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How are you? Tonight is the second-to-last sermon in a summer series called, Doing
Well. The aim of this series is to equip all of us to do well. I would love it if when we are
asked the question, How are you? all of us would answer with authenticity, I am doing well.
The point, of course, is not to be trained in a rote way to answer one question. The point
of this series is for us to actually do well. We want to do well with our whole personour mind,
our soul, and our body.
At Chain of Lakes were calling this the summer of love. We dont mean the summer of
waiting and watching when the Timberwolves trade Kevin Love. It seems like that is going to
happen in the next two weeks. No we dont mean the promiscuous love characterized by the
1960s. Were talking about growing this summer in agape love. The message to doing well is
very simple. We do well when we grow in agape love.
All summer weve looked at how to do well by growing in agape love in different
situations.
Weve looked at Doing well
SLIDE
Doing well in our most important relationships
Doing well during the Holidays
Doing well with God
Doing well by living a balanced life
Doing well when I feel anxious
Doing well by helping others do well
Last week we looked at doing well by helping children & youth do well.

All of these sermons can be watched by going to our web sitecolpres.org

Tonight were going to the movies by looking at how the themes of the movie, Frozen
can help us do well. This is the question, How can the themes of the movie, Frozen help us grow
in agape love?
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Before we even do this its fair to ask the question if its even appropriate to look at the
themes of a movie during worship. What business does a movie have to do with worship? As
Presbyterians we believe that our worship is organized around the Word. So doesnt it seem
almost wrong to have a worship service organized around the themes of a movie?
Lets go back to one of the Core Values of Chain of Lakes. Its the Core Value of
Relevance.
We understand it to mean this:. Read it with me.
SLIDE
Jesus successfully communicated his message by using examples and symbols of first century
culture. We will be open to using examples and symbols of our culture to communicate Jesus
message.

The key point is do the themes of the movie help us communicate Jesus message. This
isnt about a movie. Hopefully the movie will be a tool to communicate Jesus message. Only
after worship can we answer this. If the service and sermon are about the movie, then we
havent been successful. If the service and sermon using the movie help us do well by growing
in agape love, then weve lived out one of the Core Values of Chain of Lakes.
Im going to do three things in this sermon. First Im going to talk about the movie,
Frozen, second Im going to look at the plot of the movie, and then examine themes from the
movie that can help us grow in agape love so that we do well.
How many of us saw the movie Frozen. A lot of people enjoyed the movie.
SLIDE The web site Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89 percent of critics gave the film a
positive review. It was the highest-rated family film of 2013

SLIDE Frozen won a Golden Globe for best animated feature and won two Academy
Awards for Best animated feature and best original song.
The song Let it Go won an Academy Award for best original song?

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It was a very popular movie.

The plot of Frozen was inspired by Hans Christian Andersens fairy tale, The Snow
Queen.

The story is about the relationship between two sisters.

