The Spectacle

In case you missed it, or deemed it irrelevant, last weeks cultural landscape featured the final and preeminent American arts industry awards show – the Oscars. I happened to be somewhere near a TV for part of the run-up to the show itself, and was struck by how many different meanings there can be for the word “spectacle”.  Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary offers this definition : “a spectacle  – something exhibited to view as unusual, notable, or entertaining; especially : an eye-catching or dramatic public display”. Under that definition, the Oscars certainly qualify. The massive sets, the bazillion dollar wardrobes, the well-rehearsed ad-lib sound bites, the show itself…a spectacle.  Then again, by that definition, a sunset is also a spectacle – so are many things around us.

So why, when I think of this word “spectacle”, do my parents voices start rattling around in my head, saying to me as I headed out into the world, “Don’t make a spectacle of yourself”? I think there is a clue in the second Merriam-Websters definition, which is “an object of curiosity or contempt – as in ‘she made a spectacle of herself'”. Now that feels more like some of what I was seeing on the red carpet, and gestures toward ways in which being spectacular might be problematic.

This week we will be exploring the moment in Jesus temptation where the tempter suggests that, in order to really “minister” to others, he needs to do something spectacular. How does Jesus respond to that temptation, and what does that have to teach us about what really qualifies as caring for one another the way that Jesus cared for those around him?

Come and join us. Maybe you will encounter the spectacular…

Tim