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The Three Amigos and the Christian Life · Scripture-ish

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ed Gallagher,
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: and I am going to be talking about The Three Amigos,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: the 40-year-old movie.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that movie, The Three Amigos and The Christian Life.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is that possible?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's give it a shot.
• 0:19
  What is your favorite scene from the classic 1986 film,
• 0:25
  The Three Amigos?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's an impossible question because there is a plethora of great scenes.
• 0:34
  There's the scene where the Amigos in their underwear receive a
• 0:37
  telegram about the
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: infamous El Guapo,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: or excuse me,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: the infamous El Guapo.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's the scene just a moment later when Lucky Day...
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: is on top of what turns out to be a not very high wall.
• 0:53
  And he's trying to get the attention of his fellow amigos with
• 0:56
  imitation bird calls
• 0:59
  that get increasingly loud and verbal until he finally resorts
• 1:05
  to shouting.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: if you want to look at these scenes,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've linked to several of them on my Substack page,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: the Substack page for this essay.
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  There's the scene in the Mexican cantina where someone had been
• 1:22
  with the ugly stick.
• 1:24
  There's the initial confrontation with the Mexican gangsters
• 1:28
  and later with El Guapo himself.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's the search for El Guapo's lair.
• 1:35
  including the attempted conversation with a bush that just
• 1:39
  won't stop singing and
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: the unfortunate demise of the Invisible Swordsman.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've listed here just a sampling.
• 1:50
  I assume I'm reminding you of scenes you've watched many times,
• 1:56
  as I have.
• 1:57
  But just in case you've not seen it or can't remember the plot,
• 2:02
  think A Bug's Life.
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  Three silent movie stars who play heroes on the big screen are
• 2:09
  confused for actual
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  SPEAKER_00: heroes by Carmen,
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  SPEAKER_00: the woman sent to find help for the village of Santa Poco.
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  SPEAKER_00: In turn,
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  the three amigos imagine that they are being invited to Santa
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  Poco not to drive out
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  SPEAKER_00: a villain,
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  SPEAKER_00: but to perform alongside the biggest star in Mexico.
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  SPEAKER_00: They realize their mistake only when one of them falls off of a horse in
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  SPEAKER_00: mid-performance and discovers blood on his arm.
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  SPEAKER_00: It turns out that the Mexican bandits are using real bullets.
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  SPEAKER_00: The amigos start weeping because of the predicament they're in,
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  SPEAKER_00: but lucky for them,
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  SPEAKER_00: El Guapo only kills men,
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  SPEAKER_00: not crying women.
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  They slink out of town,
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  and El Guapo burns the village and kidnaps Carmen.
• 3:07
  Eventually,
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  the amigos do return,
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  and they do save the day with the help of the villagers.
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  I don't know for sure that I saw the movie in the theater when
• 3:19
  it came out,
• 3:20
  but I bet I did.
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  SPEAKER_00: The family I grew up in was a family that went to the movies.
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  I do recall that in eighth grade this would have been 1993 for
• 3:30
  an assignment in English class.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I spliced together some clips of Chevy Chase movies,
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  including the scene where the Amigos are looking for El Guapos
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  out in the desert,
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  SPEAKER_00: desperate for water,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Dusty Bottoms is the only one with a full canteen,
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  but he's too dim-witted to realize that his companions need the
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  water that is
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  SPEAKER_00: spilling on the cracked earth and not the lip balm
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  If forced to pick a single favorite scene,
• 4:08
  I'd probably go back to that Mexican cantina.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not thinking about My Little Buttercup.
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  SPEAKER_00: Although, yes, of course, My Little Buttercup.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I'm thinking about something before that song and dance.
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  When the amigos first approach the bar and there begins to be a
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  case of mistaken identity,
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  The bartender gives the three amigos a knowing look and says,
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  you are the wink,
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  wink.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they reply with laughter and false modesty.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
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  Unsurprised to encounter fans of theirs,
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  even in this sleepy Mexican town.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then the bartender says with his voice low, I have a message for you.
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  SPEAKER_00: The German says to wait here.
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  SPEAKER_00: The audience knows exactly what the bartender means,
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  SPEAKER_00: but none of the amigos has a clue,
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  SPEAKER_00: though they don't want to let on.
