Pentecost and The Last Jedi
(Images herein are property of Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios)
It is a dark and stormy night on a cold, windswept island. Gripped with shame over his failure to protect Kylo Ren from the Dark Side, the middle-aged Luke Skywalker decides he must destroy the last remaining copy of the sacred Jedi texts, tucked away inside a tree trunk on the isolated bare rock. He fears that Rey, the up-and-coming youthful female Jedi, will grow too strong in the ways of the Force if she tutors under him. As a last ditch effort, Luke braves the weather, bearing a torch which he will use to set the Jedi holy of holies on fire. At the last moment, just before he throws the torch, the spirit of Yoda appears and tries to convince him otherwise. Luke wavers. It is a scene full of
Gothic tension and bravado. All of Jedi history is at stake. To burn the texts is to eliminate any hope of the Jedi Order resurging. But to leave them unharmed is to risk the Dark Side again coming to power. Is it safer to leave the Force in an almost agnostic balance? Suddenly, Yoda summons a lighting bolt that comes crashing down onto the Jedi texts, erupting into an enormous blaze. Yoda laughs, and Luke is stunned. “Yes, yes, yes, wisdom they held, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess!” [1]
Luke prepares to burn down the Jedi texts. Lucasfilm.
While Pentecost is a day typically remembered for the Holy Spirit-induced tongues of flame which descended on the disciples and caused them to speak in tongues—other languages (or glossolalia, for any lexophiles out there)—it marks the day in the Christian calendar fifty days after Easter (hence “pente-cost”). Avoiding the fascinating (and frequently entertaining) discussions that flow from the manner in which the Holy Spirit appeared to the apostles, what does this have to do with Star Wars?
This Pentecost Sunday at my church was a sparse church service indeed: the pastor was out of town and so were two of the three elders, a new student minister was preaching, we sang three songs fewer than usual, our community prayer was especially brief, there was no reciting of the Apostle’s Creed, we partook of no communion, and the first six rows of the pews were all mostly vacant, leaving us with a light less-than-sixty-minute service.
Just like the way of the Jedi, the Christian walk is able to withstand its own desolation. It is one not constrained to or dependent on a particular set of traditions or a specially trained person. No book, no hymn, no prayer can keep it alive, and no loss thereof can kill it. It is a living faith that flows from a living Christ. A person can lose their church, their scriptures, their prayers, and their confidence and still remain in the faith. Even through the darkest of nights and the bleakest of silences, the Christian life is resilient. For if Jesus is King of Heaven and Earth, then even nature itself—the very atoms of which we are composed—cries out praises to God, ushering wisdom and faith.
In his profound and simple book, Into the Silent Land, Anglican priest Martin Laird echoes the words of saints throughout history,
“Union with God is not something we acquire by a technique but
the grounding truth of our lives that engenders the very search for
God. Because God is the ground of our being, the relationship
between creature and Creator is such that, by sheer grace,
separation is not possible. God does not know how to be absent.
The fact that most of us experience throughout most of our lives a
sense of absence or distance from God is the great illusion that we
are caught up in; it is the human condition. The sense of separation
from God is real, but the meeting of stillness reveals that this
perceived separation does not have the last word.”
From this ground of being, which God himself supplies, the Christian life grows. It is a rock able to survive the storms of countless ages. It is the promise of unconditional love, which nothing but God can cleave.
The good news of Pentecost is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit—that God himself resides at the center of everything, and therefore his good work cannot be ultimately overturned. And because of this, there is not great responsibility for the Christian, but great freedom. A person is free from the expectation of having to “get it right”, free to be honest, free to be creative, free to discover the goodness God has scattered throughout all corners of the world—the ways of nature, the traditions of culture, the wisdom of scripture, the heart of man—and God himself is the guide. There is no magic work we can perform—or must perform—to do good. It all depends on Christ; the Holy Spirit bears the weight. The groaning after flourishing we all feel deep inside of us is the call of God drawing everything into richer life, and nothing we do can cleave us from it or to it. The very fact it does not go away can be seen as a sort of promise, a kind of vow poured out into all the world saying, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. [3]
Luke and Yoda discuss the end of the Jedi. Image property of Lucasfilm.
Christians do not depend on the Jedi texts—for "that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess!” Because the Holy Spirit is alive and kicking in the world, with us as a counselor and friend, we are free to be creative in how we pursue that which feeds our soul’s hungers, that which is good, lasting, and true. The root of Christian faith isn’t planted on church elders, certain songs, long prayers, liturgical creeds, or ritual communion. These timeless things are those which God keeps bringing us back to—they emerge over and over from the sea of chaos no matter what we do—and therefore we should do well to honor them. Next time you think of Pentecost, think of Yoda’s sassy voice uttering, “Yes, yes, yes, wisdom they contained, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess!”
[1] Johnson, Rian, director. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Walt Disney Studios, Lucasfilm, 2017.
[2] Laird, Martin. Into the Silent Land. Oxford University Press, 2006.
[3] Hebrews 13:5, New King James Version.
Images taken from YouTube and are property of Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios.
Blu-Ray Clips "Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Luke Communes With Master Yoda" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5iRP3hwlb4">
