To my DU friends about church, and "Star Wars"... :-)

[DARE to HOPE]

I know many are wrestling over what good is church going anyhow, and how many of you have had really awful rightwing churches in your history, giving out a LOT of pain.


But I can only rejoice in the day I had!

My husband's opening question of his homily: "What is coming? What is it everybody has been waiting for? What is finally happening NEXT WEEK?"

Only the kids knew, and they were too shy to say it out loud.

"Star Wars!" The final chapter of the Star Wars series!! :-)



Our kids were 7 and 8 when the first one came out--1977. They saw it 12 times. But today, after teaching Sunday School, playing worship for Easter VII, spending coffee hour passing out flowers for Mother's Day, then hospital visits, and a Thai dinner out, and all our family phone calls--we collapsed home and found on local cable "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi!"

What a film. What a delight of sights and sounds and cultures of this world and those in the stars as well!

But the part that got me through the throat--Luke Skywalker finally confronts his own father, who had turned to the Dark Side (next week's film tells that story)--Luke is dying as the Master his father has served all these years zaps him with his own evil power--but he refuses to give up on his father, to kill his father--he says he believes there still is some good in him!

And then you see--Darth Vader, struggling within himself, finally knock the evil Master out of the block, head over heels!

"I want to stay with you, and save you!" says Luke, as the Darth Vader mask comes off! "You already have, Luke..." says the father, expiring.



My dear friends, this is what church is all about, really. A fight between good and evil. A fight between hate and love. A fight between truth and lies. A fight between true morality and immorality.

And Jesus showed us just exactly what that meant. The Beatitudes, the whole Sermon on the Mount, the way He treated outsiders and "sinners," the sacrifice that He made.

Church is about learning how to be a Jedi, how to find the spiritual power and courage, how to grow in love in a world filled with hate...how to develop that Light stick that can counter evil on a number of battlefields. AND, that forgiveness (as Oprah would say!)...is a gift you give yourself.


We have had our own tough battles. The Lutherans (LCMS) went through their own split like the Southern Baptists, over the same issues, women, Bible, relations with other Christians. Like the Southern Seminary Rev Phelps (on Amy Goodman the other day) came from, Concordia St Louis was a powerhouse of progressive Christian theology in the postwar period. There was a conscious effort (from some political ELS Lutherans from Minneapolis) to destroy it. They have destroyed a lot of churches, but also helped give rise to the ELCA from our yeast. Long story, but we have confronted a LOT of evil in this working class south side of Chicago congregation, and in the church body at large.

But also, many Jedi have gone forth from this parish. And those who would try to "kick out" the "unwanted members" or even the pastor, finally had to leave themselves (unrepentant, of course.) This included the group that liked to yell "baby killers!" and "heretics!"--strange how several ended up in jail, divorced or dead once they left us.


Just switched on C-Span and heard the venerable Cong Elijah Cummings intone his astonishment and dismay during Waxman's hearings on the Vioxx scandal. One of these drug companies evidently has a video for their employees invoking Dr. Martin Luther King in a horrifically disrespectful way. These Congressmen are all expressing shock and horror at how the drug companies have pushed dangerous drugs onto the American public with nothing but propaganda and greed. THIS is the sort of evil in all our faces these days.


Anyway--I go to church to learn the ways of the Jedi, and to develop my Light stick. And, not living grandly, but somehow surviving, it has worked for us so far....


"May the Force be with you all!"
:-)

[NMDemDist2]

1. wonderful post! thank you !

doubt it will get me to church but it does live up to your username all the way!

[DanCa]

2. Good post my friend.

But is it cool that I am more Battlestar Galactica, and Deep Space nine than star wars? :)

[minnesotaDFLer]

3. A nice

post, but im still NEVER going to church.

[DARE to HOPE]

4. Go to the movies then... :-)

"Millions" is an amazing British film, one by which you can be sure the whole family will be absorbed. Focuses on what kids might do with money that just flies in "from heaven." Funny, and pretty darn current.

Then there is "Kingdom of Heaven"--yes, it's about a part of the Crusades, but is about the most anti-war movie out there. Puts the fundies in a very bad light. Swashbuckling with intelligence.

[bush_is_wacko]

5. may I suggest "Kingdom of Heaven" as a movie that is PERFECT for

our own times, yet again! The ultimate message is that it is NOT Jerusalem (religion)that is worth fighting over. The PEOPLE within it's walls are the only thing worth fighting for. I was surprised over this movie. I now realize why right-wing churches have advised their parishioners NOT to see this movie. It isn't the violence although that is certainly there because the Crusades were violent. The real reason they don't want their members to see this movie is that it's message is quite clear. Even during the Crusades there were knights willing to stand against their King and stand for truth and peace. it is the first time I have ever seen them represented in a movie about the crusades.

