Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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There is a handful – a small handful – of Saturdays, each year that make preparing
for Sunday morning more than usually difficult. There is the day of Diocesan
Convention, in November, which is almost always the same day as the Annual Fair.
(That’s the toughest!) There is the occasional Judge and Jury evening. There is
also the occasional wedding and reception. And then there is the annual Spaghetti
Supper!
Given the 35-year-fact that I seem to be constitutionally incapable of preparing a
sermon Before Saturday evening, those make for pretty tough times!
So lets see what we’ve got for this morning.
Last week I ran down a list of current topics that are being discussed in the press
and on TV. And I said that those who would claim to be Christians, have a
responsibility, on any issue that has moral implications, to do what they can to form
an intelligent and informed opinion on the issue. I was not talking about formal
study or becoming expert on every subject under consideration, but about reading
about and listening to the debates; about learning the terms of the discussions –
just knowing what the words mean and what the issues truly are – about not
accepting the conventional wisdom on the subject (what the talking heads on the
TV have to say about it, the disembodied voices on the radio, or the person who
does your hair!) About doing our homework – and about using the mind God has
given us!
The topics I listed included things like the weather; best-selling books and series’,
geology, new diseases and possible pandemics, the energy shortage,
homosexuality, TV Miniseries’, and space research! And, of course, the list could
go on and on.
It was not until I was about midway through that sermon at the 8:00 Service that I
suddenly realized that the sermon was actually setting a kind of agenda for coming
weeks – a list of topics that we need to speak about as we continue to explore,
together, what it means to be Christians – how to answer that question, “how shall
we then live?” in the light of the Revelation of God in Christ – and amongst the real
world questions that demand of us a response – and even, sometimes, action!
This morning I want to take just a brief look at one issue – a broad issue that is
involved in a number of those other issues I’ve mentioned and many more that
have been so much in the news, not only in recent weeks, but over a number of
years!
The issue of what it is that makes human beings, human beings!
That may seem a silly question, but it’s important, and it underlies so many
discussions! As Christians, we believe, and strongly, that there is a difference
between us and all other animals. And we do things to and with other animals that
we would never do with human beings – for if we did, society would be up in arms
about crimes against humanity, and rightly so!
So how are we different – we and the animals? Why don’t we – why can’t we – treat
one another the same way we treat animals?
For the most part, the Christian tradition would say that what makes human beings
different from animals is that human beings have souls and animals don’t! Most
other religions would probably agree, but with some differences of opinion as to
just what the soul is!
A modern secularist, on the other hand, would deny the existence of a “soul”, at all
– and might well argue that the difference between a human being and an animal is
a matter of mind – of a mind that is self aware; a mind that is conscious of itself and
what it does as animals can’t be; a mind that is capable of asking, for instance,
“what is the difference between me and the animals?”!
Both, though, pose problems.
The problem with the secularist is obvious, even if not compelling: it is precisely
the fact that to him, there is no soul, and human beings are just supersmart, self-
aware animals, while every fiber of our being wants to shout, “No! There Is a
difference! We are More than that!”
On the other hand, while the Christian tradition has long held the existence of a
soul, had, itself, all kinds of understandings of what the soul is. The Bible says
nothing useful, really, about the soul, and most of the influences in early Christian
theology arose not from the Bible, at all, but from the Greek Philosophers – Plato,
Aristotle and the Stoics!
But once the theologians got busy on the topic, with all their different
understandings, they tended to agree in one way: that is, they thought of the soul
as some sort of “thing!” –something separate and distinct from body and mind!
Body and mind, animal-like; Soul, a gift of the divine!
Most Christians, today, hold to that understanding. And of those, most would agree
that God, in effect, places the soul in the human being, and he does so at birth!
Theologians have varied as to whether God creates the soul at the moment of
conception, or has what I’ve always envisioned as a great “warehouse” of souls in
heaven. Either way, at conception, he takes one and “plunks it” into the person.
But some, today, would take an in-between position, believing that the soul comes
into being, gradually, at some point after conception as, somehow, an expression
of the developing being, the developing mind! That in her capacity for self
awareness, the human being rises above the level of the animal, the earth-bound,
and approaches the throne of God – and it is that exalted being that we become,
that defines the soul!
Now if that all strikes you as a lot of gobbledy-gook, I’m sorry! Because it is! But in
fact, our understanding of what the soul is, and when the human being comes to
have a soul – whether at birth or at some point in the course of her development –
is the key to a rational decision of more than one of those issues I’ve cited: issues
of conception and abortion; issues of illness and the end of life, issues of war and
of capital punishment, in particular.
I will be talking about these things, again. But I want you, this week, to think about
them! Just think.
Think about what you believe the soul Is! Think about what you believe human Life
is. And think about the issues that we read about in the papers, and how our
understanding of the soul affects them. Look in a dictionary. Look in an
encyclopedia. Check out your Bible. And, most of all, use your Reason! Ask yourself
what makes the most sense in the world you live in- not what your friends say, or
the newspaper or the TV or radio, not even me, but You!
Keep your mind open! Check out what resources you have. And Think about it.
Begin to do that homework I said last week we all have!
And we’ll talk about it, again. Probably next week; maybe later – it doesn’t matter,
because these issues will be with us for a long, long time. What does matter is what
You and I – giving our best effort – come to believe. And that we come to our belief
having done the homework we need to do in order to say, truly, that What we
believe, we believe… in Christ’s Name. Amen.
for Sunday morning more than usually difficult. There is the day of Diocesan
Convention, in November, which is almost always the same day as the Annual Fair.
