On Thursday, Linda and I celebrated our 21st anniversary, and we had a very nice dinner together reminiscing about the favorite house we’ve lived in, as we’ve had 8 in the past 21 years, favorite job, favorite car, favorite child, you know all the usual. But it was sort of a reflection on the different ways that we might have imagined going differently, sometimes because of decisions that we had little say over and sometimes because of decisions that we make. While we often act as if our lives, and the lives of others, are direct lines of one point leading directly to the other, but we know that’s not really how it works. That while it might not exactly be a choose your own adventure novel, that there are definitely choices that we get to, or have to make, sometimes large, sometimes small, that end up making a huge difference in the direction that our lives take and that also affect the lives of others as well. And that’s where we turn today as we continue in our series on the gospel in Star Wars looking at the second movie in the series. Released in 1980, The Empire Strikes Back is widely considered the greatest of all the films.
After the rebel alliance had destroyed the death star at the battle of Yavin at the end of the first film, the empire strikes back, as the title says, and seeks out to find and destroy the rebels who are now hiding from the empire. After their base on the ice planet of Hoth is attacked, they retreat again, with Luke Skywalker going to the Dagobah system to receive instruction from Yoda, the last remaining Jedi Master, and put in a different order, his words are, therefore making him sound super smart. Meanwhile, Han, Chewie and Leia are being pursued by the evil Darth Vader when the hyperdrive on their ship won’t work and so they retreat to the cloud city of Bespin, controlled by an old friend of Han’s, Lando Calrissian. Calrissian betrays them to Vader who uses them as a trap to get Luke to come to their rescue, where he and Vader engage in a lightsaber battle, with Luke losing his hand, and where Vader reveals, and I hope this isn’t a surprise to anyone any longer, that Luke’s father was not killed by Vader as he had been told, but that Vader himself is his father, and along the way Luke learns somethings about the force and himself. But one of the things that gets bantied about in the films is this idea of choice, against questions of whether those decisions are predetermined or if we have freewill.
And to start this I’d like to look at the choice that comes to Lando Calrissian, whom I’ve already said betrays them, but take a look at what happens (Video)… Now just a little back story on this character, who was played by Billy Dee Williams. He was introduced for two reasons. The first was that Harrison Ford had been saying that he wanted to stop playing Han Solo, and so Lucas wasn’t sure if he would be around for the third film, which is why he was locked into carbonite so that it could go either way. So, Lucas wanted to introduce another loved scoundrel, or scruffy looking nerf herder as Leia says, in case Han was dead. Now for the Star Wars geeks, does anyone know how Lucas convinced Ford to come back? He promised him more Indiana Jones’ movies, I guess appropriately with the last installment out in theaters now. And the other reason he came in was to add a little diversity to the cast.
You might have noticed that
in the original Star Wars, everyone was white, although perhaps their might
have been some diversity amongst those playing storm troopers, although that
was hidden by their white armor. And this isn’t just looking backwards and
seeing it. At the time, when the casting director suggested hiring the
inestimable James Earl Jones to be the voice of Darth Vader, Lucas initially
rejected it because that would have meant that the only black actor would have
been the one playing the personification of evil, which he didn’t think was a
good look. Fortunately, he made the right decision and Jones was brought in for
the voice. Keep your eye out for the change in diversity as the movies
progress, and we’ll also come back to the role of women in the Star Wars
universe. But, that’s all filler. Lando says that he didn’t have a choice in
betraying them to the empire, but is that really true? No. He just didn’t like
the outcomes if he didn’t. He did have a choice, and, although he consistently
says “It’s not my fault” as things keep going wrong, thereby not taking responsibility
for things, which is something that we as Christians are called to do, he does
realize things have gone badly, that perhaps he made the wrong decision, and
orders everyone in the city to flee, which probably saves hundred or perhaps
thousands of lives. That too is a choice that he makes, although overlooked.
