Little Miss Sunshine

In scene 3 A Nice Family Dinner, we're introduced to our very dysfunctional cast of characters as they share a meal together.  It proves to be quite an amalgamation of persons with very differing goals and ideals.  In many ways it mirrors a very segmented view of community in it's early stages of forming till our characters have time and space to interact with each other and find grounds of commonality and purposes for conformity.

Galatians 5:19-21

^19-21It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

   This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

In scene 16 End of a Dream, our centralizing protagonist begins to emerge as Olive is called on to comfort Dwayne as he discovers his color-blindness and the apparent death of his dream to be an Air Force test pilot.  It is here that we start to learn what centers this cast of misfits and drives them to continue on in this quest that seems foolhardy at best.  When words lose their value it's true presence that maintains and it is the driving force in true community.  

Philippians 2:1-4

^1-4If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

In scene 22 Olive performs the dance that her grandfather had taught her to the protest of Frank and Dwayne.  They realize that Olive shouldn't be put through the humiliation of the performance in front of the pageant folks.  When the pageant director calls for the immediate stoppage of her dance, community in the form of her family comes to her rescue right when she needs them most.  

James 3:17-18

 ^17-18Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.