Star Wars And God's Peace
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
George Lucas' "Star Wars" movies have had a huge impact on our culture, and our parishioners are aware that the latest (and last) of the series is now opening in our multiplexes. George Murphy, lead writer for this Trinity Sunday issue of The Immediate Word, identifies a number of religious elements in these films and compares and contrasts these with the Christian faith in God as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier. In commenting on the appointed lections for this Sunday, he also suggests themes for effective preaching on what can be a perplexing doctrine.
Other team members offer responses, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Star Wars And God's Peace
Genesis 1:1--2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20
By George Murphy
Nearly thirty years ago the first Star Wars film (now labeled Episode IV) burst on the world. It wasn't the first big science fiction movie and in some ways was standard "space opera," with starships speeding through interstellar space. But it had two intriguing features. Unlike much science fiction, there was what seemed to be a religious element, "The Force." And the film had a memorable and mysterious villain, Darth Vader. It was followed by two more episodes, and then, after a long wait, George Lucas began the three-episode "prequel."
This Thursday, May 19, we'll finally have the last Star Wars film (though the third of six in chronological order), Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith. We'll find out how Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side of the Force to become Lord Vader, in the service of the galactic emperor.
And this Sunday is the festival of the Holy Trinity. We'll hear of God creating the universe with its interstellar spaces in Genesis 1:1--2:4a. We'll recite or sing Psalm 8, in which humanity rules creation. And in the gospel, Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus does not give his disciples the hope "May the Force be with you" but the promise that he himself will be with them "to the end of the age."
A lot of the people in our congregations grew up with Star Wars, and even those who aren't heavily invested in it will recognize some of its characters and phrases. (The Wagnerian Leitmotif for Darth Vader is sometimes played at crucial moments of football games, and a few days ago I heard it as the ring tone of a woman's cell phone.) If preachers want to make some connections with popular culture, Star Wars is one obvious place to start.
The first creation story of Genesis has the cosmic scope of Star Wars, but the expanse of the heavens and the celestial bodies aren't the focus of the account. In fact, the creation of the sun, moon, and stars is carefully described in such a way as to make it clear that these things that were objects of worship in surrounding cultures are not to be deified. Their creation is not first or last but in the middle, and in order to avoid reference to pagan deities the sun and moon are not even named. They are just the big light and the smaller light. And the stars seem to be added just as an afterthought -- literally "and stars."
Instead it is humanity that seems to be the crown of creation, made at the end of the sixth day to be God's image and likeness and commanded to "have dominion" over the earth. We are to be -- well, in Star Wars terms, maybe the galactic emperor. Or maybe (since we are after all just the image of God) the galactic emperor's right hand man or woman.
That's the way Christians have sometimes been accused of reading Genesis 1 in recent years, and the exploitative attitude that such a reading encourages has been blamed for our environmental problems. (An article by Lynn White, Jr., "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis," Science 155 [1967], 1203, is now an almost canonical reference for such arguments.) Is this just a parody? Unfortunately not. Christians often have read the text in this way, as if all of creation were given to us to use for our own profit and pleasure, without concern for the welfare of other creatures.
Now "dominion" does mean "dominion." The Hebrew word comes from the verb radhah, which can mean to subdue or to tread upon. But we have to remember that this text was directed to people who were far more at the mercies of natural forces than we are, and who couldn't imagine being able to have the kind of impact on the environment that we can effect. To get the full sense we have to look at the context and see that the command to "have dominion" follows the statement that we are to be the image and likeness of God. We are to be God's representatives in ruling creation. Thus we need to ask how God rules. Is God the dominating cosmic emperor?
The question can perhaps best be addressed by looking not at Genesis 1 but at the Psalm for this Sunday, which expresses a closely related theme. Here again in Psalm 8 humans have been given "dominion" (though a different Hebrew word is used) over God's work, and God has put "all things under their feet" (v. 6). But in this case we have a biblical commentary on the text, Hebrew 2:6-9, which quotes this Psalm. Here it is not simply humans in general but "we do see Jesus" as the one to whom the world is subject. And Jesus does not exploit the world or tyrannize it but dies for it. The role to which we are called is not that of the oriental despot or galactic emperor but that of caretakers of creation.
Before leaving Genesis 1, I should return to a phrase I used earlier, that humanity "seems to be the crown of creation." Even though humanity is the last "thing" to be made in this account, it can be argued that the Sabbath, as a sign and foretaste of the ultimate fulfillment of creation, is what the whole account is leading up to. This is why the Sabbath is to be a time of rejoicing in Jewish thought (and not a time just to sit grimly doing nothing) and why in the gospels so many of Jesus' healings take place on that day: They are signs of the breaking in of the kingdom of God.
With all this talk of God, however, what about the God of Star Wars? Unless I'm mistaken (and I'm not one of those Star Wars buffs who knows every line of every film) the word "God" hasn't been mentioned in any of the movies. But there is "The Force."
From the way it's described it sounds like a kind of field pervading the universe that trained people are able to sense. (There is talk about "feeling a disturbance in the Force," for example.) As soon as the first Star Wars film came out in the 70s, people saw in The Force some connections with Eastern religions. (This was the period in which Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics was arguing for similarities between those religions and the physics of relativity and elementary particles.)
Not everybody was happy about that. In the first film, when Luke Skywalker makes his final bombing run on the Death Star, he turns off his targeting computer to let himself be guided by The Force -- and he succeeds. Some technophiles were upset by this, seeing in it a surrender of rationality to mysticism. But one doesn't have to be a mystic to think that maybe all our problems can't be solved by technology.
Since a great deal of science fiction (and a great deal of fiction generally) ignores religion, Christians may be glad that a religious element plays a generally positive role in these movies. Some, in fact, have gotten carried away. In the year that the first Star Wars film came out there appeared a book by Frank Allnutt, The Force of Star Wars (Van Nuys, California: Bible Voice, 1977), which read the movie as an allegory of Christianity. The fact that the supposed parallels between cinematic and biblical figures fall apart when the other episodes are considered should be a warning against trying to force the Star Wars universe into a Christian pattern.
But similarities and contrasts are worth considering. Wolfhart Pannenberg's parallel between the Holy Spirit and concept of a "field of force" in physics (in, e.g., his Systematic Theology, vol. 1 [Eerdmans, 1991], pp. 381ff.) suggests one point of contact with the Star Wars Force. One difference, however, is that between the impersonal "Force" and the personal, and indeed tri-personal, God of Christian faith. On Trinity Sunday it might be worth giving some thought to what we mean when we speak of belief in "a personal God."
Questions about the technical meanings of "person" in the theological tradition and whether the divine nature itself should be spoken of as "personal" will probably be too technical for a sermon. But I think there are issues that people need to think about. I suspect that when some people talk about believing in a "personal God" or say that they have a "personal savior" they may mean the adjective in the way that we do when we speak about "my personal property" -- i.e., the things that belong to me and no one else. None of us has exclusive access to God! The point is rather that we can relate to God as we relate to a person.
And in fact "person" is best thought of in relational rather than individual terms (as in the classic definition of person as "an individual substance of a rational nature"). Thomas Aquinas, e.g., spoke of the persons of the Trinity as "subsistent relations." The idea of the image of God that we find in our First Lesson should perhaps be thought of not so much in the sense that each individual human being is to be the divine image as that the whole of humanity is to be the image of the Trinity as community. (See, e.g., Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom [Harper & Row, 1981]. This concept of a "social trinity" has not gone without criticism. For discussion of it and other work in modern trinitarian theology, Ted Peters' God as Trinity: Relationality and Temporality in Divine Life [Westminster John Knox, 1993] is quite good.) This has significant implications for the ways in which we think of ourselves as persons in relation to other people.
