Father, Son & Holy Spirit
Frank and Griffin and I saw "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" this past weekend. There is a hilarious scene in the movie in which Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is saying grace before a meal of fast food. A vociferous discussion ensues over how each character perceives Jesus because Ricky Bobby insists on praying to baby Jesus whom others argue was a grown man. There are a series of improvs at the end with John C. Reilly coming up with different images of Jesus.
Later, as I was driving to a nighttime event I was covering, I started to come up with my own images. My first thought was of Jesus as this big, loveable Chewbacca character. From, there it wasn't much of a jump to seeing Luke Skywalker as the Son, Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Father and Yoda as the Holy Spirit.
Of course, that's not how I really picture them, but it sure brings into focus not only how Star Wars plays out the whole good versus evil thing, but how much our images of Jesus can vary . . . and the human need to keep Him defined, if not confined, to our personal image.
posted by Victoria @ 12:18 PM
7 Comments:
At 5:21 PM,
CS said…
I never would have imagined the holy spirit as having such poor grammar. I think I'd go with "the Force."
At 7:19 AM,
Victoria said…
Yes, but the "Force" has a dark side whereas the Holy Spirit or in this case, Yoda, does not. It makes even more sense when you consider the fact that Hebrew doesn't even use the verb, to be.
At 4:57 AM,
Anonymous said…
Besides, The Force can't be The Holy Spirit...The Force that binds together the universe is duct tape.
Han Solo is Peter, the guy who shoots from the hip, gets it wrong a lot of the time, but turns out right in the end. And Chewbacca is Thomas, because he could make good doubting noises.
Princess Leia is Mary Magdalene...
-Frank
At 8:02 PM,
Gallycat said…
But of course, how many people always go "and also with you" when you say, "May the force be with you" "?
I've been meaning to start blogging about intersections of faith and fandom, and this is a great example. Mind if I link here?
At 9:00 AM,
Laura said…
So Peter gets Mary Magdalene?
Interesting thought: I wonder if anyone's considered the possibility of Mary M. being one of Jesus's (unnamed) sisters? I know she's supposed to be from Magdala, wherever that is, but still...that would certainly explain her closeness to Jesus and Mary Mom, and why she was at the tomb on Sunday morning, early.
At 10:30 AM,
Laura said…
(She answers her own post.)
Looks like Magdala's about 10 miles from Nazareth, on the Sea of Galilee. So in my scenario, Mary Sis marries a Galilean from Magdala, maybe is widowed young, joins up with her brother's homies and travels with him. Then she could easily end up with Peter.
At 4:25 PM,
CS said…
Oh, Yoda has a dark side all right. You just don't know because it's never advertised.
If Jesus is Luke, God would have to be Darth Vader. And if Mary Magadene is Leia, she'd have been Jesus's sister. This is all theologically confusing.
By the way, the next time someone says "May the Force be with you," I believe I WILL say "And also with you." I like that.
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