Today’s Scripture Reading (July 29,
2013): Psalm 119:49-96
An
ongoing theme in the Science Fiction television series “Star Trek: Voyager” –
the fourth fictional expression to grow out of Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek”
franchise – was the question about whether or not the ideals that were
presented in the laws and the charter of Star Fleet still held even in a
universe that had never heard of the organization. In other words, the question
that the series dealt with was does law just govern our willing interaction
with each other, and would law disappear if we were no longer in community with
each other or could no longer agree on these things, or are there some things
that are absolute, things that we believe exist in every time and every place.
And this is the very place that religion has done battle for the past few
generations. As far as the relativists are concerned – and there were
relativists on “Voyager” – laws and ideals are temporary. They exist in this
moment, but may not exist if the situation changes in the next moment. In the
Science Fiction series, the relativist agenda was well represented by those who
saw the mission of the ship as simply being the crossing of the void to get
home. Every ideal that they had held had now been superseded – the laws of
Starfleet were out of place and antiquated and had been replaced with the
desire to survive. But for those who believed in absolutes there existed some
ideals that transcended all times and all possible places. Again, on “Voyager”
this point of view is maintained by those who essentially see their predicament
(being lost and far from home) as an opportunity to become missionaries for
those ideals. They believe that the ideals put forth in the Starfleet charter
to be ideals that are good and essential to life – in all times and in all
circumstances.
The
Psalmist voices a complaint to God. He finds himself being mocked by those
around him. It is quite probable that these arrogant people are people that
have never heard of God – and that did not know of his laws and ideals. The
Psalmist probably shares a lot with the fictional crew of the “Voyager”
spacecraft – both are lost in a strange place and find themselves in the midst
of strange people who hold different beliefs. And they are both faced with a
difficult question – are the things that I believe absolute, should the ideals
have formed my behavior in the past still inform my behavior now, or are they
relative and changing with the situations in which I find myself?
For
the Psalmist, the answer is that the ideals that he has believed over his life are
absolute – and even now in the face of those who mock him, he will stand his
ground. It was not likely to have been a popular decision – but the Psalmist
maintains that it is the right one. On board the fictional “Voyager” the crew
comes to the same decision – some ideals are simply absolute.
It
is not a mystery that we are still in the midst of the battle between viewing our
ideals as absolute or relative. But we can echo the same conclusion as the
Psalmist. We serve a God who never changes – and whose ideals given to us make
sense in the midst of persecution and in any time and any situation.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:97-144
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