“What would you do? What would any of you do? Would you sail to the ends of the earth and beyond to fetch back with you Jack and him precious Pearl?”

With the possible exception of Spider-Man 3, there is no movie I’m looking forward to more than Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World’s End.  Besides bringing closure to the series, the movie continues to be our fix for what we can’t get enough of:  pirates.

Many boys (and girls!) dream of being pirates.  They have been mythologized and romanticized to the point of social acceptance, a far cry from how they were treated in their day.  I suspect that part of their allure, much like the cowboy mystique that has become part of the fabric of American lore, is their self-determination.   Pirates want to live life on their own terms, pursue their sense of freedom.  Theirs is the anarchist heart that fuels the spirit of punks, Harley riders, and so many others.

In Christ we have freedom, yet we keep choking it off with our own brands of legalism. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) We don’t trust freedom and we certainly aren’t comfortable with this whole idea of liberation. Most people want to be told what to do, they want the black and white picture and hate (or at least distrust) anything that smacks of gray. That’s why there is such a comfort to rules and why fundamentalism has its draw. We have this fear of ourselves, of others, of community and church, and of the unknown. We definitely have this fear of taking chances and making mistakes.

Freedom goes against our sense of control, and ultimately, that’s what the extra rules that make up our walk boil down to.  Pirates stand for freedom, for standing outside and against how the Empire says we should live.

And they are facing the end of their way of life and who they are.

Yeah, I’m ready for this one.