May 6, 2025 • 19 mins
This homily, delivered by Pastor Will Rose on May 4th, 2025, aptly intertwines the profound hope embodied in Jesus Christ with the existential struggles depicted within the expansive narratives of the Star Wars franchise. Pastor Will elucidates how the thematic elements of great and terrifying empires resonate with the contemporary human experience, particularly in the face of adversity and doubt. He draws parallels between the disciples' post-resurrection uncertainty and the journey of characters within the Star Wars saga, emphasizing the enduring message of redemption and transformation. The homily invites listeners to reflect on their own spiritual journeys, encouraging them to embrace the hope offered by Christ amidst life’s formidable challenges. Ultimately, it serves as a reminder that the divine presence is a constant source of strength and guidance, urging us to recognize and cherish that we are never alone in our struggles.
The discourse presented in this episode delves into the profound significance of a post-resurrection encounter between Jesus and His disciples, as recounted in the Gospel of John. This particular narrative captures a moment of vulnerability and uncertainty among the disciples, who, having witnessed the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of their leader, find themselves grappling with feelings of confusion and doubt. In an effort to return to a semblance of normalcy, they revert to their former occupation of fishing, only to experience an unexpected miracle that serves as a poignant reminder of Jesus's enduring presence and guidance. The subsequent invitation to share a meal further underscores the relational aspect of faith, emphasizing the importance of communion not only with Christ but also within the community of believers. Through this exploration, we are invited to reflect on our own journeys of faith, particularly during times of uncertainty, and to recognize the ways in which divine love and grace manifest in our lives, urging us to nurture our relationships and to embrace our calling as stewards of that love in the world.
Takeaways:
- Pastor Will Rose articulates the enduring hope found in Jesus amidst the overwhelming power of formidable empires, drawing parallels to the Star Wars narrative.
- The homily emphasizes the importance of community and context, akin to how scripture speaks to specific times and audiences while conveying timeless truths.
- A significant theme is the continual transformation of disciples, akin to a hero's journey, illustrating how faith evolves through experiences of doubt and revelation.
- The message encourages listeners to embrace their identities as 'geekologists', exploring the intersections of faith and popular culture, particularly through the lens of beloved narratives like Star Wars.
- Through the resurrection narrative, we are reminded that Jesus meets us in our confusion and skepticism, offering companionship and guidance along our spiritual journeys.
- Ultimately, the homily concludes with a powerful affirmation of divine presence, underscoring that the love of God accompanies us always, resonating with the notion of the Force within the Star Wars saga.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
Thank you for engaging withthe homily by Pastor Chill Will from
Chapel Hill.
I hope this message encouragesyou, challenges you and moves you
to go deeper in your faith andenrich how you love God and love
(00:22):
your neighbor in your day today life.
Just a reminder.
Like the scriptures andGospels themselves, this homily was
written for a particularcommunity in a particular context,
time in history.
And yet, like our sacredtexts, I hope that these words hold
timeless truths about God'sunconditional love and grace.
(00:42):
We hope these words speak toyou in a meaningful way.
(01:04):
The Holy Gospel According toJohn after he appeared to his followers
in Jerusalem, Jesus showedhimself again to the disciples by
the Sea of Tiberias.
And he showed himself in this way.
Gathered there together wasSimon Peter, Thomas called the twin
(01:25):
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,the sons of Zebedee, two others of
his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, I amgoing fishing.
They said to him, we will gowith you.
They went out and got into theboat, but that night they caught
nothing.
Just after daybreak, Jesusstood on the beach.
(01:47):
But the disciples did not knowthat it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, children,you have no fish, have you?
They answered, no.
He said to them, cast the neton the right side of the boat and
you will find some.
So they cast it, and now theywere not able to haul it in because
there were so many fish.
(02:09):
The disciple whom Jesus lovedsaid to Peter, it is the Lord.
Simon Peter heard that it wasthe Lord.
He put on some clothes, for hewas naked, and jumped into the boat,
jumped into the sea.