The concept of "the dark side of the Force" in particular has to be treated with care if we want to make any Christian parallels. The biblical God is not "beyond good and evil." The dark side is not part of God but is that nothingness that threatens creation, "the deep" that God overcomes in making and sustaining the world. But the way God acts in the world does have a dark aspect. If God limits action in the world in order to allow creation its own integrity and relative autonomy, then we encounter that aspect in the fact that God doesn't intervene (at least in most cases) to prevent natural or moral evil. People are not compelled to be good but can choose evil -- can allow themselves to be drawn to the dark side.
As Anakin Skywalker is drawn to the dark side of the Force to become Darth Vader, the preacher might wish that the story of Adam and Eve's sin in Genesis 3 were one of the texts for the Sunday. Actually another "fall" story, that of Ezekiel 28:11-19, may provide a closer parallel to the Star Wars story. Here the myth of the primal man, "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty ... in Eden, the garden of God" is used to speak of the pride and downfall of the king of Tyre. Both these stories remind us (especially in the way that Ezekiel uses the language of myth to speak of a historical figure) that we are always faced with the choice of whether or not to turn to the dark side. Our individual histories may tend us one way (as Episodes I and II of Star Wars have shown us the history of Anakin Skywalker), but it's a choice we must make now.
The oracle against the king of Tyre in Ezekiel ends with the ominous words, "You have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." It's the final descent into the darkness. It would be easy to picture Darth Vader as an unredeemable sinner. But it's important to remember something we already know if we've seen Episode VI, The Return of the Jedi: Darth Vader is saved in the end!
The whole way in which the Star Wars episodes have been presented to us seems at first unnatural: Episodes IV, V, and VI before I, II, and III. We know about Darth Vader as supreme sinner and all the battles that finally lead to the victory of good over evil and the redemption of the sinner before we find out how things went bad in the first place. But this is pretty much the same order in which the biblical traditions developed and in which theological reflection works. Israel knew itself first as the ones brought out of slavery and called to be God's people before it reflected seriously on questions about the creation of the universe and the origin of sin. Christians realized the existential problem of sin and believed in Christ as their savior for the first four centuries of the Christian era before questions about original sin -- about why all people are sinners and can't save themselves -- became important.
Star Wars began in the middle of the story and in fact in the middle of a journey: The first scenes that we saw in Episode IV were of Princess Leia's starship fleeing from Darth Vader. That is the way many of the best stories start. Dante's Divine Comedy begins (in Cary's translation), "In the midway of this our mortal life" and we think of Holmes waking Watson with the words "The game is afoot." Our gospel for this Sunday also puts us down in the middle of things. Christ is risen, and now the now the story of the church begins. We -- not just the first disciples -- are commissioned to "make disciples of all nations," baptizing them in the name of the Trinity. (And if we're doubtful about measuring up to the fervent faith of those first followers, remember that "some doubted." And they were called to this task, too.)
Some readers may have been wondering when I was ever going to get to "God's Peace" that I included in my title. Okay, I confess that I paired that with Star Wars mainly because it made a catchy phrase. But there is an interesting point there. A lot of science fiction, a lot of adventure stories in general, depend on conflict of some sort, if not outright war, as a plot element. Some people would wonder how you could have adventure without it.
The various Star Trek series tried to some extent to avoid that. They certainly had battles (with Klingons, and so on) but not in every episode. Many of them focused instead on exploration, meeting new cultures and so forth -- going "where no one has gone before." That might seem like a better model for the mission given in Matthew 28 than one of militant Jedi knights.
But some care is needed here, too. In Star Trek a major rule for Star Fleet is the "Prime Directive," the requirement that the explorers not interfere with the development of any species that hasn't yet achieved space travel. One pastor of a rather liberal denomination once joked that the Prime Directive reminded him of one of his church's evangelism campaigns!
While we should be respectful of people of other faiths (or of no faith) and prepared to be in dialogue with them, the command to "make disciples of all nations" means that religious pluralism is not our highest goal. That means that there is going to be some confrontation with other belief systems. Since (as we heard last week in John 20:19-23) Christ sends us "as the Father sent me," they way we present the claims of the Christian faith is to be modeled on the way that Jesus dealt with people.
There are several themes in what I written about here that could be developed in fairly traditional style. A somewhat more challenging possibility, especially for congregations in which a lot of hearers are likely to see The Revenge of the Sith as soon as it comes out, would be to give a science-fiction story-sermon to convey the Christian message about sin and redemption, or about the mission of the church. Trying to develop too close a parallel with the Star Wars saga wouldn't be necessary but you'd probably want to make enough contact with it that people who had any familiarity with the movies would recognize what you were doing.
The most recent "Handiwork" column that I write for Lutheran Partners deals with Religion and Science Fiction. You can find it at http://www.elca.org/lp/0505_10_printer.html.
May the Trinity be with you!
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: Okay, it began as something of a joke -- or maybe it was a tax protest. Several years back, the United Kingdom was conducting a national census, in which citizens were polled as to their religious affiliation. No fewer than 390,000 Britons identified themselves to the census-takers as members of the Jedi religion. You can read about it in a 2003 BBC news article, "Census Returns of the Jedi":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2757067.stm
The movement apparently began in New Zealand -- a month prior to the British census -- after some Star Wars fans learned that if 10,000 New Zealanders identified themselves as Jedi, the law required the government to recognize them as an official religion. Here's the website of "the Jedi Church," which is the product of that effort:
http://www.jedichurch.org/
Although this campaign appears to be largely a joke, at least some of the newly declared Jedis appeared to take it seriously. This spiritual earnestness ought to come as no surprise. The mythology of Star Wars did not arise in a vacuum: it resonates not only with Christianity, but also with a number of the great religions of the world. Although the pronounced dualism between the Force and its Dark Side -- seemingly equal to one another in power -- may have more in common with Zoroastrianism than monotheistic Christianity, there is still plenty that sounds familiar to us. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous rely on a Higher Power as they go into recovery; it's a truism, in AA, that devotion to one's Higher Power may be focused on just about anything, as long as it works for the individual. Is the Higher Power of AA any different, really, from George Lucas' The Force? ("Trust the force, Luke," says Yoda to young Skywalker, in a moment of spiritual struggle; is that any different from the admonition of the AA sponsor to a new recruit: "Trust your Higher Power"?)
Trinity Sunday is indeed a good day to emphasize -- as you so ably do, George -- that the God of Christianity is deeply personal. To declare, as we Christians do, that the Creator God was incarnate in history as Jesus Christ, and continues to relate to us personally as Holy Spirit, is to venture far beyond the shallow pop theology of the Star Wars series. "Three persons, one essence," goes the classic Trinitarian formulation: the Force is more like "No persons, all essence."
Historically, the church has imagined the Trinity as a triangle -- but I'm not sure that's the best image for the modern mind. Say all you want about a three-legged stool as a classic image of stability, but a triangle is somehow too solid, too static, too squat. I'd like to propose, instead, that we think of the Trinity as a circle.
