A Sunday School Lesson from Star Trek
One advantage of being home is that I am able to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, which used to be my favorite show, and which I cannot watch in Atlanta, because it only comes on Spike, and I don’t get Spike at the Village. The show is just as corny as it was before, which to be honest is part of the draw for me, with the bad acting and bad writing and bad story premises -- but I love it. It makes me laugh, even when it’s not supposed to, and watching it with friends or with my brothers can be an hilarious experience. I don’t mean to dog the show, or say that it’s all a joke. I genuinely like the show and I am a fan of the whole Star Trek universe, which unlike Star Wars, is our own universe -- something of an optimistic projection of humanity, almost utopian. Still, it’s as corny as hell. But it’s also comforting.
Without exception, today’s episode made me laugh -- but unlike most others, it also made me think and actually had some valuable story and meaning to it. The name of the episode is “Darmok”, and it’s plot line is briefly: the Enterprise comes into contact with a new race, who can only communicate through reference people and places, which the crew cannot understand. The aliens kidnap Picard, and beam him as well as their own captain down to the surface of the planet they are orbiting, where Picard and the alien captain learn to be friends, and together they fight a beast on the planet. Great heartwarming story.
What was particularly interesting about this episode was the communication practices of the alien race. While Picard was down on the planet, working with the other guy, he figured out that the alien captain was speaking in metaphor by referring to mytho-historical stories from the alien culture. By engaging him and working with him, Picard was able to learn how to communicate with him. Meanwhile, disconnected from Picard, Data and Troy figure out the same thing -- that the culture speaks by referring to stories -- and then Data makes this astounding statement: “We have no way of knowing what these names and places mean without learning the narratives from which they originate.”
Those of you who know me can imagine my excitement. Data was unable to form communication with the alien race, since all he had was the abstracted names and places. But Picard, in partnership with the alien captain and by engaging with him, was able not only to understand the communication of the alien, but was able to communicate the story of Gilgamesh as well. Only in the context of an ongoing relationship with certain practices, as well as with a directed end or goal, was communication possible. The alien race communicated entirely by metaphorical connection to meaningful narratives of their history -- as such, Data also observed, they have no sense of what we would recognize as self-identity apart from the stories themselves. The episode ended with Picard engaging in a practice that he had learned from the alien captain simply by observing him (think about that for awhile).
Absolutely amazing, and a lesson that the Church can learn from Star Trek, at least this episode. The ultimate and most destructive problem with the Church is that we have abstracted Jesus from the story which gives him meaning, that is, the gospel. Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and Son of God only has meaning, or at least the right meaning, when that meaning comes from the story of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Apart from that story and context, Jesus has no meaning. The problem is that we have abstracted him from the Gospel, and then filled the content of his meaning with other stories and other contexts. When that happens, Jesus becomes a good American, or good Republican or Democrat, or whatever else we try to fill the void with. When the meaning changes, so does the end, or the goal, as do to the practices and ethics of the community. And this is exactly what has happened to the Church, and has been happening for the past 2000 years. We wait for an end that will not come because we are on the wrong path.
We cannot understand, live, or follow Jesus apart from the gospel, the kingdom of God, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if we fail to do that, then we certainly cannot communicate it to a dark and salt-less world.
Live long and prosper...
Without exception, today’s episode made me laugh -- but unlike most others, it also made me think and actually had some valuable story and meaning to it. The name of the episode is “Darmok”, and it’s plot line is briefly: the Enterprise comes into contact with a new race, who can only communicate through reference people and places, which the crew cannot understand. The aliens kidnap Picard, and beam him as well as their own captain down to the surface of the planet they are orbiting, where Picard and the alien captain learn to be friends, and together they fight a beast on the planet. Great heartwarming story.
What was particularly interesting about this episode was the communication practices of the alien race. While Picard was down on the planet, working with the other guy, he figured out that the alien captain was speaking in metaphor by referring to mytho-historical stories from the alien culture. By engaging him and working with him, Picard was able to learn how to communicate with him. Meanwhile, disconnected from Picard, Data and Troy figure out the same thing -- that the culture speaks by referring to stories -- and then Data makes this astounding statement: “We have no way of knowing what these names and places mean without learning the narratives from which they originate.”
Those of you who know me can imagine my excitement. Data was unable to form communication with the alien race, since all he had was the abstracted names and places. But Picard, in partnership with the alien captain and by engaging with him, was able not only to understand the communication of the alien, but was able to communicate the story of Gilgamesh as well. Only in the context of an ongoing relationship with certain practices, as well as with a directed end or goal, was communication possible. The alien race communicated entirely by metaphorical connection to meaningful narratives of their history -- as such, Data also observed, they have no sense of what we would recognize as self-identity apart from the stories themselves. The episode ended with Picard engaging in a practice that he had learned from the alien captain simply by observing him (think about that for awhile).
Absolutely amazing, and a lesson that the Church can learn from Star Trek, at least this episode. The ultimate and most destructive problem with the Church is that we have abstracted Jesus from the story which gives him meaning, that is, the gospel. Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and Son of God only has meaning, or at least the right meaning, when that meaning comes from the story of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Apart from that story and context, Jesus has no meaning. The problem is that we have abstracted him from the Gospel, and then filled the content of his meaning with other stories and other contexts. When that happens, Jesus becomes a good American, or good Republican or Democrat, or whatever else we try to fill the void with. When the meaning changes, so does the end, or the goal, as do to the practices and ethics of the community. And this is exactly what has happened to the Church, and has been happening for the past 2000 years. We wait for an end that will not come because we are on the wrong path.
We cannot understand, live, or follow Jesus apart from the gospel, the kingdom of God, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if we fail to do that, then we certainly cannot communicate it to a dark and salt-less world.
Live long and prosper...
posted by twodollarshoe at 4:30 PM
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