Pentecost 6
Romans 6:3-11 (NLT)
Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him? 4For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. 6Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. 9We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. 11So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.
Ps. 89:1-18
Matthew 10:34-42 (NLT)
"Don't imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, I came to bring a sword. 35I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36Your enemies will be right in your own household! 37If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it.
40"Anyone who welcomes you is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me. 41If you welcome a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will receive the same reward a prophet gets. And if you welcome good and godly people because of their godliness, you will be given a reward like theirs. 42And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded."
Sermon: Division, DaVinci,
and Discipleship
For some time now you’ve been hearing about the “Anglican
Communion Network” and the possibility of
For the past two years, since
the actions of the General Convention of 2003, there has been a serious
division within our church. The division
was brought to a head by the General Convention’s actions regarding sexuality,
but it went much deeper than that. It
has been about the authority, the reliability, indeed the believability of
Scripture.
For the past two years our Communion has been grappling with some extremely important and basic questions of belief. What must a person believe in order to be considered a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ?
At
Further, we believe that this Word of God contained in the Scriptures is an eternal and enduring Word of Truth that does not change as society’s attitudes about it change.
Important Questions:
“If we affiliate with the Network, are we leaving the Episcopal Church?”
No. The Network is part of the Episcopal Church. It was set up by directive of the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide a place for conservative, Bible-teaching parishes to remain within the Episcopal Church while these issues are sorted out.
We are not
about leaving anything or going anywhere.
We, at
”What is the mission of the Network?”
The core purpose of the Anglican Communion Network is to be a united missionary movement in fellowship with global Anglicanism, making disciples for Jesus Christ in North America as we are witnessing our brothers and sisters doing in the Anglican Provinces of the global South, particularly the explosion of missionary work that has taken place in Africa, Asia and South America. The Network believes that we have much to learn from these brothers and sisters about how to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world today in such a way that lives are changed and sinful bondage broken.
Recent update on
meeting of ACC
Although the Anglican Primates called for ECUSA to explain
its actions, early reports indicate that Episcopal presenters will focus
primarily on the experience of homosexuals with a primary goal of persuading
the ACC that “God is doing a new thing
in
The Episcopal Church’s presentation to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) asserts a new gospel marked by theology and doctrine contrary to Holy Scripture and inconsistent with the historic faith and practice of Anglicanism..."
The presentations that we heard from ECUSA and the Anglican
Church of Canada did not explain that thinking with reference to the teaching
of the Anglican Communion as expressed in Lambeth
1.10 and statements from Primates Meetings in
The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) today (Wed. 6-22-05) passed a resolution that both affirmed the traditional position of the Communion as expressed in Lambeth 1.10 and endorsed the Primates’ request that “in order to recognize the integrity of all parties, the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw their members” from the ACC before the next Lambeth Conference in 2008..."
Statement from the
6/23/05
"Our members are at pains to understand the actions of ECUSA and
The DaVinci Code and the Gospel
What this book presents is another view of Jesus, the “Gnostic Gospels”-
NOT the divine Son of God
NOT a miracle worker
NOT the one who atoned for our sins by offering himself
NO Trinity
NO Resurrection
NO Eucharist
What is interesting about this book is that the “secret” so-called gospels they are laboring to protect and keep hidden are in fact no secret at all, and never have been. It is common knowledge that there were dozens of “gospels” floating around in the early days of the church. The first task that the emerging church had before it was to identify which writings were authentic, and which were not. And so they did.
We studied the “Gnostic gospels” in seminary, as has every generation of priests since the beginning of the church. There is NOTHING NEW HERE, except the brash level of erroneous statements about these documents which the author of this book makes, either out of inexcusable ignorance, or out of some ulterior motive that he has against Christianity. I think it is obviously the latter.
For example, the statement that the canon of scripture was decided by the pagan Emperor Constantine at the council of Nicaea in the fourth century, and that prior to that no one had any clear idea which gospels were authentic and which were false, and that prior to that, no one believed in the divinity of Christ. I can only say WHAT ABSOLUTE UTTER NONSENSE!!!!!!
The church had already identified which gospels were authentic within the first generation of those who succeeded the apostles as leaders of the church, and the only Christians who didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ were the Arians who were denounced by the Council of Nicaea as heretics.
Nor did the Council of Nicaea “write” the Creed, but rather the Council formalized and finalized a clear statement of the faith which had already been in use for more than 200 years.
So, what does The DaVinci Code say about Jesus?
It does not say what the New Testament says at all, especially about His origin or His divine nature. No virgin birth, no “Son of God”, but a merely human Jesus who instead of atonement offers “enlightenment”.
What is
described is a Jesus who was married to Mary Magdalene, raised a family with
her, and their children became the mysterious “Merovingian” clan of
What is described is a secret society whose purpose is to safeguard the ancient documents that reveal their supposed “real Jesus”.
