The Force

Got a chance to re-visit the core text of my childhood tonight at church--the text I was reared on. The text that I memorized and that fueled my imagination. Not the Bible. Star Wars. The very first movie I remember seeing in a theater.

Never once prior to my preparations for tonight's sermon have I considered the way this iconic story that was so central to my childhood might have effected my worldview. Tonight, I waded into that water with a meditation on "belief." I remembered Luke's deepening journey to understand the Force as portraying a type of journey toward belief (in God). In Star Wars, Luke first sees the Force and its capabilities through his teacher, Obi-wan. Luke's a novice, but a quick and earnest student. By the end of the film, Luke learns to channel the Force in order to accomplish something heroic (turning off his navigational computer, trusting his feelings, firing the shot that destroys the Death Star). His relationship to the Force is characterized by curiosity, openness, but it is directed toward utilitarian ends.

In the Empire Strikes Back, Luke's journey into the Force sends him deeper into himself. He winds up studying with Yoda in the Dagobah swamp, which, like the mind, is a place of mist and shadows--Luke begins to understand that the Force is not utilitarian in nature. As he faces harder tasks, he tries to marshal faith equal to the task--only to fail, and by failing, discover that belief is not something instrumental to our lives that helps us to accomplish things. The Force, as Yoda describes here, is the power that undergirds and shapes reality. Our task is to believe in the Force so much that we participate in its ongoing work; when our work and the work of the Force are the same, we can harness its power to move mountains... or spaceships. The task becomes an afterthought.

To participate in the power of the Force--to believe in the Force--does not happen by incremental growth. At some point, it requires a cognitive leap--a Kierkegaardian leap?--into an "alternative" universe in which bodies are not simply flesh and blood, but also light and spirit, and and beings are not isolated, alienated things doomed to consume one another in pursuit of self-serving desires, but we are bound together in inter-dependency. Evil (Darth Vader) is not just to be defeated, but--because evil is a part of you--it must be redeemed.

I love watching how Luke struggles to make the leap. I believe. Lord, help my unbelief.