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  SPEAKER_00: I love how Lucky Day, with squinted eyes, draws out the word, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's my favorite part of the movie.
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  SPEAKER_00: That confused and elongated, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Three Amigos turns 40 this year.
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  SPEAKER_00: Is it worth remembering so fondly?
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  The critics in 1986 would surely be surprised that anyone would
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  remember it on its
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  SPEAKER_00: 40th anniversary.
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  SPEAKER_00: It holds a 45% rating on the Tomatometer,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Roger Ebert,
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  SPEAKER_00: my go-to critic,
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  SPEAKER_00: awarded the film one star out of four.
• 6:02
  It is certainly a dumb comedy and it doesn't deliver the
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  insight into the human
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  SPEAKER_00: condition that is achieved by the likes of Groundhog Day.
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  SPEAKER_00: But what can I say?
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  It makes me laugh and I have seen it so many times by now that
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  there is a nostalgia element.
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  And I think there are even points worthy of reflection for
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  Christians in the year 2026.
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  The movie itself gestures towards some life lessons in an
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  inspiring speech by Lucky
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  Day in the village of Santa Poco while standing on the wing of
• 6:42
  a Tubman 601.
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  First,
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  he warns that El Guapo is on his way,
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  an announcement that elicits gasps from the crowd.
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  But Carmen wisely declares that someday the people of this
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  village will have to face El Guapo.
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  SPEAKER_00: We might as well do it now.
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  SPEAKER_00: What the villagers need is a motivational speech,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it's a lucky day that witnesses Steve Martin provide it.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a way, all of us have an El Guapo to face someday.
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  SPEAKER_00: For some, shyness might be their El Guapo.
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  SPEAKER_00: For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo.
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  SPEAKER_00: For us, El Guapo is a big dangerous guy who wants to kill us.
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  SPEAKER_00: But as sure as my name is lucky day,
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  SPEAKER_00: the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo,
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  SPEAKER_00: who also happens to be the actual El Guapo.
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  SPEAKER_00: Man,
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  SPEAKER_00: the speech sounds like every youth devotional ever,
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  but it also mocks the absurd comparisons we sometimes make
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  among completely
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  SPEAKER_00: different situations.
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  You have cancer and I have acne,
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  which just shows that we all have trials to bear.
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  But then again,
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  the idea that we all must face our own personal El Guapo is
• 8:06
  sort of true.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you imagine Three Amigos has nothing to teach about life,
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  SPEAKER_00: the movie encourages you to think a little more seriously.
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  SPEAKER_00: So let's get serious.
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  SPEAKER_00: I find poignance in the depiction of Santa Poco's desperation.
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  It is in their desperation in the face of evil that initially
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  led them to send
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  SPEAKER_00: Carmen to a bigger city for help.
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  SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately,
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  she's never seen a movie before and doesn't realize that the
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  cinematic heroics of
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  SPEAKER_00: the three amigos are all scripted.
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  SPEAKER_00: When the amigos flee before El Guapo,
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  SPEAKER_00: themselves desperate to stay alive,
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  SPEAKER_00: the villagers are all the more hopeless and wretched.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a familiar tale in this world of woe.
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  SPEAKER_00: How many psalms include the question, how long, O Lord?
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  SPEAKER_00: The answer is 10 in the King James Version.
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  SPEAKER_00: Check this one out.
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  SPEAKER_00: O Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yahweh God,
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  SPEAKER_00: to whom vengeance belongeth,
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  SPEAKER_00: O God,
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  SPEAKER_00: to whom vengeance belongeth,
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  SPEAKER_00: show thyself,
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  SPEAKER_00: lift up thyself,
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  SPEAKER_00: thou judge of the earth,
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  SPEAKER_00: render a reward to the proud.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yahweh, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
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  SPEAKER_00: How long shall they utter and speak hard things,
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  SPEAKER_00: and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
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  SPEAKER_00: They break in pieces thy people, O Yahweh, and afflict thine heritage.
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  SPEAKER_00: They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless.
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  Yet they say,
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  Yahweh shall not see,
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  neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's Psalm 94, verses 1 through 7.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or there's this from Psalm 6.
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  SPEAKER_00: My soul is also sore vexed, but thou, O Yahweh, how long?
