Marilu Thomas, “Where are Zarg Nuts?”
Our big green box of meals was full of offers for Zarg Nut Bites, Galaxy Greens, and Galactic Beef Melts ---which cued me in that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is coming out this week. I am a Marvel fan. I did my high school Senior project on Ray Bradbury and waited in line for 4 hours for the first Star Wars. What I particularly love about the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise is the blatantly self-centered characters become a weirdo family doing good despite themselves. Peter Quill’s dad is named Ego and Death (Thanos) is his enemy. This could have been a class in seminary!
Everything I learned about Science Fiction, however, I stumbled upon one rainy afternoon at the Science Fiction and Horror Hall of Fame in Seattle. The museum shows how our human fears about the future are projected onto other planets and species so we can wrestle with them more openly. You can track what’s happening in history by looking at the films from this genre. For instance, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein in 1818 showed the Victorian anxiety about the expansion of science without a moral context. Huxley’s Brave New World in 1932 sounded the alarm of an all-powerful state. 2001: A Space Odyssey worried whether we could trust the machines we were putting in control of our lives. You get the picture. These movies asked the questions we were historically anxious about. You may not like sci-fi or horror movies, but we all grapple with facing the future. The movies of the last decade have been existential, addressing the seeming randomness of the universe. Who or what is looking out for us? Do we matter?
The emotion of anxiety is specifically about fears about facing your future. Dr. Brené Brown defines anxiety as a place we go when things are uncertain or too much. What will happen tomorrow, next month, next year? What will I do if X happens? If only I think hard enough and prepare well-enough, I can prevent X from happening. We believe worrying is doing something about the future. But worry can sap you of all the energy you may need for whatever will actually happen tomorrow. A wise friend of mine said, “The future is only a problem when it’s the future. When it becomes the present, it doesn’t seem as bad.”
Anxiety also is based in human experience—in your memories of past suffering. Tomorrow doesn’t always feel like a friendly place given what may have happened to you before. We all have suffered. Oncologist Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, in her book My Grandfather’s Blessings, tells the story of a mother she calls Mary. When Mary’s son was diagnosed with cancer, she ran through their house howling her outrage to the neighborhood through the open windows and doors. Her husband ran after her with his cell phone saying, “Mary, Mary, I have our therapist on the phone!” She screamed, “Harry, you talk to the therapist! I’m talking to God!” Mary could not imagine how she could live with her son’s diagnosis, and she needed God to know it.
What anxieties are you suffering from today? What do you see in your future that cannot be contemplated? Money can be a common source of anxiety. Big transitions that loom in the future can overtake our thoughts. Depression can make the future unfathomable. Like Mary, we want to know if God hears us and is there for us. Our troubles seem larger than life. What will happen to us? Who is in charge of this seemingly random universe?
We rarely get a chance to hear scripture on Sunday from the books of Peter, but today we have a brilliant passage that speaks into our fears, anxiety, and suffering. Peter is writing to the Gentile Christians about placing their suffering into a brand-new story, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What grabbed me about this text is the very last line,
“For you were going astray like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”
Like many passages in the bible about Jesus, this one talks about Jesus as Shepherd. Unless you have sheep at home, it is hard for us to feel the impact of this image. But we can understand going astray. I feel astray when my fears are louder than my faith, when I am focusing only on how I am going to solve my problems, not how I can trust Christ to guide me. St. Peter tells us that Christ is the guardian of my soul. What does that mean, and can I believe that?
When I think of this passage I think of a bodyguard. A bodyguard’s job is to be on the look out for trouble and keep you safe. When we are suffering, we wonder why Christ has let us down, and why our trouble wasn’t prevented. But we are unaware of the magnitude of what is truly going on in the world. We are living in God’s world, instead of God living in our world. As the guardian of our souls, God came to us as Jesus Christ and took the proverbial bullet for us on the cross. We have gone astray and yet our Shepherd guards us day and night.
St. Peter was an eyewitness to the death and resurrection of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit in the human heart. He promises us that Christ is the guardian of our souls. The creator of the universe has you in mind and is guarding your heart and mind. The things we worry about
This image may not help you with this idea, but it has helped me this week. God has parted the Red Sea of your life and is holding it up as you walk through. You are unaware of the great power that Christ Jesus is exerting at this very moment to save you. Either God is or God isn’t. There is no middle ground for the Guardian of your soul.
Back to Mary, the mother who was screaming at God through the windows and doors. After the death of her son, Mary was numb for many months, inconsolable. One morning, she found herself walking into a church and was drawn to Christ on the Cross. She realized she was not alone in her suffering. Jesus suffered for her and with her. Somehow, knowing there was no expectation of not suffering, she felt understood and heard. She told Dr. Remen she will always miss her son, but she knows he is with the God who suffered for us and with us in Jesus Christ.
As we walk through our lives, there are reasons to worry and have anxiety. It’s part of being human. And if you were alone, it would be unfathomable. But you are not facing the future alone. You have turned toward the Shepherd and the Guardian of your soul who has gone into your future ahead of you. The true Guardian of the Galaxy is not a fictional character but Jesus Christ who lived, died, was resurrected and will come again. This is both the fact and the mystery of our faith. Through Christ, you are forgiven and loved. Sleep well- You have a soul guardian. Amen.
