\n<\/p>\n
a few years ago.<\/i><\/p>\n A In Star The I Spoiler Instead He The What I Some Her Hallelujah! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Please Though Comments Though I To date, the blog has had 512,500 visits, a count that does not Donations Copyright Tax-deductible
\nbeloved transgender member of Ormewood Church, formerly a member of Ormewood
\nPark Presbyterian Church, died unexpectedly last week, and, in addition to her
\nown outstanding \u201cMessage of Hope\u201d about this longtime member, our pastor Jenelle
\nrequested me to offer a brief reflection on her life based on our shared love
\nof Star Trek during her memorial service this past Sunday afternoon. Afterward,
\nher lifelong spouse gave me a beautiful Star Trek t-shirt commemorating its
\nvarious incarnations over 55 years, 1966-2021.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nrecent weeks I had tossed about various ideas for my final post on this blog. Should
\nI re-post an earlier blog about LGBT Pride for this Pride Month or write
\nsomething new? I\u2019ve decided that this reflection is a fitting way to end this
\nten-year-long blog.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTrek, The Next Generation<\/span><\/i>, was one of my binge-watched series during the pandemic, and
\none episode in particular stood out, entitled, \u201cThe Inner Light.\u201d For those who
\nwant to watch it on Netflix, it is episode 25 of season 5. I had talked with
\nJenelle about it at the time, and I discovered lots of other people liked it
\ntoo, receiving awards.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nepisode is simply described: \u201cPicard awakens to find himself in a village where
\nhe is a well-known member of the community suffering from a delusion of being a
\nstarship captain.\u201d I watched it again to prepare.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhave come to think of Star Trek<\/i> as a kind of \u201cbiblical stories of the
\nfuture.\u201d They often relate to something going on in the present, offering
\nmeaning and values and purpose, just as the Bible does.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nalert, but what occurs in this episode is that the current Enterprise has
\nhappened upon an unoccupied alien spacecraft that sends a beam of memory into Captain
\nPicard\u2019s head, causing him to faint, unconscious for half an hour. But during
\nthat brief period, Picard realizes a whole lifetime on another planet. No one in
\nhis village believes him to be a starship captain, no one affirms his own
\n\u201cinner light,\u201d thus the reason he is considered under a delusion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhe is recognized as a community leader and scientist who tackles his host
\nplanet\u2019s own form of global warming, an unrelenting drought. He is married and
\nhas children, and we watch them grow from infancy to adulthood, as Picard and
\nhis wife age, and as Picard finally learns to play the flute.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\neventually finds a solution to the planetary drought and offers it to his
\ncommunity leaders. Come to find out, their own scientists had figured out the
\nsame solution, but the local leaders (read<\/i> \u201cpoliticians\u201d) refuse to make
\nthe hard choice to put it into practice, for fear of the average citizen. Again,
\nhis own \u201cinner light,\u201d his own \u201caha,\u201d is rejected.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbeam directed into Jean Luc Picard\u2019s inner consciousness is the way the people
\nof this now destroyed planet have finally told their story, perhaps as a
\nwarning for those of other planets. The people of the planet have been gone for
\na thousand years, but their history and their lives have been preserved and now
\ncommunicated. Their inner light has become Picard\u2019s (and our own) inner light.
\nThe parallel with scriptures and sacred texts of every faith handed down to us
\nis clear, at least to me.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nreally moves me about this story is that this is what I experience in every
\ndeath, including our beloved church member. With every death, we lose a vital (as
\nin \u201clife-giving\u201d) story about ourselves, about life, about the universe, about
\nthe nature of things. We will miss their \u201cinner light.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwill miss her grin, cheerfulness, intelligence, wit, and welcome. I will miss
\nher story, her own inner light. Surely it was a reflection of the very nature and
\nnobility of God.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\noutside our welcoming community of Ormewood Church may have written off as
\ndelusion her inner light. But she came to understand something about herself, her
\ngender experience and expression, and I would say, something about all of us
\nand about all of our gender expressions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ninner light has brightened our world on her journey into the inner light of God.
\nTo quote the opening of Star Trek episodes: \u201cSpace, the final frontier\u2026[our]
\nmission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new
\ncivilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nAmen! Thanks be to God!<\/span><\/p>\n
\nvisit my website: <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/chrisglaser.com<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nthis is my final post, more than ten years of posts remain available to you on
\nthe blogsite, <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/chrisglaser.blogspot.com<\/span><\/i><\/a> and I encourage you to
\nenjoy them. I regret that I never created an index of post titles, but the
\nsearch engine in the upper left corner of my blog can help you find posts of
\ninterest by typing in a subject, topic, name, scripture reference, religious
\nseason or holy day. Or you may work through them by year and month listed in
\nthe right column.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nare still welcome on any post.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nthey may have been written with current events in mind, I intended them each to
\nbe read meaningfully at any point in time. It has been a pleasure writing this
\nblog, but now, I believe, is a time for silence, something I considered when
\nwriting the Zen series<\/a>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nassure you I am well, content, and thankful to God for this extension of my
\nministry. Thank you for your interest, comments, correspondence, and contributions.
\nI am grateful to Metropolitan Community Churches for recognizing this blog as
\nan \u201cEmerging Ministry\u201d and ProgressiveChristianity.org for reposting many of my reflections<\/a>, as well as the dozens of Facebook pages that allowed me to provide
\nlinks to particular posts. I am grateful for the free services of Blogspot,
\nGoogle, Facebook, and the delivery service, FeedBurner. I am grateful for
\nartist and friend Becki Jayne Harrelson and my husband Wade Jones for their
\ntechnical and moral support.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\ninclude 500 free weekly subscribers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/i>Subscriptions have always
\nbeen free and the blog non-monetized (no ads). Permission is granted for non-profit use with attribution of author and blogsite.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nmay still be made through the links provided at the end of this post. Thank
\nyou!<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
\n\u00a9 2021 Chris R. Glaser. Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution
\nof author and blogsite. Other rights reserved.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\ndonations may be made safely to the \u201cChris Glaser Archive\u201d through the Tribute
\nGift <\/b>section of The Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion<\/a>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n