| Previous Sermon |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Previous Sermons |
| THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 5 June, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
With apologies to those of you who may have been here on Wednesday morning, I’ve been
thinking more about what I said in my homily on that day.
At the time I hadn’t really had time to think about it. In fact, it was just some random
thoughts that I was putting together as I talked, the first glimmerings of those thoughts
having occurred to me as I was reading the first lesson of the day, about wisdom.
And I’ve realized how those thoughts fit in with the two themes that I’ve been rather
irregularly developing since ‘way back in December! The one that takes as it’s theme that
song from Porgy and Bess that says, “It ain’t necessarily so! The things that you’re liable to
read in the Bible, they ain’t necessarily so;” and the one that explores my claim that we all
have “work to do,” to come to the understanding of the faith that we need!
Wednesday, on our liturgical calendar, was the commemoration of a man named Justin! He
was a martyr, and, in fact, is almost always referred to as “Justin Martyr” – as though
“martyr” were his surname.
Justin was born about 70 or so years after the Resurrection, in that part of Palestine called
Samaria. But Justin was neither a Jew nor a Samaritan, but the son of a rather well-off
Greek couple.
As such, Justin benefited from the very best in education, studying the Greco-Roman
equivalent of the three R’s – rhetoric, poetry and history! As a young adult, he seems to
have become something of a professional student, traveling here and there to study, now,
Philosophy. Studying first, in the great Egyptian city and center of learning, Alexandria, and
then in the Asia-minor city of Ephesus, he became, first, a follower of the Stoic school of
philosophy, then a Pythagorian, and finally, a follower of Plato!
But while he was in Ephesus – a city we know about from St. Paul’s letter to the Church,
there – he became acquainted with the Christian Community. Initially, he was impressed by
the stories of the Christian Martyrs that he heard among them, but then one day, while
taking a walk on the beach, he fell into conversation with an elderly man who was also
taking a walk – and the old man spoke to him about the Christ, and about the Jewish
Scriptures, and how the prophets had announced and prophesied the coming of Messiah!
And he later wrote that, as the old man spoke, “Straightaway a flame was kindled in my
soul, and a love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me!”
Justin became a Christian – converted as many had been, before, and as countless have
been, since! A Christian willing to die for his faith, years later, in Rome.
But Justin became a Christian with a difference. He may have been the first of his type; we
can’t be certain; but if he wasn’t, he was certainly among the first.
Because when this Greek-trained philosophical follower of Plato became a Christian, he
didn’t dessert Plato - or, indeed, Greek philosophy, in general.
Rather, he realized that, if our God is truly the creator and ruler of the universe, to know
the universe cannot be contrary to faith in God! And he realized that the problem with the
philosophies of the Greeks was NOT that they were wrong – but that they were incomplete!
He realized that his beloved philosophy was perfectly useful – but lacked the God of the
Christians, and lacked Jesus Christ, to be complete!
Justin would become one of the Church’s great, early theologians, and an early member of
a movement called the Apologists – a number of thinkers that made it their business, in
those early centuries, to explain and expound the faith of the Church to those who did not
know it, and to those who opposed it! And in doing so, he also did something that we are
still wrestling with, 19 centuries later. He showed that ultimately there can be no conflict
between the knowledge of the world – wherever that knowledge comes from – and faith in
Christ! That there can be no conflict between the Truth of Jesus Christ and what is true in
the world his Father created!
And I told the folks on Tuesday morning about a friend’s grandfather! Bob Morris was my
best friend in my last year of high school, and beyond. Bob’s family was from Tennessee,
and most of his relatives still lived there. They were all members of the Church of Christ –
a fairly small, very fundamentalist church found mainly in the South!
By the time I met Bob, in 1959, Sputnik had already flown, and we and the Soviets were
sending dogs, and chimps, and finally men into orbit around the earth, followed in the next
few years by the opening of the age of space exploration! Except…; Except Bob’s
Grandfather wasn’t about to fall for all that! He knew it was all lies. Had to be! Couldn’t be
true for the simple reason that the world is Flat, not round! Supported on great pillars
above the watery abyss! Separated from the heavens by the great dome of the sky! And all
that space stuff, and all that orbiting stuff was a hoax! Was Satan’s attempt to draw people
away from the truth of the Bible! He KNEW! Because the Bible told him so!
