Been thinking about the Benediction in the BCP:
"And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."
I have loved thinking of the idea of "the work you have given us to do" as writing for me, but whatever thing you feel a healthy inclination towards. And though this may be true, I think really the full sentence carries the full meaning:
As in, "sending us out to do the work you have given us to do" and that work is, actually, "to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."
Sure that can mean uncovering and sharing where I see Jesus in the Star Wars movies, or writing stories, but the core work is really loving and serving him, and much of that is just plain being.
The Jedi at their best are good at being calm. Like how many times in the book, on this blog, on twitter and in person have I ever said that? Hundreds of times, it seems, but life in the Western world begs the repetition of it.
Busy busy busy. This is not right, that is not right. This is incomplete, that is incomplete.
Sometimes I think loving and serving God means going and sitting on my porch.
And with that being said...
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, December 24, 2011
A Star Wars retelling of the Story of Jesus
A long time ago, in this galaxy right here there was a woman, and her name was Mary. She was engaged to Joe Citizen, who was a descendant of King David, the most famous King of Israel ever.
Mary was a very straight-up gal. She told folks that a Jedi Ghost had appeared to her and told her that God chose her to have a baby who would be a convergence of the Force. She did not know much about the Force but had faith that God would work true, light Force through her. She was very trustworthy, and people believed her, even though it was quite a wild story. Her fiance, Joe Citizen, was an extremely honorable sort, and he decided not to make a spectacle out of her, but thought he would be very quiet about divorcing her. Then a Jedi Ghost appeared to him, too, and told him that this whole thing was God's doing, and to name the baby Jesus. Joe Citizen obeyed.
Around that time Darth Caesar Augustus wanted to count every person in the Roman Empire so he sent people back to their hometown to be organized about the whole thing.
Joe Citizen had to trek all the way to Bethlehem because that was where King David was from. His very pregnant fiance had to go with him. The town was so full that there were no vacancies in any of the hotels, but one innkeeper let them stay in his garage. Mary had the baby in the garage and they named him Jesus, just like the Jedi Ghost had instructed them.
As if this was not a weird enough story, Joe Citizen, Mary and Jesus, who had a split open garbage can for a crib, got visited by these sheep farmers. They were an odd bunch with a bizarre story that a Jedi Ghost had also appeared to them, telling them all about this convergence of the Force who had been born in the garage of a hotel and that he would save them all. The sheep farmers worshiped the Creator of the Force for showing them this baby and told everyone about what happened to them and that they had seen baby Jesus.
A month later Joe Citizen and Mary took Jesus to the big church in Jerusalem to make a sacrifice for him, just like everyone with a firstborn son was supposed to do. This old guy, Simeon, came up to them and told them that God would not let him die until he saw the convergence of the Force as a person, and that God just told him their baby was it. Mary and Joe Citizen were like, no way, how did you know? Simeon gave them a blessing and prophesied that Jesus would be the Holy Jedi, and that he was going to seriously stir things up.
After Simeon this old widow named Anna came up to them. She was a prophetess and she also recognized the convergence of the Force in baby Jesus. She told everyone who wanted Jerusalem to be free and out of the control of the Empire about this baby.
There is a whole rest of the story, but that is for another day.
Merry Christmas
Note: This retelling is just a bit of fun to help imagine what the birth of Jesus the Christ must have been like. But it is a real mind trip to actually think there is a real, supernatural being who many call "God." And this being we can't see, we can't touch or even know for certain that this being even exists. Then to think that this being, this super powerful everything, this "God," actually and truly really did work in an actual woman around 2,011 years ago to have a baby that was both God and a human at the same time seems absolutely insane. If you like Star Wars, you have imagination, but you know that Star Wars is not real. Not even remotely. The spiritual ideas and metaphors Star Wars plays with might be real, I certainly think they are, but to think, to believe, to trust your life on that fact that this historical person Jesus was both super being "God" and man, that he came to forgive us of all the things we do that are not right, that he was murdered then came back to life, that he still lives and will someday come back a rule on Earth? I think many, perhaps even most people, might think that a person who believes this is actually mentally ill. I encourage those people as much as I encourage those who blindly think Jesus is a good chance to play, to look at historical facts, to look at philosophical arguments, to question how you know what is true from what is not true. If Jesus is true, everything changes; even, and especially, this holiday. God be with you. -Caleb
Mary was a very straight-up gal. She told folks that a Jedi Ghost had appeared to her and told her that God chose her to have a baby who would be a convergence of the Force. She did not know much about the Force but had faith that God would work true, light Force through her. She was very trustworthy, and people believed her, even though it was quite a wild story. Her fiance, Joe Citizen, was an extremely honorable sort, and he decided not to make a spectacle out of her, but thought he would be very quiet about divorcing her. Then a Jedi Ghost appeared to him, too, and told him that this whole thing was God's doing, and to name the baby Jesus. Joe Citizen obeyed.
