The Gospel Reloaded
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preacher,
The Matrix Reloaded is poised to be one of the highest grossing films in recent history. One of the factors that make this so remarkable is the not-so-subtle religious imagery and language that permeate the film. The movie is an action flick packed with theology, and the content of that theology bears close scrutiny.
We at The Immediate Word have asked team member George Murphy to explore the lectionary texts for this week in an effort to help us understand the religious significance of this film, along with some others. As always, this installment includes comments from team members, relevant illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
This installment also includes some bonus material. Since many of you may be called upon to offer Baccalaureate messages during this season of graduations, we are offering some special material for those unique preaching opportunities.
The Gospel Reloaded
By George Murphy
John 15:9-17; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6
The biggest religious news at least of this month may be the release of The Matrix Reloaded, the long-anticipated sequel to the 1999 film The Matrix, which opened on May 15th. Yes, it's still the Easter season and our Sunday readings continue to speak to us about what Jesus' resurrection means. And, yes, the Shiite branch of Islam continues to be a powerful influence in post-war Iraq, and there are other important religious news items from throughout the world. But many people will be more strongly influenced by the views about the nature of reality and the meaning of life in the second movie of the Matrix trilogy than by anything that they're hearing from representatives of organized religion -- and that includes some of the people who will be sitting in the pews on Sunday.
The Matrix films aren't unique in using religious themes and influencing religious views. If you want something lighter, .Bruce Almighty will debut May 23, 2003. Here Bruce, played by Jim Carrey, will get to fill in for God (Morgan Freeman) and exercise divine power.
The task of the preacher is to communicate God's word, law, and gospel to people in the world in which they live. How are we to do that when their view of the world -- and in fact ours as well -- is influenced in subtle and not-so-subtle ways by the religious views circulating in the media? These influences are not all bad or all good, and some care is needed in challenging some and using others to reinforce the Christian message.
I mean my title, The Gospel Reloaded, to be more than just a rather obvious parody of the film's name. With all our desire to make preaching relevant to what's going on in the world and in the lives of our listeners, we have to make sure that we keep restating in clear ways the basic and distinctive teachings of the Christian faith. If we speak only in religious generalities about "God" and "love" then it may be hard for our hearers to distinguish what we're saying from what things that they see and hear in popular media, things that may be in some tension with the gospel.
The Matrix films don't use explicit God language, but the religious images are pretty obvious. One of the heroes is named Trinity and the last human city holding out against the machines that have enslaved the world is Zion. Keanu Reeves' character Neo, who has been described in a number of reviews as a "Christ figure," often wears a black cassock-like garment which makes him look for all the world like a Roman Catholic or Anglican priest. There are plenty of other hints and allusions in the film -- not all of them religious -- and I won't spoil your fun in finding some for yourself.1
But the religious content goes beyond symbolism. In The Matrix films, the world most people experience is an illusion, the product of a tremendous computer program. They think that they're living in a society much like ours, but in reality they are stuck in pods and the energy they generate is being used by the machines that have taken over the world after a terrible war. Neo and others who have been freed from the world of the Matrix are among the defenders of Zion, but they also have to go back into it in order to free others and fight the agents of the machines if humanity is ever to be saved from its enslavement.
The film is well done and I like it simply as science fiction. (Some of the techno-babble is, however, overdone.) There will be some objection to the violence in the martial arts and chase scenes, but it needs to be remembered that these things are taking place in a computer program rather than the real world. They are not blood and guts scenes, and are so well done that I often felt that I was watching elaborate choreography rather than a typical action film. (The Matrix Reloaded is rated R, but neither the violence nor the sexuality is of a type that would have made PG-13 impossible.)
But what about the religious message? From a Christian standpoint there are some questionable aspects. The idea that the world we experience is not the true reality has a lot in common with the teachings of the gnostics who were one of Christianity's main competitors in the early centuries. They held that the material world was the creation of an inferior deity (perhaps the God of the Old Testament), that our souls are trapped in the darkness of this material realm, and that the true God beyond the world sends the redeemer to enlighten people with the knowledge (gnosis) of their situation and thus free their souls and save them from the world.2
This contrasts strongly with the Christian belief that the world is the good creation of the God who sent his Son into the world to save human beings from sin in their entire body-soul-spirit reality through faith in his death and resurrection. The Christian hope is the resurrection of the body in a transformed creation, not the salvation of some immaterial part of ourselves from the world.