But the other disciples camein the boat dragging the net full
of fish, for they were not farfrom the land, only about 100 yards
(02:30):
off.
When they had gone ashore,they saw a charcoal fire there with
fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, bring someof the fish that you just caught.
Simon Peter went aboard andhauled the net ashore full of large
fish, 153 of them.
And though there were so many,the net was not torn.
(02:53):
Jesus said to them, come andhave breakfast now.
None of the disciples dared toask, who are you?
Because they knew it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the breadand gave it to them and did the same
with the fish.
This was now the third timethat Jesus appeared to the disciples
after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finishedbreakfast, he said to Simon Peter,
(03:17):
simon, son of John, do youlove me more than these?
Said to him, yes, Lord, youknow that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my lambs.
The second time, he said tohim, simon, son of John, do you love
me?
He said to him, yes, Lord, youknow that I love you.
Jesus said to him, tend my sheep.
(03:39):
Said to him the third time,simon, son of John, do you love me?
Peter felt hurt because hesaid to him the third time, do you
love me?
And he said to him, lord, youknow everything.
You know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
Very truly, I tell you, whenyou were younger, you used to fasten
your own belt and to gowherever you wished.
(04:01):
But when you grow old, youwill stretch out your hands and someone
will fasten a belt around youand take you where you do not wish
to go.
Said this to indicate the kindof death by which he would glorify
God.
After this, he said to him,follow me.
The gospel of the Lord may beseated in the name of the Father
(04:28):
and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So we're going to do a quickturn and talk.
We do this from time to time.
I want you to share with yourneighbor, whoever you're sitting
around, and share.
What was the first movie yousaw in a movie theater?
Movie theater.
(04:48):
Turn and talk.
Okay, I'm going to pull youback in those here and online.
Perhaps online.
You thought of yours as well.
Popcorn for me?
(05:09):
Just what are some of the movies?
Bambi or Bambi over here.
The person I talked to.
Casablanca.
Nice.
Yeah.
Others?
Wizard of Oz classics.
There's Super Mario.
That was your first.
(05:30):
Yes.
I love that.
Yeah.
From Casablanca to SuperMario, there you go.
Well, believe it or not, mine,star New hope.
As a five year old, 1977, as akid and as an adult who has a hard
time sitting still, myattention and imagination were held
(05:54):
captive through the entire movie.
And I've been a fan of thatfranchise ever since.
And so today I thought abouthow I could preach a whole sermon
on how the titles of theoriginal Star wars trilogy follow
the story of Christ.
In the birth and the coming ofChrist, we are given a new hope.
(06:19):
And then with his passion andcrucifixion, the Empire strikes back.
But on Easter, the sagacontinues with the return of the
rabbi.
I could also do a whole sermonon the prequel trilogy and talk about
how the Force, once a mysticforce available to everyone, was
(06:41):
reduced to biologicaldeterminism with meta chlorines and
blood tests.
And how the choice around fearand control and power can often lead
to the path of the dark side.
Or maybe I could do a wholesermon on the Disney sequel trilogy
about how the force doesindeed awaken within Any of us with
the threat and lust and questof Imperial power to rule the galaxy.
(07:05):
And when the dark side emergesin our midst, then a force must indeed
awaken.
Or I thought about how I couldpreach about the downfall of the
Jedi organized religion whenthey became too fundamentalist around
their denial of attachmentsand became bedfellows with the Republic
and cloning a whole army.
(07:28):
Lose any of y'all.
Yeah, well, have no fear.
Over the next three hours Iwill unpack all of that and explain
the details across 12 Starwars movies.
Well, I guess we do have a lotto do today, right?
Maybe I'll pump the brakes alittle bit.
Maybe a little.
As I mentioned, the firstmovie I remember seeing in the theater
(07:51):
was Star A New Hope in 1977.
It was the first time Iremember my imagination being awakened
to the possibilities of bothscience fiction adventures not only
in a galaxy far, far away, butmaybe this could happen in our solar
system too.
Even, maybe even I could beLuke Skywalker.