Around that time Darth Caesar Augustus wanted to count every person in the Roman Empire so he sent people back to their hometown to be organized about the whole thing.
Joe Citizen had to trek all the way to Bethlehem because that was where King David was from. His very pregnant fiance had to go with him. The town was so full that there were no vacancies in any of the hotels, but one innkeeper let them stay in his garage. Mary had the baby in the garage and they named him Jesus, just like the Jedi Ghost had instructed them.
As if this was not a weird enough story, Joe Citizen, Mary and Jesus, who had a split open garbage can for a crib, got visited by these sheep farmers. They were an odd bunch with a bizarre story that a Jedi Ghost had also appeared to them, telling them all about this convergence of the Force who had been born in the garage of a hotel and that he would save them all. The sheep farmers worshiped the Creator of the Force for showing them this baby and told everyone about what happened to them and that they had seen baby Jesus.
A month later Joe Citizen and Mary took Jesus to the big church in Jerusalem to make a sacrifice for him, just like everyone with a firstborn son was supposed to do. This old guy, Simeon, came up to them and told them that God would not let him die until he saw the convergence of the Force as a person, and that God just told him their baby was it. Mary and Joe Citizen were like, no way, how did you know? Simeon gave them a blessing and prophesied that Jesus would be the Holy Jedi, and that he was going to seriously stir things up.
After Simeon this old widow named Anna came up to them. She was a prophetess and she also recognized the convergence of the Force in baby Jesus. She told everyone who wanted Jerusalem to be free and out of the control of the Empire about this baby.
There is a whole rest of the story, but that is for another day.
Merry Christmas
Note: This retelling is just a bit of fun to help imagine what the birth of Jesus the Christ must have been like. But it is a real mind trip to actually think there is a real, supernatural being who many call "God." And this being we can't see, we can't touch or even know for certain that this being even exists. Then to think that this being, this super powerful everything, this "God," actually and truly really did work in an actual woman around 2,011 years ago to have a baby that was both God and a human at the same time seems absolutely insane. If you like Star Wars, you have imagination, but you know that Star Wars is not real. Not even remotely. The spiritual ideas and metaphors Star Wars plays with might be real, I certainly think they are, but to think, to believe, to trust your life on that fact that this historical person Jesus was both super being "God" and man, that he came to forgive us of all the things we do that are not right, that he was murdered then came back to life, that he still lives and will someday come back a rule on Earth? I think many, perhaps even most people, might think that a person who believes this is actually mentally ill. I encourage those people as much as I encourage those who blindly think Jesus is a good chance to play, to look at historical facts, to look at philosophical arguments, to question how you know what is true from what is not true. If Jesus is true, everything changes; even, and especially, this holiday. God be with you. -Caleb
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Saber Advent-ures, Holly & Holocrons, Mos Christi Cantina
Thanks to UnrefutedSpirit on Twitter for the blog title. He won the contest!
Think of these blog postings and tweets as an advent calendar: you open them up and they are little pieces of Star Wars and Advent thoughts to get you one step closer to feeling getting into the Christmas spirit.
Mary was pure, and found favor with God. She was also engaged to be married to a descendant of David. Both the spiritual and the practical were needed for her election to be the mother of Jesus.
She is a lesson to all Jedi. We may speculate if here Midichlorians were high, but there is no question about her humility, innocence and willingness to hear God and obey him.
If the angel Gabriel, in real life - right, an actual angel, one of the major ones too, completely powerful like a superhero, but let me emphasize, A REAL ANGEL, came to you and said "God has blessed you" I do believe you'd flip out. I would, at least.
Mary did believe, though. This is pretty amazing. I don't do drugs, but I'd be thinking that I was tripping if an angel appeared to me. I've heard people say that the Western world does not see much of the spirit realm, perhaps because we are not tuned in to it, or maybe because super natural type phenomenon does not happen here as much as third world nations, but to see an angel would be crazy, I think, even if you lived in those parts of the globe. Then to have the angel talk to you and say, "Dude, chill" and then tell you that you are going to have a baby, and that that baby is going to be God incarnate, come down to save us. This is the kind of wild stuff that science fiction is made of.
Looking into this a bit, it seems Mary then goes and walks 60 miles to go see her cousin Elizabeth, who Gabriel tells her is having a baby too (John the Baptist).
