| Previous Sermon |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Previous Sermons |
| 3rd Easter 30 April, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| | | | | |
I began to write this sermon to be delivered on Palm Sunday – the 9th of April – three
Sundays ago. As I told you the next morning, I decided, at the suggestion of a friend,
not to preach it, because that morning is so full that a sermon is not needed! But at
the time, when I sat down to write, it was with a line from a song running through my
mind! I’m far from being a country music fan, but the song line was “Make the world
go away,” from a song by the same name by, I believe, Eddie Arnold. It was one of
those lines that just kept repeating in my mind – and this sermon was the result!
And here we are, today, after a total of three writes and rewrites, and the sermon is
very different, in some ways, from what it started out to be – yet essentially the same!
In recent weeks, and months, and even years we’ve been assaulted by much
nonsense from people who can’t seem to tell the difference between fact and fiction;
ever since the publication, about three years ago, I believe, of The DaVinci Code! It
was growing more than a little tiresome!
And then things got worse as, just in time for Holy Week and Easter, came news of a
recently rediscovered ancient manuscript that has been dubbed, the Gospel of
Judas!
I have spoken to you, already, about the DaVinci Code. A work of pure fiction, based
on the notion of a massive, secret conspiracy spanning 2,000 years, fostering the
hoax of Jesus’ death and resurrection, while hiding the fact that not only didn’t Jesus
die on the cross, but that he married and had children with Mary Magdalene,
founding a secret blood line that exists to this very day!
The author has been piling up dollars by pretending he believes the conspiracy is
real – which I don’t believe for a minute; and now, the film has opened.
(Actually, I’m planning on going to see the movie, when I get around to it, because it
looks as if it might be a pretty good film. But I must confess I reneged on my earlier
promise to read the book: I gave up reading the it because it just wasn’t that well-
written!)
And now we have news of this rediscovered manuscript, complete with newspaper
headlines and TV specials asking how the discovery is going to affect the faith of
Christians! You’ve seen it in the papers, and heard it on the news.
And guess what! It’s all nonsense!
Oh, there IS a manuscript. And it IS ancient! And it DOES say exactly what the articles
and the coverage say is says. And it HAS been missing for many, many centuries! That’
s all true.
And it’s all totally irrelevant.
What the press and the TV are not telling you is that none of this is new, and none of
it matters! None of it has anything, whatsoever, to do with the Faith, because the
Faith dealt with it all 1700 years ago and more!
The so-called “Gospel of Judas,” itself, has been known since it was written – we just
haven’t had a copy of it for about 12-or 13 hundred years! But we have had, the whole
time, plenty of examples of early Christian writers who opposed the document, itself,
and the movement it represented! What’s more, the discussions of the document that
have survived tell us a great deal about what the document actually said! So, though
the document, itself, has been missing for a long time, there are no surprises in it,
nothing we didn’t know!
This “Gospel” (in quotes!) is a writing from what is called the “Gnostic” movement.
Gnosticism was one of the first heresies to be condemned by the early Church,
though, actually, whether it even qualifies to be classified as a CHRISTIAN heresy is
questionable!
It seems, more accurately, to be an outgrowth of a combination of Greek
philosophical thought and pagan religion that moved into the early Christian
movement because some saw in that larger combination some interesting
possibilities!
But from the Christian position, today, it’s important to understand a bit about it, so
that the little bits and pieces that have come out in the press can be placed in
context.
The Greek word, gnosis, means “knowledge”, and the “gnostic” movement, such as it
was, was based on the idea that there existed a body of “secret” knowledge that only
a privileged few initiates could possess!
Now that’s a big red flag, right there, and it applies to both the DaVinci Code and the
Gospel of Judas! Well, I have to tell you, if someone tells you there are “secrets” that
have been passed on for 2,000 YEARS amongst a privileged few, they’re either lying
or they’re deceived! Have you ever had a secret? Did you ever share that secret with
someone? How long did it remain a secret? Think about it!
