Avatar

"Glorious, A winner, Extraordinary, Most Beautiful, Best Ever". Just some of the words used to describe the best selling sensation "Avatar". It's the story of how a paraplegic marine is given a chance to get his legs back by doing some work for the corporate company: all he has to do is to infiltrate the native tribe of Navi who live on the moon Pandora to find out as much as possible about them. The problem for Jake Sully begins to emerge as he gets to know the lovely Neytiri simply because they fall in love. The end game is to get rid of the native tribe who, contrary to all prejudice, are not mere savages who live in tees; they have their own culture, language and religion. The precious metal that is all over the sacred woodland is required for earth and the human beings will do what it takes to get it.
Pandora's Box is opened when Jake begins his work. This is the story of how the strong try to destroy the weak. The earth people have mighty weapons and have devised a way of creating their own computerized people who go in search of the natives. In the end Jake dares to cross over to help the natives and, eventually he leads them in a mighty struggle against all the odds as they try to protect their homeland and drive the aliens away.
This resonates with other situations that we all know about. I cannot help but think of the "war on terror" and the treatment handed out to the Native Americans during the 19th century. I have to consider all those who have been mistreated down through the ages. And then there are the times and places where ethnic cleaning has been common: if we consider the dispossession of the Irish natives from their lands in the 17th century which were given to English and Scottish landlords we have to consider the ethnic cleaning of Protestants on the Border and the Catholic policemen who were shot by the IRA .
In the end Jake decides that the savages are not those who fight with bows and arrows and he decides to stay with them. We need to decide what kind of society we want today. As our politicians make decisions about policing and justice and as we make calls for more police on our streets we need to take responsibility ourselves. We need to understand that the problems we are facing are not just questions for the police. They are not just questions for the government. They are questions that all of us, who share this space called earth, will have to face. Each citizen will have to decide what kind of society we are prepared to fight for. If the war really is over then we need to start working for the peace. We need to start the process of normalization, when we become able to disagree in an agreeable way. It is vitally important that the Christians, who live in this community, start to pray, as one united body for the welfare of our city, that we are transformed by the word of God. Jake was won over by love. I hope that we will be too!