Resurrection & Worship (Luke 24:13-35)

If I asked you what events you believe are most likely to rock our world (ie. make the biggest impact) over the next 12 months, it would be interesting to see what you’d come up with

I doubt that the wedding of Charles and Camilla is going to change much. I could be wrong.

The choice made in the election of a new Pope - that could certainly change our world for good (or for not so good, depending on the choice).

The American invasion of Iran, if that happens within the next 12 months, or, more likely, Israel’s invasion of Iran and then Syria, funded and resourced by America, will certainly change our world forever.

And one other event that is almost certain to have a monumental effect on the people of this planet - an event that is scheduled to take place on the 19th of next month - is the release of the final Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith.

I’m serious about this. Millions upon millions of people will see this movie and will be affected by it. Billions and billions of dollars will be generated by this movie. For an enormous number of people it will be a story that will capture their hearts and imagination more strongly than will any story in their religious traditions, and it will be a phenomenon that will turn the wheels of industry worldwide more vigorously than will the economy of most third world countries!

Most of us will get caught up in that phenomenon next month. Like most of you, I will pay my $10 to see it when it comes out. Like most of you, I sent in my resume to George Lucas when the movie was being shot in Australia, asking if I could be a storm trooper.

OK. Most of you didn’t do that, did you, but I’m sure you would have, had you known where to send your resume. I was given the official email address to apply to by members of my online TIE fighter squadron, The Emporer’s Hammer.

I assume it was the right address anyway. I didn’t get any response, so maybe some of the other boys in Avenger Squadron weren’t quite on the ball. I’ve left the squadron now. We were never quite the same after the destruction of the 2nd Death Star anyway. We did though have a great motto, ’Before Glory, Loyalty. Before Pride, Honour. Before Self, the Empire.’

Where was I?

Over the years I’ve read a goodly number of interviews with cast and crew from the Star Wars movies. One I remember in particular was with members of the cast of the first movie, who were saying that they wished they’d taken more souvenirs from the original set. Apparently George Lucas had encouraged the original cast to take as many souvenirs as they wanted to, such as weren’t going to be needed again - bits of their costumes, left-over light sabres, that sort of thing. I think it was the guy who played C3PO who was saying, "I took a couple of things, but soon I wished I’d taken a whole lot more."

It’s easy to be wise in retrospect of course. Who would have thought that the movie was going to be such a hit? You can imagine yourself, after finishing up with all the long hard work on this movie, your mind is now beginning to move on. Perhaps you’re thinking about seeing your family again. Perhaps you’re planning on what you’re going to be working on next. Perhaps you’re just planning a holiday. You’re probably not thinking ’I’d better take in as much of this now as I can, because one day I’m going to look back on this as the most significant time in my life.’

Now I figure that it must be for much the same reason that the disciples didn’t keep any souvenirs. We have no record, at any rate, of any of the original followers of Jesus keeping any historical keepsakes.

We don’t hear of any of the disciples going back to Golgotha and making sure they kept at least a few splinters from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Plenty of others have claimed to have done this of course. Indeed, I’m told that if you could pile up all the splinters from the cross that have been sold to pilgrims in Jerusalem that you’ve had more wood than you could find in any of Australia’s national parks.

Likewise, despite the search for the Holy Grail carried on by the crusaders and by the knights of Camelot and by Indiana Jones, there’s no real evidence at all to suggest that anybody ever bothered to hang on to the original cup used at the last supper.

In a similar vein, you would have thought that somebody would have made a note of where Jesus had been buried, but no one did. Yes, there is a Church of the Holy Sepulchre built over one of the spots that is claimed to have been the original site, but the truth is that no one is really sure.