Later, AI would reveal itself to be the main protagonist in the film.
I am not going to go through the whole story but now looking back, I am amazed at how much the center of this film was showing us part of our present. Of course, we have to wade through the visuals but once you get beneath them, it is easy to see what the director was trying to say.
Prophets Are Still Around
One of the co-pastors at my church has prophetic gifts. She is in her late 60s and is one of the most gracious people I know. Many congregants sit with her. But make no mistake, she is no fortune teller. This woman spends hours reading the Bible and praying for others. She reminds me of the woman in the Book of Luke that fasted and prayed day and night and who gave a word to Mary and Joseph about Jesus:
There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:36-38
People seek this co-pastor out because her vibrant prayer life prepares her to enter into the grief of others and communicate the heart of God. She doesn’t tell people what they want to hear. She tells them what God has told her that lines up with the Word of God and she only shares when God wants her to. She is not boastful and doesn’t carry an air of superiority like some so-called prophets I have experienced in my life. In her witness, she still humbly communicates hope through the truth she gives that is also found in community. Along with the other three pastors and our gifts, we continue to translate God’s heart so that our hearers will thirst after a deeper bond with God, His Word and one another.
Grief and Hope
My oldest son introduced me to the BEMA Podcast. I enjoy hearing the hosts unpack the Jewish cultural context of the Bible. According to their website, BEMA (bimah) is a Hebrew word that refers to the elevated platform in the center of first-century synagogues where the people of God read the Text. At that time, the community of God’s people did not gather in buildings that faced a stage with an audience, but rather they allowed their gathering to reflect what they hoped to be true of their lives — it was centered around the Word of God. Marty Solomon, a Christian who is Jewish, is one of the hosts.
Recently I was listening to them discuss the Book of Isaiah — Prophetic Imagination. They quoted Christian theologian and scholar Walter Brueggemann about the Biblical prophets:
“There is a relationship between grief and hope…real criticism begins in the capacity to grieve because grief is the most visceral announcement that things are not right. Only in the empire are we are pressed and urged and invited to pretend that everything is alright…Grief is the most raw honest way that this is not right.”
I immediately thought about my co-pastor. I shared this to encourage her. She weeps for others easily yet always communicates hope.
This also made me aware that I am not always comfortable with grief. The more I think about it, I think this bothered me more in the film than I realize. When I think of cartoons, I do not think of grief. I think of this:
Pixar started pioneering a type of film showing loss, death and grief in plain sight. (An argument could be made that old classic Disney films I remember as a kid dealt with grief and death. But since they were only in movie theaters seasonally before cable TV was invented, I did not see them. In addition, select anime films have always showed a variety of emotions and difficult situations.) But often times, the grief in Pixar films showed up as just isolation, distraction, boredom and confusion. Going on a quest is helpful but in real life, it doesn’t exactly solve grief because it can be paralyzing. It can make you fearful, less confident, clingy and less likely to take risks. This makes sense to me why American culture is afraid of grief and death. We think looking and acting forever young as isolated individuals will keep the Angel of Death from visiting us.
Why do I say this?
There are people with prophetic gifts that exist today. Unfortunately, most of the Christian ones who get the most attention are on the wealth and health side. Modern prophets for the younger generation tend to be in entertainment spaces (above pict). They are more staunch capitalists than artists and social media influencers easily blurring the lines between real life, entertainment and fantasy. When was the last time any of them promoted strong familial and communal bonds? Grief and death rarely factors into their content unless its promoting unhealthy anger and revenge. Where are the protest songs? If they exist, why doesn’t radio play them? Protesting with the body can be an expression of grief but if it is not tied up in sacrifice and humility, it is just performative. This is often why today it easily degenerates into rioting. When cosplaying as protestors, if persons allow unresolved grief to take over, this stuff spills out in destructive ways. The Lunch Counter Demonstrations in the 1960s was full of training that addressed motivations and the practice of disciplining the emotions. The instigators would easily try to provoke the sit-in protestors. Many of today's protestors are trained in tactics and not character. So, they distract themselves from grief in their life with vapid content and undisciplined actions.
