By: Pat Shay, Lead Pastor at Cory Community
“Play it again, Sam!”
This is one of those movie lines that people often get wrong. In the movie Casablanca, Sam (the piano player) is told to “play it” a few times by the characters Rick and Ilsa (played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.) The “it” was the song, “As Time Goes By”.
The song is a reminder for Rick and Ilsa of the great memories and joy they shared while in Paris.
However, the song also brings great sadness because it reminds them of what they can no longer have.
You see, Ilsa had been married to a man named Victor Laszlo. Victor had been taken away while he was a part of the Allied resistance against Nazi Germany, and she was told he had died in a concentration camp.
However, after finding love again with Rick in Paris, she receives news that Victor is miraculously still alive. So, she leaves Rick to rejoin Victor, just as the Nazis were invading. Rick is crushed not knowing why Ilsa had left.
That song played by Sam, which had initially been a song of joy, had now become a song without hope.
The movie continues with Rick and Sam relocating from Paris to Casablanca. Knowing the memories that are attached to that song, Rick demands that Sam never play “it” again.
Part of what makes Casablanca such a great movie, is that we feel the complexity of Ilsa’s situation.
Ilsa’s ill fortune was reversed after discovering her husband was still alive. And yet, now, Ilsa finds herself in torment, as she is in love with two men: Rick and Victor.
I think this is similar to the false good fortune that the world offers us. When we attempt to divide our loves–to love God and the world–there is no fortune in our future. We find the same thing as Isla: turmoil and chaos.
This Advent season, I want to Play it again. But the song I want to play isn’t “As Time Goes By”. It’s Psalm 126
Hopefully, we can sing this song with the same hope and anticipation that the Israelites would sing it as they ascended up to Jerusalem.
It begins with how God had restored the fortunes of his people (v.1). It then continues with a pleading to restore their fortunes again (v. 4).
James Mays in his commentary on Psalms writes that this “song is about joy remembered and joy anticipated.”
So, if we look back with our tear-filled eyes and remember our former joy, than we can then understand that God has not placed us in an impossible position with no hope. He sent us His son. There is promise of an again restored fortune…a greater joy that can be anticipated.
This is true no matter our present situation.
Becuase of this, we don’t have to avoid this song because it only reminds us of a better time in the past. It also reminds us of an even better future.
So, play it (again) Sam!