One thing about a circle is that it has no beginning. You can enter the circle at any point. Some enter the circle of God at a particular point, relating more strongly to one person of the Trinity than the others. Some, for example, enter the circle in a powerful, personal experience of grace, mediated through Jesus Christ. Sin and forgiveness loom large in this type of experience; the disciple often feels compelled to revisit the formative grace-experience again and again. For others, it is the love of God that woos them into the circle. Some Christians have grown up with the image of God as a stern taskmaster; when they discover the God of love, it is almost as a conversion experience. Still others see the imprint of God on the life of the Christian community. It is the new quality of life within the fellowship that woos them into faith.
Wherever we seekers may enter the circle, it's not long before we begin to get in touch with the other aspects of the divine nature. If we entered as an individualistic, salvation-oriented believer, it won't be long before we discover the Great Commandment to love. If we entered at communion, or fellowship, drawn in by "those nice people" up at the church, it won't be long before we understand that the reason those people are so winsome is that they know they are sinners in need of grace (as are we all). The Trinity is dynamic; we do not so much comprehend it as become caught up in it.
The classic Trinitarian benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:13 -- "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you" -- is more than mere benign good wishes. It's powerful stuff. If the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us, our lives will never be the same again. If we have experienced the utterly self-giving love of God, our lives will likewise never be the same. If the communion of the Holy Spirit characterizes our common life, our lives will be transformed forever after by that power.
Chris Ewing responds: In an environment where most people are far more conversant (and, probably, comfortable!) with Star Wars theology than trinitarian, an exploration of the similarities and differences such as George has offered is both helpful and interesting.
John Macquarrie, writing just a few years before the original Star Wars movie came out, probed the various ontological possibilities for God in his Principles of Christian Theology (2d edition; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966, 1977). Following Ramsey, he notes that the single word "God" is not an adequate symbol or expression for the Christian's complex experience of deity. "The Christian could not go along with a stark monotheism in which God is utterly transcendent and sovereign, and still less with a pantheism in which God is entirely and universally immanent; he could not embrace a monism in which all differences are swallowed up in the eternal unity of God, but still less a pluralism like that of the world of polytheism with its 'many gods and many lords.' The Christians confessed: 'For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist' (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). And in the course of further development this basic Christian conviction found expression in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity" (p. 191).
Macquarrie goes on to explore the classical theological language of substance and persons, attempting to transpose it into terms more intelligible today. He notes that the essence or substance of God is Being, and that we must understand God "as Being rather than a being" -- and with this true equally of the three "persons" of the Trinity. They are still Being, not beings (p. 192), a fact that the language of persons can obscure.
As George hinted in his discussion of "a personal God," the term "person" can be a misleading or confusing one for contemporary English speakers, since to untutored ears it implies discrete individuality, a "conscious center of experience" as Macquarrie puts it (p. 193), rather than a way of describing, as Aquinas says, "subsistent relations." There is one "personality" of God, and it is the single essence of the whole Trinity. And this essence of Being "has let itself be understood," notes Macquarrie in a felicitous turn of phrase (p. 198), "not as monolithic but as, so to speak, the energy of letting-be."
God "does not, as it were, hoard Being within himself" but "goes out into the openness of a world of beings," letting beings be out of the fullness of God's Being. God even goes so far as to create human beings, whose "destiny is to be guardians of Being" but who can be either faithful or unfaithful to that destiny (pp. 200-201).
This, then, is the subtext of Genesis (and all our lections): a God who as Source of Being "lets be" all that is, inviting humans into a guardian's role of "letting be" on God's behalf -- not in a passive, laissez-faire sense, but neither in an oppressive or exploitative sense. Our guardianship is to be exercised rather in the sense in which a parent or a farmer welcomes and fosters the fruition of the unique potential of a child or plot of land.
In this vein it is very significant, though often passed without mention, that it was not only the humans who were commanded to increase, multiply, and fill the earth. That blessing was pronounced first on the fifth day (Genesis 1:22) upon the swarms of life in the sea and sky. It is clearly God's will that these elements of creation, just as much as the human element, flourish. The blessing is repeated the following day (1:28), with the additional clause about subduing the earth and having dominion; but after all the magnificent poetry celebrating the whole sweep of creation, and the blessing pronounced upon it, it ought to be completely impossible to take a cavalier or exploitative view of human dominion as license rather than liturgy.
This vision of humanity's role in both creation (Genesis/Psalm) and recreation (Matthew) challenges a Star Wars generation who may well be content, if they break out of our consumer approach to life at all, merely to explore and observe. On the one hand, these readings challenge our tendency to self-interested exploitation; on the other, they also challenge our laissez-faire "Prime Directive" inclinations.
As Christians we have a vision of what the Triune God is about in the world; and we are invited to join God in "letting be" both creation and new creation, cosmos and kingdom of God. Although somewhat easier to get the head around than the doctrine of the Trinity itself, this call to guardianship of Being is one we find difficult. Paul's closing advice in our 2 Corinthians reading (13:11) reminds us of both the mundanity and the difficulty of this charge. We surely need the full resources of the Trinity -- the grace of Christ, Being working in individual beings in concrete situations to realize the generative love of God, in the unitive communion of the Holy Spirit (v. 13) -- if we are to even begin to mirror the divine nature and work to which we are called.
Related Illustrations
By Carlos Wilton
A thoughtful reflection on religious themes in Star Wars, "George Lucas, the Force and God," by Terry Mattingly, may be found at http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/mattingly.html
***
There's an old Irish story of a priest who came upon the scene of an accident. A crowd had gathered around a man who lay on the ground, evidently dying. As the ranks of the crowd parted to let the priest through, several of them explained to the priest that the man was a Catholic and needed the priest's sacramental offices.
The priest said, "Our help and hope is in the Lord, my son. Do you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one, the Holy Trinity?" The man strained to open his eyes. Gazing in wonder a the crowd clustered around him, he sighed and said, "Here I am dying, and he asks me a riddle?"
***
A current article, from a Presbyterian perspective: "Reclaiming the Trinity," by Charles Wiley:
http://www.pcusa.org/today/believe/past/may05/trinity.htm
***
In a lecture delivered at the al-Azhar al-Sharif Institute in Cairo in September, 2004, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams attempted to interpret the Trinity to Muslims (who so often see the doctrine as incompatible with true monotheism):
"... the name 'God' is not the name of a person like a human person, a limited being with a father and mother and a place that they inhabit within the world. 'God' is the name of a kind of life -- eternal and self-sufficient life, always active, needing nothing. And that life is lived eternally in three ways which are made known to us in the history of God's revelation to the Hebrew people and in the life of Jesus. There is a source of life, an expression of life and a sharing of life. In human language we say, 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit', but we do not mean one God with two beings alongside him, or three gods of limited power. Just as we say, 'Here is my hand, and these are the actions my one hand performs', but it is not different from the actions of my five fingers, so with God: this is God, the One, the Living and Self-subsistent, but what God does is not different from the life which is eternally at the same time a source and an expression and a sharing of life. Since God's life is always an intelligent and purposeful life, each of these dimensions of divine life can be thought of as a centre of mind and love; but this does not mean that God 'contains' three different individuals, separate from each other as human individuals are."
-- Anglican Communion News Service release #3882, posted on September 14, 2004
***
Garrison Keillor, modern American prophet from the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," said of love, "We should not think that we have figured this out, because it is not a problem, it's a mystery and always will be."
"It is not a problem, it's a mystery, and always will be." Doesn't that offend you just a little -- the suggestion that there are those things in life we have not, and furthermore, will not ever, figure out? Now that we've become so advanced that we can put fax machines in cars and can send ourselves messages back from Venus, we are not really open to the suggestion that there are those things that always have been and always will be mysteries to us. We assume that our only limitations are time and energy, and, given enough of the two, there is really nothing we can't ultimately know.