And why don’t they just release this information and let the world make up its mind? Because supposedly they have made a deal with the church, the Roman Catholic Church that is, that if the church does not attack them, they won’t reveal this body of material that supposedly would destroy the church entirely.
And if you believe that, I have some
ocean-front property in
Secret societies, and secret knowledge that must be guarded on pain of death. What’s that about? Jesus said, “There is nothing secret that shall not be revealed… Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all nations.” That door is never locked! And as long as I’m rector it never will be.
You’d be surprised how many times during the week I see people drive in here and just walk into the church. I don’t know if they come to pray or just sight-seeing, but it doesn’t matter. The door is always open.
But what’s more important to me than the fact that the door is never locked when we aren’t here is the fact that the door is never locked when we ARE here. NOTHING we do is secret.
What are you looking for? Secret rituals and hidden knowledge reserved only for “grand masters” or a living truth that has been openly declared to the whole world?
If you are doing something in your life that you have to keep secret, you really need to stop and ask yourself WHY? What is this secrecy thing doing for you?
HEALING. The Jesus of DaVinci code is about mystery and secret knowledge, but there’s nothing there about healing. The Jesus of DeVinci Code is a guru, not a healer.
Referring to the teaching of the church for 2000 years, everything that orthodox Christianity has taught for over 2000 years, DaVinci Code says, “Everything our fathers taught us was a lie.”
Finally (p. 308) the great mystery is disclosed. If everything the church has taught about Jesus is wrong, then what is it that these “DaVinci” followers believe. It’s the worship of sexuality- the sacred ritual of the generative principle in human reproduction is idol on the altar at the center of this work.
When I reached this point in the book and finally discovered
what it was they were trying to sell people, I thought, “Boy! Should
have seen that one coming!”
You can call it the “generative principle” or the “divine feminine” and “the fertile masculine”. You can call it Osiris and Isis, or Baal and Ashera, but the bottom line is the same. What this book is trying to sell you is the oldest heresy in the world, a religion based on sex. The secret ritual that the lead character walked in on when she was a young girl was a pagan orgy, a group of adults gathered around a man and a woman, unclothed, lying on an altar, and you can use your imagination to complete the picture.
Down through the ages of human history it has always been the same. You will either worship the Living God, the Creator, or you will end up worship the act of creation which you believe you possess within yourself- reproduction.
Why do I bring this up when we are supposed to be talking about the present situation in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion? Because it is the same issue exactly! What we are debating in the church is not just a new idea about human sexuality, it is a whole new version of the gospel, an entirely different Jesus than the one the church has trusted and followed for these past two millennia.
What we have before us today is the very same choice that
Joshua set before the people of
“Choose this day whom you will serve, whether it be the God of your fathers who brought you out of the land of bondage, or whether it be the gods of the land you are going into. …..
I can’t make that choice for you. The bishop can’t make it for you. The writers of books like The DaVinci Code can’t make it for you. You have to make that decision for
yourself. God requires that it be that
way. Do you understand that?
Do you understand that when it’s all over, when the final judgment of the earth
has come, and all the souls of human beings have been sorted out and sent to
their respective places, whether in heaven or hell, do you understand that no
one will be surprised at where they ended up, or at least they will have no
reason to be surprised, because each one of us will CHOOSE where we end
up. We choose where our souls end up by
choosing what we believe, IN WHOM we believe.
“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
What we Pray For:
We cannot know the truth without the Holy Spirit indwelling. The Holy Spirit gives knowledge. Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to be our teacher. John said we have an “anointing” (Holy Spirit) that teaches us, and when we have that we don’t need any other teacher. Do you believe that?
And what is the first thing the Holy Spirit teaches us? The power of the Cross. That is the most glaring omission from the DaVinci Code. The Jesus they would present to us is not a Savior. He is just another “mystic.”
Have you had the experience of being taught by the Holy Spirit in a specific situation? What I mean is, you get this urge, this inspiration to do something that God is trying to tell you. Your mind may argue against it. Your friends may tell you it’s crazy, it’s too big, it’s not possible. But the Holy Spirit continues to prompt you, “Try it. Trust me. Take a step of faith and I will supply your need.”
Or this. Have you ever had an inner stirring of the Holy Spirit that warned you NOT to do something because there was danger ahead that you could not see.
-We cannot be certain of our faith without the confirmation that comes only through the Holy Spirit. Is your faith still operating at the level of the intellect? Do you trust in what you believe about Jesus Christ being your Savior only because of what you think sounds reasonable?
Terry Fullam, “…it’s when you know that you know that you know.” Not intellectual knowing, but inspiration. Jesus said to Peter, “It was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”
It isn’t what you know. It’s WHOM you know!! If you haven’t committed yourself to Him on the heart level, you need to do that now. Let us pray.