To put the worst construction on it, the Matrix films might be seen a kind of cyber-gnosticism, with Neo as an example of the gnostic redeemer myth rather than as a genuine Christ figure. It wouldn't be surprising to encounter something like this in a time when some versions of New Age thought have a lot of resemblance to classical gnosticism.
I don't think that it would be fair to the movie to leave it at that, however. The goal of those fighting the Matrix isn't simply to get rid of the computerized illusion but also to free people from its bondage and give them full physical life. The Matrix films display no gnostic contempt for physical reality, as some of the scenes set in Zion make clear. We'll have to wait for the final third of the trilogy, scheduled for November, to see how it all turns out.
Meanwhile in our world, there are strong attempts to impose false realities upon people. Perhaps the most pervasive and widely accepted is our whole culture of consumerism which promotes the illusion that people can be happy and secure if they keep accumulating more and more possessions. Various kinds of political and religious propaganda provide other examples. And while Christianity teaches the saving role of faith rather than of knowledge, the latter is not insignificant. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," God declares through Hosea (4:6), and Jesus says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32).
Bruce Almighty is not likely to fare very well in comparison with The Matrix and its sequel, at least as far as depth is concerned. Previews showing Bruce using his power to increase his girl friend's breast size and getting his dog to use the toilet aren't promising. But there is a hint that perhaps he's going to find out that there's more to being God than just throwing arbitrary miracles around. You'll have to see the movie when it opens if you want to pursue this. But I wouldn't ignore the film's impact just because it's unsophisticated. In the last generation (1977), George Burns as the deity in Oh, God was pretty influential in presenting a warm-hearted but rather simple-minded deism.
How might proclamation this Sunday take some of these matters into account? In the lectionary texts for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5:1-6, and John 15:9-17) the most obvious single theme is that of love in the Second Lesson and the Gospel, and that would be a good thing to focus on.
The type of love, agape, of which these texts speak, goes much deeper than "Can't we all just get along?" This idea is encouraged, and of course is fine as far as it goes, by films like Oh, God. It is broader than the love connected with sexual attraction. The love between Neo and Trinity is sexual but isn't limited to that. Their willingness to suffer and die for one another is an important part of the plot. We know what genuine love is, and therefore can understand Jesus' commandment that we are to "love one another," because "I have loved you" (John 15:12). And that, in turn, is something that flows from the love of Father and Son (15:9-10).
Love in fact defines the character of God. "God is love (agape)" (1 John 4:16) was one of the texts for last Sunday and is the background of the reading from 1 John this week. It is, of course, a frequently quoted phrase, but its full depth often isn't appreciated. The belief that God is love in God's own being ultimately requires something like a trinitarian understanding of God.3 Thus any representation of God by a single actor, even one as good as Morgan Freeman, is bound to be inadequate. On the other hand, some of the visual images of Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus together in The Matrix Reloaded are intriguing.
Equally unsatisfactory is any representation of God simply as "the Almighty" without reference to God as love. To play off the idea of Bruce getting to be "almighty" for a day, a preacher might develop a story sermon in which someone has the opportunity to show the love of God in its fullness for a day. That could be introduced with a brief reference to the movie's theme, and hearers wouldn't even need to have seen the movie to get the point.
The fact that the love of God "spills over" from the inner life of God to the world is also important for understanding the goodness of creation over against gnostic devaluations of it. The text found in John 3:16 is, of course, quoted even more often than "God is love." God's love for "the world" means first of all for the world of human beings, a world which is estranged from God by sin but which is still God's good creation. And God's love is not limited to human beings. The thanksgiving at the beginning of Evening Prayer in Lutheran Book of Worship sings simply, "You love your whole creation." At this time of year, many churches have a Sunday with some emphasis on care for creation (Earth Sunday, Rogationtide, Stewardship of Creation Sunday, Soil and Water Stewardship Sunday). This week's Psalm 98, in which all the earth is to "break forth into joyous song and sing praises" (v. 4), would fit in with such a theme.
Alternatively, a sermon might speak to some of the illusions that our culture tries to impose on us -- "The one who dies with the most toys wins," "You've got to look out for Number One," "Power grows from the barrel of a gun," and so forth. These aren't as all-encompassing as the false world of the Matrix, but are ubiquitous enough to make the analogy worth pursuing. The true reality, the hidden ground of all being, is the Love willing to die for the other. One of the questions The Matrix Reloaded poses has to do with the nature of power and control. The Christ who saves by letting go (Philippians 2:5-11) is one biblical answer.
