seventh Sunday of Easter

Have you seen the latest film made from another novel by the author Dan Brown, Angels and Demons?  It’s supposed to be a follow on from his bestselling book the “Da Vinci Code”, which of course was made into a blockbuster of a film.  The book caused much controversy and the film even more so among Christian groups throughout the world.

Now I haven’t read the “Da Vinci Code”, it’s far too thick a book for me, but I did see the film, and frankly I wasn’t impressed.  Actually I thought it rather silly really.  If you remember Brown asserts that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and she bore him a son.  The code left for us to see all this is the famous Da Vinci fresco of the Last Supper in Milan, where Brown believes that the disciple sitting on Jesus’ right, the place of honour is not John, but Mary Magdalene, because the figure is somewhat feminine in character. The characters chase after The Holy Grail, which is supposed to be buried in various places, and may even be the blood line established by Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and recently I read that actually the Holy Grail is buried at Shugborough!  The  statue in the grounds of the ‘Shepherds’ is proof apparently.  I think it’s just a marketing ploy to get people to visit Shugborough.  In the book and the film the characters all end up at Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, another ploy to get us to visit Scotland.

Remember, the Da Vinci Code is a fictional book and film, but the reaction from Christian groups was astounding.  There were public meeting to denounce the book, leading Churchmen denounced Dan Brown, which only made people go out and buy the book and watch the film. And much to many people’s surprise it wasn’t the end of Christianity as we know it.  Far from it, the secular-minded are having to confront the uncomfortable truth, religion is making a comeback.  No wonder they are paying for adverts on London buses telling people ‘there probably isn’t a God, so don’t worry, enjoy life’.

Anyway, this latest book and film, Angels and Demons is rather in support of the Catholic Church, with devout priests, cardinals and would be Popes, but the film reviews have panned it as being rather boring and not living up to its expectations. Brown clearly hasn’t lived up to the hyperbole of the previous book and film. A book and a film being kind to the Catholic Church is clearly not as appealing as one intended to cause controversy among Christians.

The publicity around the ‘Da Vinci Code’ rather eclipsed the revelations of a supposedly new found gospel.  The Gospel of Judas.  Apparently a papyrus document was found in the Middle East some years ago, like many hundreds more, they dig these things up all the time, and sold, and then lay untouched until recently when on investigation it contained a supposedly new Gospel, the Coptic Gospel of Judas. Now this for my money was far more important for Christians to discuss than the Da Vinci Code, some American theologians hailed it as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all times, which is quite a claim to live up to, but they always go over the top. This Gospel which it is believed was written at the beginning of the 2^nd century claims that Judas was really Jesus’ favoured disciple, not John, and in betraying Christ, Judas was fulfilling a divine mission. Theological historians now can say that this supposedly new gospel was known and spoken about by the early Church Father, Irenaeus, who was around in 180AD.  It was classed as a Gnostic Gospel because it was written to perpetuate a different spiritual belief, which had grown around the early church, and was branded as heresy by the church, and left out of the New Testament when it was compiled.

“So that they may be one, as we are one”, that’s the wonderful priestly prayer of Jesus on that last night before Good Friday, we hear in the Gospel reading, really a prayer for unity for Christ’s disciples and followers, and for us today. Sadly that unity in the disciples was short lived with Judas betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Of course the scripture had to be fulfilled, as the reading from Acts reminds us, but what is so despicable about Judas’ actions is that he was the one “who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus”.   The agony is that “he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry”. 

I don’t believe there was some high ideal at work here on the part of Judas, any more than I believe the Da Vinci Code. Judas sold out Jesus, and the whole band of disciples, for money, as simple and as base as that.  We in our consumer led, I’m all right Jack, unprincipled world with all the revelations of corruption in the banks and Parliament, would surely understand the motive of greed displayed by Judas, every day brings more evidence to light.  Don’t we feel betrayed?  Someone once said, ‘everyone has a price’ It seems to be a floating duck pond or a cleaned moat at the moment!!

The Archbishop of Canterbury made two important announcements this weekend, firstly to stop this witch hunt of politicians. Some have done great wrong to the people they are supposed to represent, BUT we are in danger of damaging our very democracy.  Take action against those who have wronged, get rid of them if necessary and move on with a better system in place. The Archbishop also told us very clearly that in the forthcoming local and European elections we must not vote for the BNP. That party is totally opposed to the principles of being a Christian, Love and Truth.

