The Destiny of TK421 and the Linear God of our Fathers

30 years ago,

In the San Francisco Bay Area,

A nerd-ish type of fellow named George told us a story,

It was a fictional, fantastical, mystical, theological story,

...A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

During the first 15-20 minutes of Star Wars, A New Hope we are immersed in a seemingly endless and immense galaxy where anything and everything is possible; where any choice that is made is not only the correct choice but is destined. We learn that Luke, a simple farm boy on a forgotten planet, yearns for something greater than what he sees before him, he knows that there is more out there for him…but it seems that all he can do is complain about his current circumstances.
Though the story being told to us seemed hugely unbelievable, totally foreign and incomprehensible in any way resembling reality; if we’d been paying attention, we’d have known the ending of the saga from the first feature.

All of the signs were there for us to see what the meaning of the story was in the first place; thru Luke Skywalker the Force would achieve balance; whether Luke liked it or not.
This was, after all, Luke's destiny.
(Insert heavy breathing and James Earl Jones villainous chuckle here.)

The story is just that linear; it could have no other outcome.

Linear is one of those words that is either a comfortable part of your common-day language or is a foreign describer that borders on Latin-based hooey; the division being whether you understand the value of the word or not.

Linear is described in the dictionary as follows…
- Of, relating to, or resembling a line; straight.
- In, of, describing, described by, or related to a straight line.
- Having only one dimension.
- Characterized by, composed of, or emphasizing drawn lines rather than painterly effects.
- Narrow and elongated with nearly parallel margins: a linear leaf.

Luke’s linear life had begun and ended before he even knew what was going on, he couldn’t change his destiny even though he was nearly killing himself to find out what his destiny was.

Sure a lot of little things happened along the way…I.E. His Uncle Owen and Aunt Veru were slaughtered by a bunch of whitey-tightey-wearing-squawk-boxers on a bender, his arm was cut off and flushed down a gigantor-sized funnel in the clouds, and his true father was revealed to be the most evil warlord in the galaxy…oh yeah, and he made out with his sister.

But all of these interesting and terrible things that happened were all secondary and tertiary to the over all story that was unfolding before our eyes…In this seemingly endless galaxy; Luke could no more avoid his destiny than he could have known its ultimate destination from the time that he purchased a couple of rundown droids for his crabby moisture-farming Uncle.

There is something both comforting and upsetting about the linear-ness of the Star Wars saga…Comforting because, out of this incredibly complex story, we know what’s going to happen…
Upsetting because we know it’s going to end, and that the end has already been determined.

I think that if I were Luke I may have bucked at the responsibility that was being thrust on me by the universe that I’d just discovered…I mean, hullo?
So, I have to reestablish a dead religion and save the galaxy one planet at a time? Obi-Wan, one more time…why me? It’s my destiny?!? Damn, you got me there.

I’ve had a real problem lately with the way that I see God being represented by his followers…I actually shouldn’t say lately, it’s been an ongoing kind of pisser for me for about the last 28 years. It’s hard to put my finger on the reasons behind my general crankiness in this area of my life but I’m going to try and nail down a couple of the things that I am becoming aware of, even as I write this.

In much the same way that the Star Wars story is linear and pretty much one dimensional (on the surface); people, calling themselves Christians have turned a multi-dimensional, all-encompassing God and his plan for creation into a confusing, massively understated and often contradictory story of a Human-Thinking-Deity trying to fix something that he created a long time ago that somehow got broken along the way by our selfishly stupid ancient ancestors...Bummer.

You’ve heard the story and have likely been approached by someone on the street trying to cram it down your throat…God creates man, man F’s it up, God dies so that man can go to Heaven.
This story of “God’s plan for Man” is all presented in this tidy little packaged story that’s supposed be Soooo attraaaactive that any random person going about their day will be overcome with a desire to totally rearrange their lives and become completely different people that care about new things and suddenly have a connection to the creator of the universe where before they only had a connection to a bong named Bill…Something is getting lost in the telling of this story.

All of my life I’ve heard a very linear and firm salvation story where the outcome is that if I believe and follow the story to its conclusion I will be “Saved” and will go to Heaven…and from the point of view of those that told me the story; it seems that their chief concern was that I get “saved”, get others “saved” and go to Heaven when I die.

And that's about it.

I think that what's getting lost is the context of the presentation, the presence of mind, and the motivation behind the telling of this story. I think that we could all learn something from the Star Wars story.

I believe that George Lucas understands the principle of telling a story for a reason, a purpose that is beyond the telling of the story alone. I’m also pretty sure that in his own way George Lucas has explained salvation through God (The Force), redemption of the soul (Darth Vader turning against the Dark Side), and the battle between good and evil in the most visual, understandable and all-encompassing model yet presented…BUT 99.9% of the people that have seen this story unfold have missed the very straightforward way that George Lucas has told us a story about an all-powerful, all-dimensional, all-knowing God that wants to know us, move in and around us and wants for us to know Him/Her/It - GOD.

On the surface and taken at face value the Star Wars story is very linear…Farm boy wants adventure, farm boy get sucked into a galactic battle to save the universe, farm boy realizes he’s meant for more and eventually saves the galaxy and restores order.
Underneath this story though there is a story being told that is a virtual parallel of the salvation story…maybe not line for line but it’s all in there.

I know that I’ve probably lost about 80% of my blog readers by this point in the post but stick with me.

I guess it’s just a little bit more than depressing to me that I’ve learned more about God and how he moves from Star Wars than I have from supposed people of God. Well intentioned though they may be.

I haven’t had one conversation with a follower of Christ where I felt like I was being told anything more than the company line…and the company line just isn’t enough anymore to sell this particular bill of goods…in other words, simply being an enthusiastic Satan-proof sales person or professional salvation-merchant just isn’t enough…you’ve got to care as well, you’ve got to know the product, use the product and love the product. You’ve got to give contextual information and background, success stories and failure-turned-to-victory stories. You’ve got to give a reason to yearn and you’ve got to commit to follow-up that is more than just a casual embrace and a “God bless you.”

Please understand that I know my self pretty well by this point in my life and I realize that I am much better at pointing out areas that need creative improvement than I am at providing actual solutions. I just think we can try a little harder is all I’m saying.

That being said; I know that I’m making a stretch here with the whole Star Wars thing, but it’s valid and worthwhile and ripe for discussion…Anakin Skywalker turns to the dark side this week and becomes Darth Vader and we’ll all be tempted to watch the whole thing all over from the beginning again…all I ask is that we look to the deeper meaning of the Force and allow God to speak to us through the vision of a prophet/preacher/teacher named George Lucas.

You may now proceed to tear my blog to shreds and tell me why I’m an idiot.