Notes
1 There is no lack of reviews and analyses of the new Matrix film right now. One which may be helpful for preachers can be found at: http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2003/05/14/ .
2 The article "Gnosticism" by R. McL. Wilson in The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology gives further information.
3 See, e.g., Eberhard Juengel, God as the Mystery of the World, Eerdmans, 1983.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: In his book, High Tech, High Touch, John Naisbitt takes on the rapidly-advancing technology of our culture. He identifies six symptoms of our "Technologically Intoxicated Zone":
1. We favor the quick fix, from religion to nutrition.
2. We fear and worship technology.
3. We blur the distinction between real and fake.
4. We accept violence as normal.
5. We love technology as a toy.
6. We live our lives distanced and distracted.
It's instructive to consider this list as we view the films of the Matrix series, or any one of a number of recent films that glorify technology as our species' savior. Technology is a wonderful blessing, but it fails those who plumb its depths for higher meaning.
The Matrix films are but a new twist on an old sci-fi theme: the search for Someone Else in the universe. The innovation of these films is that they seek the otherworldly not outside the galaxy, or even the universe, but within it. The premise that another, ultimately more real world exists within the technology of bits and bytes is extremely creative, and can speak to those of us who've become fascinated with the illusion computers give us that there is an actual place called "cyberspace."
Carter Shelley responds: This subject appeals to me because it pushes us to think about John's Gospel and 1 John in a little different way. Moreover, it illustrates the reverence many fans hold for the world Larry and Andy Wachowskis have created. For a world in which technology and artifice replace reality seems very real to many whose lives are lived more in front of computer screens than they are in ordinary face-to-face human relationships. With its 1000+ special effects, religious symbolism, and awe-inspiring twists and turns and stunts, The Matrix movies hold fans' attention and enthusiasm in a way religious revivals added excitement to a dull existence in small town America during the late 19th century.
Not only has more money been poured into making The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions (a combined budget of more than $300 million), Matrix: Reloaded will pull in far more money during the next eight weeks than any national Christian denomination expects to collect from our offering plates and tithes. In 1999 when The Matrix appeared, it earned $171 million domestically and $460 million worldwide (Entertainment Weekly magazine, May 16, 2003, p. 27).
The territory The Matrix treads isn't brand new. Think "It" in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, where a giant brain-like thing absorbs all human individuality and uniqueness, forcing all inhabitants to be exactly the same. Ultimately, "It" can only be defeated by love, something "It" is not capable of experiencing, understanding or resisting. L'Engle's book first appeared in the early 1960s; Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey appeared towards the end of the same decade. The latter, projected a time and place where a computer named Hal would turn on its human astronaut operators and destroy them in order to maintain control.
These creative minds and others warn of an Armageddon brought about, not by God, but by the dehumanizing potential possible in a 20th and 21st century world where technology and computers are so central that human beings have the potential to be lost or overpowered by our own inventions. "We like kickboxing. We like guns. We like blowing stuff up. We like action movies," says Larry Wachowski. "But we always wanted more from them" (EW 27). Hence they create a hero with a messianic subplot along with a nod to existentialism and what the nature of human existence might become in a virtual reality world.
I appreciate the discussion of gnosticism and the concept of light and darkness George provides, but I would recommend including more details. Elaine Pagels and seminary trained ministers may have a clear understanding of gnosticism, but I'd supplement George's description with a few more details for the person in the pew who may need them. Consultation of the section in International Dictionary of the Bible under "gnosticism" or in something as straightforward as a World Book Encyclopedia would provide additional information. It's worth the effort because gnosticism was an early Christian heresy that still influences Christians subtly today. The whole rejection of the physical body and the material world and the elevation of virginity and celibacy in the medieval church owe much to gnosticism.
