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Wall-EWeek #1

Genesis 2: 15-25

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

And the LORD God commanded the man, "Youare free to eat from any tree in the garden;

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die."

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will makea helper suitable for him."

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and allthe birds in the sky. He brought him or her to the man to see what he would namehim or her; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wildanimals.But for Adam

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no suitable helper was found.

So the LORD God caused theman to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man'sribs

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and then closed up the place with flesh.

Then the LORD God made awoman from the rib

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he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; sheshall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and they will become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Mixer:

1.)What is your name and one thing that not many people knowabout you. (this is some sort of trivia fact like “I’ve never beenout of the country” or even a quirky habit.)

Going Deeper:

1.)The Genesis story above has obvious allusions in the film. Whatare some that you saw? (The girl robot is named Eve, they arethe only two “people” on earth”, Eve is called “the mother of theliving” in Christian tradition and the robot Eve puts the life in her“womb”. This sort of thing.2.)

Does anyone know what,

Anthropomorphism

means?

(askand see)

It is

the “attribution of human motivation,characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals,or natural phenomena.” The filmmakers have made Wall-E a sympathetic character, a character for which we feelpathos. We relate to him. Why is that?

(They’ve made him acreature searching for connection and love. This is at theessence of what t means to be human. I think this is why we longfor him to find what he is searching for.)

What is Wall-Esearching for?

(bigger than trash – his “prime directive” is love– connection. Symbolized by his desire to hold hands with Eve.)

3.)I think the filmmakers are asking the audience toconsider what it means to be a human being (animportant question for the times we live in). Would youagree that the makers of Wall-E think there is more tobeing a person what just having flesh and bone? Explainyour answer. Is there something to the fact that thefilmmakers feature a robot seeking out connection andcompanionship? Does ask the question about what itmeans to be human in a more provocative way?

4.)

Consider the Genesis text, particularly the part identifiedas verse 2:18. What do you think God means when (if Ican be faithfully provocative here) they say, “It is notgood for the Man (the Adam) to be alone”? Or to put itanother way, why would God say this?

(I think it is integralto our humanity that we are created in the image of God. Thismeans that we are made to image God in the creation – to be asGod is and do as God does. Our God, the God of Abraham Isaacand Jacob

community. Father, Son, Holy Spirit as it is laterparsed out. Three distinct persons yet all one. The OrthodoxChurch coined a term to describe this interreationality of God,the

perichoresis

. The term means the dancing, flow of the threefigures of the “God head” - big theology word for Trinity – in andout of and in rhythm with the others. It’s a cool notion that therelationships among the community that is God are kind of like adance.

Any one needs the other two. I think this is some of whyit’s not good for Adam to be alone. Everything God has done hasbeen “good” so far in the Genesis story but this isn’t. I thinkthat’s because the aloneness of Adam is incomplete. He can’timage the God who made him by himself – he has to have “someone to love” to rightly image the Creator in the Creation. This isalso why Wall-E’s quest is so deeply theological. In him we seeour own desire to connect with and image God.

5.)Consider the vision of earth at the beginning of themovie. Is it too far fetched to believe that the earth couldactually end up like this because of our bad habits? Whoshould be responsible for cleaning it up? If we know ourcurrent habits will lead to this why is it so hard to stop?Pray an ask God to give us courage to act upon the thingswe learned this morning.