Episode 29: The Last Supper
On this week’s Technicolor Jesus, Matt and Adam welcome Aisha Brooks-Lytle, minister for mission at Wayne Presbyterian Church and the organizing pastor at the Common Place in southwest Philadelphia, to talk about the little-known but incredibly prescient movie The Last Supper.
The Last Supper, directed by Stacy Title, tells the story of a group of liberal Iowa grad students who kill their neo-nazi dinner guest. After the initial shock of the murder wears off, the group eventually decides that they’ve done the world a favor. So begins the black comedy wherein every week the students invite a radically conservative activist into their home for dinner and murder before burying them in the backyard underneath the tomatoes. The Last Supper provides the backdrop for a lively conversation about the failure of political binaries, the dangerous call to follow Christ’s model, and the ways in which the pursuit of redemptive violence harms the perpetrator before it changes the world. In response to this week’s lectionary passages, the crew spends time debating the idolatry of the Israelites and takes turns trying to discern Jesus’ difficult parable about the wedding banquet. So, this week, pull up a chair at our dinner table. The food is delicious, the conversation scintillating, and we promise not to poison you.
Aisha Brooks Lytle is the minister for mission at Wayne Presbyterian Church and the organizing pastor at The Common Place. An in-demand preacher and teacher, she can be found in pulpits and retreats centers across the country.
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