May The Force Be With You - Episode VI - Christian Jedi Training: Life-style and Service

The final episode of our study. Again, this excerpt is from Star Wars Jesus: A Spiritual Commentary on the Reality of the Force by Caleb Grimes.

"Lifestyle is a discipline. Most of you reading this book, myself very much included, have way more than you need to live, and [we] indulge ourselves with pleasures great and small. Consider every bit of extra in your life, which is most of our life-style,something we are held accountable for using resources rightly or wrongly when we face judgement. This applies even to our entertainment. Slow down in the enjoyment of what you imbibe, avoid excess, live simply, and remember that there is no try, give until it hurts, do not accumulate treasures on earth. What does this mean for each of us? Each person must determine this individually, but it could be very exciting, mysterious even, how the extra can be used for the welfare of others. One of the biggest extras many of us have is information. Giving of this information to help our neighbor is a good way to live, even this sharing takes building friendships and relationships. The Jedi lived very, very simply in an age of plenty."

"Along with this is a commitment to service. This is one external that distinguishes a Jedi from a Sith. Do your religious or political leaders serve themselves? One of the great problems of this world is that authority figures serve themselves. Some governments serve themselves by showing preference for a friend's company in giving out contracts. Others take outright bribes and kill for power. Many religious leaders exalt themselves. Part of a Jedi's life-style is service because this is evidence of selflessness. There is something about self that tends to lead us astray. For this reason, the way we live, the way a Jedi lives, is to be seen as a discipline."

May The Force Be With You - Episode V - Christian Jedi Training: Worship and Meditation

The following is a continuation of Caleb Grimes' Star Wars Jesus "[99] The Spiritual Disciplines of the Force."

"Worship: Suffice it to say that Yoda is right, we are luminous beings. We need worship to recharge our luminosity and to express that light in voice, the position of our bodies, and in the position of our spirits. Think of worship as having the same benefits as exercise has for skin; sweating unclogs the pores and helps the skin to breathe just as worship unclogs the pores of our spirit and helps it to breathe."

"Meditation: We get the idea Luke is meditating as part of his training on Dagobah, and we see Yoda on a kind of meditation cushion in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This is the practice of getting a clear signal, so to speak; it is hearing what God is trying to say to you so that you can do it. Yoda says 'You must clear your mind,' and this means you must empty your mind of all the garbage, which to to my experience is best done by confession and maybe even counseling, then filling it with God's known words to us from the Bible. What happens when Luke has the right frame of mind? Success, as in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. What happens when Anakin does not have the right frame of mind? Insanity and failure, as happens to Anakin in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith."

May The Force Be With You - Episode IV - Christian Jedi Training: Prayer and Bible Reading

For the next three "episodes" I will be reproducing entry number 99 of Caleb Grimes' book, Star Wars Jesus, entitled "The Spiritual Disciplines of the Force."

"Prayer is like reaching out with your feelings. Prayer is like listening to the midiclorians. Prayer is what happens when you are calm; at peace. Prayer is like connecting to the living Force, feeling it flow through you. It comes to this: do you want to talk to the Creator or not? This discipline is odd in that it is perfect in the first moments you ever do it yet it takes a lifetime to perfect the art and attitude of prayer."

"Bible reading, analyzing and memorizing are analogous to Jedi training. Here is where you learn the character of God through the words of God. 'I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you' (Psalm 119:11). When shiny things - words, ideas, people, etc. - tempt you away from the light side of the Force, God's words to you in the Bible help you stay centered and focused. How do you know what is true versus what is not? How do you recognize a cult? You start here, with God's revelation of himself to us. This must be similar to how a Jedi learns of the Force in the first place."

--Grimes, Caleb, Star Wars Jesus, "[99] The Spiritual Disciplines of the Force", pg. 248

May The Force Be With You - Episode III - What about the Dark Side: Anakin, Palpatine, Satan, and You

I feel that in the last couple of entries, I have established a strong comparison of the Star Wars idea of the Force to Christianity's idea of the Holy Spirit and how viewing the Holy Spirit much in the same way as we do the Force can actually shed some light on the mystery of the Holy Spirit. As we understand that the Force is a supernatural life-force that works freely in the lives of the characters in the Star Wars mythology, we also understand that our Holy Spirit is much the same, freely working in our lives, guiding and instructing us. At the same time however, we know that there are a select few characters who are actually able to use and bend the Force to do their bidding. These characters are Jedi and Sith. This realization brings us an appearant flaw in my comparison, which some may have already discovered.

This flaw stems mostly from a surface level understanding of the Star Wars mythology and story. On the surface, our realization of the difference between Jedi and Sith is that there are two sides of the Force; the Light Side and the Dark Side. This discovery suggests that the Force itself is actually good but at the same time evil. You can see where this assumption is a really bad deal when comparing the Force to the Holy Spirit. This, however, is really only a surface level assumption about the Force. In the Star Wars story, the Force is never revealed to us except through those who use it, Jedi or Sith, so therefore, as we dig a little deeper we realize that the Force itself is not inherently good or evil, but those who use it do so in a good or evil way. The same rings true for the Holy Spirit.

Allow me to explain it like this: You are Anakin, Satan is Emperor Palpatine, and the Holy Spirit is the Force. In Episode I: The Phantom Menace we are introduced to Anakin, a young boy, full of innocence and hope, void of any understanding of how the Force is working in his life. By the end of the film we find that he is destined to be the most important Jedi in history and he begins his Jedi Training. Episode II: Attack of the Clones is where our story starts to take a turn. It is established that Anakin is doing quite well in his training, but we start to see a dangerous trait growing inside him. Pride starts to creep up in him as he becomes more aware of his importance in the future of the Jedi and his exceptional skill with the Force. Anger also starts to take control as we see in Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskin Raiders after the death of his mother, and a thirst to know more rises as he begins to feel that he should be able to do more. In steps Emperor Palpatine, a Sith Lord hiding in plain sight of the Jedi Council. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith sees the decline of Anakin as Emperor Palpatine slowly begins to twist the young Jedi's views of the Force and promises him the chance to learn so much more about it than a Jedi could teach. Anakin falls for these promises and chooses to use the Force for evil and becomes known as Darth Vader. In Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Darth Vader makes another decision to save his son and once again use the Force for good.

This is totally our story. We start out innocent and unaware of the sin in the world. Then as we become Christians, we find that we are very important in the future of our world, and we gain the use of the Holy Spirit. However, becoming a Christian does not guarantee our eternal goodness. Enter Free Will and Satan. The choice to use the Holy Spirit for good or evil is ours. In his book Star Wars Jesus, Caleb Grimes uses the example of Mother Teresa and Hitler to show this choice. While Mother Teresa used her power to help and serve others, Hitler used his power to kill and destroy without remorse. They both had a great power and influence, the difference lies in the way they used them. Much in the same way that there is a choice to be Jedi or Sith and to use the Force to those respective beliefs, we have the choice of how we will use the Holy Spirit. William Shakespeare put it this way; "Even the Devil can site scripture for his purpose." (Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3) Good and evil do not lie within the Force itself, but the choices we make in how we use it.