control her powers. She is redeemed. Then she
goes back to her Kingdom and begins to make ice
and snow for the enjoyment of everyone! They
begin ice skating! The unconditional love that
happened to her was now happening through her.
And that is the story of our faith isn’t it? Jesus said
it this way in John 13:34: “A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so
you must love one another.” And God speaks
through Ezekiel 26:36: “I will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove
from you your heart of stone and give you a heart
of flesh.” God’s love can truly melt a frozen heart.
Well, I think we can see why Frozen has
captured the attention of so many people. The
gospel messages we find in the movie are healing
and transforming. But it is just a nice movie unless
we allow the message to transform our hearts. If
you are struggling with your desires and they have
become destructive, today is a good day to bring
your desires to God and trust him to guide you in
fulfilling them. If you are lost in life and you want
to know what real love is, today is a good day to
ask God to empower you to live a life of sacrificial
love. Or maybe you are someone who feels like
you have tried your whole life to please others and
earn love. Well today is a great day to let that go
and allow yourself to experience God’s
unconditional love in Christ. That love will melt
your heart and transform you. Amen.
I am grateful to Stacy Tuttle and her
resources, “Disney’s Frozen: A Warm Story”, on
Shepherd Project, Michael Belote’s, “Sin and
Redemption in Frozen” Reboot Christianity, and
Stephen Sizer’s message, “A Story to Melt Your
Heart” for their ideas as I prepared this message.
Pasadena Community Church
The Gospel in Disney
~ Frozen ~
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Sermon by: Dr. Charley Reeb, Senior Pastor
Scripture Lesson: Ezekiel 26: 36
Today we wrap up our series “The Gospel
in Disney.” We’ve had a lot of fun with this series.
It has given us a chance to celebrate the summer
and learn the gospel in a different way. Jesus told
parables when he taught because stories
communicate lessons in a powerful way. We have
been doing the same thing through stories found in
popular Disney movies. We have discovered that
there is more to these stories than we think.
Today we end the series by talking about
the ever popular movie “Frozen!” Remember
tonight at 6:30 we will be showing the movie in
Hamilton Aud. It is free and there will be popcorn,
candy and soda. All free. Come on out!
Experience Love in Action!
Connect ~ Grow ~ Serve
P ASADENA C OMMUNITY C HURCH
a United Methodist Congregation
227 - 70th Street South ~ St Petersburg, FL 33707
(727) 381-2499
email: [email protected]
www.pasadenacommunitychurch.org
Frozen was inspired by the old fairy tale,
“The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Anderson.
It was directed by Jennifer Lee, the first female
director of a full length Walt Disney animated film.
A team of over 50 animators worked on this film.
They developed all kinds of new computer
software to create the film’s unique texture and
animation.
As many of you know, the movie has been
a critical and commercial success. The movie has
made over 1.2 billion dollars worldwide. It made
over 400 million in the United States. Frozen ranks
as the highest-grossing animated film of all time,
the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, and the
highest-grossing film of 2013. Frozen won two
Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and
Best Original Song ("Let It Go"). And many of
you have heard that song quite a lot! I don’t think
there has ever been a more popular song from an
animated film before.
What makes this movie so popular? What
inspires people of all ages to sing “Let it Go?” Why
has this movie captured the attention of so many
people? Simple really. Because it contains a
message that goes to the heart of the gospel. I
don’t know if the creators of Frozen were thinking
of the gospel when they created this film, but it is
hard to deny that the transforming and healing
message of the movie is one that comes straight
from the life and teachings of Jesus. We are going
to lift up that gospel message today through the
movie and it could make all the difference to you
today. In fact, it could change your heart.
