Doctor Who, Death, Life

Last night's DOCTOR WHO episode, part of our ongoing Bible study using the television show, focused on a kind of contrast between The Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness on the one hand and the universe on the other. The Doctor's team found themselves at the very end of the universe, with a group of people struggling to find a way to survive that end. The irony is that for two of the Doctor's team: the Doctor himself and Captain Jack, time doesn't mean the same thing it does for everyone else. For those who are in some sense trapped in linear time, time means the end of all things. Time is the vehicle of death, for most of us. But The Doctor, who has a very non-linear experience of time, and Captain Jack, who is nearly immortal, do not experience time as leading to any kind of end. In a very real sense, the Doctor is Eternal, where as the universe is not.

Time and eternity, death and life...these are the real issue of religion, of Christianity especially, which has at it's center a temporal being, a man in time who is yet the very ground of time itself. Jesus Christ is eternity become a time-dependent being. Too much of Christianity has thrown away all the great questions that make it vital and important. Doctor Who, that silly and yet wonderful television show, often ends up being closer to the true spirit of the original Christian quest than most modern-day ethical, 'religious' Christianity.

Either life is God, either Being and Consciousness, and Love are the final and eternal truth, and thus the Ultimate Reality, and thus death but an illusion pretending to be God, or death and nothingness are god, and our experience of life as of ultimate value is illusory. This cosmic choice is the one that stands before humanity. Only a few are brave enough to face it, fewer still are those brave enough to live as they believe. But I have more respect for the avowed atheist who lives a life determined by the conviction of the finality and ultimacy of death than I do for the person who sleep walks through life, with no sense of the weight of depth of how they have chosen to believe. Better still, though, is the one brave enough to embrace and take a risk on the message of the Cross: for life is harder than death. Letting my life be a testament to the Ultimacy of Life and Love is the greater challenge.

All of this I have explored in the last 24 hours thanks to that one episode of that one television show. Being able to read the Bible and find an even more relevant conversation about the same issues is proof to me that the Bible truly is more than just another book. It is the record of a direct encounter with that Living God who is the ground of all things. Jesus was eternity in time, the Ultimate as a particular human being. Living that, and loving it, is what Christianity is all about. Bonhoeffer was right, the Will of God is not a set of rules created from the outset. The ethical life, for the Christian can be summed up in a quote from another DOCTOR WHO episode, 'The Family of Blood': "“He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun… He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe… and... he's wonderful.”

 This is roughly equivalent to what is said of Jesus in Revelation 19:11-21. This is what God, what Jesus Christ really is. The Christian is called to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and thereby with God. What does it mean to have a relationship with THAT? What kind of life and community is formed around THAT? Does your life look that way? These are the ethical questions of the Christian. This is the life we are called to.