(08:14):
And I was Luke Skywalker whenI played with my Star wars action
figures or when I waspretending the naked wrapping paper
cardboard tube was a lightsaber.
Part of my infatuation withStar wars was this of tension of
(08:37):
being both sci fitechnological future styled adventure
while also proposing that thiswas an ancient story that happened
a long time ago, incorporatinga mystical spirituality.
Lasers and robots andspaceships intermingled with a powerful
(08:58):
mystical force that binds allthings together.
That's an adventure.
That's something I want to bea part of.
Could I too be force sensitivein case I need to rebel and fight
against an oppressive evil empire?
Unapologetically, this issomething that I think about almost
(09:20):
daily.
One of my favorite scenes inall of Star wars, in the original
movie A New Hope is LukeSkywalker is having his first training
session with a lightsaber withObi Wan Kenobi on the Millennium
Falcon and things aren't goingvery well.
Using or being one with theForce evidently has a big learning
(09:42):
curve.
In walks agnostic skeptic andpirate scoundrel Han Solo.
He sees what's going on andwhen Luke doesn't quite get it right,
he chuckles to himself.
Luke turns and asks him, youdon't believe in the Force, do you?
(10:03):
Han responds, kid, I've flownfrom one side of the galaxy to the
other.
I've seen a lot of strangestuff, but I've never seen anything
to make me believe thatthere's an all powerful force controlling
everything.
There's no mystical energyfield that controls my destiny, but
(10:24):
to Obi Wan, he grins almost to communicate.
We'll see.
We'll see.
The scruffy scoundrel Han Solois, of course has many great scenes
and moments throughout Star Wars.
At one point it looks likehe's going to be running away from
his friends and taking hismoney reward and just thinking of
(10:48):
himself.
But even in the midst of that,he turns to Luke and says, may the
Force be with you.
And then later on he comesback in a dramatic way to help his
friends defeat and blow up theDeath Star.
Later on, in another tensionfilled scene when it looks like the
Empire will win the day,Princess Leia confesses her love
(11:10):
to him and the Empire strikesback, she says, I love you.
And he responds, I know.
And as years later in themovie the Force Awakens, when new
characters emerge in the storyand they've heard all the legends
and the stories and theadventures of Luke Skywalker and
(11:31):
his small band of rebels andthey ask Han, is this true?
Then Han confesses, all true.
All of it.
There seems to be atransformation that happened.
A hero's journey, a redemptive ark.
(11:52):
Over the years I've found wayshard to believe, but it's true, to
connect and overlap.
The things that I geek out onand my faith and my vocation as a
pastor.
As someone who I feel iscalled to be a shepherd to the geeks.
We've had God Loves geeks,book clubs and hangouts.
(12:12):
I've done panels anddiscussions at Comic Cons on how
our faith and what we geek outon share similar questions and themes
and redemption arcs.
And I'm currently helpingcurate and moderate a podcast called
Systematic Geekology.
We are the priest to thegeeks, helping moderate and curate
(12:35):
those things we geek out on,wanting to go deeper into the questions
of our faith and life.
We are geekologists.
Think of it as being similarto an archaeologist or a geologist,
studying and learning andgoing beneath the surface to discover
deeper questions and themes.
(12:56):
We all do it.
We all of us are geekologists.
From the books we read to theTV shows we watch, or maybe it's
food or stoplights or Disneyor comic book superheroes, we all
geek out on something and wehave deep meaning and resonance with
(13:21):
those things we geek out on.
Perhaps because they aretapping into a larger story arc,
a divine story that has aredemption arc that we are all a
part of.
Geek culture, pop cultureoften ask similar big philosophical
(13:41):
and theological questions,even if they aren't fully aware of
it.
They explore a deeper, largerstory within our own stories.
What we long for, what we hope for.
And I'll also confess thatjust like religion and any institutions
that humans are a part of,there is still the problem of toxic
(14:05):
fandom and fundamentalismwithin those things we geek out on.
We call it fandimentalism.
Humans are going to human nomatter what they are a part of and
no matter what they are a fanof or geek out on.