So when we come to a doctrinal matter like the Trinity, the temptation is to want one neat analogy that will make it all clear, one concise statement on the Trinity that will settle it for us and allow us to move on to the next problem. Well, I hate to disappoint you so early in my sermon today, but if that is what you are expecting I suggest that you join those of your friends who are already daydreaming this time away. You see, it's just not all that easy. It's not so simple to describe the Trinity in any meaningful way. The Trinity just isn't one of things we can settle in short order.
Maybe if we can't figure out the Trinity in these few brief minutes (and, given that the church in 2,000 years hasn't been able to get it straight, it's a fairly safe bet we won't have the last word on it today), if we can't settle the issue today, maybe we can at least try to point to what the doctrine of the trinity is attempting to say about God and how we experience God.
-- James C. Leach, "Naming God," in Pulpit Digest, January/February 1991, p. 55
***
Rightly understood, the Trinity as a theological image should expand our God consciousness, not restrict it. It should stretch our capacities for wholeness and holiness, not shrink us. It should sharpen our religious imaginations, not dull our sensibilities.
-- Carter Heyward, in The Living Pulpit, April/June 1999, p. 21
***
Church historian Cyril Richardson (and probably others) used to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is a great mystery: If you deny it you are in danger of losing your soul, and if you try to understand it you are in danger of losing your mind.
Worship Resources
By George Reed
N.b.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
OPENING
Music
Hymns
"Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty." WORDS: Reginald Heber, 1826; MUSIC: John B. Dykes, 1861. Public domain. As found in UMH 64; Hymnal '82: 362; LBOW 165; TPH 138; AAHH 329; TNNBH 1; TNCH 277; CH 4.
"We Believe In One True God." WORDS: Tobias Clausnitzer, 1668; trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1863; MUSIC: J. G. Werner's Choralbuch. 1815; arr. William H. Havergal, 1861. Public domain. As found in UMH 85l; LBOW 374 (not the same hymn but a good substitute); TPH 137; AAHH.
"Gloria In Excelsis" or "Canticle Of God's Glory." WORDS: Luke 2:14; John 1:29; MUSIC: Old Scottish Chant; Found in numerous melodic settings. Public domain. As found in UMH 82; Hymnal '82: S201-S204; S272-S281; LBOW: part of the liturgy; TPH 566, 567.
"Glory Be To The Father." WORDS: Lesser Doxology, 3rd-4th century. MUSIC: Henry W. Greatorex, 1851, or MUSIC: Charles Meineke, 1844. Public domain. Often used in the liturgy, if your congregation doesn't normally use it this might be a good opportunity. As found in UMH 70, 71; Hymnal '82; LBOW: part of the liturgy; TPH: 567, 577, 578, 579; AAHH 652, 653, 654; TNNBH 12; CH 35, 36, 37.
"All Things Bright And Beautiful." WORDS: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848; MUSIC: 17th cent. English melody; arr. Martin Shaw, 1915. Public domain. As found in UMH 147; Hymnal '82: 405; TPH 267; TNCH 31; CH 61.
"O God Who Shaped Creation." WORDS: William W. Reid, Jr., 1987; MUSIC: Dale Wood, 1968, 1988. Words (c) 1989 The United Methodist publishing House; music (c) 1969, 1988 Contemporary Worship 1: Hymns; harmony (c) 1988 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As found in UMH 443B.
Songs
"Great Is The Lord." WORDS & MUSIC: Michael W. Smith and Deborah D. Smith, 1982. (c) 1982 Meadowgreen Music Company. As found in Renew 22.
"We Bow Down." WORDS & MUSIC: Twila Parish. (c) 1984 Singspiration Music. As found in Renew 38.
"Lord God, Almighty." WORDS & MUSIC: Coni Huisman. (c) 1984 Coni Huisman. As found in Renew 40.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God is our sovereign.
People: How majestic is God's Name!
Leader: Look at all that God has created!
People: What are we that God should honor us?
Leader: God has made us but a little lower than divinity.
People: All creation has been given to our care.
Leader: You, O God, are our sovereign.
People: How majestic is your Name!
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God, who is the ultimate Unity in Diversity: Grant that as we worship you we may also reflect you image by living together in the midst of our great differences; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We worship and adore you, God, for you are mystery beyond understanding. We name you Trinity and yet we are unable to explain what that means. We can make but poor analogies to the greatness of you unity even as we experience you in three persons. Give us such grace that we may truly be your image on earth. Help us as your people to be united together as we express the diversity of your creation. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another the ways in which we have defiled ourselves as God's image.
People: You created us, O God, and placed within us your own breath, your own spirit, your own life. You gave us all of creation to care for as you care for us. You have given us the example of yourself as a community that is not divided by difference. In spite of all these gifts, we have erred grievously. We have lived our lives disconnected from you and without regard to your gentle leading and teaching. We have used and abused creation making it almost impossible for us to live here. We have forgotten the example of the unity of the Trinity and have found our differences as excuses to exclude and divide us.
Forgive us for our sinfulness, our blindness, and our unwillingness to change and follow your Son, our Savior, Jesus the Christ. Send your Spirit upon us once again that we might be your faithful people, the sign of your presence in all creation.
Leader: The God who created us has also redeemed us. In the Name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven and empowered with the Spirit to live as God's image in this world.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship and adore you, Holy Trinity, Great Three in One. Your being is beyond our understanding and yet you come to reveal yourself to us as one person does to another. You invite us into relationship with you and with each other so that we might truly be your image.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not lived up to that image. We have devastated your creation. We have set barriers between ourselves and others. We have lived for ourselves instead of giving ourselves for others as you have done in Jesus Christ. Forgive us and by the power of your Spirit renew us and send us out to be your presence.
We give you thanks for all of creation. We bless you for all the good gifts we have received from you. We thank you for the abundance of this earth and for the community of humanity. We bless you for making us a part of your ministry and work in creation.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
Knowing of your love and care for all creation, we offer up to you the cares of our hearts. As your Spirit moves in creation bringing wholeness, let us be moved by your Spirit to bring wholeness to those we encounter this week.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship
A Children's Sermon
Go make disciples
Object: a map of the world and a magic marker
Based on Matthew 28:16-20
Good morning! This is a map of the world. (have two adults volunteer hold up the map) Can anyone show me where we are on it? (select a child volunteer to point out where your town is; draw a big "X" to mark your location) Great. We're where the "X" is. Now I am going to draw another "X" by Galilee. That's the place mentioned in today's lesson. (mark the area of Galilee) Can everyone see the two marks? Galilee is a long way from where we are!
In today's reading 11 disciples are told to go to a mountain in Galilee. While they are there, Jesus gives them some instructions. He says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." He tells them to go into the entire world and spread the message of God's love. Jesus was going to leave them and return to heaven, so he tells the disciples to continue his work. If the rest of the world was going to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, those 11 disciples, and a few helpers, were going to have to be the ones to do it. Jesus needed them to spread the word and tell the stories of all they had seen and heard while Jesus was with them.
Look at the map again. The world is pretty big! See Galilee? Somehow 11 disciples and their friends took the story of Jesus and began to spread it around. They wrote things down, told people and journeyed to far-away places. That was almost 2,000 years ago! The Good News has continued to spread ever since. Eventually, the news found its way to our town. We keep telling the stories ourselves. The news that started with 11 people so far away eventually filled the entire world. Amazing!
