Sermon Notes Sunday June 11, 2006

Pharisees, Heresies and the DaVinci Code

Some distortions of the DaVinci Code:
The Council of Nicea created the Bible
The Bible is a collection of works over many centuries. This collection was largely agreed upon 150 years before the Council of Nicea. While there were other Christian groups the majority agreed upon the texts we have now. The primary debate at the Council of Nicea was the question of the nature of Jesus in regards to the debate brought by a group called the Arians.
Priory of Sion
This group was created by some bored French men in 1956. Pierre Plantard who had delusions of nobility created the “Priory of Sion” creating fake documents tying him to the former French monarchy. These forgeries were “discovered” and led to the publication of a book called “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail.” The book suggests that this priory is protecting the true lineage of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ descendents are protected by the Priory of Sion
If you were to accept the idea that Jesus had descendents through Mary Magdalene the number of those descendents today would be in the hundreds of thousands not a limited few. It’s simply mathematically impossible for a small line of descendents to exist today.
“The Last Supper” by DaVinci hides secret information about the secret bloodline of Jesus.
There are mysteries in DaVinci’s works but the gender of the person to his right is not one. Renaissance paintings often depicted John with a fair face and long hair. John is the disciple Jesus loved according to the Gospel of his name, not Mary.

Our Gospel reading this morning came from the Gospel of John, chapter three the first 17 verses. A Pharisee Nicodemus visits Jesus. He comes by night we are told. Perhaps this is to remind us that Nicodemus is in the dark or perhaps it means that he doesn’t want anyone to know he is visiting this Rabbi Jesus. Nick begins by flattering Jesus “we know that you are a teacher of who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, apart from the presence of God.” Then we have this very confusing dialogue about being born from above. Nick is shown as the fool who doesn’t get it.

The primary belief of the Pharisees was that all Jews should live according to the Law, the writings of what we call the Old Testament. They were one of a number of groups within ancient Judaism that functioned something like political parties or denominations. The Pharisees are experts of Jewish Law and experts in law tend to become wrapped up in the literal, certainly that’s what happens to poor Nic.

It is my impression that many Christians and many more non Christians want clarity about Christian belief. They desire Christian Pharisees to interpret for them, what Christians believe. Sometimes the Christian Pharisees gain a great deal of power and influence because they are so effective with interpreting and if necessary creating Christian Law.

Christian’s get edgy when “true doctrine” is challenged and “The DaVinci Code” is intentional at pressing those buttons. So here we are today talking about the Book and the Movie. The protesters don’t want to watch the movie or read the book out of fear that they will become contaminated. They are happy to have the Church or their local pastor reveal the truth to them. The fundamentalists love to cry out when traditional Christian Teaching is attacked.

I think a number of people are talking about “The DaVinci” code because people are genuinely curious about the life of Jesus and the ancient Church. I believe Christian people and non-Christian people genuinely want more information about the foundations of the world’s largest and most powerful religion.

I believe we must be like Nicodemus and seek out the truth from Jesus Christ. Nic didn’t fully understand what Jesus was saying. As the early church considered Jesus’ life, death and resurrection they talked about Love. The reading from the letter to Timothy says, “Love comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some people have deviated from these and turned to meaningless talk. . .” The first concern for our faith is to talk about Love. When the church forgets to be loving it deviates to meaningless talk.

This story Dan Brown has created has people talking once again about who Jesus is and what we believe about Jesus. For this we owe Mr. Brown our thanks.