Frozen begins by introducing us to two
characters, Elsa and her younger sister Anna. Elsa
is the princess of the Kingdom Arendelle. She
possesses cryokinetic powers that enable her to
produce ice, frost and snow at will. One night
Anna wakes Elsa up and begs her to do the magic
by making a snowman. Elsa is persuaded and she
gets up and they begin to play. They are happy and
having a great time but then something goes
terribly wrong. Here is the scene:
(Scene of little Elsa and Anna playing and
Anna getting injured)
Well, Elsa and Anna’s parents, the King
and Queen, seek help from the troll King. He is the
only one who can heal Anna. And he does. He
heals Anna and removes her memory of Elsa’s
magic. But things are not the same. The royal
parents isolate Elsa until she learns how to control
her powers. They want her to conceal them and
not feel them. Elsa is so afraid she is going to hurt
Anna again that she stays in her room most of the
time. Over the years this causes a rift to develop
between them. To make matters worse, when they
are teenagers their parents die at sea during a
storm.
One of the first important lessons we learn
from the start of this movie is that Uncontrolled
Desire Can Be Destructive. One of the difficult
things about being human is having all these
desires within us and learning how to control them.
I believe Elsa’s magic and her ability to create
snow and ice represents the gift of desire within all
of us. And the movie shows us that when our
desires go unchecked they can be terribly
destructive to us and to everyone around us.
The very first story in the Bible teaches us
this lesson. Adam and Eve were given desire by
God. It was a gift. But everything fell apart when
their desire was unguided and uncontrolled. They
didn’t obey God and crossed the line and it was
very destructive.
So what do we do with these desires within
us? What do we do with our ambition, pride,
appetites, sexual drive, and our motivation to create
and build? Well, the movie Frozen illustrates that
the worst response to desire is to try repress it and
not feel it. Unfortunately, over the years the
church, like the King and Queen in the movie, has
tried to repress desire. The church’s message is
often the same as Elsa’s parents, conceal it, don’t
feel it, lock it away. The church’s reasoning is that
since desire sometimes leads us to do bad things
we need to kill it.
This is the wrong response to desire and a
very unhealthy one. I like how Rabbi Nina Berth
Cardin puts it: “God made us with desire and
therefore we have been made to desire. Desire
drives our ambition, fires our curiosity and leads
us to discover in ways that complacency never can.
Desire propels us forward, urging us to explore, to
dare, to persevere so we may uncover all the
wisdom, comforts and delights that make God’s gift
of life wonderful. It is Desire that gives rise to the
dignity of human achievement. Science,
mathematics, medicine, the arts — all depend on
curiosity, appetite, and drive. Desire has enabled
us to recognize the awesome, intricate elegance of
creation. What a pity if there were this grand
universe of God and no one to gape in awe and
wonder.” We would be pitiful human beings
without desire.
Desire is not bad. It is very good. It is a
gift from God. That is why trying to repress it can
be just as destructive as when it is not controlled.
We learn this from Elsa. When she tried to repress
her powers and not feel them, it just made things
worse. Bitterness and anger built up within her as
she grew up until finally she exploded with rage. I
want you to watch the scene where her frustration
with hiding who she was finally erupted.
(Scene of Elsa arguing with Anna at
coronation)
As you just saw, Elsa’s frustration with
hiding her powers erupted, causing destruction.
Not only was she locked in but she locked in the
entire Kingdom in an everlasting winter. After this
she ran away into the mountains to be alone. Then
she completely rebels and sings about it in the song
“Let it go!” In that song she sings about how she
was always being “the good girl she had to be” and
never let anyone see the truth. She couldn’t keep it
in any longer, she had to “let it go!” I think the
song is so popular because so many of us can
identify. Can you relate?
We have been told for too long to repress
our desires and to pretend like we are someone we
are not. We feel like we have to perform to be
accepted instead of being loved for who we are. So
often we feel like we have to hide who we are and
what we think and what we want. Ever been there?
Are you afraid of who you are and what you want?
Are you ashamed of what you have done? Are you
scared that if people knew the real you they would
not accept you? We can’t hide who we are for very
long. We can’t suppress what we desire forever.