Prayer: God, thank you for bringing the message to us. Help us do our part to share it with others. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 22, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Other team members offer responses, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Star Wars And God's Peace
Genesis 1:1--2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20
By George Murphy
Nearly thirty years ago the first Star Wars film (now labeled Episode IV) burst on the world. It wasn't the first big science fiction movie and in some ways was standard "space opera," with starships speeding through interstellar space. But it had two intriguing features. Unlike much science fiction, there was what seemed to be a religious element, "The Force." And the film had a memorable and mysterious villain, Darth Vader. It was followed by two more episodes, and then, after a long wait, George Lucas began the three-episode "prequel."
This Thursday, May 19, we'll finally have the last Star Wars film (though the third of six in chronological order), Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith. We'll find out how Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side of the Force to become Lord Vader, in the service of the galactic emperor.
And this Sunday is the festival of the Holy Trinity. We'll hear of God creating the universe with its interstellar spaces in Genesis 1:1--2:4a. We'll recite or sing Psalm 8, in which humanity rules creation. And in the gospel, Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus does not give his disciples the hope "May the Force be with you" but the promise that he himself will be with them "to the end of the age."
A lot of the people in our congregations grew up with Star Wars, and even those who aren't heavily invested in it will recognize some of its characters and phrases. (The Wagnerian Leitmotif for Darth Vader is sometimes played at crucial moments of football games, and a few days ago I heard it as the ring tone of a woman's cell phone.) If preachers want to make some connections with popular culture, Star Wars is one obvious place to start.
The first creation story of Genesis has the cosmic scope of Star Wars, but the expanse of the heavens and the celestial bodies aren't the focus of the account. In fact, the creation of the sun, moon, and stars is carefully described in such a way as to make it clear that these things that were objects of worship in surrounding cultures are not to be deified. Their creation is not first or last but in the middle, and in order to avoid reference to pagan deities the sun and moon are not even named. They are just the big light and the smaller light. And the stars seem to be added just as an afterthought -- literally "and stars."
Instead it is humanity that seems to be the crown of creation, made at the end of the sixth day to be God's image and likeness and commanded to "have dominion" over the earth. We are to be -- well, in Star Wars terms, maybe the galactic emperor. Or maybe (since we are after all just the image of God) the galactic emperor's right hand man or woman.
That's the way Christians have sometimes been accused of reading Genesis 1 in recent years, and the exploitative attitude that such a reading encourages has been blamed for our environmental problems. (An article by Lynn White, Jr., "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis," Science 155 [1967], 1203, is now an almost canonical reference for such arguments.) Is this just a parody? Unfortunately not. Christians often have read the text in this way, as if all of creation were given to us to use for our own profit and pleasure, without concern for the welfare of other creatures.
Now "dominion" does mean "dominion." The Hebrew word comes from the verb radhah, which can mean to subdue or to tread upon. But we have to remember that this text was directed to people who were far more at the mercies of natural forces than we are, and who couldn't imagine being able to have the kind of impact on the environment that we can effect. To get the full sense we have to look at the context and see that the command to "have dominion" follows the statement that we are to be the image and likeness of God. We are to be God's representatives in ruling creation. Thus we need to ask how God rules. Is God the dominating cosmic emperor?
The question can perhaps best be addressed by looking not at Genesis 1 but at the Psalm for this Sunday, which expresses a closely related theme. Here again in Psalm 8 humans have been given "dominion" (though a different Hebrew word is used) over God's work, and God has put "all things under their feet" (v. 6). But in this case we have a biblical commentary on the text, Hebrew 2:6-9, which quotes this Psalm. Here it is not simply humans in general but "we do see Jesus" as the one to whom the world is subject. And Jesus does not exploit the world or tyrannize it but dies for it. The role to which we are called is not that of the oriental despot or galactic emperor but that of caretakers of creation.
Before leaving Genesis 1, I should return to a phrase I used earlier, that humanity "seems to be the crown of creation." Even though humanity is the last "thing" to be made in this account, it can be argued that the Sabbath, as a sign and foretaste of the ultimate fulfillment of creation, is what the whole account is leading up to. This is why the Sabbath is to be a time of rejoicing in Jewish thought (and not a time just to sit grimly doing nothing) and why in the gospels so many of Jesus' healings take place on that day: They are signs of the breaking in of the kingdom of God.
With all this talk of God, however, what about the God of Star Wars? Unless I'm mistaken (and I'm not one of those Star Wars buffs who knows every line of every film) the word "God" hasn't been mentioned in any of the movies. But there is "The Force."
From the way it's described it sounds like a kind of field pervading the universe that trained people are able to sense. (There is talk about "feeling a disturbance in the Force," for example.) As soon as the first Star Wars film came out in the 70s, people saw in The Force some connections with Eastern religions. (This was the period in which Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics was arguing for similarities between those religions and the physics of relativity and elementary particles.)
Not everybody was happy about that. In the first film, when Luke Skywalker makes his final bombing run on the Death Star, he turns off his targeting computer to let himself be guided by The Force -- and he succeeds. Some technophiles were upset by this, seeing in it a surrender of rationality to mysticism. But one doesn't have to be a mystic to think that maybe all our problems can't be solved by technology.
Since a great deal of science fiction (and a great deal of fiction generally) ignores religion, Christians may be glad that a religious element plays a generally positive role in these movies. Some, in fact, have gotten carried away. In the year that the first Star Wars film came out there appeared a book by Frank Allnutt, The Force of Star Wars (Van Nuys, California: Bible Voice, 1977), which read the movie as an allegory of Christianity. The fact that the supposed parallels between cinematic and biblical figures fall apart when the other episodes are considered should be a warning against trying to force the Star Wars universe into a Christian pattern.
But similarities and contrasts are worth considering. Wolfhart Pannenberg's parallel between the Holy Spirit and concept of a "field of force" in physics (in, e.g., his Systematic Theology, vol. 1 [Eerdmans, 1991], pp. 381ff.) suggests one point of contact with the Star Wars Force. One difference, however, is that between the impersonal "Force" and the personal, and indeed tri-personal, God of Christian faith. On Trinity Sunday it might be worth giving some thought to what we mean when we speak of belief in "a personal God."
Questions about the technical meanings of "person" in the theological tradition and whether the divine nature itself should be spoken of as "personal" will probably be too technical for a sermon. But I think there are issues that people need to think about. I suspect that when some people talk about believing in a "personal God" or say that they have a "personal savior" they may mean the adjective in the way that we do when we speak about "my personal property" -- i.e., the things that belong to me and no one else. None of us has exclusive access to God! The point is rather that we can relate to God as we relate to a person.
And in fact "person" is best thought of in relational rather than individual terms (as in the classic definition of person as "an individual substance of a rational nature"). Thomas Aquinas, e.g., spoke of the persons of the Trinity as "subsistent relations." The idea of the image of God that we find in our First Lesson should perhaps be thought of not so much in the sense that each individual human being is to be the divine image as that the whole of humanity is to be the image of the Trinity as community. (See, e.g., Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom [Harper & Row, 1981]. This concept of a "social trinity" has not gone without criticism. For discussion of it and other work in modern trinitarian theology, Ted Peters' God as Trinity: Relationality and Temporality in Divine Life [Westminster John Knox, 1993] is quite good.) This has significant implications for the ways in which we think of ourselves as persons in relation to other people.