How many millions of people before (and after) Mary believed in the messiah coming, and she gets to see, the Word, true God from true God, light from light, come into being as a baby.
My youngest son is 7 months old, and so I see babyness all the time. To cradle baby Jesus must have been bizarre to say the least.
How does this effect Star Wars? In my book Star Wars Jesus I ask how it was people in the Star Wars universe first heard of the Force in the first place. The idea I speculate on (though I am not an extended universe fan at all) is that in the same way in our world God knew that he would have to become flesh, that his words would have to become flesh, so too the Force might have to have become flesh to be the fulfillment of the Force.
Now you can make the obvious parallels of Anakin the father, Luke the son and Obi-wan or even the Force itself as Holy Spirit, and that at Christmas time you might in a Star Wars universe think of Anakin being born from apparent father. Though these are most certainly true, I think the Force goes back much farther, and the son, Luke, does not end up with a message of how to live the Force that changes the world inextricably. Hmm, maybe I am convincing myself of this, but in this advent season I am reminded of the Force itself becoming man - and though I love Anakin and Luke, I am looking for a more sinless character. And less violent.
That's all for now. Use the Force for knowledge and defense.
Think of these blog postings and tweets as an advent calendar: you open them up and they are little pieces of Star Wars and Advent thoughts to get you one step closer to feeling getting into the Christmas spirit.
Mary was pure, and found favor with God. She was also engaged to be married to a descendant of David. Both the spiritual and the practical were needed for her election to be the mother of Jesus.
She is a lesson to all Jedi. We may speculate if here Midichlorians were high, but there is no question about her humility, innocence and willingness to hear God and obey him.
If the angel Gabriel, in real life - right, an actual angel, one of the major ones too, completely powerful like a superhero, but let me emphasize, A REAL ANGEL, came to you and said "God has blessed you" I do believe you'd flip out. I would, at least.
Mary did believe, though. This is pretty amazing. I don't do drugs, but I'd be thinking that I was tripping if an angel appeared to me. I've heard people say that the Western world does not see much of the spirit realm, perhaps because we are not tuned in to it, or maybe because super natural type phenomenon does not happen here as much as third world nations, but to see an angel would be crazy, I think, even if you lived in those parts of the globe. Then to have the angel talk to you and say, "Dude, chill" and then tell you that you are going to have a baby, and that that baby is going to be God incarnate, come down to save us. This is the kind of wild stuff that science fiction is made of.
Looking into this a bit, it seems Mary then goes and walks 60 miles to go see her cousin Elizabeth, who Gabriel tells her is having a baby too (John the Baptist).
How many millions of people before (and after) Mary believed in the messiah coming, and she gets to see, the Word, true God from true God, light from light, come into being as a baby.
My youngest son is 7 months old, and so I see babyness all the time. To cradle baby Jesus must have been bizarre to say the least.
How does this effect Star Wars? In my book Star Wars Jesus I ask how it was people in the Star Wars universe first heard of the Force in the first place. The idea I speculate on (though I am not an extended universe fan at all) is that in the same way in our world God knew that he would have to become flesh, that his words would have to become flesh, so too the Force might have to have become flesh to be the fulfillment of the Force.
Now you can make the obvious parallels of Anakin the father, Luke the son and Obi-wan or even the Force itself as Holy Spirit, and that at Christmas time you might in a Star Wars universe think of Anakin being born from apparent father. Though these are most certainly true, I think the Force goes back much farther, and the son, Luke, does not end up with a message of how to live the Force that changes the world inextricably. Hmm, maybe I am convincing myself of this, but in this advent season I am reminded of the Force itself becoming man - and though I love Anakin and Luke, I am looking for a more sinless character. And less violent.
That's all for now. Use the Force for knowledge and defense.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Quick reminder about bulk purchases for Star Wars Jesus
If you are ordering a bulk amount (3 or more copies) of my book, Star Wars Jesus, please contact me at calebgrimes@gmail.com. Amazon has good prices for individual copies, but they are not able to lower the price to a bulk rate, especially to overseas locations. If you are thinking of buying for multiple friends or relatives, a youth group, study group or other class, please contact me and I will sign the books and have them delivered to you.
Merry Christmas
Caleb
Merry Christmas
Caleb
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Taking requests for Advent Series
I think I will tweet and blog a series about Advent, Christmas and Star Wars. I am taking suggestions for titles, and have one really good one already from a follower on Twitter. The winner will receive a copy of Star Wars Jesus, signed and inscribed. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
When Star Wars and Faith Collide
Click on the title to a link to an interesting blog re: Star Wars and faith.
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