Eventually it will come out. And if it has been
suppressed it will come out like a destructive snow
storm (Stephen Sizer, “A Story to Melt Your
Frozen Heart”).
The right response to our desires is not to
suppress them and conceal them but to subject our
desires to God and trust him to use them and to
guide us to fulfill our desires in healthy ways. It is
when we give our desires free reign that we get into
trouble. Like Elsa, we cannot control our nature on
our own. We must trust God to guide and control
our desires. And then we can find true peace and
joy.
Another important lesson we learn from
Frozen is that True Love Sacrifices. In Frozen the
characters assume that the act of true love is a kiss.
Anna rushes around trying to find true love’s kiss
to break the curse of her frozen heart. You see,
when Anna reached out again to Elsa on her
isolated mountain she lashed out and froze Anna’s
heart. The only way Anna’s heart could be saved
was by an act of true love. Everyone assumes that
the act of true love is a kiss from one of the two
men who are pursuing her. But that is wrong.
Fortunately, our wise and funny snowman Olaf has
the wisdom to explain what true love is. Watch the
scene:
(Scene of Olaf telling Anna what love is)
“Love is when you put someone else’s
needs before your own.” Exactly! True love isn’t
the infatuation or romance. True love is when you
sacrifice for another. True love is when you put
someone else’s needs and desires above your own.
The world defines true love as something
superficial – romance, infatuation, and connection.
And those are wonderful things. But they don’t
last. They don’t stand the test of time. True love,
love that is eternal and lasts forever and conquers
all, is not superficial but sacrificial. It is a love that
our faith calls Agape love – sacrificial love, love
that puts others above self, a love that is
unconditional and unearned.
1st Corinthians 13:4-8 beautifully describes
agape love:
4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not
envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not
dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
Anna demonstrates true love in the most
profound way. Anna is barely alive, stumbling
along. Her true love begins to run to her to revive
her with a kiss. She believes this is the only thing
that will save her. But then something powerful
happens. I want you to watch the scene and pay
close attention to the decision that Anna makes:
(Scene of Anna sacrificing herself for Elsa)
Wow! Anna sacrificed herself for the one
person who pushed her away and wounded her.
Anna willingly died in order to save the one who
had done nothing to deserve such love. Jesus
talked about this love in John 15:13: “No one has
greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for
one’s friends.”
Anna is really a Christ-figure in the movie
Frozen. She never gives up on Elsa. She continues
to pursue her in love even though Elsa lashes out
and hurts her. She is the great shepherd who will
leave the 99 sheep to search for the one who is lost.
And when she finds her she gives up her own life
to save someone who had done nothing to earn her
love. Why? Because she loved Elsa. It was a love
that was unearned and undeserved. This is agape
love, self-sacrificial, unconditional love.
The Apostle Paul explained it this way
(Romans 5:6-8):
6
You see, at just the right time, when we
were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous
person, though for a good person someone might
possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his
own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.
This leads me to the greatest lesson of this
movie for us: God’s Love Can Melt Our Frozen
Heart. When Anna chooses to love sacrificially
and gives her life for Elsa something transforming
happens to both Anna and Elsa: Watch this
powerful scene:
(Scene of Anna being revived and Elsa
being healed)
Just like Jesus, it was Anna’s act of
sacrificial love that brought her to life again. The
Bible speaks of this idea in 1st John 4:18: There is
no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.
Anna and Elsa are a great illustration of this
text. When the risen Anna explains that it was love
and not a kiss that unfroze her, Elsa experiences a
moment of clarity. She comes to herself.
Everything clicks. It is about love. Her whole life
she had tried to earn love like the song “Let it Go”
describes. But then she realized that she didn’t
have to earn it. She was loved unconditionally and
she bathed herself in that agape love that Anna
demonstrated for her.
And then Elsa is transformed. When she
allows herself to feel and experience unconditional
love her own frozen heart melts and she is able to
control her powers. It is love that allows her to