Clark Kent, Frodo Baggins, and Jesus

In his Lent 1 sermon exploring the temptations of Jesus, Glynn Cardy compares two competing views of the power of Jesus. One is the Clark Kent/Superman model and the other is the Hobbit, Frodo Baggins. "Every culture has what anthropologists call a mythic structure. These are the collection of socially powerful traditional stories that shape a culture’s assumptions and expectations. In the New Testament there are two underlying myths used to interpret Jesus, one dominant and one less so. The dominant myth is the ‘outside redeemer’. In this myth the hero comes from the outside, performs a saving function, and then returns to the outside. The movement is from and to an alien space. In the 4th Gospel this myth has Jesus coming down from heaven, redeeming the world, and returning to heaven. In Star Trek it has the U.S.S. Enterprise entering a planetary system, sharing the supposed benefits of their superior knowledge and technology, and returning once again to outer space. In both cases the movement is from outer to inner to outer." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=498&id=925.