Spread the Word of Peace
(Posted May 1, 2025)
There’s a certain amount of irony that this Sunday falls on May 4. Now, for any aging kids who have followed the Star Wars movie franchise, will plan on greeting their Star Wars friends with “May the Fourth Be With You.”
Such a greeting would neither be sacrilegious or inappropriate for church because, if you think about it, that saying about the Force should sound very familiar. The saying goes all the way back in the Hebrew Bible, to the Book of Ruth. It was Boaz who greeted his hard-working reapers with “May the Lord be With You.”
George Lucas, Star Wars Director and a former kid raised in the Methodist Church, heard the phrase many times growing up. It’s a small blessing that we either give or receive when someone is embarking on a quest or a challenge. So when it came time to put words into the mouth of the very spiritual character Obi wan Kenobi, to invoke the power of “the Force” to protect an individual or group of people, he would say, “May the Force Be With You.” This was an intentional choice to make it familiar to the Christian blessing, movie producer Gary Kurtz confirmed.
I hope that The Fourth Be With You this Sunday. Perhaps you’ll even join us in church or online for our service and wonderful music by Soprano Cheryl Hill and accompanist Toni Sullivan. After all, the message is all about when Jesus greeted his apostles, post-resurrection, on the beach and cooked them a fish breakfast. And, since they will soon be embarking on spreading his Word of peace, he blesses them with his own kind of words: Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Follow me. If they accept these directions when they leave, no matter where they go they will remember the blessing, May the Lord be With You. Come join us Sunday, the 4th -- and May the Lord Be With You, too.