Journey at the Movies: The King's Speech - Finding Our Voice

A sermon preached at Journey United Church of Christ, on August 7, 2011 by guest pastor, Joy Perkett. 
 
The King's Speech
Featured Video Clip:  1:18:51 - 1:19:40 Lionel encourages Bertie to find his voice
Exodus 4:1-17

Imagine a knock-kneed, left-handed, stuttering king … it may be hard but that is the story of Prince Albert in the King’s Speech, who unexpectedly ascended the throne at the age of 41. The King’s Speech tells us about the difficult process of Albert gaining self-esteem and accepting that he is worthy to be king. Albert has struggled with stuttering since he was a little boy. In the movie clip, we met Lionel, who is Albert’s trusted friend and coach. As Albert struggles with fears about becoming king, Lionel reminds Albert of his worth and value as a human being. He offers comfort to Albert when he is afraid. In the movie, as we find out more about Albert, we discover that he is very much in need of comforting. Albert, or Bertie as his family called him, got criticized a lot as a child and those voices of criticism haunted him throughout his adult life. As a child, Albert had many things wrong with him: Albert stuttered from an early age, thus his family called him “B-B-Bertie”; he was left-handed – and his teachers made him write with his right hand - and lastly he had knock knees as a child, and so the doctors made him wear painful metal splints. Through the movie, we see Bertie struggle with the idea that he might become king because, ultimately, he does not believe he is good enough. I can imagine what Albert was thinking: I am not fit to be a prince much less a king! I write wrong, stand wrong and speak wrong. He also thinks of his father, a father who never seemed to be proud of him and was always pointing out what Bertie was doing wrong. I imagine we all feel like Bertie sometimes – like we just can’t measure up, like nothing we do is good enough. It’s frustrating! It seems easy to drum up the voices of criticism in our lives and to interpret these criticisms to mean that we are not good people. We understand Bertie’s frustration as we struggle daily to get everything done, to live up to the expectations of others, to succeed at our daily tasks and to know that who we are and what we do is enough.

In dealing with these frustrations, I like to know I am in good company. Not only does the king of England struggle with anxiety and self-doubt, but so did the most renowned prophet of the Old Testament – Moses! In the Scripture today, we read about Moses’ call to prophet-hood. Prior to these verses, Moses killed an Egyptian and fled to Midean, where he lived ashamed and disconnected from his land of birth. Not what I would expect when I think of a great prophet – but then and again God always shatters my stereotypes and assumptions. So here is Moses – a foreign criminal – and he encounters God in a burning bush. Imagine his surprise, his shock, his wonder! From this burning bush, God speaks out to his child Moses and calls him as a prophet. Moses, as you can probably anticipate, does not want the job. He, like Prince Albert, does not think he is good enough. Anxiety pervades the questions Moses asks. In chapter 3, Moses has already asked God “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” Moses is saying: Hint hint God, I am a nobody. But God doesn’t get the hint. Then, Moses assures God that his people will reject him – not even the Hebrews will want me! Yet God tells Moses, I want you. Then, as if those protests were not enough, Moses reminds God that he is a poor communicator. Some scholars think this meant that he may have had a stutter – so he wasn’t that different from Prince Albert. Moses tallies up his faults and then pleads with God … C’mon, can you just send someone else? The stakes are high and Moses’ anxiety is high. Moses doesn’t want to be called out of his comfort zone.

What I learn from Bertie and Moses is that we can get a perverse comfort from exempting ourselves from the challenge of using our gifts, of living our lives in authentic relationships with others. Sometimes it’s easier to shirk our call into the world, our call to go out into the world, to be connected with others and be invested in the well-being of the world. Yes, it would have been easier for Moses to stay in Midean and it would have been easier for Bertie to refuse the kingship. I recall my own burning bush experience – when God called me and I was terrified to respond. A couple years back I did a social work internship at a domestic violence agency. While the internship was a powerful and painful experience for me, I initially dealt with the pain by erecting walls of apathy to protect myself. I focused on the format and questions when I talked to the survivors instead of empathy and understanding. I like Moses, I thought if I remained in deserted, distant land that maybe I won’t get hurt, that maybe I could be safe – safe from the experience of life. Life it seems can be a terribly painful thing at times. At the end of the first semester, my supervisor told me that I was not connecting to clients and, shattered from my illusions, I realized something had to change. God was calling me to open up my heart and face the reality of life. To me the most terrifying part of this call was the potential of success, the potential of having to fully open my heart and experience the pain of myself and others. I had a choice: I could stubbornly adhere to my fear, cling to it with all my might, remain a prisoner of my own anxiety or –despite my fear- I could choose to move forward, to experience life and open myself up to the powerful possibilities of the Divine. I stood before the burning bush like those who come before me with a choice, a choice of living or not living, choice of staying in the safe zone or journeying into the unknown, a choice of inaction or of actively liberating myself from the chains of fear that held me bondage.

So yes, I can relate to Moses. I imagine we can each relate to Moses’ experience at the burning bush where he was faced with difficult decision of embracing his gifts. I do not take it for granted that Moses chose to become a prophet, anxiety and all. And I appreciate God’s response to Moses in the midst of his struggles. When Moses admits one of his most embarrassing struggles – his stutter - God responds lovingly that God created Moses and shaped each part of his body. God’s response harkens back to the creation story and we remember how God made humans and it was good. When we are in the midst of our burning bush experience, struggling with our decision, God is present and God reminds us that we are good, that we are worthy, that we are enough. What we learn from God’s response is that value does not depend on any outside feature – whether we can talk or walk well – but rather our value depends on the simple fact that we are God’s children, valued in and for ourselves. In my social work internship, I learned that my value does not depend on the exact words I say but rather my value rests in my sacred spark and the nature of my work is to value the sacred spark in others. Moses and Bertie learn this too – they learn that their stutter does not define who are they are – and that they can make good prophets, kings and so further simply because of their God-given worth. In the movie clip, Bertie’s friend told him: you are very much your own man. At the climax of the movie, Bertie comes to realize that being himself, being who God created him to be, is enough. God uses all of us, no matter our circumstances.

Like Moses’ encounter with the burning bush, we encounter God in our communities and in our lives. As a individuals and a church, what happens when we, like Moses, take our life seriously? What happens when we take our possibilities and the Holy Spirit seriously? What does God have in store for us? I imagine being in a church community is like being on the edge of the unknown … its like being Moses called into Egypt … it’s like Bertie being called to be king … its both exciting and scary …. God can do great things with us. This text teaches us about the inner journey of truly valuing ourselves as children made in the image of the Divine. This text teaches us what its like to stand on the edge of the unknown and be terrified of the future and we learn that even there – especially there - God is present with us. The story of Moses and Bertie is one of liberation – as they began to be liberated from their anxiety they were able to help liberate their own people become liberated from oppressive forces. Bertie and Moses remind us that it’s scary to let our light fully shine! Yet great things can come of it! The burning bush burns brightly as possibility dances like flame before us. God beckons us forth, inviting us to become what we never dared, for the first time and for forever.