The concept of "the dark side of the Force" in particular has to be treated with care if we want to make any Christian parallels. The biblical God is not "beyond good and evil." The dark side is not part of God but is that nothingness that threatens creation, "the deep" that God overcomes in making and sustaining the world. But the way God acts in the world does have a dark aspect. If God limits action in the world in order to allow creation its own integrity and relative autonomy, then we encounter that aspect in the fact that God doesn't intervene (at least in most cases) to prevent natural or moral evil. People are not compelled to be good but can choose evil -- can allow themselves to be drawn to the dark side.
As Anakin Skywalker is drawn to the dark side of the Force to become Darth Vader, the preacher might wish that the story of Adam and Eve's sin in Genesis 3 were one of the texts for the Sunday. Actually another "fall" story, that of Ezekiel 28:11-19, may provide a closer parallel to the Star Wars story. Here the myth of the primal man, "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty ... in Eden, the garden of God" is used to speak of the pride and downfall of the king of Tyre. Both these stories remind us (especially in the way that Ezekiel uses the language of myth to speak of a historical figure) that we are always faced with the choice of whether or not to turn to the dark side. Our individual histories may tend us one way (as Episodes I and II of Star Wars have shown us the history of Anakin Skywalker), but it's a choice we must make now.
The oracle against the king of Tyre in Ezekiel ends with the ominous words, "You have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." It's the final descent into the darkness. It would be easy to picture Darth Vader as an unredeemable sinner. But it's important to remember something we already know if we've seen Episode VI, The Return of the Jedi: Darth Vader is saved in the end!
The whole way in which the Star Wars episodes have been presented to us seems at first unnatural: Episodes IV, V, and VI before I, II, and III. We know about Darth Vader as supreme sinner and all the battles that finally lead to the victory of good over evil and the redemption of the sinner before we find out how things went bad in the first place. But this is pretty much the same order in which the biblical traditions developed and in which theological reflection works. Israel knew itself first as the ones brought out of slavery and called to be God's people before it reflected seriously on questions about the creation of the universe and the origin of sin. Christians realized the existential problem of sin and believed in Christ as their savior for the first four centuries of the Christian era before questions about original sin -- about why all people are sinners and can't save themselves -- became important.
Star Wars began in the middle of the story and in fact in the middle of a journey: The first scenes that we saw in Episode IV were of Princess Leia's starship fleeing from Darth Vader. That is the way many of the best stories start. Dante's Divine Comedy begins (in Cary's translation), "In the midway of this our mortal life" and we think of Holmes waking Watson with the words "The game is afoot." Our gospel for this Sunday also puts us down in the middle of things. Christ is risen, and now the now the story of the church begins. We -- not just the first disciples -- are commissioned to "make disciples of all nations," baptizing them in the name of the Trinity. (And if we're doubtful about measuring up to the fervent faith of those first followers, remember that "some doubted." And they were called to this task, too.)
Some readers may have been wondering when I was ever going to get to "God's Peace" that I included in my title. Okay, I confess that I paired that with Star Wars mainly because it made a catchy phrase. But there is an interesting point there. A lot of science fiction, a lot of adventure stories in general, depend on conflict of some sort, if not outright war, as a plot element. Some people would wonder how you could have adventure without it.
The various Star Trek series tried to some extent to avoid that. They certainly had battles (with Klingons, and so on) but not in every episode. Many of them focused instead on exploration, meeting new cultures and so forth -- going "where no one has gone before." That might seem like a better model for the mission given in Matthew 28 than one of militant Jedi knights.
But some care is needed here, too. In Star Trek a major rule for Star Fleet is the "Prime Directive," the requirement that the explorers not interfere with the development of any species that hasn't yet achieved space travel. One pastor of a rather liberal denomination once joked that the Prime Directive reminded him of one of his church's evangelism campaigns!
While we should be respectful of people of other faiths (or of no faith) and prepared to be in dialogue with them, the command to "make disciples of all nations" means that religious pluralism is not our highest goal. That means that there is going to be some confrontation with other belief systems. Since (as we heard last week in John 20:19-23) Christ sends us "as the Father sent me," they way we present the claims of the Christian faith is to be modeled on the way that Jesus dealt with people.
There are several themes in what I written about here that could be developed in fairly traditional style. A somewhat more challenging possibility, especially for congregations in which a lot of hearers are likely to see The Revenge of the Sith as soon as it comes out, would be to give a science-fiction story-sermon to convey the Christian message about sin and redemption, or about the mission of the church. Trying to develop too close a parallel with the Star Wars saga wouldn't be necessary but you'd probably want to make enough contact with it that people who had any familiarity with the movies would recognize what you were doing.
The most recent "Handiwork" column that I write for Lutheran Partners deals with Religion and Science Fiction. You can find it at http://www.elca.org/lp/0505_10_printer.html.
May the Trinity be with you!
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: Okay, it began as something of a joke -- or maybe it was a tax protest. Several years back, the United Kingdom was conducting a national census, in which citizens were polled as to their religious affiliation. No fewer than 390,000 Britons identified themselves to the census-takers as members of the Jedi religion. You can read about it in a 2003 BBC news article, "Census Returns of the Jedi":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2757067.stm
The movement apparently began in New Zealand -- a month prior to the British census -- after some Star Wars fans learned that if 10,000 New Zealanders identified themselves as Jedi, the law required the government to recognize them as an official religion. Here's the website of "the Jedi Church," which is the product of that effort:
http://www.jedichurch.org/
Although this campaign appears to be largely a joke, at least some of the newly declared Jedis appeared to take it seriously. This spiritual earnestness ought to come as no surprise. The mythology of Star Wars did not arise in a vacuum: it resonates not only with Christianity, but also with a number of the great religions of the world. Although the pronounced dualism between the Force and its Dark Side -- seemingly equal to one another in power -- may have more in common with Zoroastrianism than monotheistic Christianity, there is still plenty that sounds familiar to us. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous rely on a Higher Power as they go into recovery; it's a truism, in AA, that devotion to one's Higher Power may be focused on just about anything, as long as it works for the individual. Is the Higher Power of AA any different, really, from George Lucas' The Force? ("Trust the force, Luke," says Yoda to young Skywalker, in a moment of spiritual struggle; is that any different from the admonition of the AA sponsor to a new recruit: "Trust your Higher Power"?)
Trinity Sunday is indeed a good day to emphasize -- as you so ably do, George -- that the God of Christianity is deeply personal. To declare, as we Christians do, that the Creator God was incarnate in history as Jesus Christ, and continues to relate to us personally as Holy Spirit, is to venture far beyond the shallow pop theology of the Star Wars series. "Three persons, one essence," goes the classic Trinitarian formulation: the Force is more like "No persons, all essence."
Historically, the church has imagined the Trinity as a triangle -- but I'm not sure that's the best image for the modern mind. Say all you want about a three-legged stool as a classic image of stability, but a triangle is somehow too solid, too static, too squat. I'd like to propose, instead, that we think of the Trinity as a circle.
One thing about a circle is that it has no beginning. You can enter the circle at any point. Some enter the circle of God at a particular point, relating more strongly to one person of the Trinity than the others. Some, for example, enter the circle in a powerful, personal experience of grace, mediated through Jesus Christ. Sin and forgiveness loom large in this type of experience; the disciple often feels compelled to revisit the formative grace-experience again and again. For others, it is the love of God that woos them into the circle. Some Christians have grown up with the image of God as a stern taskmaster; when they discover the God of love, it is almost as a conversion experience. Still others see the imprint of God on the life of the Christian community. It is the new quality of life within the fellowship that woos them into faith.
