May The Gospel Be With You

I did not intentionally plan to be the guy writing the blog on May the Fourth, but I plan to make the most of it. For the non-nerds out there, May 4th is Star Wars day, only because May the Fourth sounds eerily similar to may the force [be with you]. The multilayered joke in the methodist tradition is to then add “and also with you”. (In a traditional style service there is a moment called the passing of the peace. The proper greeting is “The peace of Christ be with you” and the response is “and also with you”.)

While I was still a youth director, Star Wars episode 7 came out. Of course I had to think of a way to watch Star Wars with the teens, but in typical youth ministry fashion I also had to come up with a way to redeem it for spiritual purposes. Apparently old habits die hard. Anyway, we watched the Force Awakens over a few week span, but the catch was I wanted the teens to take note of what Christian themes could be found in the movie. It didn’t disappoint. Some of the parallels were super obvious. Some of them were a bit more obscure like Finn being the Prodigal Son. The thing that pleasantly surprised me though was that they were all able to connect the stories and themes of the Bible to the movie. I still think it’s a wonderful exercise and encourage you to try it as you celebrate May The Fourth.

However, you can also do this with just about any other movie. Top Gun: Maverick was the top grossing movie last year and has nothing to do with Christianity. But even in this movie you can draw similarities to the Bible. I mean, the whole movie itself is a continuation of the first and makes several nostalgic references to the original. It’s like how the New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old and contains 283 direct quotes. You can talk about training up the next generation (Proverbs 22:6), encouraging one another (1 Thess. 3:2), or doing whatever it is to the best of your ability (Ecc. 9:10).

The sceptic might say that the reason we can do this so easily is because the Bible has copied or borrowed from other narratives or real world scenarios and therefore is just a trope. However, I think it’s the opposite. For starters, large parts of the Bible are merely describing God’s interaction with His people. It is a written record of what has happened to humans. And because we are still human, the stories that we found compelling thousands of years ago still have a similar draw to us today. We love the hero’s journey, the underdog taking down the empire, epic battles and self sacrifice. So of course we can find these themes in Biblical works and in modern movies.

So whether you celebrate today by watching all 9 episodes or if it’s just another day in May, may the peace of Christ be with you.