More importantly, though, orthodox Christianity has never been willing to tolerate
any kind of “secret” knowledge or teaching. There simply is no place for secrecy in
our faith, nor could any secrets like that be kept for 20 Centuries!
But what, in fact were the teachings of the movement? In Gnosticism – whether the
“Christian” or pagan version – the belief was that there was both a TRUE God, who is
spiritual and distant, and a LESSER God who is secondary – a CREATION or offspring
of the true God. And the world we know – the universe we know – was the creation of
this lesser God, or Demiurge, as he was called – a fraud, really, a CREATURE, and not
really a god at all!
Having been created by a lesser deity, the universe is an evil place, and the true
need of humankind is, as in Christianity, salvation, yes: but not from SINFULNESS! The
salvation needed, according to Gnosticism, is from the creation, itself! CREATION is
evil; so what we need is to get free from it!
In this way of thought, as it picked up Christian imagery and terms, Jesus Christ came
to set us FREE FROM THE PHYSICAL WORLD THAT ENSLAVES US! As a divine being
(but also NOT the TRUE GOD!), he neither assumed a proper human body – which
would have been evil, itself – nor died! Rather, he either temporarily borrowed a
human body, or assumed a mere human appearance – a kind of phantasm!
The principal anti-Gnostic writers in our tradition were Irenaeus, Tertullian, and
Hyppolytus, all of whom lived in the second half of the 2nd Century, and all of whom
emphasized the pagan aspects of the movement, while appealing to the Hebrew
Scriptures and the writings that have become the New Testament – writings that
prove the notions of the Gnostics, whether in their pagan form or in their phony
Christian dress, are not only nonsense but, in their own time, new inventions!
Four of the key writings of Scripture that speak to this whole controversy have been
part of the seasonal observances we’ve been holding.
One great example from the Old Testament was read two weeks ago, at the Easter
Vigil, when we read the first Chapter of the Book of Genesis! In that reading we heard
about the creation of the world by the TRUE Creator God, and we heard how, as each
day of creation drew to a close, the Lord God looked at what he had done, and
declared God’s work to be GOOD! In fact, throughout the Scriptures there is no room
left for any doubt, at all, about the creation. Far from Creation being an evil thing, a
thing of illusion, it is an expression of the very life and love of the Creator, created
by God’s Word, and filled with life by God’s breath – God’s Spirit!
Another writing we heard the week before that, on Palm Sunday: the writing of St.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians, read every year on that day, where he said:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he
was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And
being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross.
No imposter is our Christ, but the Son of the living God – God, himself, the Second
Person of the Trinity, incarnate AS A MAN! Enfleshed in true humanity! No fakery; no
illusion! God-Made-Man, and nothing less!
Our pertinent lessons continued last week in the story about the Apostle Thomas, the
lone apostle who was absent when the Resurrected Lord made his first appearance
in the Upper Room, and who would not believe the reports of his friends until he,
himself, had not only seen the Lord, but had touched him, and felt his wounds! This
Incarnate one was no fake! No phony, sporting an illusory body! But a real man in a
real body, back from the dead! God Incarnate, who died for our sake and rose for our
sake; and who did it all in this Good World of his Father’s creation!
And finally, of course, today’s Gospel – much like last week’s, but this time, not only
showing his body with its wounds to the doubting disciples, but sitting down and
having breakfast with them!
And now we’re back where we started, with that song: “Make the world go away!” And
WHENEVER I think about the DaVinci Code and the Gospel of Judas, it comes back,
like a mini-prayer: Make the world go away!
Not the real world; not the good world, described in Genesis as God called it into
being. And not even the imaginary world of the Gnostics, dredged up from a
combination of Greek philosophy, mythology and paganism – but the world where
publishers and publicists, where the panderers of sensational news items and the
hype artists – promote things they don’t understand, and take advantage of the
gullibility and the unfortunate ignorance of too many Christians in the interests of no
more than making a buck!
Make THAT world go away! And leave us – we who have been born into the Good
World of our father’s creation, and reborn into the Risen Christ – leave us alone to
enjoy this REAL world – the world that is a gift of love to us, from our Father!