The discussion of the illusions that our advertising, consumer-mad culture provide works well. Rather than determining who we are and how we shall live in the world, we are told who we should be, how we should look, and what we should drive, and encouraged to cut, slice, and botox our way into an image labeled "beautiful" based on a very limited and uncreative standard: the rail-thin, blue-eyed blond, woman with outsized breasts and the muscle-pumped, tanned, full-head-of-hair and perfect-featured white man. Ironically, the intangible love and connectedness Jesus offers in John 15 promises a far more tangible world and genuine relationship than any reality show mating ritual can hope to provide. Hence what we see on TV or in the theater is not as real as is "Our Father, who art in heaven" or our "Lord Jesus Christ" and the ever-present "Spirit of God".
George, I really like the way you bring the Psalm into your discussion in the second to last paragraph. You also offer a powerful conclusion with your words about the "true reality" being "Love willing to die for the other." While Jesus' act of heroism lacks the special effects and amazing feats Neo and his allies supply, the results of Jesus' sacrifice remain applicable to us today, and we don't even need $7.50 as the price for admission.
Related Illustrations
It was William Barclay who identified Christianity as "the most materialistic" of all world religions. That's because we worship a Lord who was not only incarnate in the material world, but who also died for it. While our faith does contain the bright hope of a transfer to a new realm following death, it does not do so (as the Gnostics insisted) at the cost of denigrating the material world. God's creation, while fallen, is still fundamentally good.
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Poet and funeral director Thomas Lynch raises concern about the limitations of technology in the following selection from his philosophical rumination, The Undertaking:
Thus, the great divisions of the last half century and the next half century seem based on the contemplation of Life and Death: when one becomes the other and under whose agency. The advance of our technology is coincidental with the loss of our appetite for ethical questions that ought to attend the implications of these new powers. We have blurred the borders between being and ceasing to be by a technology that can tell us How It Works but not What It Means. Nor do we trust our instincts anymore. If we sense something is Wrong, we are embarrassed to say so, just as we are when we sense it is Right. In the name of diversity, any idea is regarded as worthy as any other; any nonsense is entitled to a forum, a full hearing, and equal time. Reality is customized to fit the person or the situation. There is your reality and my reality, the truth as they see it, but what is real and true for us all eludes us. We frame our personal questions in terms of the legal and illegal, politically correct or incorrect, function or dysfunction, how it impacts our self-esteem, or puts us in touch with our feelings, or bodes for the next election or millage vote or how the markets will respond. And while business of all sorts can be conducted this way to the relative advantage of all concerned, on the Big Questions, the Existential Concerns, the Life and Death Matters of who is and who isn't to be, what is called for are our best instincts, our finest intuitions, our clearest intellections and an honesty inspired by our participation, not in a party or a gender or a religion or a special interest or ethnicity, but by our participation in the human race.
And here, the dialogue seems oddly hushed. Is it possible we are just too busy, just don't care? Are we willing to leave it to the experts?
-- Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking (New York: Penguin, 1997), pp. 158-159.
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Among the best words on this subject (but assuredly not the last) are those penned by the poet R. S. Thomas, who identifies the brash self-confidence of value-free science as "the Last Sacrament of the species":
As they became
cleverer, they became worse ...
They have exchanged
their vestments for white coats,
working away in their bookless
laboratories, ministrants
in that ritual beyond words
which is the Last Sacrament of the species.
-- Experimenting with an Amen (New York: Macmillan).
Worship Resources
By George Reed
OPENING
Hymns
God of Many Names
God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale
Amen Siakudumisa
Songs
Sing unto the Lord a New Song
Awesome God
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE IN THE DIME NOVEL I READ?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE SCARLET IN GONE WITH THE WIND?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE JULIET AND ROMEO?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE GEORGE BURNS IN OH GOD?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE JESUS CHRIST IN THE GOSPELS?
Leader: Exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LET US WORSHIP AND FOLLOW OUR GOD WHO IS LOVE.
LET US WORSHIP AND FOLLOW JESUS THE CHRIST.
COLLECT/OPENING PRAYER:
O God who is far beyond our knowledge: Grant us the wisdom to allow you to make us into your image rather than try to make you into ours; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We know that you are Love, O God, but we fashion you in the way we see love. We forget that your love is beyond our knowing and that only through Jesus Christ can we discover what you and your love are truly like. Open our minds, our hearts, and our lives to your Son and to your Love. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
Songs
You Are
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION/PARDON
ALL:
O God of Many Names, we know you are the great I AM; you are the One who will be who you will be. You are beyond our knowing and yet we form images of you and worship them. Our images are in our minds and in our media. Often we take the images that others offer us and accept them as true. We do not wrestle with you to discover your Name. Then in our idolatry we act as if these images made with human minds are true. Forgive us our presumption. Put us in awe of you. Help us to know that while you are closer to us than our own breath and while you love us more than a parent can love a child, you still are God. You are the Most Awesome of the Most Awesome. Let us once again be creatures who own you as their Creator. Amen.