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  SPEAKER_00: And this is from Psalm 13.
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  SPEAKER_00: How long wilt thou forget me, O Yahweh?
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  SPEAKER_00: Forever?
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  SPEAKER_00: How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
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  How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
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  having sorrow in my heart daily?
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  SPEAKER_00: How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
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  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is full of desperation,
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  SPEAKER_00: just like the village of Santa Poco,
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  SPEAKER_00: and often for roughly the same causes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lucky Day is right.
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  SPEAKER_00: El Guapo is not unique.
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  SPEAKER_00: We all have our own El Guapo,
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  SPEAKER_00: and many times it is actually a big dangerous guy who wants to kill us.
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  SPEAKER_00: We also remember this prayer in a garden.
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  SPEAKER_00: Abba Father, all things are possible unto thee.
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  SPEAKER_00: Take away this cup from me.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we remember the answer to this prayer,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the one who prayed it was not liberated from the cup of suffering,
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  SPEAKER_00: but he drank it all.
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  SPEAKER_00: Certainly a desperate situation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And yet,
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  SPEAKER_00: this man of sorrows seemed somehow not desperate,
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  SPEAKER_00: but in control,
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  SPEAKER_00: even as he faced unarmed a detachment of soldiers led by a traitor.
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  SPEAKER_00: His self-command,
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  SPEAKER_00: and ultimately his hope,
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  SPEAKER_00: is the blueprint for his followers in their own desperate situations.
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  Do you remember what Paul and Silas were doing in that
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  Philippian jail in Acts 16.25?
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  SPEAKER_00: They experienced mistreatment,
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  SPEAKER_00: injustice,
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  SPEAKER_00: a desperate situation,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they neither fought back in conventional terms,
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  SPEAKER_00: nor did they despair,
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  SPEAKER_00: but rejoiced that they could suffer shame for the name.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's not to say that fighting back is necessarily wrong.
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  SPEAKER_00: While Jesus does forbid resisting him who is evil,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he commands turning the other cheek,
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  SPEAKER_00: and not only that,
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  SPEAKER_00: but he modeled that behavior.
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  Christians have traditionally allowed that self-defense and
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  especially defense of
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  SPEAKER_00: the poor and oppressed is warranted and even necessary.
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  SPEAKER_00: according to Christian ethics.
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  While there has always been disagreement on the question of
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  whether Christians are
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  SPEAKER_00: ever justified in using violence,
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  the predominant ethical view throughout church history would
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  not condemn Santa Poco
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  SPEAKER_00: for seeking deliverance from El Guapo even through force.
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  Like in Santa Poco,
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  the problems presented in this life seem insurmountable.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I guess they are, unless God chooses to act.
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  SPEAKER_00: And as we all know, God often chooses not to act in the way we desire.
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  As Lucky says,
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  we all face an El Guapo,
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  and often El Guapo prevails,
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  at least temporarily.
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  But the Christian hope guaranteed by the one who could not be
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  held in death's power
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  SPEAKER_00: allows us even in those desperate situations to sing praises.
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  But the lesson I appreciate most from the three amigos is that
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  the amigos recognize
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  SPEAKER_00: themselves as implicated in the fate of Santa Poco.
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  As they tell El Guapo on their first meeting,
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  we're not gunfighters,
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  we're movie stars.
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  Their pathetic abandonment of Santa Poco allows the Mexican
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  outlaws to wreak havoc
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  SPEAKER_00: on the village,
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  SPEAKER_00: terrorize the villagers,
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  SPEAKER_00: and kidnap Carmen.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the amigos return.
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  SPEAKER_00: At first,
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  apparently only to see how much damage the village endured at
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  the hands of El
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  SPEAKER_00: Guapo's men,
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  SPEAKER_00: But then Ned starts to load his gun with real bullets,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he issues a challenge to Dusty and Lucky.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm drawing a line.
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  SPEAKER_00: Men or mice, what'll it be?
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  SPEAKER_00: After some hesitation,
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  SPEAKER_00: they all three decide to be,
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  SPEAKER_00: in Ned's words,
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  SPEAKER_00: the three amigos for real,
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  SPEAKER_00: and retrieve Carmen from El Guapo's fortress.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why do the amigos do this?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why do they try to help Santa Poco?