Judas was simultaneously one of the disciples, but not of them. This dynamic of being part of them, but not of them, is the theme running through the Gospel reading. In these words we seem to hear Jesus tying up any loose ends between him, God and the disciples, a final check list of the mission he is leaving them to carry on. Because this night before his crucifixion Jesus knows he is returning to the Father, and leaving his disciples to continue His work in the world.  They will need protection, and Jesus asks that they may receive the same care from God that he has.  The world is a dangerous place for heaven-dwellers.  It is not a place that is overly friendly to followers of God.  Jesus is in the world because God has sent him, and yet he doesn’t belong in the world, and astonishing we hear, neither do the disciples. That may be a difficult concept for us to grasp, but in John’s Gospel he reveals a double sided nature to the world.  On one level the world is created reality, the cosmos, and, as such, the object of God’s saving love in Jesus.  Jesus’ mission is to the world and in the world.  At his crucifixion he is proclaimed King of the World.

But on another level the world is disordered because of sin and human rebellion against God.  It is the realm of the “evil one” as Jesus puts it, or as we might better understand it, those things in our lives that make us stray from God; our greed, our corruption, our inhumanity towards others, our contempt for those who are different in some way, our failings to live as God’s children. So we hear Jesus praying that God will protect the disciples from the “evil one” while they undertake their mission sent out by Jesus. It’s as if the world had become a self-declared independent republic and no go area for God and Christians. But remember, we hear in the reading from Acts the believers numbered about 120 people at that time.  The flame of Christianity had not taken hold and spread, that would happen at Pentecost. But let’s not fool ourselves Christians have a real struggle to proclaim the Good News in the world today.  We need protecting from the ‘evil one’, just as much.

Sin makes our created world a divided kingdom.  It makes it different from heaven, where God’s love rules supreme and God is known and worshipped.  Psalm 1, the psalm appointed for today, tells us “happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked; nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful”  and goes on to warn us, “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed”.

Fortunately for us, Jesus is not preparing to abandon his disciples, he will return again, that wonderful picture in revelations of the new heaven and the new earth, a new heaven coming down to create a new earth. So when John speaks of “being in the world, but not of the world”, he is talking about our relationship to God in Jesus Christ through which the Kingdom of God is available to all who believe.  Being Kingdom people is the ultimate new community whose life is characterised by love.  Yet our task, our mission, as it was for the disciples, is to live this out in the world, as Jesus did. That is where love is made concrete, to use a modern metaphor, “where the rubber hits the road”.

The eternal life we enjoy through knowing Christ in our lives is meant to be lived out here and now in the way we live our lives, it’s not about condemning the world, it’s about changing the world and proclaiming that this is the place where God’s love can and should rule.  It points forward to the destiny of the world as revealed in that passage from Revelations - a new heaven and a new earth.  It’s a reminder to us that the present rebellion against God and love has a limited shelf life and that the earth’s destiny is to be reunited with heaven, and God our heavenly Father. Our job here on earth, here and now is to proclaim that new order  through the Good News of God’s Love and Grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Humanist and Secular societies, under their champion Richard Dawkins may say ‘there probably isn’t a God, so don’t worry, enjoy life’, but we who profess Jesus Christ as Lord know there is a God who takes all our worries away, and gives us new life that is abundant and complete. I am content in my belief, Dawkins clearly isn’t, he is hedging his bets just in case.

What makes me so certain is the wonderful gift Jesus left us to re-assure and guide us, the Holy Spirit, that transformative Spirit given to us by God which makes us resurrection people, the Spirit which can make us all children of God. The Spirit which empowers us and protects us, as we try and make the eternal life of God as experienced through Jesus, a visible reality in the world. Jesus prays for his disciples to be protected from the ‘evil one’, and God’s answer is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seen at Pentecost which is at work in us here and now, transforming our lives if we are open to it. Our job is to help other people know the joy and love that comes from that transforming Spirit in our lives. “So that they may be one, as we are one”.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will enliven our lives in Christ’s service so that we can know the joy and fulfilment and unity of being one with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.