Sermon for February 11th, 2018

2 corinthians 4:15-18

15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Faith & Film VI: The Last Jedi

• Film Clip #1 - Trailer

Three Minute Film Synopsis

The film begins with a small band of rebel fighters on the run from a militant empire, its evil tyrannical leader, and his feared henchman. The rebel fighters' only hope rests in finding a reclusive Jedi Knight, the last of his kind, who can train a young apprentice to be the galaxy's next great new hope.

The old Jedi Master reluctantly agrees to train the young apprentice, but then the student impulsively decides to leave before the training is complete, in order to re-engage with besieged friends fighting the war, and to save the day.

Several great battle scenes follow, as well as some great high speed chases, an epic light saber duel, some surprising revelations and plot twists...and just when all seems lost, and defeat is imminent for our heroes, they somehow manage a few more surprises, some amazing luck, and they escape from their enemies to fight another day...more precisely on December 20th, 2019, when the next episode is scheduled to come out in theaters.

If you are a die-hard Star Wars fan, you may have noticed that I actually summarized the plot of not just the most recent Star Wars film, but about every Star Wars film made to date. Clearly, it is a successful and well-crafted plot structure that has earned its place as the most profitable, influential, and watched film franchise of the past 40 years.

And yet, it you look just a little deeper...this film, Episode VIII, the "Last Jedi" actually turns that whole traditional Star Wars plot on its head, throws everything we've come to expect out the window, and recreates Star Wars for the 21st Century.

Star Wars, Reformed

In the previous Star Wars Film, Episode VII, "The Force Awakens," a young girl named Rey has traveled to the remotest part of the Galaxy in order to find her hero, Luke Skywalker, the famous Jedi Master. In the film's final scene, she has finally found him, standing on top of a hill on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean on some distant planet. She climbs the hill, approaches him, and hands him his lightsaber--the symbol of everything that the Jedi (and Star Wars itself) stands for. She offers him the lightsaber, and then the film ends. We've spent the last two years since that film wondering what will happen next, wondering what Luke will do, excited about seeing this legendary hero spring back into action, to make everything right and good and familiar again.

And finally, in Episode VIII, at the beging of "The Last Jedi" we get to see this scene:

• Film Clip #2 - Lightsaber

We could really stop right here. That one scene, more than any other

Where Can Hope Be Found?

Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it you'll never make it through the night.

Snoke: Skywalker lives. The seed of the Jedi lives. As long as he does, hope exists.

But I'm actually going to start a long time ago in a different country far, far away: Ancient Israel, about halfway through the first century. Jesus of Nazareth, who inspired many Jews of his day with the hope that he was the long awaited Messiah, the one who would restore balance to the force--I mean, who would restore Israel to its former glory--had been crucified by Rome. His few remaining followers were scattered and on the run, persecuted by the Roman Empire. There were rumors that God had raised Jesus from the dead, and that he would soon come back to save his people, but it had been twenty years since his departure...and people were beginning to despair.

It was to these people that the Apostle Paul wrote the words of today's scripture passage: Do not lose heart in this momentary affliction. Don't look at what can be seen, but instead at what cannot be seen. Paul's words signaled a shift in early Christian thinking away from the tangible, the temporal (i.e. God as a physically present messiah with earthly power to change political realities) to the intangible, the spiritual, the personal (i.e. God as Holy Spirit living within each of us, transforming our hearts and minds).

Back to Star Wars. Throughout this film, the question of where the characters should place their hope is raised over and over again. And we know what the answer is supposed to be--you put your hope in the savior, the lone hero fighting against the odds. The opening sequence of the film shows the brave pilot Poe Dameron facing down the entire Imperial Starfleet in his tiny X-Wing Fighter. Luke Skywalker, the famous (but now reclusive) Jedi is referred to by one of the characters as the "spark of hope that will light the fire that will burn down the First Order (the bad guys)." And the young heroine Rey surrenders herself to her nemesis, Kylo Ren, with the steadfast the hope that she can save him, redeem him through the power of her love, just like Luke Skywalker saved and redeemed Darth Vader in the original series.

And yet, as quickly as these hope-giving heroes are established, the film completely dismantles them. Poe Dameron is demoted and repeatedly chastised for his recklessness and failure to be a team player. Luke Skywalker squarely rejects and even undermines the hope that is placed in him and the entire Jedi order. And Rey fails in her attempt to redeem Kylo Ren, her efforts only helping him to become more powerful and resolute in his evil.

Where then is hope to be found? Just like Paul's teachings in the early Christian church, this film signals a massive shift away from lone heroes and earthly saviors as a source of hope, to a more mature understanding that hope is a spiritual force that resides in each one of us. Toward the climax of the film, Poe Dameron proclaims that "WE are the spark of hope that will light the fire that will burn down the First Order." And the closing image of the film is not of one of our heroes, but of a lowly stable boy in a distant part of the galaxy who looks up to the stars while using the force to summon his broomstick into his hand like a lightsaber. Hope can come from anywhere, anyone.

Reformed and Always Reforming

Fast forward another millennia and a half, to the 16th century as Europe was just coming out of the "dark ages" that followed the fall of the Roman Empire, and into the light of the artistic, cultural and theological movements known as the Renaissance and Reformation. This is the movement that gave birth to the Presbyterian Church, among others. Reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther took on the task of bringing the church into the modern era. To do this, they had to throw a lot of things out--traditions and structures that had been loved and revered by countless people for centuries. In the process, they made a lot of people angry.

Rian Johnson was given a similar impossible task when he was asked to write and direct Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Take this universe, with all its beloved characters and fans and unwritten rules, tear it down to its foundations and rebuild it. Otherwise you risk telling the same story over and over again to people who will care less and less about it.

There's a great scene early in the film--the first time we see Luke Skywalker--Rey has journeyed across the galaxy to find him, and she climbs a great hill where is standing looking out over the ocean. He turns to face her, and she hands him his old lightsaber. The message is clear: Help us. Come save us. You're our only hope. Luke looks at the lightsaber, takes it in his hand...and then casually tosses it over his shoulder down the side of the mountain. This is highly symbolic, and Rian Johnson has gone on record acknowledging that it represents a tossing aside of things once sacred and unquestionable.

Later in the film, Luke (with a little help from the ghost of his teacher, the Jedi Master Yoda) burns down a sacred Jedi shrine containing the sacred texts of their religion. When I saw this, I was reminded of an old saying from Zen Buddhism: If you see the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha. The idea behind that saying is that if you so revere and lift up the teacher that you take your eyes off the teachings (the road), then the teacher becomes a distraction and should be eliminated.

At one point in the film, Kylo Ren voices this when he tells Rey to "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. It's the only way to become what you were meant to be."

The 16th century reformers taught something similar--that if any of their changes or reforms ever became so enshrined or set in stone that people followed ritualistically or superstitiously, then it was time to change or reform all over again. This gave rise to one of our mottoes: We are reformed, and always being reformed according to the word of God.

That last part of our motto, "according to the Word of God" is important to note. We don't just randomly or completely kill everything that is part of the past: We kill or let die specific things--sacred rituals, sacred places, and even sacred texts--when those things become so important to us that we lose sight of what they were designed to accomplish in the first place.

The Priesthood of All Believers: Everyone's a Jedi Now

In the first six Star Wars films,