ONE:
Hear this good news! God knows our frame that we are dust. God loves us and claims us in all our folly. We are the forgiven people of God. Let us worship in spirit and in truth.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC
Lord, you do marvelous things. All creation breaks forth in praise to you. You are the Eternal One. Your ways are beyond our ways and your thoughts beyond our thoughts.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess to you, O God, and before our brothers and sisters, that we try to control you. We have tried to condense your majesty and power into manageable ideas. We have tried to harness your might and power into doing our bidding. We have used your judgment against others while excusing ourselves. Forgive us in the grace of your great love, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, awake us to greatness. Help us to truly worship and serve you as our God.
We bless your Name and thank you, God of Love, for all the ways you have shown your care and loving kindness to us. We thank you that you have given us minds that seek knowledge, even knowledge that is beyond our ability to understand. We thank you that you have given us community so that we can learn the wonderful diversity of humankind. We thank you for all the variety of creation that stuns us with its beauty and delights us with its gifts. (Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.) We thank you for Jesus of Nazareth who walked among us as one of us and who taught us what it means to be shaped in your image of love.
Because you are Love, we offer you the cares of our hearts. We want to share with you, as your children, those things that trouble us and confront us. There are those who are abused and ignored and who find it difficult to understand there is a God of love. There are those who find strength and health slipping away and need reassured of your loving presence. There are those who are dying and need to be reminded by loving acts that their loving God waits to hold them in arms of tender mercy. (Other petitions may be offered.) We offer up to you these and all your children in their need. Join our spirit and love with your great Spirit and Love in caring for them. Receive us, also, into your loving care that we may be your presence of love for this community and our world. Make us be, as Jesus, a sure sign of your love for all your creation for we pray as he taught us. Our Father....
Children's Sermon
By Wesley Runk
John 15: 9-17
Text: I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. (v. 15)
Object: a letter, telephone, lunch in a bag or lunchbox
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about something very special for all of us. We are going to talk about friendship. How many of you have a friend? (let them answer) Very good! We all have friends and they are some of the most important people we will ever know.
I brought along some things that friends do with one another. First, I have something that friends do almost every day. (hold up the lunch) What do you think is in this box? (let them answer) That's right, it is a lunch. Do you ever eat lunch with your friends? (let them answer) Even big people like to have lunch with their friends and they do it often. Lunch is a good time to talk and tell one another about things that have happened when they were not together.
I also brought with me a telephone. Do friends talk on the telephone? (let them answer) They sure do. Some friends talk to each other every day on the phone and sometimes they talk more than once a day. If you can't be together, the next best thing is to talk on the phone and tell each other what happened in school or at the game or when you stayed overnight with another friend.
I also brought a letter. (hold up the letter) Friends write lots of letters. Today they may write e-mails or they may send a card. But letters are the best. You can move away from where you live now to some other city or state, but you can always keep in touch with a friend by writing a letter. In a letter you tell your friend all about your new home, your new school, and your new friends. But most of all you can tell your friend about how much you miss them and how soon you will see them again. A letter is a very good sign of friendship.
Jesus talked about friendship. He told his disciples that he no longer considered them just followers or students. He said they were more than people who served him. Jesus told his disciples that they were his friends and the reason that they were friends was because he shared everything with them, including what the Father in heaven told him. You have to be pretty special to share God with one another. Not everyone can do that, but Jesus did with his disciples.
I think my best friends are people I share my faith in God with every day of the week. Many of my best friends are people that go to this church and with whom I worship God every Sunday and on other special occasions. I love these kinds of friends who work together to help others know Jesus. Sometimes we eat together, sometimes we study together, sometimes we serve together, and we always talk about our love for Jesus.
How many of you want Jesus to be your friend? (let them answer) Everyone wants Jesus to be his or her friend. Remember what Jesus said about friends. He said that he shared even the things that the Father in heaven shared with him with his friends. That brings you pretty close to heaven.