Now I do have to say that Star Wars does play both sides of
the equation when it comes to what choices we can actually make or whether
there are things that are predetermined, and therefore there is nothing we can
do about it. In the later prequels, when Qui Gon Jinn meets the young Anakin
Skywalker for the first time, Anakin makes a remark about how fortunate that
they had to land where they did to get their ship repaired, and Jinn says “Our
meeting was not a coincidence. Nothing happens by accident.” And
then of course Vader tells look that it is his destiny to turn to the dark
side, that the emperor has foreseen it. Of course, spoiler alert, that doesn’t
happen, which then sort of should make us question the idea of destiny and
predestination in the films. And of course Yoda has his own take on this, and
we could do an entire series just on the wisdom of Yoda. He does have some of
the best, and most famous lines in the series, including Size matters not, do
or do not, there is no try, you do not believe, and that is why you fail, and
best of all, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to
suffering. But about destinies, Yoda says that the future is impossible to see,
it’s clouded, or as he says in the Empire Strikes Back, always in motion the future
is. That means we can’t predict the future because there are too many
variables, too many choices that people can make, to be able to determine the
future outcomes. It’s its own chaos theory. So, which do we believe?
Now one of the recurrent arguments, at least within the
Protestant tradition, has surrounded some of these very issues. Are we
predestined to things, or are we given freewill to choose, to decide for
ourselves, how we will live, what we will do, which then brings into play
salvation issues? Some of you will probably remember that last year we did a
series on what Methodists believe, which I did as sort of a counter to what
come in the churches who have disaffiliated where saying. And in that we talked
about the difference between Calvinism and what has become known as Wesleyan
theology. John Calvin argued that God’s decision about our fate had already
been made, that our eternal judgment was already made before we were even born,
and that in addition, Jesus only died for these chosen elect, so that there is
what is known as limited atonement. In addition, it was argued that because God
made this decision that God’s grace was irresistible, that is you could not
deny God’s grace, it was given to you whether you wanted it or not. Nothing you
did or did not do could change your eventual fate. Now if you would like to
know more, I would encourage you to go back and watch that other message.
As the points of Calvinism were being debated, a theologian
by the name of Jacob Arminius, who was a Calvinist, set out to make a
scriptural argument in support of Calvinism and predestination in particular,
and found that he couldn’t, and formulated a new theology, which is now known
as Arminianism. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, was an
Arminian in theology, although the thoughts are also sometimes now referred to
as being Wesleyan since they are found and promulgated within the Wesleyan
tradition. Wesley said of predestination that “it destroys all of God’s attributes
at once: it overturns both his justice, mercy and truth: yea, it represents the
most holy God as worse than the devil, as both more false, more cruel and more
unjust.” (Free Grace, VII.2) Wesley argued that while there might appear to be
scriptural justification for the idea, those passages were taken out of context
and not compared with the image of God found in the entirety of scripture. Out
of this understanding of God came Wesley’s formulation of prevenient grace,
that is the grace that goes before us, that is always there and that is
extended to everyone. That Christ died not just for the elect, but that Christ
died for all so there is universal atonement. In addition, as Arminians, we
believe that God’s grace is resistible, that is we have to choose to accept and
believe and act on Christ’s saving action. God’s grace is extended to us, but
we have to welcome it into our lives, but once you have accepted it, you can
reject it again later, that is no perseverance of the saints. Every day is a new
journey in our faith, somedays being good and somedays being bad, but it’s a
choice that we get to make. This is not to dismiss the knowledge that there are
people who are psychotic or sociopaths, but that we can choose to do things
that people would consider to be good or evil. It is a choice that we get to
make, that God leave it to us. Now God certainly wants us to make the right
decisions, but the decision is ours, and we see the same thing in Empire. Luke
is training with Yoda and they come to what is known is known as the dark side-cave,
or the cave of evil. Take a look. (Video)
This idea of choice will keep coming up over the next few
films, so keep that in the back of your mind as we watch and discuss them, but
I think one of the most important, but probably overlooked lines, in that scene
is that Luke asks what’s in the cave, and Yoda says “only what you take with
you.” That is what will happen is what Luke brings. And Yoda then tells him to
leave his weapon, but what does Luke do? He straps his belt on, and the idea of
violence and non-violence also plays itself out in the films, and Luke has also
been told that a Jedi, a follower of the force, only acts in defense and never
attacks, but who lights their lightsaber first in the cave? Luke does. All of
these little decisions add up to what happens, and then in cutting Vader’s head
off and the mask dissolving to show Luke’s face, he comes to see that there
isn’t this massive difference that he imagined between him and Vader, but
simply the choices they have made, or can make, and that might lead us to ask
what would have been the result if he hadn’t strapped his weapons to his hip
before he went in. would that have changed what happened? We might get an
answer at the end of Return of the Jedi, in 3 weeks. All these little choices
are important. It’s been said that it’s not the big yes of a mistake (new word)
that gets us into trouble, it’s the hundreds of little yes’s that lead up to
that. But what Luke discovers, what we also need to discover, is that these
outcomes are in all of us.
