You can't win, Darth.

There aren't many martyrs in geek culture.  There are plenty of Christ figures, like the ones I wrote about here and here, but that's a slightly different thing.  There's an intentionality about the death of a Christ figure that isn't quite there with a martyr.  Being martyred is something that just happens to you.  It's a wrong place, wrong time kind of thing.  Or maybe it's fate.  Barbara Brown Taylor once wrote in a sermon that it's what happens "...when people get so wrapped up in living God’s life that they forget to protect themselves."

Consider the martyrdom of Stephen.  When things started going badly he was "filled with the Holy Spirit" and saw a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of the Glory of God before he was dragged off to be killed.  Then, when they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

The closest geek culture reference I can think of is the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: A New Hope.  He doesn't see visions of God, but he clearly has a strong belief that death is not the end.  "You can't win, Darth," he asserts, "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."  It's not a perfect example, though.  Perhaps you could argue that this encounter between master and student was fated—but I still get the feeling that Obi-wan separated himself out from the others in order to seek Darth Vader out.  And as Barbara Brown Taylor also wrote about martyrdom, "I do not think you can seek it anymore than you can avoid it."

So why don't there seem to be any true martyrs in geek culture?  Well, I suspect that it's because of something I once identified as a great strength in geek culture.  As is frequently true, great strengths can also be weaknesses.  We can tell some truly epic stories by externalizing forces that we in the "real world" are forced to deal with internally.  If unbridled hatred or consumption become zombies, you don't end up with a Stephen preaching against the ways unbridled hatred and consumption are embedded in the social order.  You don't have the social order reacting violently to Stephen's preaching and stoning him to death.  You don't, in other words, end up with a martyr.  Instead of Stephen, you have Rick Grimes—and he either gets eaten by zombies, or he doesn't.

I believe that a lot of geek culture has to do with fantasizing about having control and power in a world where we have very little of either.  It's about wanting to be able to kill the zombie instead of getting kicked around by the unbridled hatred and consumption that is embedded in the current social order.  Just look at one of the most popular fantasy heroes of all time—that kid forced to live in the closet under the stairs by his wicked aunt and uncle after the horrific murder of his parents who turns out to be The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One—Harry Potter.  What geek hasn't felt downtrodden at some point or another in their lives?  Who hasn't secretly wanted to be The Chosen One?

Perhaps this is one place where Christianity has something important to say to geek culture.  The Christian tradition has redefined "winning."  We recognize martyrs as particularly faithful and good.  We see people like Stephen, who never raised a hand to defend himself and even prayed that God forgive the people who were in the process of killing him, not as a miserable failure, not as a loser, but as holy.  We believe that the last will be first and the first will be last.  We recognize ourselves as rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight.

You don't need to be the most powerful wizard in all of history to be The Chosen One.

Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
051314

The scripture lessons for May 18th—The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A—are:
Acts 7:55-60—Psalm 31:1-5,15-16—1 Peter 2:2-10—John 11:1-45