My pastor delivered a sermon today that caught my attention, mostly because he connected it with The Lord of the Rings. After the service we had a long discussion, it turns out that he too has read LOTR many times, and almost appeared scholarly on the subject. It was a fun conversation, here is what was discussed, hoping I can further discuss the conversations here
.
This belief of
parallel worlds that has been growing since the LOTR and Harry Potter movies have been coming out. Now, I don't want to get into a big topic about religion, but this is important to the discussion. A common question seen is "How can a virgin lady give birth?" To answer this question, the topic of
parallel worlds come up. Parallel worlds meaning there's something else going on, something else happening RIGHT NOW, that we can't see, hear, feel, touch, and experience with our limitted human senses. Something else is happening, seperate from our own "earthly" world.
Phyllis Tickle, editor for Publishers Weekly, and author of many Christian Books discussed this topic at her seminar in Montreat Conference Center, NC. And discussed how spreading the thought of parallel worlds is becoming, since the release of these supernatural movies (Harry Potter, The Matrix, LOTR).
They use these parallel worlds to explain the supernatural, example to explain how a virgin gives birth. Well, onto LOTR, what are these parallel worlds in Tolkien? The Ringwraiths? The Army of the Dead? The Maiar and Eru? In which case do these "parallel worlds" mix with the reality world of Middle-earth? Do these supernatural beings all belong to the same parallel world? Or do they belong in their own seperate parallel worlds?
Onto the next topic we discussed, and this one really caught my attention. He made a connection between Joseph, husband of Mary, and Sam. If you wish to learn a bit about Joseph look at Mathew 1:18-25. Mathew focuses on the pain of Joseph after hearing that his wife is pregnant, and it wasn't by him. He hears this, yet he sticks with her, he could simply say, I'm not going with her. The common law at the time said he could have abandoned her. But, he goes with her, to Bethlehem, he fought through the pain and stuck with her. Let's look at Sam, what instances of them were he could have simply left Frodo, not have gone with him? But, Sam, said no, he was going to stick with his friend. Just like with Mary, it's debatable but she might not have made it to Bethlehem with Joseph. It's debatable, but Frodo might not have made it to the Mountain with Sam. I found this connection to be rather interesting, and something I didn't consider before.
Anyway...that's it, I hope we can discuss the parallel worlds and a bit about Sam and Frodo.