(That’s the toughest!) There is the occasional Judge and Jury evening. There is
also the occasional wedding and reception. And then there is the annual Spaghetti
Supper!
Given the 35-year-fact that I seem to be constitutionally incapable of preparing a
sermon Before Saturday evening, those make for pretty tough times!
So lets see what we’ve got for this morning.
Last week I ran down a list of current topics that are being discussed in the press
and on TV. And I said that those who would claim to be Christians, have a
responsibility, on any issue that has moral implications, to do what they can to form
an intelligent and informed opinion on the issue. I was not talking about formal
study or becoming expert on every subject under consideration, but about reading
about and listening to the debates; about learning the terms of the discussions –
just knowing what the words mean and what the issues truly are – about not
accepting the conventional wisdom on the subject (what the talking heads on the
TV have to say about it, the disembodied voices on the radio, or the person who
does your hair!) About doing our homework – and about using the mind God has
given us!
The topics I listed included things like the weather; best-selling books and series’,
geology, new diseases and possible pandemics, the energy shortage,
homosexuality, TV Miniseries’, and space research! And, of course, the list could
go on and on.
It was not until I was about midway through that sermon at the 8:00 Service that I
suddenly realized that the sermon was actually setting a kind of agenda for coming
weeks – a list of topics that we need to speak about as we continue to explore,
together, what it means to be Christians – how to answer that question, “how shall
we then live?” in the light of the Revelation of God in Christ – and amongst the real
world questions that demand of us a response – and even, sometimes, action!
This morning I want to take just a brief look at one issue – a broad issue that is
involved in a number of those other issues I’ve mentioned and many more that
have been so much in the news, not only in recent weeks, but over a number of
years!
The issue of what it is that makes human beings, human beings!
That may seem a silly question, but it’s important, and it underlies so many
discussions! As Christians, we believe, and strongly, that there is a difference
between us and all other animals. And we do things to and with other animals that
we would never do with human beings – for if we did, society would be up in arms
about crimes against humanity, and rightly so!
So how are we different – we and the animals? Why don’t we – why can’t we – treat
one another the same way we treat animals?
For the most part, the Christian tradition would say that what makes human beings
different from animals is that human beings have souls and animals don’t! Most
other religions would probably agree, but with some differences of opinion as to
just what the soul is!
A modern secularist, on the other hand, would deny the existence of a “soul”, at all
– and might well argue that the difference between a human being and an animal is
a matter of mind – of a mind that is self aware; a mind that is conscious of itself and
what it does as animals can’t be; a mind that is capable of asking, for instance,
“what is the difference between me and the animals?”!
Both, though, pose problems.
The problem with the secularist is obvious, even if not compelling: it is precisely
the fact that to him, there is no soul, and human beings are just supersmart, self-
aware animals, while every fiber of our being wants to shout, “No! There Is a
difference! We are More than that!”
On the other hand, while the Christian tradition has long held the existence of a
soul, had, itself, all kinds of understandings of what the soul is. The Bible says
nothing useful, really, about the soul, and most of the influences in early Christian
theology arose not from the Bible, at all, but from the Greek Philosophers – Plato,
Aristotle and the Stoics!
But once the theologians got busy on the topic, with all their different
understandings, they tended to agree in one way: that is, they thought of the soul
as some sort of “thing!” –something separate and distinct from body and mind!
Body and mind, animal-like; Soul, a gift of the divine!
Most Christians, today, hold to that understanding. And of those, most would agree
that God, in effect, places the soul in the human being, and he does so at birth!
Theologians have varied as to whether God creates the soul at the moment of
conception, or has what I’ve always envisioned as a great “warehouse” of souls in
heaven. Either way, at conception, he takes one and “plunks it” into the person.
But some, today, would take an in-between position, believing that the soul comes
into being, gradually, at some point after conception as, somehow, an expression
of the developing being, the developing mind! That in her capacity for self
awareness, the human being rises above the level of the animal, the earth-bound,
and approaches the throne of God – and it is that exalted being that we become,
that defines the soul!
Now if that all strikes you as a lot of gobbledy-gook, I’m sorry! Because it is! But in
fact, our understanding of what the soul is, and when the human being comes to
have a soul – whether at birth or at some point in the course of her development –
is the key to a rational decision of more than one of those issues I’ve cited: issues
of conception and abortion; issues of illness and the end of life, issues of war and
of capital punishment, in particular.
I will be talking about these things, again. But I want you, this week, to think about
them! Just think.
Think about what you believe the soul Is! Think about what you believe human Life
is. And think about the issues that we read about in the papers, and how our
understanding of the soul affects them. Look in a dictionary. Look in an
encyclopedia. Check out your Bible. And, most of all, use your Reason! Ask yourself
what makes the most sense in the world you live in- not what your friends say, or
the newspaper or the TV or radio, not even me, but You!
Keep your mind open! Check out what resources you have. And Think about it.
Begin to do that homework I said last week we all have!
And we’ll talk about it, again. Probably next week; maybe later – it doesn’t matter,
because these issues will be with us for a long, long time. What does matter is what
You and I – giving our best effort – come to believe. And that we come to our belief
having done the homework we need to do in order to say, truly, that What we
believe, we believe… in Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| THE 5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER 24 April, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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