In His Name. Amen.
Sundays ago. As I told you the next morning, I decided, at the suggestion of a friend,
not to preach it, because that morning is so full that a sermon is not needed! But at
the time, when I sat down to write, it was with a line from a song running through my
mind! I’m far from being a country music fan, but the song line was “Make the world
go away,” from a song by the same name by, I believe, Eddie Arnold. It was one of
those lines that just kept repeating in my mind – and this sermon was the result!
And here we are, today, after a total of three writes and rewrites, and the sermon is
very different, in some ways, from what it started out to be – yet essentially the same!
In recent weeks, and months, and even years we’ve been assaulted by much
nonsense from people who can’t seem to tell the difference between fact and fiction;
ever since the publication, about three years ago, I believe, of The DaVinci Code! It
was growing more than a little tiresome!
And then things got worse as, just in time for Holy Week and Easter, came news of a
recently rediscovered ancient manuscript that has been dubbed, the Gospel of
Judas!
I have spoken to you, already, about the DaVinci Code. A work of pure fiction, based
on the notion of a massive, secret conspiracy spanning 2,000 years, fostering the
hoax of Jesus’ death and resurrection, while hiding the fact that not only didn’t Jesus
die on the cross, but that he married and had children with Mary Magdalene,
founding a secret blood line that exists to this very day!
The author has been piling up dollars by pretending he believes the conspiracy is
real – which I don’t believe for a minute; and now, the film has opened.
(Actually, I’m planning on going to see the movie, when I get around to it, because it
looks as if it might be a pretty good film. But I must confess I reneged on my earlier
promise to read the book: I gave up reading the it because it just wasn’t that well-
written!)
And now we have news of this rediscovered manuscript, complete with newspaper
headlines and TV specials asking how the discovery is going to affect the faith of
Christians! You’ve seen it in the papers, and heard it on the news.
And guess what! It’s all nonsense!
Oh, there IS a manuscript. And it IS ancient! And it DOES say exactly what the articles
and the coverage say is says. And it HAS been missing for many, many centuries! That’
s all true.
And it’s all totally irrelevant.
What the press and the TV are not telling you is that none of this is new, and none of
it matters! None of it has anything, whatsoever, to do with the Faith, because the
Faith dealt with it all 1700 years ago and more!
The so-called “Gospel of Judas,” itself, has been known since it was written – we just
haven’t had a copy of it for about 12-or 13 hundred years! But we have had, the whole
time, plenty of examples of early Christian writers who opposed the document, itself,
and the movement it represented! What’s more, the discussions of the document that
have survived tell us a great deal about what the document actually said! So, though
the document, itself, has been missing for a long time, there are no surprises in it,
nothing we didn’t know!
This “Gospel” (in quotes!) is a writing from what is called the “Gnostic” movement.
Gnosticism was one of the first heresies to be condemned by the early Church,
though, actually, whether it even qualifies to be classified as a CHRISTIAN heresy is
questionable!
It seems, more accurately, to be an outgrowth of a combination of Greek
philosophical thought and pagan religion that moved into the early Christian
movement because some saw in that larger combination some interesting
possibilities!
But from the Christian position, today, it’s important to understand a bit about it, so
that the little bits and pieces that have come out in the press can be placed in
context.
The Greek word, gnosis, means “knowledge”, and the “gnostic” movement, such as it
was, was based on the idea that there existed a body of “secret” knowledge that only
a privileged few initiates could possess!
Now that’s a big red flag, right there, and it applies to both the DaVinci Code and the
Gospel of Judas! Well, I have to tell you, if someone tells you there are “secrets” that
have been passed on for 2,000 YEARS amongst a privileged few, they’re either lying
or they’re deceived! Have you ever had a secret? Did you ever share that secret with
someone? How long did it remain a secret? Think about it!
More importantly, though, orthodox Christianity has never been willing to tolerate
any kind of “secret” knowledge or teaching. There simply is no place for secrecy in
our faith, nor could any secrets like that be kept for 20 Centuries!