But like with things likefaith and science and justice issues
(14:25):
and how we do communitytogether, there is a way, this is
the way to have healthy, deepconversations within these things
that resonate with us and thatmean so much to us as we process
what it means to be humanscreated in the image of God.
(14:45):
So let's shift over and begeekologists with our gospel story
for today.
This is a post resurrection story.
At the end of John's Gospel,the disciples are still grieving
and confused and skeptical andagnostic about what has happened
(15:05):
after Jesus resurrection.
They have been one side ofIsrael and Galilee to the next and
they've seen a lot of strange stuff.
But they aren't sure sure ifthere is any strange mystical force
helping guide their destiny.
So what do they do?
They go back to what they think.
(15:25):
They know what they do best.
They go back to fishing andthey're still not very good at it.
And guess who shows up?
Maybe Jesus has a force.
Ghost.
No, he actually eats with themand proves that he's not some disembodied
spirit.
(15:46):
He's with them in the flesh,bodily form.
And then there's this othermiracle of catching fish to remind
the disciples who is meetingwith them on the beach, meeting them
wherever they are.
And then there is another mealwith bread and fish.
(16:06):
Of course, it's with thoseobjects and with what's going on
in that practice that theyremember again who their rabbi is
and what he has done, what heis doing, what he promises to do.
There's an ongoingtransformation happening.
There's an ongoing hero'sjourney taking place.
(16:28):
There's an ongoing redemption arc.
And if that's not clear, therisen Christ pulls Peter aside and
asks him some important question.
Jesus asked him three times,mirroring the three times Peter denied
Jesus, do you love me?
And it's not just I know, it'sLord, you know.
(16:53):
Yes, indeed he does.
But it's in this articulationof, of luring and helping and challenging
Peter to articulate andconfess out loud his love for Jesus
that it moves him from fish,sheep, from going fishing, shepherding
(17:13):
a community that is shaped bya crucified and risen Christ.
Peter had his hero's journeyand redemption ark.
And we will, too, no matterwhat seashore we find ourselves on,
no matter what skepticism orquestions or agnosticism we wrestle
with.
(17:36):
So may the Force be with you.
And you have permission to begeekologists, not just on Sunday,
but every day of the week.
Yesterday, a friend remindedme or pointed out to me something
that I hadn't noticed before.
And so, even as an elder andexperienced geekologist, I'm still
(17:59):
learning new things about Starwars and other things.
He said, notice that beforethe Jedi crosses over to be one with
the Force, they say, may theForce be with you.
Acknowledging that there'sstill kind of this element of uncertainty,
like, maybe it'll happen,maybe it won't.
We'll see.
But when they cross over to beone with a Force, they have this
(18:22):
calling.
To those who are still intheir pilgrimage.
They say, and remember, theForce is with you always.
Yes, that's the promise.
As we continue to remember theChrist, as we gather around this
table to remember his body andblood given and shed for you, the
(18:43):
risen Christ meets us whereverwe are and says, remember, I am with
you.
I love you.
Your redemption ark will cometo completion always.
Amen.
(19:17):
Thank you for listening.
If there is anything thatstood out.
For you, or if you have aquestion or.
Or you just want to have aconversation, you are always free
to reach out and contact us.
And remember you are not aloneand that you are loved with a love
stronger than death.
Foreign.
Thank you for engaging withthe homily by Pastor Chill Will from
Chapel Hill.
I hope this message encouragesyou, challenges you and moves you
to go deeper in your faith andenrich how you love God and love
(00:22):
your neighbor in your day today life.
Just a reminder.
Like the scriptures andGospels themselves, this homily was
written for a particularcommunity in a particular context,
time in history.
And yet, like our sacredtexts, I hope that these words hold
timeless truths about God'sunconditional love and grace.
(00:42):
We hope these words speak toyou in a meaningful way.
(01:04):
The Holy Gospel According toJohn after he appeared to his followers
in Jerusalem, Jesus showedhimself again to the disciples by
the Sea of Tiberias.
And he showed himself in this way.