As a pastor, I had to sit with a family that lost a teenage family member to gun violence. I also knew the young man. It was extremely difficult because I was battling my own feelings of despair and anger. Few tell you that the road is extremely lonely as a pastor. You give to the hurting to hold them together even when you are licking your own wounds. But it is our job as pastors who seek God to still show up and challenge the family to uplift one another in spite of the grief and isolation we are experiencing.
Although grief is an acknowledgement of loss, Paul the Apostle tells us that we are not to grieve because of the death of loved ones as if we have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Jesus is coming back and the dead in Christ will rise and we will be caught up with them…together.
Those with the prophetic gifts hold grief and hope together. The Biblical prophets communicate God’s judgement and restoration and ask Him to be active on the people’s behalf. But the people must respond through worship and obedience to God and their faithfulness to one another. God is always calling his people to community through public repentence, worship and reading the Word. There is room for private prayer and confession but we must remember--Gods covenant was designed to encourage and support community. Below is the prophet Jeremiah and the prophet Isaiah communicating grief and hope.
Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice,
making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. Jeremiah 22:13
Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. Jeremiah 17:14
Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds
among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Isaiah 45:9
…no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord.. Isaiah 54:17
The main job of the Biblical prophets was to be God's spokespersons delivering His messages to the people of repentance, warnings about judgment, and promises of hope and restoration. Some foretold the future while others did not. One of the main words the prophets used was REMEMBER. This was to remind the people that God has already acted in history (commandments, laws, covenants and past deeds) on their behalf. They should focus intently on what He did, understand His character and imitate it which keeps them from falling into sin and idolatry. Jesus remembered and quoted scripture in Matthew 4:1-11 when he was being tempted by Satan. Afterwards, he began to preach and called his first disciples. To forget what God has done in your life is to open yourself to a purposelessness that is its own kind of grief. Boredom, isolation and slothfulness become companions. This is why the Israelites in the Old Testament distracted themselves with drinking, licentiousness, greed, etc. Their activity involved only being for themselves and not being concerned about justice or mercy. It is interesting that the first thing God says before the 10 commandments in Exodus 20:2 is I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. God tells the Biblical prophets to repeat this to the people over and over to remind them that they are not to be their own god and they are His people.
Back to Wall-E
It is possible for entertainers to point to deeper meanings that are consistent with the Bible. But for most of them, their primary purpose isn’t to glorify God. It is to glorify the human spirit. So, there may be one good message but you will often have to wade through a lot of bad messages to get it. This is what young people are bombarded with if their parents do not give them an adequate critical thinking foundation informed by God’s Word. Their compass will not pick up on everything that is hidden and in plain sight. My children as adults joke that I ruined films for them as kids because I taught them how to to critically analyze images and stories presented as entertainment and to determine their meaning. (I also limited their intake.)
The Wall-E film was prophetic in this one sense: It showed the logical consequences of AI doing everything for humans and then eventually making them slothful, individualistic and purposeless because of their greed. Life does not make sense without grief because our bodies are not supposed to live forever in La La Land. We must grapple with grief and physical death in a world that can be unforgiving and ask the existential questions: How can I endure this pain? What is my purpose? Am I alone? Is there an afterlife? Where do I go when I die?
The obvious outcomes for the humans in the Wall-E film were obesity, isolation, laziness, lack of community and purpose, screen addiction, etc. One scene near the end of the film showed the humans finally becoming aware of what AI was doing to them. They had to relearn to walk, communicate and rely on each other. They abused their God given position and freedom and traded the essence of it for a AI simulated cruise-like utopia that gave them everything without working for anything. When we have access to a wealthy society that can downplay unchecked consumerism, corporate greed and environmental neglect like AI does in the film, we are pressured as individuas to pretend that everything is alright.
Do you hear echoes of this in American culture? I see the complaints on social media about dating, adulting, employment, etc. No one wants to risk developing a relationship that could hurt them even though this is part of being human!! In spite of losing battles, God’s punishments and interpersonal conflicts, the Biblical prophets still called the Israelites to a new type of community that prioritized God’s will and others. We need more pastors calling us to community and activity with proper rest that is God honoring and believes in the importance of human relationships.
Now, look around you. Our smartphones call us to isolation and the delusion of virtual community. Is it no wonder that Gen Z struggles with their mental health? Tell me with a straight face that in 2025 that slothfulness, boredom and isolation aren’t at epidemic levels and the concept of community isn't on life support.