Wherever we seekers may enter the circle, it's not long before we begin to get in touch with the other aspects of the divine nature. If we entered as an individualistic, salvation-oriented believer, it won't be long before we discover the Great Commandment to love. If we entered at communion, or fellowship, drawn in by "those nice people" up at the church, it won't be long before we understand that the reason those people are so winsome is that they know they are sinners in need of grace (as are we all). The Trinity is dynamic; we do not so much comprehend it as become caught up in it.
The classic Trinitarian benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:13 -- "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you" -- is more than mere benign good wishes. It's powerful stuff. If the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us, our lives will never be the same again. If we have experienced the utterly self-giving love of God, our lives will likewise never be the same. If the communion of the Holy Spirit characterizes our common life, our lives will be transformed forever after by that power.
Chris Ewing responds: In an environment where most people are far more conversant (and, probably, comfortable!) with Star Wars theology than trinitarian, an exploration of the similarities and differences such as George has offered is both helpful and interesting.
John Macquarrie, writing just a few years before the original Star Wars movie came out, probed the various ontological possibilities for God in his Principles of Christian Theology (2d edition; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966, 1977). Following Ramsey, he notes that the single word "God" is not an adequate symbol or expression for the Christian's complex experience of deity. "The Christian could not go along with a stark monotheism in which God is utterly transcendent and sovereign, and still less with a pantheism in which God is entirely and universally immanent; he could not embrace a monism in which all differences are swallowed up in the eternal unity of God, but still less a pluralism like that of the world of polytheism with its 'many gods and many lords.' The Christians confessed: 'For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist' (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). And in the course of further development this basic Christian conviction found expression in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity" (p. 191).
Macquarrie goes on to explore the classical theological language of substance and persons, attempting to transpose it into terms more intelligible today. He notes that the essence or substance of God is Being, and that we must understand God "as Being rather than a being" -- and with this true equally of the three "persons" of the Trinity. They are still Being, not beings (p. 192), a fact that the language of persons can obscure.
As George hinted in his discussion of "a personal God," the term "person" can be a misleading or confusing one for contemporary English speakers, since to untutored ears it implies discrete individuality, a "conscious center of experience" as Macquarrie puts it (p. 193), rather than a way of describing, as Aquinas says, "subsistent relations." There is one "personality" of God, and it is the single essence of the whole Trinity. And this essence of Being "has let itself be understood," notes Macquarrie in a felicitous turn of phrase (p. 198), "not as monolithic but as, so to speak, the energy of letting-be."
God "does not, as it were, hoard Being within himself" but "goes out into the openness of a world of beings," letting beings be out of the fullness of God's Being. God even goes so far as to create human beings, whose "destiny is to be guardians of Being" but who can be either faithful or unfaithful to that destiny (pp. 200-201).
This, then, is the subtext of Genesis (and all our lections): a God who as Source of Being "lets be" all that is, inviting humans into a guardian's role of "letting be" on God's behalf -- not in a passive, laissez-faire sense, but neither in an oppressive or exploitative sense. Our guardianship is to be exercised rather in the sense in which a parent or a farmer welcomes and fosters the fruition of the unique potential of a child or plot of land.
In this vein it is very significant, though often passed without mention, that it was not only the humans who were commanded to increase, multiply, and fill the earth. That blessing was pronounced first on the fifth day (Genesis 1:22) upon the swarms of life in the sea and sky. It is clearly God's will that these elements of creation, just as much as the human element, flourish. The blessing is repeated the following day (1:28), with the additional clause about subduing the earth and having dominion; but after all the magnificent poetry celebrating the whole sweep of creation, and the blessing pronounced upon it, it ought to be completely impossible to take a cavalier or exploitative view of human dominion as license rather than liturgy.
This vision of humanity's role in both creation (Genesis/Psalm) and recreation (Matthew) challenges a Star Wars generation who may well be content, if they break out of our consumer approach to life at all, merely to explore and observe. On the one hand, these readings challenge our tendency to self-interested exploitation; on the other, they also challenge our laissez-faire "Prime Directive" inclinations.
As Christians we have a vision of what the Triune God is about in the world; and we are invited to join God in "letting be" both creation and new creation, cosmos and kingdom of God. Although somewhat easier to get the head around than the doctrine of the Trinity itself, this call to guardianship of Being is one we find difficult. Paul's closing advice in our 2 Corinthians reading (13:11) reminds us of both the mundanity and the difficulty of this charge. We surely need the full resources of the Trinity -- the grace of Christ, Being working in individual beings in concrete situations to realize the generative love of God, in the unitive communion of the Holy Spirit (v. 13) -- if we are to even begin to mirror the divine nature and work to which we are called.
Related Illustrations
By Carlos Wilton
A thoughtful reflection on religious themes in Star Wars, "George Lucas, the Force and God," by Terry Mattingly, may be found at http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/mattingly.html
***
There's an old Irish story of a priest who came upon the scene of an accident. A crowd had gathered around a man who lay on the ground, evidently dying. As the ranks of the crowd parted to let the priest through, several of them explained to the priest that the man was a Catholic and needed the priest's sacramental offices.
The priest said, "Our help and hope is in the Lord, my son. Do you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one, the Holy Trinity?" The man strained to open his eyes. Gazing in wonder a the crowd clustered around him, he sighed and said, "Here I am dying, and he asks me a riddle?"
***
A current article, from a Presbyterian perspective: "Reclaiming the Trinity," by Charles Wiley:
http://www.pcusa.org/today/believe/past/may05/trinity.htm
***
In a lecture delivered at the al-Azhar al-Sharif Institute in Cairo in September, 2004, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams attempted to interpret the Trinity to Muslims (who so often see the doctrine as incompatible with true monotheism):
"... the name 'God' is not the name of a person like a human person, a limited being with a father and mother and a place that they inhabit within the world. 'God' is the name of a kind of life -- eternal and self-sufficient life, always active, needing nothing. And that life is lived eternally in three ways which are made known to us in the history of God's revelation to the Hebrew people and in the life of Jesus. There is a source of life, an expression of life and a sharing of life. In human language we say, 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit', but we do not mean one God with two beings alongside him, or three gods of limited power. Just as we say, 'Here is my hand, and these are the actions my one hand performs', but it is not different from the actions of my five fingers, so with God: this is God, the One, the Living and Self-subsistent, but what God does is not different from the life which is eternally at the same time a source and an expression and a sharing of life. Since God's life is always an intelligent and purposeful life, each of these dimensions of divine life can be thought of as a centre of mind and love; but this does not mean that God 'contains' three different individuals, separate from each other as human individuals are."
-- Anglican Communion News Service release #3882, posted on September 14, 2004
***
Garrison Keillor, modern American prophet from the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," said of love, "We should not think that we have figured this out, because it is not a problem, it's a mystery and always will be."
"It is not a problem, it's a mystery, and always will be." Doesn't that offend you just a little -- the suggestion that there are those things in life we have not, and furthermore, will not ever, figure out? Now that we've become so advanced that we can put fax machines in cars and can send ourselves messages back from Venus, we are not really open to the suggestion that there are those things that always have been and always will be mysteries to us. We assume that our only limitations are time and energy, and, given enough of the two, there is really nothing we can't ultimately know.
