Becoming human
In college, I volunteered two years in a row at a haunted house, where all the proceeds went to charity. The first year, they just had me wear a mummy costume. The second year, they hired a professional makeup artist to apply realistic-looking wounds and other hideous features to us, and I thought, that’s pretty cool, how they can transform a person into a monster or a half-dead human with makeup.
And that’s how I started watching Star Trek.
One day, I turned on the TV, and I saw those actors portraying Klingons and other non-human beings, and I was impressed by how they were transformed into their characters thanks to some pretty amazing makeup artists.
My excitement over the makeup didn’t last; but something else kept me watching Star Trek: the ethical issues raised in many of its episodes.
For example, it would often happen that a crew member or a small “away team” got into trouble, and their lives were in danger. And sometimes, a risky rescue would be the only way to save them.
Logically, it didn’t make sense to risk the lives of the entire crew and all the passengers of the Starship Enterprise for the sake of just one or even a few crew members.
This was Jean-Luc Picard’s Enterprise, which held about 1,000 crew and passengers. So, if one crew member was stranded somewhere, and if there was almost no chance of a successful rescue, and if any rescue attempt would likely jeopardize the lives of everyone on the starship, it wouldn’t make sense - it wouldn’t be logical - to risk losing all those lives to save just one life.
But they always did it. They always took that risk.
And for Data - the android who spent the entire series learning what it means to be human - it didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense to risk losing 1,000 lives for the sake of one life. But every time it happened, Data just added that experience to his ever-growing database of what it means to be human.
The Body of Christ
In the book of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul presents his views on what it means to be human. More specifically, he presents his views on what it means to be humans who are created by God, given life by God, and called to live lives that are holy.
And in the 12th chapter, Paul compares the community of believers, and humanity in general, to a body. And, he says, the body is not whole if any part is missing. An eye, an ear, a nose - each part is essential.
And then Paul says that “the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable;” and he says that “God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, [so] the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
I didn’t make the connection between Star Trek and this Bible passage all those years ago, but I do make that connection now. Not only is every member important; those we think are inferior are actually greater in God’s eyes. And if they suffer, or if they are lost, that affects the entire body.
Because we are not whole without each other.
And that, as far as I can tell, is the only logical reason why Captain Picard would risk the lives of the entire ship if it meant they might be able to save the life of a single crew member. Because of the way humanity is all bound up together, to lose any single person would mean that every person is lost. To lose any single person would mean that the entire crew was no longer whole.
A Network of Mutuality
It’s the same logic that we find in the parable Jesus told, about the shepherd who leaves his flock of 99 in order to go find the one sheep that is lost. On a strictly logical level, doing that makes no sense. But when we remember that we are all connected - that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” as Martin Luther King, Jr., said - then it becomes the only ethical choice.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that is all too willing to leave people behind. In fact, it’s not just one or two people; in some cases, we’re leaving vast numbers of people behind.
Our economic system leaves people behind. Wages for the poor are not increasing, even though corporations continue to make record profits. In 2021, corporate profits in the United States climbed 10.5% to a record high of 2.44 trillion dollars.
Walmart, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Toyota, Proctor & Gamble, Home Depot, Kroger - all raked in huge profits - record-breaking profits - in 2021. Shipping companies also made record profits - their profits jumped 900% in 2021. For them, the economy is doing great!
But wages have not gone up. Wages remain low, while prices are going up. People complain about inflation, but what they don’t realize is that rising prices aren’t being caused by the cost of goods, or supply chain issues, or low-wage workers demanding better pay. Rising prices are being caused by the greed of corporations and billionaires.
And everyone else is being left behind.
Another company that is on that list is Pfizer. Pfizer made big money in 2021. We’re all thankful for the vaccines that are saving lives, but we know that our health care system has corporate profits as its first goal, and that it still leaves so many people behind.
People are being left behind when it comes to democracy.
