by the Rev. Charles Lehmann
It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I saw “High Noon.” I’d heard that it was one of the greatest westerns of all time, but I wasn’t that interested in seeing it. Old movies take a certain kind of mindset to enjoy. Many of them move too slowly for me to appreciate. But sometimes, even a slow-moving film can grab me.
“High Noon” did. It’s still the best western I’ve ever seen. It is well acted, well written, and has an incredibly complex story.
Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, is a marshal who is retiring. He’s old, and he has arthritis in his shooting hand. He’s just married a Quaker woman who’s made him promise to put away his guns forever because she’s a pacifist.
He intends to do so. But just after the wedding he learns that Frank Miller, a killer that Kane sent to the gallows, has been pardoned. He’s on the noon train. He’s coming back to town to seek vengeance against Kane and the entire town.
Kane is intent on keeping his word to his wife and leaves town with her, but he’s struck with a crisis of conscience. He believes that Miller is his responsibility, and he needs to see to it that the town is defended. He goes back to town, takes up his star again, and tries to find deputies to help him defend the town against Miller and his gang.
The town is filled with cowards. No one is willing to help defend the town. Kane gets ready to face Miller’s gang alone.
The movie is filled with tension. You don’t have a single moment of peace once Kane takes up the tin star again. He is the only one who feels any sense of responsibility. He is the only one willing to risk his life to serve his neighbor.
Having been abandoned, Kane faces the gang and is able to kill two of them. When a third gunuman is about to kill him, his pacifist wife kills the gunman. She is taken hostage by Miller, but manages to free herself allowing Kane to finish Miller off.
At this point the townspeople come out of hiding, the threat gone. Kane stares at them in contempt, throws down the tin star, and walks away with his wife.
Some of the theological themes are obvious. Service to neighbor at the risk of self is the obvious one. But there’s also the relationship between Kane and his wife. Should she have forced on him the vow? No. Once he took it should he have obeyed it? Yes. Would it have been wrong for him to let the town suffer under Miller’s gang? Yes. There are no easy answers. But Kane does what his conscience demands. He sacrifices his reputation with his wife to serve ungrateful, uncaring, and cowardly neighbors. The image is a touch Christological.
“3:10 to Yuma” shares some of the same themes. I’m not going to go into quite so much detail so that if you want to go to the movie while it’s in the theatres you can still enjoy it.
A word of warning. This is a bloody film with a bit of vulgar language and a few questionable scenes. I would not recommend junior high students see it at all. I would only recommend it for a high school student if their parents have first seen and approved it. For the college viewer, be discerning. If you think you can handle it, there are some things that can be learned from it and it can be good fodder for discussion, but don’t go to it blind, not expecting some things that will make you uncomfortable.
3:10 explores many of the same themes as “High Noon.” It is primarily the story of a father, Dan, played by Christian Bale, who finds himself and his family in a completely unmanageable situation. He also has a physical challenge that makes it even more difficult for him to cope with the problems he faces… he lost part of one leg in the Civil War.
He manages to negotiate a $200 fee to help transport the criminal Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe, to Contention, Arizona to catch the 3:10 train to Yuma prison. Throughout the experience he is faced over and over with challenges. His devotion to his family is challenged. His principles are challenged. And his ability to physically face the task is challenged. He is abandoned by those who are supposed to be helping him, and he finds himself much like Kane in High Noon, facing the final moments alone.
3:10 and High Noon share a very honest and complex look at vocation. What do you do when the whole world is against you? What do you do when service to neighbor puts your life in very grave risk? When you are offered an easier way, how do you handle it?
At its best, film can help us consider these questions. They can provide entrees back into the Scriptures so that we can discuss those things that are most real, Christ and his gifts to us.
The Rev. Charles Lehmann is Assistant Pastor for Youth and Education at Peace With Christ Lutheran Church, Fort Collins, Colorado.
This whole “global warming” thing is starting to bother me. Not because the earth is getting warmer, which I suppose it is, but because “global warming” is being turned into a horrible deception which blames people for causing it and then preys on their fears about the future. Most of the accurate science is ignored or ridiculed. For example, did you know that the ice core samples taken from Antarctica show that when the temperature of the earth rises, then the carbon dioxide levels rise (not the other way around)? Or how about this? Periods of global warming and cooling have been shown to be directly related to more and less active periods of sunspot activity? In other words, it’s really the sun that causes “global warming.” (Just like on Mars where nobody lives…that we know of!) The fact is, sometimes the earth is warmer and sometimes it’s cooler. But it’s not mankind that’s doing it. It’s the way the sun works. Yet mankind is blamed for “global warming” and we’re all supposed to feel guilty about it. But I’m no scientist. I’m a pastor. So I’ll tell you why global warming doesn’t get me all hot and bothered.
Thinking that humans can so easily ruin this earth is the sort of arrogance that is typical of our fallen race. Once again we show that we are bigger and stronger than God because we can wreck his world by burning coal and driving cars! No, that is arrogance to be repented of. We can speak of this in terms of creation but even more so in redemption. Not only is the world created by the Lord, it is redeemed by Him when His Son takes on human flesh and gives His life for the world. Romans 8 says as much: “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:22-23 NKJV). There will come a time when this present world is destroyed and a new heaven and earth are made. But it will not be our doing. It will be the Lord’s. He’s promised that too. And He’s promised it’ll all be ours in Jesus!
In the name of Jesus. Amen. Two men in the temple. The first with tons of religion. The other with nothing but sins. Who goes home justified?
The Bible teaches that we are not evolved from ape-like creatures millions of years ago, but that we are noble creatures descended from one man and one woman. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, we now live in a fallen world. Many people assume that because the Scriptures were written by people a long time ago (although inspired by God’s Holy Spirit) that they were backward and unsophisticated. 
Yes, by faith we trust what the Scriptures tell us, but remember that when it comes to your teachers teaching about evolutionary theory, all kinds of evidence can have more than one interpretation. When someone presents us with a picture of a bone fragment (or the actual bone), we might ask, why was “he” living in a cave, why are “his” features ape-like? One person might say, well, it was because he was descended from an ape and he didn’t know any better. Another can look at that same evidence and say, no, the effects of sin caused this man and his people to degenerate and devolve. 
In the name of Jesus. Amen. Mountains. Mountains. Mountains. On all sides of us. It gives both the feeling of safety and the feeling of awe. It’s like the mountains have us surrounded, like they have us where they want us…
What confidence! What certainly! In your Baptism, you are disciples. In your Baptism, you are saved. As certain as the name put on you – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are a child of God.
Do you think that way too? Repent of all that double-minded doubt.
Yes, I watched it. Should I have viewed it? The jury’s still out on that one. What was the controversial television show? Hell’s Kitchen.
Hell’s Kitchen seems to preview its namesake in the intense serving situations, the put-downs, and the dashing of all but one person’s hopes. A number of contestants appear to break under the pressure. Yet from this hell, there is a reprieve and those who hear, “GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!” get to go home.
It’s the HT-wake or HT-afterglow. It goes like this…