Now when I was thinking of this series I was originally
planning on talking about Cain and Abel, because it so demonstrates this
reality as God tells Cain, before he kills his brother, that “sin is lurking at
the door, its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:7) That’s the
first time that sin appears in scripture, and the warning sounds very similar
to what Yoda tells Luke about the dark side, and of course Cain does not master
it. He chooses a different path and kills his brother. Good stuff. But then I
saw that the passage we heard from Romans was the assigned reading for today,
which also matches so closely into this story of choice. Because Paul is
talking about the choices we face, except he’s also talking about the simple
reality of humanity that we all fall short of the glory of God. that because
sin is within us, that we do that which we know we aren’t supposed to do, or
don’t want to do. Now you could read this out of context and think that Paul is
therefore giving us the excuse that we are not responsible, but that sin made
us do it, or more proverbially, the devil made us do it. But, that is not what
he is saying here. Instead he’s saying that God has given us the same warning
that came to Cain “sin is lurking at the door, and you must master it.” It’s
that we choose to do follow own will, our own desires, our own inclinations,
our own yearnings, we choose to put on our weapons rather than following the
injunction not to take them, not to be aggressive, and we act impulsively,
without patience and we do not seek the will of God to be done on earth as it
is in heaven. And because of that we go astray, and to paraphrase Yoda, when we
give into sin, “forever it will dominate your destiny. Consume you it will.”
And so, Paul cries out that he is wretched, much like Cain. But is that the
final answer? Paul cries out, we cry out, with a resounding no.
Because just like the dark side can be overcome, or avoided,
by moving to the light, away from the dark, so to are we saved by following the
light of Christ, but yoking ourselves to Christ and learning to follow his ways
so that we are freed from our slavery to sin which leads to death. And so,
Paul, rhetorically, asks who will rescue him from this state, and the answer,
of course, is Jesus Christ, the one in whom we find our freedom and who guides
us out of the cave into the light, and shows us the way to live by offering us
healing and wholeness, just like Yoda teaches and guides Luke, even when he
goes astray, even when he is exasperated by what he does, he never gives up on
him, just like God. Because whether we are Calvinist, Arminian, or something
else in our theology, what we know is that salvation comes from God through
Christ. That it is not dependent upon us, that we can’t earn it, but that we
need it, especially when we understand ourselves as having free will because it
is then that we understand how we we have the gifts to overcome the sin that is
lurking by turning to God for assistance and guidance, we turn to God for love
and forgiveness, we turn to God for strength and understanding. We turn to God
for salvation.
Life is a series of choices, and what Luke discovers is that what separates him from Vader, what separates him from his father, is not that one is good and one is bad, but it’s the choices that have been made. Life is full of choices and the outcome is not predestined. We get to choose, we have to choose, what path we will follow. Are we going to follow the ways of the world, the wages of sin and death, the path that leads to the dark side, the path that is easy and wide, as Jesus says, or are we going to follow the path of God, to follow God’s commands, to live lives worthy of the calling into which we have been called, lives of love and peace and forgiveness, the path that is narrow and difficult but leads to eternal life? For the choice is ours. God’s grace and love are extended to us, and God is ready to receive us on that path, but we have to be willing to make the choice to follow that path. The choice is ours. I pray that we make the right choices, and when we have failed to seek forgiveness and the guidance to move to the right path. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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