I highly recommend this movie to ALL!

[DerekG]

6. Anyone who invokes Christianity and Star Wars in one essay is awesome!

I often fancy the Christian Dominionist politicos as Sith lords: they pervert the Lord's message in their pursuit of power. (The upcoming duel between Yoda and Sidious in the Senate is a resonant metaphor.)

And yet, if we are to believe the prophetic books and the gospels, our dream--the end to militarism and poverty--is God's dream...and even the most depraved cadre can not prevent this.

[cprise]

7. It's like opera

...for the developmentally challenged. Perhaps 99% of the emotional content comes from non-human mask-things, and the humans act like puppets. And then there is the shallow, bastardized version of Eastern religion translated into fundamentalist terms for American audiences: light side / dark side == good/bad.

The storyteller (billionaire George Lucas) has an open contempt for democracy and it shows in his movies.

Loved it as a kid though!

[DerekG]

9. "Opera for the developmentally challenged"?

True, few should perceive the Star Wars films as a serious meditation on the transcendent--look to "The Last Temptation of Christ," "The Seventh Seal" or "The Passion of Joan of Arc" for that--but your comment is insulting to the millions who do find some meaning in the saga. (I find the Darth Vader of "The Empire Strikes Back" to be a fascinating parallel to Cronus--the tyrant who, feeling his own power fading, seeks to devour his son.)

These films, by the way, do not convey any contempt for democracy: the Republic was referred to as "the civilized age"; and the Jedi of the prequels, lingering in their ivory towers, detached from humanity, perish as a result of this aloofness, while the Luke of ROTJ is a more personable warrior, opting to rejoin his friends after his triumph.

Loved Star Wars as a kid, and I love it as an adult!

[cprise]

13. The Republic is portrayed as silly and self-absorbed

...and that is the intent.

The problem is, over the course of 5 movies there's not much more than when you described.

SW proves that people want to be engrossed by pomp and granduer (special effects) and will cling to small scraps of meaning to validate the experience. TV news has become the same way.

[Tux]

11. ?????

OK. Lucas did combine some aspects of Buddhism and Taoism to make the Jedi (based on samurai dramas). Considering how the rebels were fighting for freedom and won, I don't see how a viewer can see contempt for democracy in the films. Light/Dark sides weren't absolutes. Vader did change sides within a few seconds.

Opera is for the developmentally impaired since it is shallow and just another way of saying "dressed up pig of drama".

[cprise]

14. I agree about opera

But Star Wars is the quintessential postmodern 'space opera'. Traditional opera is quaint and personable in comparison.

"Vader did change sides within a few seconds."

Yes like flipping a lightswitch... on or off.

[Tux]

15. Lightswitch?

No but the major change did occur in a few seconds as the Emporer was cooking Luke. Even Vader's little dad to son talk showed that he wasn't pure evil as he understood Luke's goals. SOme gray area does exist in Star Wars such as Yoda and Obiwan telling Luke to kill daddy.

[warrior1]

8. Return of the Jedi

Is playing on one our local channels. Nothing else on so what the heck, when show came back from commercial the local channel inserted a warning for the little kitties'.

Warning this program has Adult Themes.

The next scene was with Yoda talking to Luke. Yoda was wasn't feeling well and was in bed. Close to dying I guess.

It's fucking rated PG.

Welcome to the george bush america.

[Democrats_win]

10. Great Comparison. Note the universal celebration when good won.

In the version on TV, they showed places, like Courusant, celebrating the end of the empire. This is a change from the original.

Also, according to internet movie data base (imdb.com), the final scene with Obi-Wan, Anakin and Yoda shows Hayden Christensen as Anakin instead of the older Anakin portrayed in the original version. However, as near as I can tell, this change was not made on the one on TV. Anyone agree?

Another Christian aspect of star wars is that Anakin was probably fathered by the Force itself. In the Phantom Menace, his mother implies that she was a virgin. In Return of the Jedi, the last scene has three Jedi "ghosts" appear which could represent the Trinity? Check out February 2005's Vanity Fair for a discussion of the Force and the awesome cover photo of all the main living SW's actors.

Anyway, enjoy the Revenge of the Sith which, at least in the book, resembles the Bush administration

[Tux]

12. There is some Buddhism going on too

"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Yoda

If that doesn't sound even a little bit Buddhist, then Yoda is a fundie.