Gathered there together wasSimon Peter, Thomas called the twin
(01:25):
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,the sons of Zebedee, two others of
his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, I amgoing fishing.
They said to him, we will gowith you.
They went out and got into theboat, but that night they caught
nothing.
Just after daybreak, Jesusstood on the beach.
(01:47):
But the disciples did not knowthat it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, children,you have no fish, have you?
They answered, no.
He said to them, cast the neton the right side of the boat and
you will find some.
So they cast it, and now theywere not able to haul it in because
there were so many fish.
(02:09):
The disciple whom Jesus lovedsaid to Peter, it is the Lord.
Simon Peter heard that it wasthe Lord.
He put on some clothes, for hewas naked, and jumped into the boat,
jumped into the sea.
But the other disciples camein the boat dragging the net full
of fish, for they were not farfrom the land, only about 100 yards
(02:30):
off.
When they had gone ashore,they saw a charcoal fire there with
fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, bring someof the fish that you just caught.
Simon Peter went aboard andhauled the net ashore full of large
fish, 153 of them.
And though there were so many,the net was not torn.
(02:53):
Jesus said to them, come andhave breakfast now.
None of the disciples dared toask, who are you?
Because they knew it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the breadand gave it to them and did the same
with the fish.
This was now the third timethat Jesus appeared to the disciples
after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finishedbreakfast, he said to Simon Peter,
(03:17):
simon, son of John, do youlove me more than these?
Said to him, yes, Lord, youknow that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my lambs.
The second time, he said tohim, simon, son of John, do you love
me?
He said to him, yes, Lord, youknow that I love you.
Jesus said to him, tend my sheep.
(03:39):
Said to him the third time,simon, son of John, do you love me?
Peter felt hurt because hesaid to him the third time, do you
love me?
And he said to him, lord, youknow everything.
You know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
Very truly, I tell you, whenyou were younger, you used to fasten
your own belt and to gowherever you wished.
(04:01):
But when you grow old, youwill stretch out your hands and someone
will fasten a belt around youand take you where you do not wish
to go.
Said this to indicate the kindof death by which he would glorify
God.
After this, he said to him,follow me.
The gospel of the Lord may beseated in the name of the Father
(04:28):
and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So we're going to do a quickturn and talk.
We do this from time to time.
I want you to share with yourneighbor, whoever you're sitting
around, and share.
What was the first movie yousaw in a movie theater?
Movie theater.
(04:48):
Turn and talk.
Okay, I'm going to pull youback in those here and online.
Perhaps online.
You thought of yours as well.
Popcorn for me?
(05:09):
Just what are some of the movies?
Bambi or Bambi over here.
The person I talked to.
Casablanca.
Nice.
Yeah.
Others?
Wizard of Oz classics.
There's Super Mario.
That was your first.
(05:30):
Yes.
I love that.
Yeah.
From Casablanca to SuperMario, there you go.
Well, believe it or not, mine,star New hope.
As a five year old, 1977, as akid and as an adult who has a hard
time sitting still, myattention and imagination were held
(05:54):
captive through the entire movie.
And I've been a fan of thatfranchise ever since.
And so today I thought abouthow I could preach a whole sermon
on how the titles of theoriginal Star wars trilogy follow
the story of Christ.
In the birth and the coming ofChrist, we are given a new hope.
(06:19):
And then with his passion andcrucifixion, the Empire strikes back.
But on Easter, the sagacontinues with the return of the
rabbi.
I could also do a whole sermonon the prequel trilogy and talk about
how the Force, once a mysticforce available to everyone, was
(06:41):
reduced to biologicaldeterminism with meta chlorines and
blood tests.
And how the choice around fearand control and power can often lead
to the path of the dark side.
Or maybe I could do a wholesermon on the Disney sequel trilogy
about how the force doesindeed awaken within Any of us with
the threat and lust and questof Imperial power to rule the galaxy.
(07:05):
And when the dark side emergesin our midst, then a force must indeed
awaken.
