Star Wars

Hey all,

I figured that it was time that I started at least filling in some gaps, and expanding a little bit on what was said on Sunday morning. Because, you see, there is never enough time to say everything, and goodness knows most folks don't want to hear me drone on and on. But, I did want to say a little more about sin and redemption in the Star Wars franchise. Because I think it's important.

If you start at Episode one (which nobody should ever do), a few funny things happen. First of all, Shmi Skywalker mentions, sort of off-hand, that there was no dad in the picture when Anakin was conceived. Curiouser and curiouser.

Star Wars Family Tree

Yes, a virgin birth. Okay, so Anakin, the chosen one, doesn't have an earthly dad. That sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? Sort of Christlike, in a way. But that's not all, not really. In that family tree, you see other things happening. You see characters becoming other characters. Regular folks becoming sith lords, or whatever. And why do they do that? Because they choose the quick and easy path, and allow, in the words of Yoda, "anger, fear and aggression" to dominate.
But the whole story of sin and redemption sort of falls apart with the whole notion of light side versus dark side. It starts out well enough, but the guys on the dark side acknowledge and flat out state that they're on the dark side of the force. They admit it, wear black, talk with evil voices, and, in the case of Darth Vader, directly claim that there is no conflict, no good in him.

Vader says that he has no good in him.

But the point of sin and forgiveness is that if you're a sinner, a real profligate sinner, you don't think of yourself as bad. At all. Vader, the Emperor, Darth everybody, they all knew they were bad guys. They talk about being evil, about not being good, about being on the dark side of the force. And when you get bad, you don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about how bad you are. You spend a lot of time thinking about how you're okay. You spend more time thinking about how the rest of the world needs to catch up to you, and about how out of touch everyone else is, and so on. Once you cross over a certain point, pretty much nobody thinks they're bad. And that's, as I said on Sunday, when you get into trouble. After you've gone so far, then you resent anyone telling you that you're doing anything wrong. Because you seriously and sincerely believe that you're in the right, no matter what you're doing.

That's what makes the Christian message so difficult to preach now, is that the gospel seems wholly unnecessary. People don't see themselves as being part of the dark side, they don't see themselves as more machine than man, twisted and evil. They don't understand that they are sinful and twisted and broken. And we Lutherans, who love the Gospel, are quick to point out the redemptive work of Christ, we are less likely to point out that that redemptive work has to redeem something. Something like us, who need to be redeemed.

It's a real thing, isn't it? You can spend your entire life thinking you're pretty good, but after a good long look in the mirror, you realize how far you still have to go. That's why the whole sin and forgiveness stuff is so important. In Star Wars as well as in life.

PJ.