Coming Soon!

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, Aug. 15, 2008



I learned the other day that a new Star Trek movie is in the works. I am a confirmed “Trekker,” so this is big news for me. I went on the Internet to learn as much about the new movie as I could. The last movie, “Star Trek: Nemesis,” was very disappointing. I hope the new movie will be much better.

Going online, I uncovered rumor after rumor about the new Star Trek movie. The variations on plot lines, casting, and release dates reminded me of one of my favorite “Star Trek-isms”: infinite diversity in infinite combinations (or IDIC). The movie is going to be about Jean Luc Picard; no, it’s going to be about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. But wait! How can they even think about putting 70ish actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy back on the bridge of the Enterprise? Besides, didn’t Kirk get killed about 4 movies ago?

Well, its official: the movie is going to be about Kirk and co., but going back in time to BEFORE they came together on the original Enterprise on the original series – using all different actors in their 20s to fill the roles. Uh-oh, that could be troublesome for Star Trek purists like me.

The original Star Trek was produced in the late 1960s. Watching reruns or DVDs of those episodes, the aura of 1960s fashion and special effects make them incredibly cheesy by today’s standards. When Star Trek: Next Generation aired, creator and producer Gene Roddenberry wisely set that series about 70 years into the future from the original series. The then-current production techniques used for the series helped everything looked so much more “hi tech” than before, and yet the future setting protected the integrity of the original series.

After Roddenberry’s death, a different producer conceived “Enterprise” as a series set back in the earliest days of Starfleet – nearly 150 years BEFORE Captain Kirk took the bridge. But the Enterprise series was produced using 21st century production technology. As a result, it made Kirk’s time appear less technologically advanced and cheesier than ever.

Why does any of this matter, you ask? My response is that Star Trek has become more than casual entertainment for me. It is a metaphor for exploring core understandings of human nature, the implications of philosophical, political and religious understandings, and the role technology has in shaping those explorations. Star Trek lets us as the basic Why? What? and How? questions of life.

Amazingly, the Bible does the same thing. Scripture also asks those questions, but even better than Star Trek, it offers answers that have divine inspiration, authority and applicability to us! My Bible reading this week took me to the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. I haven’t read this prophet’s writings in a while, so it was startling stuff – almost like something brand new.

During his time, Jerusalem is filled with people who ignore God, including the king and all his court. The Babylonians have defeated the previous empires – the Assyrians and the Egyptians. And now Babylon is doing some “mopping up” by taking the little kingdoms, too. That means Judah and its capital Jerusalem.

Habakkuk asks God the basic “why?” question of all time: “Why do you tolerate wrong?” (Hab 1:3) He goes on to list the injustices that he sees all around him, and yet the wrong-doers are not punished. Then he asks again, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Hab 1:13)

Then God responds: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (Hab 2:2-3)

God goes on to promise that all things will be made right; but things will get worse before they get better. But no matter how bad it gets, remember that God is still present, still prepared, and still will make things right. But God doesn’t give many details about the how or when. In short, God says this: “Have faith. Trust me.”

If you are like me, then sometimes trusting God is hard. Maybe the hardest thing any of us are ever asked to do. Just like the new Star Trek movie, God has something coming soon. I don’t have to trust that Paramount Pictures will do Star Trek right by me, but I do have to trust that God will do right – not by me, but by God’s own standard of holiness.

I pray that each of us will be able to proclaim along with Habakkuk (in Hab 3:17-18): “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.” It’s coming soon! God will not prove false. Wait for it! It will certainly come and will not delay.