Or I thought about how I couldpreach about the downfall of the
Jedi organized religion whenthey became too fundamentalist around
their denial of attachmentsand became bedfellows with the Republic
and cloning a whole army.
(07:28):
Lose any of y'all.
Yeah, well, have no fear.
Over the next three hours Iwill unpack all of that and explain
the details across 12 Starwars movies.
Well, I guess we do have a lotto do today, right?
Maybe I'll pump the brakes alittle bit.
Maybe a little.
As I mentioned, the firstmovie I remember seeing in the theater
(07:51):
was Star A New Hope in 1977.
It was the first time Iremember my imagination being awakened
to the possibilities of bothscience fiction adventures not only
in a galaxy far, far away, butmaybe this could happen in our solar
system too.
Even, maybe even I could beLuke Skywalker.
(08:14):
And I was Luke Skywalker whenI played with my Star wars action
figures or when I waspretending the naked wrapping paper
cardboard tube was a lightsaber.
Part of my infatuation withStar wars was this of tension of
(08:37):
being both sci fitechnological future styled adventure
while also proposing that thiswas an ancient story that happened
a long time ago, incorporatinga mystical spirituality.
Lasers and robots andspaceships intermingled with a powerful
(08:58):
mystical force that binds allthings together.
That's an adventure.
That's something I want to bea part of.
Could I too be force sensitivein case I need to rebel and fight
against an oppressive evil empire?
Unapologetically, this issomething that I think about almost
(09:20):
daily.
One of my favorite scenes inall of Star wars, in the original
movie A New Hope is LukeSkywalker is having his first training
session with a lightsaber withObi Wan Kenobi on the Millennium
Falcon and things aren't goingvery well.
Using or being one with theForce evidently has a big learning
(09:42):
curve.
In walks agnostic skeptic andpirate scoundrel Han Solo.
He sees what's going on andwhen Luke doesn't quite get it right,
he chuckles to himself.
Luke turns and asks him, youdon't believe in the Force, do you?
(10:03):
Han responds, kid, I've flownfrom one side of the galaxy to the
other.
I've seen a lot of strangestuff, but I've never seen anything
to make me believe thatthere's an all powerful force controlling
everything.
There's no mystical energyfield that controls my destiny, but
(10:24):
to Obi Wan, he grins almost to communicate.
We'll see.
We'll see.
The scruffy scoundrel Han Solois, of course has many great scenes
and moments throughout Star Wars.
At one point it looks likehe's going to be running away from
his friends and taking hismoney reward and just thinking of
(10:48):
himself.
But even in the midst of that,he turns to Luke and says, may the
Force be with you.
And then later on he comesback in a dramatic way to help his
friends defeat and blow up theDeath Star.
Later on, in another tensionfilled scene when it looks like the
Empire will win the day,Princess Leia confesses her love
(11:10):
to him and the Empire strikesback, she says, I love you.
And he responds, I know.
And as years later in themovie the Force Awakens, when new
characters emerge in the storyand they've heard all the legends
and the stories and theadventures of Luke Skywalker and
(11:31):
his small band of rebels andthey ask Han, is this true?
Then Han confesses, all true.
All of it.
There seems to be atransformation that happened.
A hero's journey, a redemptive ark.
(11:52):
Over the years I've found wayshard to believe, but it's true, to
connect and overlap.
The things that I geek out onand my faith and my vocation as a
pastor.
As someone who I feel iscalled to be a shepherd to the geeks.
We've had God Loves geeks,book clubs and hangouts.
(12:12):
I've done panels anddiscussions at Comic Cons on how
our faith and what we geek outon share similar questions and themes
and redemption arcs.
And I'm currently helpingcurate and moderate a podcast called
Systematic Geekology.
We are the priest to thegeeks, helping moderate and curate
(12:35):
those things we geek out on,wanting to go deeper into the questions
of our faith and life.
We are geekologists.
Think of it as being similarto an archaeologist or a geologist,
studying and learning andgoing beneath the surface to discover
deeper questions and themes.
(12:56):
We all do it.
We all of us are geekologists.
