Stormtroopers--in church!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about being embarrassed by the state of my house when the pastor came over because he and his police partner wanted to see Steven's Star Wars stuff. It was also because he was going to have Steven help him with that Sunday's sermon illustration.

Here's how that went down:





The pastor started a series called Get Real. He wanted the stormtroopers to illustrate the point of fantasy v. reality. He had the guys come up and act as if they were real stormtroopers. He did a little Q&A asking about a stormtrooper's typical day, what they like about Earth, etc. Then he had them do something that the 501st rarely does in public: They unmasked.

He then introduced my husband and mentioned that the stormtrooper thing is just play-acting, but the reality is that these guys have real lives. He mentioned that Steven and I are making an impact in the world by working with the youth and leading a middle-school small group. He had the guys all introduce themselves, tell their occupations, and say a little about their real lives.

This led into the actual sermon. He asked the congregation to think about their definition of success. The world tends to tell us that success is having a fabulous job, making lots of money, living in an amazing house, driving a cool car, etc. But if that's your definition of success, your perspective is skewed. We have a tendency to hide behind the facade of the world's definition of success to avoid the reality of spiritual matters.

He used Luke 12:22-34 and Matthew 6:19-34 as his biblical passages for the day. True success is found in spiritual matters. Having earthly treasures doesn't mean a thing if you have no heavenly treasures. We are not to worry ourselves by striving after the things of the world, but we are to seek God's kingdom. The reality is that we are to put God first in our lives, live lives that are pleasing to God, and honor him in all we do. We are to give up the facades and get real by taking care of what's truly important.

If you'd like to hear the sermon, including the funny stormtrooper bit, you can listen to it here. The stormtrooper part is about one-third of the way through. I did actually catch it on video, but I made a major mistake: I was chewing gum. As my mouth was near the camera, but the guys were clear across the room, the sounds of my chewing are a little too clear. It sounds very unsophisticated, so I won't share it with you.

I have a few extra pictures just for fun. First, our wonderful youth minister being held captive by the stormtroopers:



The troopers with the pastor:



The troopers unmasked with the pastor and his wife: