St Peter and meat balls?!!
They may think that I have completely lost the plot this Sunday if I show a clip from Cloudy with a chance of meat balls in church. Hamburgers dropping from the sky or a net bursting, haul of fish – what’s the difference?
Luke’s account of the calling the disciples in this week’s gospel reading, focusses on Peter, someone who Luke will follow throughout his two epic narratives of the fishermen from Galilee. Luke tends to minimize Peter’s failings, at least when compared to the other gospels. In Luke’s gospel Peter doesn’t try to deflect Jesus from his path of suffering for example. This encounter in Luke 5:1-11 is the start of the journey for Peter.
First, what difference does a lab coat make? In Cloudy with a chance of meat balls, Flint’s mother gives him a lab coat that makes him believe he can invent like the pros. The trailer makes this point pretty well. For Peter, the barrier to his full participation in the kingdom is his sense of unworthiness (“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”). But Jesus believes in him.
Then after a long run of failed inventions, Flint finally gets it right as his attempt to cure world hunger works (though rather too well if you watch the whole film)! Peter’s haul of fish shows the kind of thing that might happen later in his story, if he is willing to overcome his fears and follow Christ.
There are a few clips from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs on WingClips or it is now out on DVD.