From the books we read to theTV shows we watch, or maybe it's
food or stoplights or Disneyor comic book superheroes, we all
geek out on something and wehave deep meaning and resonance with
(13:21):
those things we geek out on.
Perhaps because they aretapping into a larger story arc,
a divine story that has aredemption arc that we are all a
part of.
Geek culture, pop cultureoften ask similar big philosophical
(13:41):
and theological questions,even if they aren't fully aware of
it.
They explore a deeper, largerstory within our own stories.
What we long for, what we hope for.
And I'll also confess thatjust like religion and any institutions
that humans are a part of,there is still the problem of toxic
(14:05):
fandom and fundamentalismwithin those things we geek out on.
We call it fandimentalism.
Humans are going to human nomatter what they are a part of and
no matter what they are a fanof or geek out on.
But like with things likefaith and science and justice issues
(14:25):
and how we do communitytogether, there is a way, this is
the way to have healthy, deepconversations within these things
that resonate with us and thatmean so much to us as we process
what it means to be humanscreated in the image of God.
(14:45):
So let's shift over and begeekologists with our gospel story
for today.
This is a post resurrection story.
At the end of John's Gospel,the disciples are still grieving
and confused and skeptical andagnostic about what has happened
(15:05):
after Jesus resurrection.
They have been one side ofIsrael and Galilee to the next and
they've seen a lot of strange stuff.
But they aren't sure sure ifthere is any strange mystical force
helping guide their destiny.
So what do they do?
They go back to what they think.
(15:25):
They know what they do best.
They go back to fishing andthey're still not very good at it.
And guess who shows up?
Maybe Jesus has a force.
Ghost.
No, he actually eats with themand proves that he's not some disembodied
spirit.
(15:46):
He's with them in the flesh,bodily form.
And then there's this othermiracle of catching fish to remind
the disciples who is meetingwith them on the beach, meeting them
wherever they are.
And then there is another mealwith bread and fish.
(16:06):
Of course, it's with thoseobjects and with what's going on
in that practice that theyremember again who their rabbi is
and what he has done, what heis doing, what he promises to do.
There's an ongoingtransformation happening.
There's an ongoing hero'sjourney taking place.
(16:28):
There's an ongoing redemption arc.
And if that's not clear, therisen Christ pulls Peter aside and
asks him some important question.
Jesus asked him three times,mirroring the three times Peter denied
Jesus, do you love me?
And it's not just I know, it'sLord, you know.
(16:53):
Yes, indeed he does.
But it's in this articulationof, of luring and helping and challenging
Peter to articulate andconfess out loud his love for Jesus
that it moves him from fish,sheep, from going fishing, shepherding
(17:13):
a community that is shaped bya crucified and risen Christ.
Peter had his hero's journeyand redemption ark.
And we will, too, no matterwhat seashore we find ourselves on,
no matter what skepticism orquestions or agnosticism we wrestle
with.
(17:36):
So may the Force be with you.
And you have permission to begeekologists, not just on Sunday,
but every day of the week.
Yesterday, a friend remindedme or pointed out to me something
that I hadn't noticed before.
And so, even as an elder andexperienced geekologist, I'm still
(17:59):
learning new things about Starwars and other things.
He said, notice that beforethe Jedi crosses over to be one with
the Force, they say, may theForce be with you.
Acknowledging that there'sstill kind of this element of uncertainty,
like, maybe it'll happen,maybe it won't.
We'll see.
But when they cross over to beone with a Force, they have this
(18:22):
calling.
To those who are still intheir pilgrimage.
They say, and remember, theForce is with you always.
Yes, that's the promise.
As we continue to remember theChrist, as we gather around this
table to remember his body andblood given and shed for you, the
(18:43):
risen Christ meets us whereverwe are and says, remember, I am with
you.
I love you.
Your redemption ark will cometo completion always.
Amen.
(19:17):
Thank you for listening.
If there is anything thatstood out.
For you, or if you have aquestion or.
Or you just want to have aconversation, you are always free
to reach out and contact us.
And remember you are not aloneand that you are loved with a love
stronger than death.
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