I don't know if you agree with me, but I find that many Christians have this perspective that they are 'in the force', and that anyone else is on 'the dark side'. They can also treat God at times like he is some kind of 'force', sure he's good, but is something to be learned and even at times manipulated.
This view has several flaws:
1. The God I read about in the bible, is a God who is for people. All people.
2. This paints an impersonal view of God.
People may not actually think like this; 'oohh, isn't this exciting, it is just like star wars', it is obviously much more subtle than that. However in the way we speak and the language we use we can play this out and maybe more importantly in the way we treat people.
Jedi's in case you haven't seen the films, are the dudes with light sabers, and special powers which they learn through having some 'force' inside of them. A line from the films is 'the force is strong in this one' (how often do we say this kind of thing about christians). Because of these abilities, and powers comes a very special place in the galaxies - a place of authority, respect, really they are top dog in the world of the stars, they have special status. Christians can see themselves like this; intellectually, morally, and socially superior. This has been an issue throughout the centuries, look at the crusades, and the many catholic missions that went to places like South America, to 'christianise' the people. They 'needed' to bring people from the dark side, and into the good.
And here in lies the problem, this is biblical language; darkness and light, good and bad. The difference is the way in which people are seen in light of these words.
Jesus didn't walk around like Yoda. He was most definitely taller, and I would guess less green, but what I refer to, is that although he wanted people to step out of darkness, he was interested in how people saw things, and he saw things through the way of his Father.
At times we make things very black and white, we're good, they're bad - and 'if only they knew' is the type of attitude that creeps in. None of this is in essence bad, but the danger comes when we take this view and see ourselves as superior, becoming very judgemental when we talk like this, when Jesus was far from judgemental, and instead of pointing the finger at them, he pointed it for them, and towards the Father.
The Jews, expected the Jedi Jesus, the messiah who would come and slay the baddies, defeat the Romans, and free the people. But instead they got this guy from Nazareth, who rubbed against the grain, and said to people 'see'.
This is the difference, I've clocked it as I'm typing, we often in our moral superiority say 'look at me', and we stop there, Jesus says, 'sure look at me, but see the father'. And this wasn't any type of seeing, it was revealing, it was unlocking it was freeing.
But it often needs help.
Recently I went for an eye test, and I came out, to my complete shock, with glasses. The moment I put them on the way I saw the world changed. Words that I had just accepted as blurry were readable, the TV was clearer, peoples faces were recognisable, and the cinema was that much more epic, and impacting. All because I could see. I didn't start seeing, but I started seeing differently. I could always see, but now I SEE. I am not the first and I certainly won't be the last to have this experience, but this is what it is like spiritually. People need to see. Not like they currently do, but to start to really see, and often it takes something. Physically it was glasses, but spriritually it could be a gift, a smile, love, the bible, but I find most often it's a conversation.
Just look at the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts. He can see, but then he asks Philip for help and they have a conversation, and then he sees. The words are the same, but he sees them different.
But we can come into these meetings with the jedi mind on, saying I need to win you to the good side. I need to rescue you from darkness, and I have heard Christians pointing out the dark points in peoples lives, and never shining any light, just pouring judgement and hate into the hole, and we stop them from even wanting to look anymore, and if people don't look they will never see.
Obviously illustrations have flaws, and this Jedi illustration sure has flaws. Yet in amongst its flaw is a lesson. In limiting Star Wars to good and bad, dark and light and the force we are oversimplifying things, and maybe this is what we have done with God and our Christianity, oversimplified and made it black and white, when actually although at a basic level it is simple, there are much bigger and complex levels. If you've seen the films, this mistake is made by Anakin, and he slips from the good to the bad, by simply focusing on his own small world rather than submitting to the big picture. So this is the challenge: is our Christianity all about us, and the fact WE are good, and THEY are bad, or is it about helping others to see?
Let me encourage you to think of the world in terms of good and bad, but beware the maverick life of a Jedi, and instead pursue the servant life that Jesus modelled. We don't get lightsabers, or the chance to be on councils to protect the universe, but we do get, if we are humble enough, to help people to see the God of the universe, who isn't a force, but a very personal and relational being.
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