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  Because they recognized themselves as implicated in the plight
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  of this little village.
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  SPEAKER_00: They had been brought to Santa Poco by a silly mistake.
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  SPEAKER_00: They had no intention of misrepresenting themselves as vigilantes.
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  SPEAKER_00: They just wanted to come perform and get paid.
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  SPEAKER_00: But they could not ignore...
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  or at least Ned could not ignore,
• 16:01
  that they had been brought to Santa Poco.
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  SPEAKER_00: False pretenses or not, they had met these people.
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  SPEAKER_00: They knew their plight.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they had witnessed the terror caused by El Guapo
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  SPEAKER_00: They were now involved with the lives of the people of Santa Polco,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they were implicated in the fate of this tiny Mexican village.
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  SPEAKER_00: They did not want to be, but they were.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was their cowardice that led to the village's destruction,
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  SPEAKER_00: And whether they like it or not,
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  it was ethically incumbent upon them to do what they could to
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  help its residents.
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  The point is that we are implicated in the lives of other
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  people by virtue of the
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  SPEAKER_00: fact that we live near them.
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  SPEAKER_00: that we go to school with them, that we go to church together.
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  We may not want to be bound up in their lives,
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  but that choice is not afforded to us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two hours southeast of where I live, Martin Luther King Jr.
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  sat in jail in 1963 and wrote a letter featuring these words
• 17:24
  near its opening.
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  Moreover,
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  I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and
• 17:33
  states.
• 17:35
  I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what
• 17:40
  happens in Birmingham.
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  SPEAKER_00: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
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  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
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  tied in a single garment of destiny.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
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  Never again can we afford to live with the narrow provincial
• 18:05
  outside agitator idea.
• 18:09
  Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be
• 18:11
  considered an outside
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: anywhere within its bounds.
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  SPEAKER_00: Those are lofty sentiments, difficult to fulfill.
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  SPEAKER_00: but sometimes their truth hits close to home.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the case of the amigos,
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  when a town in desperate need has called on you for help and
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  you have accepted
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  SPEAKER_00: their offer under mistaken identity or not,
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  SPEAKER_00: you find yourself implicated in their lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's time to decide whether you were a mouse or a man.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when you find yourself implicated,
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  SPEAKER_00: the amigos also teach us that you can do more than you think.
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  SPEAKER_00: The amigos are not heroes.
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  SPEAKER_00: They just play them for the movies.
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  SPEAKER_00: If we were talking about spiritual gifts,
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  SPEAKER_00: the amigos would tell you that their gift is entertainment,
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  SPEAKER_00: not bravery,
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  SPEAKER_00: not rescuing captives.
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  SPEAKER_00: But they step into the role because, well, you know, somebody needed to.
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  SPEAKER_00: If we don't perceive ourselves as gifted in a particular area,
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  SPEAKER_00: that doesn't mean we shouldn't put ourselves out there and do something.
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  SPEAKER_00: The amigos are scared they might get killed,
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  but they go for it so that the mottos they have been reciting
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  for years could
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: finally become sort of true.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wherever there is injustice, you will find us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wherever there is suffering, we'll be there.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find the three amigos.
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  I think we could say that the amigos discovered that they were
• 20:05
  indeed not talented
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  SPEAKER_00: at being gunfighters,
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  SPEAKER_00: but they accomplished more than they anticipated.
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  SPEAKER_00: So too the town.
• 20:17
  It turns out that the villagers of Santa Poco are talented at
• 20:21
  almost nothing,
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: certainly nothing that could be helpful in a gunfight.
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  SPEAKER_00: The only thing they can do is sew.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: But with a little creativity,
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: even that random skill becomes a weapon,
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  SPEAKER_00: leading to the downfall of evil and the establishment of justice.
• 20:44
  Seeing the Amigos rally the town to stand up to El Guapo and
• 20:50
  defeat his gang will
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  SPEAKER_00: provide a model for you as you face your own personal El Guapo,
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  SPEAKER_00: be it shyness,
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: lack of education,
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  SPEAKER_00: or something much more serious.
• 21:07
  And we Christians know that with Jesus on our side,
• 21:11
  El Guapo doesn't stand a chance.