NOT using the
panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose,
CA in August 2018 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)),
I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF
DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation
is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes
reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of
mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
“From
the Inside Out”
(Hillsong
UNITED)
“Your
light will shine when all else fades
…never
ending,
Your
glory goes beyond all fame.
In
my heart and my soul
Consume
me from the inside out…”
(Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9mUDbGsEk)
The
same night we sang that song, Pastor M spoke about how not ONLY do we need to confess
our sins, but that we need to seek the root of that sin.
Jesus
clearly knew and understood our pain and the author of the Book of Hebrews is
clear when they write: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who passed
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For
we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us, rather, one who was
tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near
with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
How
did all of this get tangled in my head?
Funny
you should ask.
I
love science fiction and dozens of years ago, ALIEN hit the big screen. It wasn’t
part of a “franchise”, it wouldn’t intersect with the PREDATOR “franchise” for
another quarter century or so. The original movie had some basis in reality as
the titular aliens reproduce by laying eggs in warm-blooded hosts. The idea
took its lead from the life cycle of the Ichneumonoids (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichneumonoidea),
insects who lay their eggs in or on other insects. The eggs hatch and eat their
way out of the host insect, continuing their life cycle when the host is dead.
In
my thought process, Satan is a member of the Ichneumonoid family and lays an
egg in each Human, it is a sin (or a suite of sins) that are set to plague us
for the rest of our lives.
Even the pillar of the New Testament, the Apostle,
Paul, experienced this, writing, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of
the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not
do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I
am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it,
but sin which dwells in me.” (Romans 7: 18-20)
While
it is an admittedly bizarre connection, it illustrates for me the nature of sin
in my own life.
Imagine
that my sin is gluttony. Initially, my life is simple, I eat to live. But, as my
life grows more and more complex, the simple act of eating to live grows into the
parasite in which I live to eat.
Something normal has become something abnormal, an alien so-to-speak. The Apostle
Paul was non-specific regarding his “thorn-in-the-flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10,
“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to
keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning
this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to
me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most
gladly, therefore, I will rather boast [c]about my weaknesses, so that the
power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses,
with [d]insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for
Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”; but I have my suspicions
that it was something normal that grew to overtake him to a point where he begged
God to remove it. Clearly, God did not, and Paul grew to understand that in his weakness, God was creating a stronger him.
In
ALIEN, the alien deposits an egg in Executive Officer Kane after melting
through his helmet and covering his face with a weirdly pulsing, skin-covered,
spider-ish creature that drops off dead with its done depositing egg in his chest
cavity. It grows and eventually kills its host when it hatches in a scene that
is impossible to excise from the memory of anyone who has ever seen it.
(Remember that while it has become iconic, it was shocking then and like
nothing anyone had ever seen in 1979. It left an indelible impression on me and
also led to endless jokes with the friend who saw it with me…)
So,
the synthesis is clear in my brain: we are born into sin (Psalm 51:5, “Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.”)
That
sin grows within me, breaking out into all of its myriad perversity
(definition: “the quality of being contrary to accepted standards or practice.”,
bursting out into my life.
Then
the Hillsong verse, “Lord I give You control/Consume me from the inside out…”
The egg is inside, we were born with it and Satan encourages us to feed it. The
ONLY way to destroy that sin is to allow the Lord access to the depths of who
we are where He fills us with the Holy Spirit and instead of the sin consuming
us, breaking out, and not only killing us, but threatening those around us; the
sin itself is consumed.
Of
course, the movie is quite clear that even though Kane died, the Alien was a
threat to everyone who remained on the Nostromo.
The ending is clear – the Alien is swept out of Warrant Officer Ripley’s escape
pod and blasted into gas by the ship’s exhaust. But I remember mutterings among
my friends…had the alien laid an egg in Ripley?
Even
when I am cleansed by the Holy Spirit, the possibility exists that sin can once
again grow in my, therefore the Scriptural injunction in James 5:16, “…confess
your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”;
and 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” will keep us confessing
our daily sins to one another – and to receive the forgiveness of Christ.
I
know…convoluted…but that was where these thoughts led me!
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