Luke Skywalker and the Magi

Did you know that the story of Luke Skywalker has a lot of parallels with the Story of the Magi?  It’s not that big of a stretch, and it is an adventure story for both the Star Wars movies and the Matthew passage.

Both Luke and the Magi are travelling for a higher purpose.  The Magi are looking for a new hope, a prince, and Luke is looking to find adventure and freedom and to rescue a princess.  Lofty goals.

Both encounter a leader of people who is out of control.  Luke faces the Emperor Palpatine, master of the Dark Side of the Force who is determined to control the whole universe and use his power to set in place a reign of terror where no one will be able to have any kind of freedom.

The Magi face Herod the Great.  He’s known as a tyrant who liked taxing his people heavily so he could construct massive buildings as a sign of how glorious and important he was.  He may not have been able to build a Death Star or massive star destroyer ships, but he would probably have wanted to if he had the technology.  Herod also practised his Jewish faith in a way that would be manipulative or impressive, not unlike Palpatine’s use of the force.  He was a con man who liked to hobnob with people like Julius Caesar, or Cleopatra which got him into hot water with Augustus and he had to do a lot of grovelling to get into that emperor’s good books.

Palpatine manipulates political friends and foes very deftly, and is not afraid to hurt people along the way.  He isn’t above killing off family members to get what he wants when it suits him.  In fact that is another parallel between him and Herod.  Herod’s historians don’t have a record of him ordering the killing of baby boys, but they do have records of him killing his sons and wife when he felt threatened by their rise in popularity or influence.  Both Palpatine and Herod seemed invincible.  Both make for excellent villains.

Then there are the heroes.  Luke Skywalker, innocent farm boy, honest, caring about his family and friends.  The Magi, a group of people bound together because of shared principles and values.  Both willing to travel to strange places and meet strange people as they journeyed to a lofty and life-giving goal.  They all found more than they expected.  Luke found his princess in a jail cell and his wisdom from an ancient, shrivelled old creature barely as tall as his knee.  The Magi found their prince in an insignificant town off the beaten track, born to poor people who would become refugees.

It’s not a perfect analogy of course, but it reminds us of our own human story.  Our struggle to know where to look for purpose, vision and wisdom.  There are times we think we might find that meaning in grand adventures, so we travel to far away places and come home hopefully a little wiser.  We must make tough choices – do we trust the powerful king in his palace or the tiny blinking star that has led us on what some call a wild goose chase?  Do we trust an old hermit in a desert or the Corellian spice smuggler in a dilapidated spaceship?

Either way we choose what direction to take and what will guide us on our way.  In the end, it becomes a simple decision – will we follow the star to a leader who inspires us to become more loving and justice – seeking, or will we grab for power and control until we might hurt the ones that are closest to us?

One kind of leadership, Ben Kenobi’s and Jesus’, actually empower us to become loving compassionate leaders ourselves.  The other kind, the Herod and Palpatine kind of leadership wants to disempower everyone and keep all the power for themselves.

This year my goal for my sabbatical preparations is to do my best to empower you to become empowering leaders both here in this church and in your families and your community.  Empowering leadership is not easy and is not for the faint of heart.  It takes brave heroes to give away power, to nurture the leadership of others, to help people see themselves as heroes, and to steer away from the intoxication of becoming a villain.  It’s easy to become a villain, to take the short cuts, to act on impulse without thinking things through, to do whatever you want regardless of what impact it might have on others, to make the choice that brings short-term gain.  It’s hard to become a Skywalker Magi who must leave the known for the unknown, to question their assumptions and remind themselves what they are looking for, and why they came searching after knowledge.

The magi returned home to share their wisdom and experiences with their community.  Luke eventually taught what he knew to others to build a more just society.  We too are called to become Magi Skywalkers and stargazers, hopers and dreamers.  Let us work together to find a path into hope.  Let us find ways to address the tyrants in our lives, especially when those tyrants are ourselves.  And as we keep focussed on the Star of Bethlehem, may we find our way to building a better world for all where we all know that God is with us, always!