We have politicians actively trying to deny black and low-income voters access to the polls, effectively pushing them further behind, leaving them behind. This is on top of an electoral college system that gives the average Black voter 16% less power than the average white voter. And polling locations in predominantly Black neighborhoods have much longer waits than polling places where there are few Black people.
So many people in our society are being left behind.
But in the kingdom of God, no one gets left behind, because everyone matters. Every life matters. Every poor life. Every black life. Every trans life. Every Asian life. Every young life. Every old life. Every immigrant life.
Every life matters.
And the moment we speak or act on the idea that some lives don’t matter as much as others, we begin to lose our humanity. We begin to lose what makes us holy. We begin to lose what makes us whole.
Every Individual Matters
This is all something I’ve had to learn, because, in some ways, my mind operates a little too much like Data the android, or like Spock from the original series. I sometimes do think too logically. And years ago, when I’d watch Star Trek, and they’d make the illogical decision to go rescue that stranded crew member, I was torn. Part of me cheered; and a part of me thought they were fools - the same part of me that thought that, maybe, Thanos - who wiped out half of humanity with a snap of his fingers - was right.
Thank God that logical part of me isn’t the only part of my brain that’s active. Logic is good, logic is a gift, but by itself it is incomplete. Like Jane Goodall says in her new book that I’m currently halfway through: humanity is incredibly intelligent, but we need to have wisdom to go with it. No doubt it is her wisdom that leads her to proclaim that “every individual matters.”
And thank God that I see the power and the sacred truth of what Paul said, and what Martin Luther King, Jr., said, about how we are all connected, and how even one life matters to all the rest.
Because if that one life no longer matters - if we are willing to sacrifice the weak - then we’ve lost what makes us human. We’ve lost our ability to love. We’ve lost our ability to show compassion. And we’ve become something far less than what we are capable of becoming, of what we are called to become.
What today’s lesson teaches is that I am not who I am apart from you. We are not who we are apart from one another. Even the smallest, most insignificant member is vital to our identity, because no one is insignificant in God’s eyes.
If I’m willing to let that one crew member remain lost and stranded because I think that’s what’s best for the rest of us, then I’m actually the one who’s become lost. I’ve lost my ability to love, to show compassion; I’ve lost what it is that makes me human.
And it feels weird to preach on this, because I think some of you already know this and understand this teaching better than I do, and I’m constantly learning from you.
Rescued, healed, made whole
I’m constantly learning from our elders, the way they remember each of our members in their thoughts and their prayers, reminding me of those who, in other circumstances or situations, might easily be forgotten or overlooked. Members who have moved away, or whose health keeps them confined to home - our elders won’t let me forget about them, and I’m thankful to them for that.
Because sometimes other concerns overwhelm my mind, like the sermon I’m working on, and how to adapt ministry to a time of pandemic, and how to keep up with my reading and study, and what activities we should be doing, particularly with our youth, and what activities should we not be doing right now because so many people are getting sick, and how to spread the message of God’s love to those beyond our walls, and how to draw more people into the church for their sake and for ours…
And there’s the anxiety of knowing we live in a time when so many do not really care about the wellbeing of their neighbors, people who value their own privilege and right to convenience over the safety and wellbeing of others, and even though I feel called to teach people to love and to show care, I sometimes throw my hands up in the air and wonder if it’s even possible, to make people care anymore.
But then I see people who have learned to care, who have learned to love, who have learned to show compassion, and who are always looking out for those who have been left behind, those who have been forgotten, those who have been overlooked by society.
And I realize that if I ever forget this; if I ever forget the importance of rescuing the one stranded crew member, if I ever forget to seek the one lost sheep, then I’m actually the one who is lost; I’m the one who has strayed from the path of love that we are called to follow.
That’s why I need to be a part of a community that keeps me from getting lost, and it’s why I continue to rely on the grace of God - the God who will never abandon or forsake any of the sheep, but who always seeks out the lost, the wayward, the prodigal; and who always welcomes and embraces all those who need to be rescued, healed, and made whole.
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