But what, in fact were the teachings of the movement? In Gnosticism – whether the
“Christian” or pagan version – the belief was that there was both a TRUE God, who is
spiritual and distant, and a LESSER God who is secondary – a CREATION or offspring
of the true God. And the world we know – the universe we know – was the creation of
this lesser God, or Demiurge, as he was called – a fraud, really, a CREATURE, and not
really a god at all!
Having been created by a lesser deity, the universe is an evil place, and the true
need of humankind is, as in Christianity, salvation, yes: but not from SINFULNESS! The
salvation needed, according to Gnosticism, is from the creation, itself! CREATION is
evil; so what we need is to get free from it!
In this way of thought, as it picked up Christian imagery and terms, Jesus Christ came
to set us FREE FROM THE PHYSICAL WORLD THAT ENSLAVES US! As a divine being
(but also NOT the TRUE GOD!), he neither assumed a proper human body – which
would have been evil, itself – nor died! Rather, he either temporarily borrowed a
human body, or assumed a mere human appearance – a kind of phantasm!
The principal anti-Gnostic writers in our tradition were Irenaeus, Tertullian, and
Hyppolytus, all of whom lived in the second half of the 2nd Century, and all of whom
emphasized the pagan aspects of the movement, while appealing to the Hebrew
Scriptures and the writings that have become the New Testament – writings that
prove the notions of the Gnostics, whether in their pagan form or in their phony
Christian dress, are not only nonsense but, in their own time, new inventions!
Four of the key writings of Scripture that speak to this whole controversy have been
part of the seasonal observances we’ve been holding.
One great example from the Old Testament was read two weeks ago, at the Easter
Vigil, when we read the first Chapter of the Book of Genesis! In that reading we heard
about the creation of the world by the TRUE Creator God, and we heard how, as each
day of creation drew to a close, the Lord God looked at what he had done, and
declared God’s work to be GOOD! In fact, throughout the Scriptures there is no room
left for any doubt, at all, about the creation. Far from Creation being an evil thing, a
thing of illusion, it is an expression of the very life and love of the Creator, created
by God’s Word, and filled with life by God’s breath – God’s Spirit!
Another writing we heard the week before that, on Palm Sunday: the writing of St.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians, read every year on that day, where he said:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he
was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And
being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross.
No imposter is our Christ, but the Son of the living God – God, himself, the Second
Person of the Trinity, incarnate AS A MAN! Enfleshed in true humanity! No fakery; no
illusion! God-Made-Man, and nothing less!
Our pertinent lessons continued last week in the story about the Apostle Thomas, the
lone apostle who was absent when the Resurrected Lord made his first appearance
in the Upper Room, and who would not believe the reports of his friends until he,
himself, had not only seen the Lord, but had touched him, and felt his wounds! This
Incarnate one was no fake! No phony, sporting an illusory body! But a real man in a
real body, back from the dead! God Incarnate, who died for our sake and rose for our
sake; and who did it all in this Good World of his Father’s creation!
And finally, of course, today’s Gospel – much like last week’s, but this time, not only
showing his body with its wounds to the doubting disciples, but sitting down and
having breakfast with them!
And now we’re back where we started, with that song: “Make the world go away!” And
WHENEVER I think about the DaVinci Code and the Gospel of Judas, it comes back,
like a mini-prayer: Make the world go away!
Not the real world; not the good world, described in Genesis as God called it into
being. And not even the imaginary world of the Gnostics, dredged up from a
combination of Greek philosophy, mythology and paganism – but the world where
publishers and publicists, where the panderers of sensational news items and the
hype artists – promote things they don’t understand, and take advantage of the
gullibility and the unfortunate ignorance of too many Christians in the interests of no
more than making a buck!
Make THAT world go away! And leave us – we who have been born into the Good
World of our father’s creation, and reborn into the Risen Christ – leave us alone to
enjoy this REAL world – the world that is a gift of love to us, from our Father!
In His Name. Amen.