2010 Article for Trinity's Lenten Devotional Booklet

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

- Psalm 8:3-4

I love all things Star Trek, which began on television in the late 1960s and chronicles the adventures of the crew of the Starship Enterprise. The fundamental premise of Star Trek is that humanity, when on the brink of its own demise, begins to work together, moving beyond old hatreds of race, nationalities and religion to evolve in technology and science. The result is the eradication of poverty, war and environmental decay, and the mastery of spaceflight.

Star Trek promotes a hopeful view of our future that has actually affected our present. The inventors of the medical CAT scan, the MP3 player and Apple Computers all credit inspiration for their designs from fictional technology they first saw on Star Trek. Even NASA gave a nod to Star Trek when it named the fist space shuttle prototype, U.S.S. Enterprise.

So, you may be asking yourself, “Why all of the talk of Star Trek in a Lenten devotional book?” Because, as much as I love Star Trek and the positive vision and influence that it has, it has one fundamental flaw: it has no idea what to do with God, or more accurately, humanity’s relationship with God. Star Trek envisions humanity bettering itself through its own ability and strength and its trust and belief in technology and reason. The Star Trek future struggles with a positive vision of faith, religion and God, mostly viewing them like the human appendix: we know it does something; in the past it may have done more, but we really don’t know how much use it is today or if it is beginning to do more harm than good and should be removed.

As Lutheran Christians, we do not share this positive potential of humanity to work out our own salvation. While the ideals that embody Star Trek are worthy goals for our work, our ability to embrace or work towards these ideals do not come from us or from our potential to evolve into something better; rather, these things come only from outside of us, from the faith given to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If humanity does achieve such a lofty future as that embodied in Star Trek, it will not be because of the greatness of human potential that has overcome ancient problems and superstitions; rather, it will be by a people transformed in faith.

The first step in this transformation is something that the Star Trek world really never embraces: repentance. Repentance is the suppression of belief in the superiority of our own abilities and the acceptance of our complete reliance upon God’s grace. And while this is our first step, it is a step first initiated in us by God’s Law that leads us to the helplessness of the cross and by God’s Gospel in Jesus Christ who creates hope and new life by embracing our helplessness. In other words, repentance is our work only because it was first God’s gift.

The season of Lent is a season of repentance. Ash Wednesday calls us to embrace the reality of our condition: we are dust and without God that is all we will ever be. Sin has destroyed our future and our relationship with God and each other; they are destroyed far beyond human ability to fix or evolve. It reminds us that, as Christians, we are called daily to remember this reality, not so that we wallow in despair, but so that we can embrace and work towards the future God is creating in the resurrected Christ, a future infinitely more wondrous than what even Star Trek can dream.

Pastor Lee