Seems quaint, now, doesn’t it! But we know better, now. If there was doubt, we had
Columbus and others to sail the seas and prove the world is round! And then we had the
invention of the telescope and the work of Copernicus, and then Galileo to show more of
the truth! Not only was the Earth round, but it revolved about the Sun, and was NOT the
center of the universe! But that news was not welcome to many Christians who wanted to
believe every word of the Bible had to be so, and Galileo was prosecuted by the Church
for his heresy, spending the later years of his life under house arrest! Quaint, indeed!
And Bob’s Grandfather in 1959 and in the sixties seems quaint, too! Until we remember that
it took until 1981 for Pope John Paul II to call a special commission to re-examine the case
against Galileo – and it took until 1992 for the Pope to exonerate him, and apologize!
Thirteen years ago!
And still today we fight the battle! The battlefront changes, but the struggle continues! The
struggle between enlightenment and wisdom, and ignorance and fear!
Right now, a town right here in Pennsylvania, is blowing apart over the issue of teaching
evolution in schools, as opposed to the absolutely irrefutable certainty of evolution!
Based on the beautiful, poetic, powerful, but completely non-factual first Chapter of the
Bible, and upon the calculations of (unfortunately) our own James Ussher, Anglican
Archbishop of Armagh, in the 17th Century, these people KNOW that the world was created
in the year 4004 before the Christ – 6009 years ago! Just as my friend Bob’s grandfather
knew in 1960 the world was flat!
The battle over evolution is one of the more public and obvious battles going on, today!
But there are more – and at least as important!
At least as important as this battle is the one that rages over the meaning of “human
being,” and the question of WHEN a “human being” actually comes into existence in the
reproductive process! And just as important are the many questions of human sexuality –
including the one that is tearing apart our own Communion – and, indeed, our own Church!
It ain’t necessarily so! The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, they ain’t
necessarily so! The earth Is round! It’s not the center of the universe! The universe is
billions of years old! And all life on earth is the product of evolution!
And we do have work to do! We have to apply ourselves! We have to inform ourselves. We
can’t just echo what we’ve heard the TV preachers say! We have to educate ourselves and
stand up for what we’ve learned. And we have to do it fearlessly! Following the evidence,
following the knowledge, wherever they may lead us.
We must do so, and we can do so! Because Justin and so many others – including St.
Augustine of Hippo, and St. Thomas Aquinas – have helped us learn the way; have helped
us to know that there cannot be a contradiction between what the world tells us about
itself, and what our faith tells us – because they both come from the same source: The
irresistible love of God!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen!
thinking more about what I said in my homily on that day.
At the time I hadn’t really had time to think about it. In fact, it was just some random
thoughts that I was putting together as I talked, the first glimmerings of those thoughts
having occurred to me as I was reading the first lesson of the day, about wisdom.
And I’ve realized how those thoughts fit in with the two themes that I’ve been rather
irregularly developing since ‘way back in December! The one that takes as it’s theme that
song from Porgy and Bess that says, “It ain’t necessarily so! The things that you’re liable to
read in the Bible, they ain’t necessarily so;” and the one that explores my claim that we all
have “work to do,” to come to the understanding of the faith that we need!
Wednesday, on our liturgical calendar, was the commemoration of a man named Justin! He
was a martyr, and, in fact, is almost always referred to as “Justin Martyr” – as though
“martyr” were his surname.
Justin was born about 70 or so years after the Resurrection, in that part of Palestine called
Samaria. But Justin was neither a Jew nor a Samaritan, but the son of a rather well-off
Greek couple.
As such, Justin benefited from the very best in education, studying the Greco-Roman
equivalent of the three R’s – rhetoric, poetry and history! As a young adult, he seems to
have become something of a professional student, traveling here and there to study, now,
Philosophy. Studying first, in the great Egyptian city and center of learning, Alexandria, and
then in the Asia-minor city of Ephesus, he became, first, a follower of the Stoic school of
philosophy, then a Pythagorian, and finally, a follower of Plato!
But while he was in Ephesus – a city we know about from St. Paul’s letter to the Church,
there – he became acquainted with the Christian Community. Initially, he was impressed by
the stories of the Christian Martyrs that he heard among them, but then one day, while
taking a walk on the beach, he fell into conversation with an elderly man who was also
taking a walk – and the old man spoke to him about the Christ, and about the Jewish
Scriptures, and how the prophets had announced and prophesied the coming of Messiah!
And he later wrote that, as the old man spoke, “Straightaway a flame was kindled in my
soul, and a love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me!”
Justin became a Christian – converted as many had been, before, and as countless have
been, since! A Christian willing to die for his faith, years later, in Rome.
But Justin became a Christian with a difference. He may have been the first of his type; we
can’t be certain; but if he wasn’t, he was certainly among the first.
