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    Jul 26, 2015

    Empire Strikes Back

    Empire Strikes Back

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: Faith at the Movies

    Category: Faith

    The Empire Strikes Back is a film filled with images of Christ figures which can help us focus on becoming more like Christ. In his ministry, Jesus used methods and demonstrated behaviors that are echoed in this Star Wars movie and explored in this week’s sermon.

    Faith at the Movies 4: The Empire Strikes Back

    This week we are approaching the meditation a bit differently from the way we approached the last few stories.  I stumbled across a great book written by a seminary professor, Russell Dalton, who not only loves fantasy stories but has identified a number of themes that run through the Star Wars series, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings.

    Dalton identified 12 themes that run through all 3 of the series he studied.  A few of the chapter titles might interest some of you:  A Whole New World; Traveling Provisions: God Gives Us What we Need for the Journey; Traveling Companions: Friendship and Fellowship; The Trail of Trials.  I imagine that as I listed those titles you may have found yourself thinking about segments of the stories that you know – maybe even some that we’ve looked at over the last few weeks.

    As I read his work, I found that throughout his book, Dalton pointed to Christlike behaviors.  He has a chapter on Christ figures and sacrifice, but there was a great deal more throughout the book that pointed to Jesus, and I decided that today we would focus on a few of those.

    Let’s begin with Jesus’ model of gathering traveling companions.  We sometimes sing, “Jesus walked that lonesome valley,” but his ministry modeled working as a group and teaching those companions the Way.  At the end of his journey, Jesus prayed a prayer that Mark will read for us in a moment, asking God that the disciples would be “one.”  It wasn’t just in having a group – it was having a group that became community in the deepest sense of the word – echoing his own words that “I call you friends”.  In the Star Wars series, there are many themes where friendship is celebrated as important.  Hear these scriptures:

    "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one. (John 17:20-22)
     
    After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.  (Luke 10:1)
     

    In The Empire Strikes Back, a small group labors alongside each other, fighting to prevent the Empire from overtaking the rebellion.  Luke, Han and Leia, along with R2D2, C3PO and Chewbacca, the Wookiee develop a deep friendship.  Notice that this small group, like that of Jesus’ disciples, is diverse, calling on the special gifts of each one to accomplish their objectives.  Friends help each other along the way and are loyal when adversity strikes, even when that loyalty is potentially costly.  Demonstrations of mercy and forgiveness run through this film as well as through the saga, and perseverance is shown by R2D2 as well as his human friends.  All of the main characters – even the nattering, ‘fraidy cat, C3PO – persevere despite their fear when they are in danger, and in many instances, they persevere in order to bring a friend through a dangerous situation.   In this clip, Luke fails to return from a mission and Han Solo refuses to allow him to perish on the ice planet Hoth.  Notice Chewie’s cry of anguish….

    Clip #1 – 10:00 (Cue – Luke is running into the storm) to 12:32 (Cue – Chewie’s cry as the doors close.)

    Last week we talked a little bit about how Jesus used story to draw people in and encourage spiritual growth.  Think for a moment about some of the things Jesus said.  “…[Jesus] told strange and surprising stories that turned people’s assumptions upside down.  His parables featured the despised Samaritans as heroes and the respected Pharisees as hypocrites.  He also spoke in short and pithy wisdom sayings that took the form of paradoxes... and challenges to people’s thinking…Jesus was not interested in just providing his disciples with simple answers.  Rather, he wanted them to question their assumptions about the world and start to think about life in a whole new way.”[1]

    The first will be last, and the last will be first.  (Matthew 19:30)
     
    For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.  (Luke 9:24)
     
    Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come forward." Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3:1-6)
     
    Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.  (Mark 11:15-18)
     

    Yoda demonstrates such Christlike methods of teaching with Luke.  To all appearances, Yoda is an odd creature – small of stature and strange in speech.  Yet, as most of us know, he was the Jedi Master par excellance, and he quickly captures Luke’s attention – well, most of it, anyway.

    Clip #2 – 1:08:11 (Cue – Luke hanging upside down, raising stones) to 1:13:20 (Cue – Yoda says, “That is why you fail.”)

    Near the end of this movie, Empire has a climactic, dramatic scene where Luke is “metaphorically and literally balancing on the edge of an abyss”[2] as he makes the most important decision of his life:  whether or not to join Lord Vader and the Dark Side of the Force and use their combined power to rule the galaxy.  The scene could have come directly out of the Gospels as it so closely mirrors the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  Dalton says:  “The Reign of God, it seems, was not to be implemented through acts of power and destruction, but by acts of mercy.  Jesus taught a subversive way of using power. It is power that comes with traveling the extra mile and from loving our enemies.  It is the power of mercy and love.”[3]  I would add that is was also the power of being obedient and in close relationship to God, the Source.

    After tempting Jesus with food and saving him from a steep fall, …again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.' "
     

    Clip #3 – 1:50:37  (Cue – Vader talking to Luke on a girder.) to 1:52:45 (Cue – Luke’s fall into the abyss ends on a pole.)

    Join us on Wednesday night as we watch the whole movie together – and explore where you see Jesus in this film – a favorite of several on our Worship Design Team!

    [1] Dalton, Russell W., Faith Journey Through Fantasy Lands: A Christian Dialogue with Harry Potter, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings.  Copyright © 2003 Russell W. Dalton.  Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis.  Page 46
    [2] Ibid, pg. 87.
    [3] Ibid., pg. 80.