Always thanking God Jacob Part 4

What do you do when you can’t get along with the inlaws?  This is no facetious question.  In the October Broadview magazine there is an article of the high cost people experience when they are estranged from their families.  Jacob became estranged from two different families in his life.  The first was his birth family after he cheated Esau and Isaac, his brother and his dad.  The second was his father-in-law Laban.  Modern readers might say that turnabout is fair play, for Jacob, the con artist, learned the hard way that it’s not fun to be conned.  

He had trusted that his father-in-law would treat him fairly, which surprises me, given how his wedding day went.  For those of you who missed last week, Jacob planned to marry Rachel, but Laban switched brides on the wedding night and Jacob got Leah instead.  It sounds like a case of fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  And we don’t know Laban’s side of things.  Was he intimidated by this strapping young man who impressed the neighbors with his care of the livestock?  Did he notice that Jacob was able to breed sheep to whatever color was needed?  Was he impressed that Jacob was able to keep four women happy (there’s that biblical marriage from last week!) and have 11 sons?

We don’t know.  We do know that Jacob got fed up with all the shenanigans, and lost trust in Laban.  He realized that it wasn’t fun dealing with someone who would trick him at the drop of a hat whenever he felt like it.  He also recognized that even though they were family, the disrespect he was experiencing from Laban and his sons was getting to the point where he was worried about being accused of theft of the livestock.  In the bits we didn’t read, after Laban stole the speckled and spotted livestock, Jacob carefully selected what stock he would breed, and rebuilt the herd Laban had stolen. 

He ended up with a sizable striped and spotted herd and gave all the credit to God.  He wasn’t happy with what Laban did, but he was faithful to God and did not use trickery to get even with Laban.

Jacob’s resolve to play fair must have been sorely tested by all this.  He had, after all, been used to getting his own way as a child and choosing the straight and narrow is not easy.  He kept to his resolve to honor God, to trust in God and to play fair.  Be trustworthy.  Keep being thankful.

But he did something even more astonishing, certainly something that his father and his grandfather didn’t do.  He asked his wives for their opinions.  Up until now, women weren’t consulted about anything.  Sarah hadn’t had any say in where she would live when Abraham was wandering around from place to place, and Rebekah hadn’t even seen Isaac she was going to marry, only his wealth.  Jacob asked his wives what they thought before he made a final decision.  He respected their opinion and knew it would be difficult to leave their father and brothers for a one-way trip to a strange land.  They were ready to go.  They recognized that their father had seen them as only a bargaining chip, and not as humans in relation with them.  They were tired of being treated with disrespect and they were not averse to leaving his shenanigans behind.  No more wheeling and dealing in their households.  Or almost – but you’ll have to read the next chapter yourselves to see what trick one daughter pulled on her dad.

Giving thanks when we are facing family estrangement or broken trust or hurtful relationships is not easy.  Some days we must walk away from unhealthy behaviors.  I am very proud of your church council who set a goal of Zero tolerance for negativity, gossip, triangulation and unhealthy communication patterns. 

Tim McKenna suggested that “We encourage optimistic, positive attitudes and communication styles so that we all have fun and live longer.”  Jacob would have agreed with that idea.

Being thankful at all times was brought home to me by a speech I heard this Wednesday at Toastmasters.  Alfred Beaver shared a story with us that had us all thinking.  He gave me permission to share that story here today.  Alfred had a brother, named Archie, who was born with a unusually large head.  The doctor suggested that the baby be taken to Edmonton to live in a hospital or group home of some sort and said that the baby probably would not live to see his first birthday.  Archie was never able to walk, but he was able to talk and lived into his twenties, despite medical predictions to the contrary.  Every year Alfred’s dad would hold a feast on Archie’s birthday, in gratitude to the Creator for Archie’s life.  When Archie was starting to fail, the family was summoned to his bed.  Archie told Alfred, “you can walk, you can talk, you have two good hands and two good feet.  You can leave this room and go wherever you want.  I have never left this bed my whole life, and I am thankful for my life and my family who care for me.  And yet I have never heard you say, “I am thankful for what I can do.”  Archie died shortly after that visit, and Alfred never forgot those words.  Their dad continued to hold a feast on Archie’s birthday in thanksgiving for the life and the wisdom of his son.

So what are we thankful for?  How can we say thank you?  May we find ways this busy weekend to stop and be thankful for our hands and feet, our wise friends, our trustworthy family members, and our God who loves us no matter what.