So when we come to a doctrinal matter like the Trinity, the temptation is to want one neat analogy that will make it all clear, one concise statement on the Trinity that will settle it for us and allow us to move on to the next problem. Well, I hate to disappoint you so early in my sermon today, but if that is what you are expecting I suggest that you join those of your friends who are already daydreaming this time away. You see, it's just not all that easy. It's not so simple to describe the Trinity in any meaningful way. The Trinity just isn't one of things we can settle in short order.
Maybe if we can't figure out the Trinity in these few brief minutes (and, given that the church in 2,000 years hasn't been able to get it straight, it's a fairly safe bet we won't have the last word on it today), if we can't settle the issue today, maybe we can at least try to point to what the doctrine of the trinity is attempting to say about God and how we experience God.
-- James C. Leach, "Naming God," in Pulpit Digest, January/February 1991, p. 55
***
Rightly understood, the Trinity as a theological image should expand our God consciousness, not restrict it. It should stretch our capacities for wholeness and holiness, not shrink us. It should sharpen our religious imaginations, not dull our sensibilities.
-- Carter Heyward, in The Living Pulpit, April/June 1999, p. 21
***
Church historian Cyril Richardson (and probably others) used to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is a great mystery: If you deny it you are in danger of losing your soul, and if you try to understand it you are in danger of losing your mind.
Worship Resources
By George Reed
N.b.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
OPENING
Music
Hymns
"Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty." WORDS: Reginald Heber, 1826; MUSIC: John B. Dykes, 1861. Public domain. As found in UMH 64; Hymnal '82: 362; LBOW 165; TPH 138; AAHH 329; TNNBH 1; TNCH 277; CH 4.
"We Believe In One True God." WORDS: Tobias Clausnitzer, 1668; trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1863; MUSIC: J. G. Werner's Choralbuch. 1815; arr. William H. Havergal, 1861. Public domain. As found in UMH 85l; LBOW 374 (not the same hymn but a good substitute); TPH 137; AAHH.
"Gloria In Excelsis" or "Canticle Of God's Glory." WORDS: Luke 2:14; John 1:29; MUSIC: Old Scottish Chant; Found in numerous melodic settings. Public domain. As found in UMH 82; Hymnal '82: S201-S204; S272-S281; LBOW: part of the liturgy; TPH 566, 567.
"Glory Be To The Father." WORDS: Lesser Doxology, 3rd-4th century. MUSIC: Henry W. Greatorex, 1851, or MUSIC: Charles Meineke, 1844. Public domain. Often used in the liturgy, if your congregation doesn't normally use it this might be a good opportunity. As found in UMH 70, 71; Hymnal '82; LBOW: part of the liturgy; TPH: 567, 577, 578, 579; AAHH 652, 653, 654; TNNBH 12; CH 35, 36, 37.
"All Things Bright And Beautiful." WORDS: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848; MUSIC: 17th cent. English melody; arr. Martin Shaw, 1915. Public domain. As found in UMH 147; Hymnal '82: 405; TPH 267; TNCH 31; CH 61.
"O God Who Shaped Creation." WORDS: William W. Reid, Jr., 1987; MUSIC: Dale Wood, 1968, 1988. Words (c) 1989 The United Methodist publishing House; music (c) 1969, 1988 Contemporary Worship 1: Hymns; harmony (c) 1988 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As found in UMH 443B.
Songs
"Great Is The Lord." WORDS & MUSIC: Michael W. Smith and Deborah D. Smith, 1982. (c) 1982 Meadowgreen Music Company. As found in Renew 22.
"We Bow Down." WORDS & MUSIC: Twila Parish. (c) 1984 Singspiration Music. As found in Renew 38.
"Lord God, Almighty." WORDS & MUSIC: Coni Huisman. (c) 1984 Coni Huisman. As found in Renew 40.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God is our sovereign.
People: How majestic is God's Name!
Leader: Look at all that God has created!
People: What are we that God should honor us?
Leader: God has made us but a little lower than divinity.
People: All creation has been given to our care.
Leader: You, O God, are our sovereign.
People: How majestic is your Name!
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God, who is the ultimate Unity in Diversity: Grant that as we worship you we may also reflect you image by living together in the midst of our great differences; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We worship and adore you, God, for you are mystery beyond understanding. We name you Trinity and yet we are unable to explain what that means. We can make but poor analogies to the greatness of you unity even as we experience you in three persons. Give us such grace that we may truly be your image on earth. Help us as your people to be united together as we express the diversity of your creation. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another the ways in which we have defiled ourselves as God's image.
People: You created us, O God, and placed within us your own breath, your own spirit, your own life. You gave us all of creation to care for as you care for us. You have given us the example of yourself as a community that is not divided by difference. In spite of all these gifts, we have erred grievously. We have lived our lives disconnected from you and without regard to your gentle leading and teaching. We have used and abused creation making it almost impossible for us to live here. We have forgotten the example of the unity of the Trinity and have found our differences as excuses to exclude and divide us.
Forgive us for our sinfulness, our blindness, and our unwillingness to change and follow your Son, our Savior, Jesus the Christ. Send your Spirit upon us once again that we might be your faithful people, the sign of your presence in all creation.
Leader: The God who created us has also redeemed us. In the Name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven and empowered with the Spirit to live as God's image in this world.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship and adore you, Holy Trinity, Great Three in One. Your being is beyond our understanding and yet you come to reveal yourself to us as one person does to another. You invite us into relationship with you and with each other so that we might truly be your image.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not lived up to that image. We have devastated your creation. We have set barriers between ourselves and others. We have lived for ourselves instead of giving ourselves for others as you have done in Jesus Christ. Forgive us and by the power of your Spirit renew us and send us out to be your presence.
We give you thanks for all of creation. We bless you for all the good gifts we have received from you. We thank you for the abundance of this earth and for the community of humanity. We bless you for making us a part of your ministry and work in creation.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
Knowing of your love and care for all creation, we offer up to you the cares of our hearts. As your Spirit moves in creation bringing wholeness, let us be moved by your Spirit to bring wholeness to those we encounter this week.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship
A Children's Sermon
Go make disciples
Object: a map of the world and a magic marker
Based on Matthew 28:16-20
Good morning! This is a map of the world. (have two adults volunteer hold up the map) Can anyone show me where we are on it? (select a child volunteer to point out where your town is; draw a big "X" to mark your location) Great. We're where the "X" is. Now I am going to draw another "X" by Galilee. That's the place mentioned in today's lesson. (mark the area of Galilee) Can everyone see the two marks? Galilee is a long way from where we are!
In today's reading 11 disciples are told to go to a mountain in Galilee. While they are there, Jesus gives them some instructions. He says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." He tells them to go into the entire world and spread the message of God's love. Jesus was going to leave them and return to heaven, so he tells the disciples to continue his work. If the rest of the world was going to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, those 11 disciples, and a few helpers, were going to have to be the ones to do it. Jesus needed them to spread the word and tell the stories of all they had seen and heard while Jesus was with them.
Look at the map again. The world is pretty big! See Galilee? Somehow 11 disciples and their friends took the story of Jesus and began to spread it around. They wrote things down, told people and journeyed to far-away places. That was almost 2,000 years ago! The Good News has continued to spread ever since. Eventually, the news found its way to our town. We keep telling the stories ourselves. The news that started with 11 people so far away eventually filled the entire world. Amazing!
Prayer: God, thank you for bringing the message to us. Help us do our part to share it with others. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, May 22, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