Because when this Greek-trained philosophical follower of Plato became a Christian, he
didn’t dessert Plato - or, indeed, Greek philosophy, in general.
Rather, he realized that, if our God is truly the creator and ruler of the universe, to know
the universe cannot be contrary to faith in God! And he realized that the problem with the
philosophies of the Greeks was NOT that they were wrong – but that they were incomplete!
He realized that his beloved philosophy was perfectly useful – but lacked the God of the
Christians, and lacked Jesus Christ, to be complete!
Justin would become one of the Church’s great, early theologians, and an early member of
a movement called the Apologists – a number of thinkers that made it their business, in
those early centuries, to explain and expound the faith of the Church to those who did not
know it, and to those who opposed it! And in doing so, he also did something that we are
still wrestling with, 19 centuries later. He showed that ultimately there can be no conflict
between the knowledge of the world – wherever that knowledge comes from – and faith in
Christ! That there can be no conflict between the Truth of Jesus Christ and what is true in
the world his Father created!
And I told the folks on Tuesday morning about a friend’s grandfather! Bob Morris was my
best friend in my last year of high school, and beyond. Bob’s family was from Tennessee,
and most of his relatives still lived there. They were all members of the Church of Christ –
a fairly small, very fundamentalist church found mainly in the South!
By the time I met Bob, in 1959, Sputnik had already flown, and we and the Soviets were
sending dogs, and chimps, and finally men into orbit around the earth, followed in the next
few years by the opening of the age of space exploration! Except…; Except Bob’s
Grandfather wasn’t about to fall for all that! He knew it was all lies. Had to be! Couldn’t be
true for the simple reason that the world is Flat, not round! Supported on great pillars
above the watery abyss! Separated from the heavens by the great dome of the sky! And all
that space stuff, and all that orbiting stuff was a hoax! Was Satan’s attempt to draw people
away from the truth of the Bible! He KNEW! Because the Bible told him so!
Seems quaint, now, doesn’t it! But we know better, now. If there was doubt, we had
Columbus and others to sail the seas and prove the world is round! And then we had the
invention of the telescope and the work of Copernicus, and then Galileo to show more of
the truth! Not only was the Earth round, but it revolved about the Sun, and was NOT the
center of the universe! But that news was not welcome to many Christians who wanted to
believe every word of the Bible had to be so, and Galileo was prosecuted by the Church
for his heresy, spending the later years of his life under house arrest! Quaint, indeed!
And Bob’s Grandfather in 1959 and in the sixties seems quaint, too! Until we remember that
it took until 1981 for Pope John Paul II to call a special commission to re-examine the case
against Galileo – and it took until 1992 for the Pope to exonerate him, and apologize!
Thirteen years ago!
And still today we fight the battle! The battlefront changes, but the struggle continues! The
struggle between enlightenment and wisdom, and ignorance and fear!
Right now, a town right here in Pennsylvania, is blowing apart over the issue of teaching
evolution in schools, as opposed to the absolutely irrefutable certainty of evolution!
Based on the beautiful, poetic, powerful, but completely non-factual first Chapter of the
Bible, and upon the calculations of (unfortunately) our own James Ussher, Anglican
Archbishop of Armagh, in the 17th Century, these people KNOW that the world was created
in the year 4004 before the Christ – 6009 years ago! Just as my friend Bob’s grandfather
knew in 1960 the world was flat!
The battle over evolution is one of the more public and obvious battles going on, today!
But there are more – and at least as important!
At least as important as this battle is the one that rages over the meaning of “human
being,” and the question of WHEN a “human being” actually comes into existence in the
reproductive process! And just as important are the many questions of human sexuality –
including the one that is tearing apart our own Communion – and, indeed, our own Church!
It ain’t necessarily so! The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, they ain’t
necessarily so! The earth Is round! It’s not the center of the universe! The universe is
billions of years old! And all life on earth is the product of evolution!
And we do have work to do! We have to apply ourselves! We have to inform ourselves. We
can’t just echo what we’ve heard the TV preachers say! We have to educate ourselves and
stand up for what we’ve learned. And we have to do it fearlessly! Following the evidence,
following the knowledge, wherever they may lead us.
We must do so, and we can do so! Because Justin and so many others – including St.
Augustine of Hippo, and St. Thomas Aquinas – have helped us learn the way; have helped
us to know that there cannot be a contradiction between what the world tells us about
itself, and what our faith tells us – because they both come from the same source: The
irresistible love of God!
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |