Monday June 14, 2004

Reality TV

Okay, since my tagline is "Sermons on *everything*", I thought I should start with one as my first post.

I'm the Deacon of St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Worcester, Mass. Once I figure out how to stick some links in here, I'll tell you how to get there. (Hey, I did it!) Anyway, I normally preach the first Sunday of the month, which this month (June, 2004) was the First Sunday after Pentecost, or All Saints Day in the Orthodox Church. Which got me thinking about Reality TV. (Expect lots of non sequiturs. It's kind of my trademark. Sort of like my tagline.)

I don't watch much... really any... Reality TV, so to do some background research, I fired up Google and found a handy list of shows: http://www.realitytvlinks.com/. Eight pages long, when I saved it into a gedit file and printed it out. Lots you've heard of; lots you haven't. Ambush Makeover. Amish in the City. Bachelorettes in Alaska. And that's only up through the B's. Lots on the theme of dating: Celebrity Look Alike Dating. Dating Experiment. Elimidate Deluxe. If you like your date, there's Chains of Love. If you don't, there's Cheaters. There's lots of "I's" out there (it's all about me, right?): I'm a Celebrity. I want a Famous Face. I want a Divorce. Your name is Joe? We got Joe Millionaire and Joe Schmo. Looking for love? You got Love Cruise, Love Shack, and Love Stories. For super-sized reality, there's the Real Beverly Hillbillies, the Real Roseanne Show, and something like 15 different iterations of The Real World on MTV. (I was young once. It was not like that.) Wanna be a star? There's Star Chamber, Star Dates, Star Search, and Starting Over. (For me, the only Star Dates I ever saw were on Star Trek... maybe that was my problem!) Nine generations of Survivors. And if you really want something, there's Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Who Wants to Date a Hooters Girl, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, and Who Wants to Marry My Dad. I'd watch "Who Wants My Dad to Marry a Millionaire Hooters Girl", that'd be the one for me.

Upon reflection, all of these Reality TV shows have two things in common. First, despite the title, they are really UNreality shows. They have absolutely nothing to do with our real lives. I live near Boston. If there were any Amish in the City, they were run down by our drivers long ago, buggies and all. They are unreality shows but -- and this is the second thing they have in common -- they reflect what we want our reality to be. That's why there's so much focus on money, power, popularity.

The only real reality show on TV is Joan of Arcadia, which airs Friday nights on CBS. Joan (obviously a play on Joan of Arc) is, for the most part, an ordinary teenage girl. Her mom's a teacher, her dad's a cop. They love each other, but there are issues. She has a little brother who's a geek, and an older brother who was crippled when he let a friend who had been drinking drive him home. All the triumphs and tragedies that we recognize from our own lives. The only thing extraordinary about Joan is that she talks with God, who appears to her in some different guise in every episode. First as a teenage boy, then the lunch lady at the cafeteria -- could be anybody. God always has some mission for her, some mysterious orders; she usually doesn't understand them when she gets them, and as often as not, she's just as mystified at the end of the show. (He's done this before. He sent Isaiah to run around naked and barefoot for three years, ordered Hosea to marry a harlot, and spoke to Elijah not in a great and strong wind, an earthquake, or a fire, but in a still, small voice. Like I said, this is the only real reality show on TV.)

The thing about Joan is that for her, God is very real and present. As real and as present as anybody else in her life.

In the season finale, it turns out that Joan has been ill, undiagnosed lyme disease, and the possibility arises that she has been hallucinating the whole season long. God appears to her, as He usually does -- and when she asks Him if He is real or if she has simply been imagining Him, He asks her what she wants the answer to be. Does she want Him to be real -- or a figment of her imagination?

Okay, back to reality. What in the world does this have to do with All Saints Day, or even better, with us?

I would postulate -- and I'm making this up, don't go blaming any of the Church Fathers -- I would put to you that we could define the saints as those who choose God and the Kingdom of God as the most real things in their lives. It's a matter of choice -- which is hardly ever how you think about reality -- because God and the Kingdom of God can't be detected by our senses. They can't be discovered by our science, or uncovered by our logic. We only have access to them by faith, in the Church, in the sacraments. It's entirely a matter of choice.

I would also put to you that we could define Christians using the very same words -- those who choose God and the Kingdom of God as the most real things in their lives. (If this is not the case, what kind of Christians are we anyway?)

So this is interesting. The same definition for saints and for Christians. Now this, I didn't make up: look at the introductory verses of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians (both of 'em) (both epistles, not both Corinthians -- d'uh), Ephesians, Phillipians, and Colossians, as he addresses the Christians in those cities. Saints, Saints, Saints, Saints, Saints. Saints. And us. All called to choose our own reality. To decide whether God and the Kingdom of God are the most real things in our lives -- or figments of our imagination.

It's our choice. What's real to us? What do we want our reality to be?

(2004-06-14 18:44:38.0) Permalink