The Force
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle A
Object:
"May the Force be with you." Everyone recognizes that as the prayer or benediction from the Star Wars movies that quickly became one of cinema history's most familiar quotations. It also generated theological conversation among folks who speculated on how much Christians could identify the Force with accepted understandings of God. Most agreed that the Force left something about it to be desired, but even George Lucas himself said, "I put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people -- more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery."
A commendable goal, Mr. Lucas. For our part, the Christian church on this Day of Pentecost will go a step farther: We will identify the real Force. "Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."
Power! And it changed everything. Suddenly, a ragtag band of depressed disciples who had hidden themselves behind locked doors in fear for their lives became powerful public proclaimers of the resurrection. The real Force is with us, and that can make all the difference.
Annie Dillard, one of our most eloquent writers, has asked, "Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness for ladies to wear straw hats and velvet gloves to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets...."1 The real Force be with you.
One of the things folks remember first about that Pentecost story is the speaking in other languages. Not in some celestial language, not glossolalia -- understandable language ... the kind that people use to communicate. The message was not just heard, it was heard ... and all this despite the fact they were speaking dozens, perhaps hundreds, of dialects and tongues. That is a miracle in itself! Not the part about the languages, but the part about hearing. It does not happen often in the world.
It happened at Pentecost. Perhaps that is one more lesson we can learn: in the church, beyond all other places in the world, we are supposed to learn to listen to one another, to value one another's feelings and opinions, as a foretaste of heaven itself, where everyone will be heard perfectly. The real Force is with you.
The result of all that? That little band of believers grew. They had the biggest revival any church ever saw. They exploded from being a few dozen members to adding 3,000 more that day and a couple thousand more soon after. People saw this divine "Force" in action and wanted to be a part of what was happening. Their lives were changed. The genuinely good news on this Day of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit of the living God, the real Force, is with us and will be with us ... now and forever. Hallelujah!
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1. Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1982), p. 58.
A commendable goal, Mr. Lucas. For our part, the Christian church on this Day of Pentecost will go a step farther: We will identify the real Force. "Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."
Power! And it changed everything. Suddenly, a ragtag band of depressed disciples who had hidden themselves behind locked doors in fear for their lives became powerful public proclaimers of the resurrection. The real Force is with us, and that can make all the difference.
Annie Dillard, one of our most eloquent writers, has asked, "Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness for ladies to wear straw hats and velvet gloves to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets...."1 The real Force be with you.
One of the things folks remember first about that Pentecost story is the speaking in other languages. Not in some celestial language, not glossolalia -- understandable language ... the kind that people use to communicate. The message was not just heard, it was heard ... and all this despite the fact they were speaking dozens, perhaps hundreds, of dialects and tongues. That is a miracle in itself! Not the part about the languages, but the part about hearing. It does not happen often in the world.
It happened at Pentecost. Perhaps that is one more lesson we can learn: in the church, beyond all other places in the world, we are supposed to learn to listen to one another, to value one another's feelings and opinions, as a foretaste of heaven itself, where everyone will be heard perfectly. The real Force is with you.
The result of all that? That little band of believers grew. They had the biggest revival any church ever saw. They exploded from being a few dozen members to adding 3,000 more that day and a couple thousand more soon after. People saw this divine "Force" in action and wanted to be a part of what was happening. Their lives were changed. The genuinely good news on this Day of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit of the living God, the real Force, is with us and will be with us ... now and forever. Hallelujah!
____________
1. Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1982), p. 58.
