I wrote this originally for
The Dialogue, the newsletter of
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), St. Joseph, MO.
I’m at a loss for what to do with my extra brain energy—the part of the brain you use in spare moments—because over the last six years I have been thinking about the TV show
LOST in my spare moments. Now that the show is over, I guess I will use that part of my brain for other diversions, but I doubt I will find any that are simultaneously as entertaining and inspiring as
LOST. I know, I know, there are many of you out there who do not care about things like the
smoke monster, the
Dharma Initiative and
Vincent the dog. You, unlike me, have not spent hours watching and re-watching
LOST episodes, listening to
podcasts which debate the show’s so-called “mythology” and devouring every last detail about this group of survivors of the
Oceanic Flight 815 plane crash. Some of you are even annoyed by obsessive fans like me (I’m speaking here of a couple of church staff members). But I beseech you, as a favor to me, to bear with me as I offer some musings about the show and its religious themes. (I will do my best to be spoiler free.)
What’s in a name? The show
LOST was about a group of people stranded on a deserted
island in the Pacific when their plane crashes. Fairly quickly, the audience learns that no help will be coming for them and the people who know their location are hostile to them. The title would seem to be self-evident: the show’s characters are geographically lost, but we soon also learn that the characters are also lost spiritually. Most are estranged from their families. Some have committed egregious acts they are ashamed of. Others are aimless or have found themselves adrift in life despite their best efforts. In the end, what has been hinted at all along is confirmed: the castaways were brought to the island for a purpose, and as they work together to accomplish that purpose each will find redemption and reconciliation. So, in the characters of
LOST we find a metaphor for our own estrangement from God and one another, as well as, our hope that reconciliation and redemption are possible.
Live together or die alone. In one of the early episodes, when the castaways’ unity threatens to break apart, the group’s de facto leader, Jack Shepard, makes an impassioned speech urging the group to hold together against the growing list of difficulties and threats. At the end, he declares, “If we can't live together, we’re going to die alone.” In our age of individualism run amok, where there seems to be no end to the lies that declare the gratification of the self’s desires trump all else, it was refreshing to hear declared on prime-time television that the only way to “life” is through community.
The religion professor and pop-culture commentator, Brent Plate, describes LOST as “the antithesis of Lord of the Flies.” Instead of Golding’s descent into barbarism, we find in
LOST characters attempting to build relationships, demonstrate loyalty and sacrifice themselves for the sake of others—actions they had not done prior to coming to the island. As Plate points out, on the island, the castaways discover (and so do we) the truth in Donne’s words, “No man is an island. . . “ and in those of Thomas Merton, “We learn to live by living together with others.” One of the show’s creators,
Damon Lindelof, declares, “in order to redeem yourself, you can only do it through a community.” Granted, I am a minister, but I take this as a great endorsement of faith communities.
I can’t tell you how often I hear the tired line: “I’m spiritual but not religious.” When it escapes someone’s lips, it is all I can do to not roll my eyes. What I hear unspoken in this cliché is “I like to think about God and have God in my life only when it suits me. If God demands any sacrifice on my part or accountability to others, then I will label it as “religious” and gladly discard it.” Especially in the series finale of
LOST, we discover that the only way these characters—so alienated from themselves and the people they care about—can find true existence is through the community they have built together. What a refreshing antidote to the “spiritual but not religious” crowd.
Connection: Although the spiritual themes of
LOST were rarely explicitly Christian, I, as a Christian, found much to appreciate. Through the use of
flashbacks,
flashforwards and even
“flash-sideways” in the show, the audience learns about how the characters’ lives are intertwined in a complex web of relationship; often beyond the awareness of the characters themselves. Similarly, we are taught as believers that we are each but threads in God’s great tapestry of creation and our actions affect others far beyond what we can know.
In the endless internet debates over
LOST and the many mysteries presented over the course of its run, my hope is that amidst the questions over
time travel,
numerology and
philosophy (not to mention the ones over minutiae such as whatever became of
Kate’s toy plane?), the show will also inspire fans to consider their place in the world, their own need for redemption, and their search for community.
May God bless each of us in our “lost-ness.”
Grace and Peace,
Chase