SLIDE The older sister is Elsa. She has magical powers. She is able to produce ice, frost
and snow with the wave of a hand.
SLIDE The younger sister is Anna. She is adventurous, fun-loving and playful.
They are daughters of the king and queen of Arendelle, a Scandinavian city/state.
One day when they were playing Elsa accidentally injured Anna. Their parents took the girls to
the magical trolls. One of the trolls was able to heal Anna, but he had to remove the memories in
Anna of Elsas magic. He told them that Elsa had to be very careful with how she used her
powers.
That event traumatized the family. Their parents isolated Elsa & Anna because of their
fear. They didnt tell anyone of Elsas powers. It became a secret. They locked the doors of the
castle and hardly let anyone in. They practically became hermits.
Elsa was able to control her powers by wearing gloves. When the gloves came off she
would freeze everything around her with a wave of her hand.
The challenges that the sisters face grew even larger when their parents died in an
accident at sea. They were on their own to negotiate the challenges of life.
Fast forward. Elsa was going to become queen. On the day of her coronation people
traveled to Arendelle from all over the region.
SLIDE On the day of Elsas coronation Anna met Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. They fall in
love and in one day become engaged to be married. Remember this is a Disney movie. On the
night of Elsas coronation Anna asked Elsa for her blessing to be married. Elsa wouldnt give it.
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That set up a fight between Anna and Elsa. Without knowing what she was doing Anna pulled
off one of Elsas gloves. This unleashed Elsas powers which she couldnt control. Suddenly
every time she waved her hand she would freeze something.
Elsa fled to the mountains, but unleased an eternal winter on Arendelle. In the mountains
Elsa created an ice palace where she hoped she could live a solitary life. Elsa wasnt an evil
person. She just was able to do magic and didnt know how to control it.
Anna went into the mountains to find Elsa. She left Prince Hans in charge of Arendelle.
SLIDE While she was in the mountains she met a man by the name of Kristoff and his
reindeer and a snow man Olaf. Olaf was the comic relief to the story.
Anna found Elsa in her ice palace. She tried to persuade Elsa to return to Arendelle. She
wouldnt and accidentally struck Anna in the heart. As they left the ice palace Kristoff noticed
that Annas hair was turning white. He figured out that something was very wrong. He went to
find the trollsthe same trolls that had healed Anna when she was a young girl. The trolls told
them that Annas heart was going to freeze. The only thing that could unfreeze her heart was an
act of true love.
So they go back to Arendelle to find Prince Hans. If Prince Hans kissed Anna she would
be unfrozen.
Hans, though, had taken a group of warriors to find Elsa. When Hans got there he
pleaded with Elsa to undue the winter. Elsa said she couldnt. They captured Elsa and put her in
jail.
Hans comes back to Arendelle. The village is frozen. Anna finds Hans and asks for a
kiss. Everything is going to be happily ever after, right? Plot twist. Hans turns out to be a
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phonyonly looking out for himself. He refused to kiss Anna. He hoped that Anna would die
so that he would become king of Arendelle.
What is going to save this frozen plot twist? Only an act of true love. But who is going
to do it? Olaf, the snowman tells Anna that Kristoff s in love with her. They try to find her. The
evil Hans find Elsa and tries to kill her. Just as he tries to do this, Anna throws herself between
Elsa and Hans. Unfortunately she is frozen from the spell in her heart as she does that.
Remember that love ___ a frozen heart. When Elsa sees what Anna has done the frozen
grip on Arendelle relents. Anna thaws from being frozen. Hans is captured and punished.
Summer comes back to Arendelle. Anna and Hans are united in love. Elsa and Anna are
reunited as sisters. Everyone lives happily ever after.
The important question were looking at is what message from the movie can help us go
deeper in agape love. I have two. I have two takeaways to share with you.
First is dont keep family secrets. The fewer family secrets you have, the healthier will
your family be. As a family you can do well by not keeping secrets.
Elsa and Annas parents became afraid because Elsa had this power that they didnt know
what to do with. They were afraid how the wider community would accept Elsa and the powers
that she had. It was even worse for Elsa and Annas parents because they were the royalty of
Arendelle. So every action they took would be scrutinized by others.
They almost destroyed their family by keeping a secret. They unknowingly drove a
wedge between Elsa and Anna because Anna never knew why Elsa wouldnt play with her. If
Anna had known about Elsas powers her relationship with her sister would have been better.
Lets be honest. Often it seems easier to keep a secret than to share information that
were afraid of sharing. I get that. Its easier to brush under a rug something that is
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uncomfortable rather than sharing the information. Sometimes the information we share will
cause us pain.
FriendsIve bene a pastor for over 20 yearsIve cared for hundreds of families. I
have many friends and colleagues who are counselors. Its my personal experience and I believe
its the experience of these counselors that we do more long-term damage when we keep secrets.
What happens is the secret garners more power than it deserves. Family secrets cause
healthy people to act in unhealthy ways.
Let me share an example. In my past church I served I knew this family. For the sake of
this sermon lets call them the Olsons. The Olsons had four young children. One of the young
children was Art. Art was sexually abused by his uncle. Arts uncle was a predator. He was
very smart. He was able to conceal the abuse. Art was too young to be able to share what was
happening. Arts parents didnt know and his brothers and sisters didnt know.
One dayand this happened fifty years agothe sheriff came to visit Arts parents.
They told them they had seen Art and his uncle together. What was happening was not right.
They told Arts parents that if they didnt tell Art to knock it off that they would take Art to jail.
This was 50 years ago. Today the sheriff would probably put Art in jail immediately.
Arts parents confronted Arts uncle. By all accounts the abuse stopped.
But the family kept the incident as a secret. No one knew. Art knew. Art didnt even
know that his parents knew. Nobody talked about it. Arts siblings didnt know.
Fast forward 25 years later. Art suffered because of what happened. Eventually he went
to a counselor. The counselor encouraged him to talk to this parents. They did talk. But Art
never was able to understand why it was kept a secret. The secret was worse than the original
act.
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This is often what happensthe secret receives more power than it deserves. It is worse
than the original act.
It wouldnt surprise me if some of us grew up in familys that kept secrets. I am not at all
condemning families that keep secrets. I understand that its easier to keep a secret than to
confront what happened and bring it out into the open.
If anyone here wants to bring out a secret in the open, I am very willing to help you. And
Im willing to refer you to counselors who can provide support. I will activate people who we
trust who will pray for you. Were here for you because we want you to do well.
Churches can keep secrets. Just like in families its not healthy. Just like in families its
easier to keep a secret than to bring disturbing information out into the open. Im not talking
about confidential information. Im talking about keeping a secret about what happened from
others.
When we started this church, we said that we didnt want to be a place that keeps secrets.
Right in our purpose statement we say that we are called to be an authentic, Christian
community. To be authentic means we dont keep secrets.
The second theme I want to lift up from the movie that can help us do well is love can
thaw a frozen heart.
We talked about this two weeks ago when we talked about helping others do well. As
humans were capable of trying to control others and letting them know what they should do.
Sometimes when we are in relationship with people it seems like they have a frozen heart.
Nothing we say or do can reach them. The more we try to make suggestions the more frozen
their heart seems.
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Instead of giving advice or controlling, our task is to love them. Truly the theme of the
movie is a theme that Jesus would have shared. Jesus was clear that the way to reach people is to
love them. Jesus encouraged his followers to love their enemies, to pray for the people who
persecute them. The way to reach someone who seems unreachable is to love. The more we
love the more possible it seems to touch whatever part of them is frozen.