In case you missed it, James Gunn’s revamped DC Universe just concluded its initial season of Lanterns. If you have zero interest in superheroes, feel free to stop reading here or continue if you wish to be converted. If you are watching or plan to watch Lanterns, beware the spoilers ahead.
Lanterns is a dark detective drama that reimagines what a superhero show can be as it follows seasoned Green Lantern Hal Jordan (played by Kyle Chandler) and trainee John Stewart (played by Aaron Pierre), as they solve a murder in rural Nebraska.
Will Raybon
What’s a Green Lantern? Well, if you’ve made it this far and don’t already know, allow me a brief excurse. Green Lanterns are intergalactic peacekeeping and law enforcement officers who wield rings allowing them to draw upon their willpower to shape constructs enabling them to do all the things superheroes do — fly, fight, save the day.
In Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart are searching for an alien they believe to be culpable for the crime they’re investigating. One last thing about Green Lanterns, there can only be one at a time. John is being trained as Hal’s replacement against Hal’s will.
A major plot point of Lanterns is John’s own journey of self-discovery as we learn about his past and how he found himself chosen as Hal’s replacement. The buddy-cop drama unfolds with the two titular characters constantly butting heads as they navigate the situation that’s been thrust upon them.
Green Lantern always has been one of my favorite superheroes. I think it’s because their willpower, their ability to do the good they do, stands in direct contrast to fear. They are expected to fear nothing in their crusade to defend the cosmos. The classic oath they take as Green Lanterns is: “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power … Green Lantern’s light!”
Evil often being, you guessed it, fear. In fact, their arch nemesis is the Sinestro Corps who wield rings powered by fear and terror.
As I navigated my undergraduate career at Appalachian State preparing to serve in law enforcement, a personal motto I took on was “Go Forth and Have No Fear.” I knew whatever was to come, overcoming fear was going to be a big part of it.
“There’s nothing quite like the fear that comes when God redirects us toward something other than what we thought would be.”
I took that motto so seriously that I almost did become fearless, even to the point of recklessness. At the end of college, I was bound for the U.S. Marshals Service after completing an internship with them. They had set me up to join a large police department in a major North Carolinian city as a step on my path to return to federal law enforcement when my former youth minister and college pastor called and asked if I wanted to be his church’s CBF summer intern. I figured it would be a good placeholder until I could begin my tenure with the police department and so I said yes.
Everything became unglued that summer. Everything I thought was ahead, everything I thought I would be, faded away as a sense of call greater than my ambition overtook me. There’s nothing quite like the fear that comes when God redirects us toward something other than what we thought would be. I know all too well the fear that Moses, Samuel, Gideon and others felt when God called upon them (no women listed here because of general acceptance and bravery when God called them). My plans and future shattered and faded away as I realized what many others in my life already had: I was bound for ministry.
I warned of spoilers. Here they are. Last chance. At the midpoint of Lanterns, John chooses to withdraw from being a Lantern. Something he had trained to become his entire life. He realizes his life choices and freewill were manipulated by the Lanterns overseers, The Guardians, to create him to be a weapon.
While considering himself to be fearless, he slowly recognizes throughout the rest of the season that the absence of fear isn’t what makes someone strong; it’s their embracing of fear. Their willingness to accept it and move through it.
During the last minutes of Lanterns, John Stewart finally dons the mantle of Green Lantern, but with a twist. He finds a loophole and rejects The Guardians and what they expect of their Lanterns and in so doing creates his own unique Lantern oath: “In brightest day, in darkest night, I’ll embrace my fear. I’ll do what’s right. I choose this ring. I choose this fight, in service to this lantern’s light.”
“Without fear, we cannot love.”
Life, particularly life as a follower of Jesus, isn’t about outright rejecting fear. Without fear, we cannot love. Yes, yes. I know. Fear not. Yada yada yada. Yes, as people of faith, there is room to fear not; but that’s not what I’m talking about. If a life is lived with the intent to be fearless, you’ll surely lose sight of what it means to love.
I fear for my loved ones’ safety. I fear for their happiness. Their health. I fear for my 6-month-old’s future on this planet. I fear for people I’ve never met: the poor, the powerless, the oppressed, the disinherited. It is because of that fear that I fight. Not with violence, but with words, education, advocacy, the hard-as-crap work of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
As Christians we’re not called to seek out people and means to eliminate our fear. As Christians we’re called to embrace the fear. To take it and transform it. To fight the good fight and help transform this world with love.
So, in brightest day, in darkest night, embrace your fear, do what’s right. Choose your faith. Choose this fight, in service to Christ’s good light.
Will Raybon serves as associate pastor for youth and missions at Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.