The next time you have lunch with your friends or talk to them on the phone or even write them a letter I want you to think about having good friends. And while you are enjoying some time with your friend, think about being a friend of Jesus. Jesus will be the best friend you will ever know. Amen.
BONUS MATERIAL
Resources for Preaching Baccalaureate Services
Tomorrow Belongs to You
By Carter Shelley
Baccalaureate Sermon for High School Graduation 2003
Matthew 6:25-34
Here you are Sunday night June 1, 2003, politely attending a baccalaureate worship service, no doubt with the intention of daydreaming for the next few minutes while this woman you've never met preaches a sermon you'd just as well not hear. After all, she's someone most of you have never seen before and don't know from Adam - correction -- make that, Eve. Along with which, she's older than dirt, and couldn't possibly know what your life is like or say anything that doesn't ring of ministerial cliches and parental advice you can hardly wait to escape.
So, while I still have your attention, I invite you to turn your bulletin over to the blank space on the back and write a couple of things down. If you don't have a pen or pencil, use one from the pew or borrow one from someone who has one since he or she is used to doodling in church. Write down what your goals are for your future. Where do you hope to be and what do you hope to accomplish in the next ten years? Some of what you write will resemble the goals and ambitions of all generations: go to college away from home, go to Wilkes Community College, join the military, get technical training so you can get a good job, fall in love and marry, have a career, have children, buy a house -- the standard stuff. Some of what you write may be unique to you: write a novel, travel all over the world, run for political office, become rich and famous, or play in a rock and roll band.
One goal, however, is so implicit most of you wouldn't think to write it down: that's not to live with your parents anymore! To move out of the house, the apartment, or trailer you share with your parents or parent or some other supervisory adult. You are ready to become free, and responsible for yourself. You look forward to living your own life and making your own future without someone else forever telling you what to do, what time to come home, how to behave, and how to succeed. You are eager for a life where there's no one around to make annoying demands, or worry about your actions and behavior. After all, what they don't know won't hurt them, right?
This break away from childhood, teen-hood into the nether land of pre-adulthood is crucial for you. It's a challenge all of you are up to,but that doesn't make the prospect any less exciting or scary. Where you go and who you become will be determined by what you value most in your life. Will it be relationships? Money? Wine, men or women, and song?
Tomorrow belongs to you. Your generation faces great challenges and great opportunities: greater population, ethnic, and cultural diversity in the United States, the ongoing explosions of invention and communication linked to computers and other advanced technology, the balance between American nationalism and international interdependence, decreasing natural resources such as coal and oil, unemployment, the ongoing destruction and costs of diseases such as SARS and AIDS, new inventions, new ideas, new ways of being in this world. How it goes is in your hands.
Tomorrow belongs to you, and you have within you the potential for great good and the potential for great evil. The title of today's sermon comes from a slight shift in the wording of a song sung by German youth in the movie Cabaret. That song's refrain is "tomorrow belongs to me" and it begins as a lilting, lovely tenor solo, then builds to a terrifying and angry chorus sung by young Nazi soldiers, no older than you. The message they sing anticipates the great evil that Germany and the rest of Europe will suffer due to the idealism, ambition, and blind devotion Hitler inspired. This national idolatry and unquestioning obedience led to the death of millions of people on the battlefield and millions more killed in bombings or in concentration camps. Elie Wiesel, author and holocaust survivor, was the first modern person to use the term "holocaust" to describe the horrors of World War II. Wiesel traces it back to its Old Testament meaning of "a sacrificial offering dedicated to God." Jews, gypsies, gays, the mentally and physically challenged, all died as a result of bigotry, greed, and a false sense that some people are more valuable than others. You have within you the potential for great good and the potential for great evil.
Tomorrow belongs to you. In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus invites his followers to focus upon God and put their future in God's hands. With God as your focus, you do not have to worry about tomorrow, because with God's help you can accomplish great things, and be a force for good in the world. It doesn't matter whether you identify and name God as "Creator," "Yahweh," "Father" or "Mother," "Allah," or are still seeking some unknown, indefinable something of which you are not sure. Those who seek God and trust in God, irrespective of the religion they practice, become people of compassion, humility, and grace.
Tomorrow belongs to you. Do not worry about your life or your future. May it be an exciting and wonderful adventure. May God be a part of that adventure. With God on your side, your own youthful energy and ambition, and a desire to work for the good of humanity, and not do others ill, you can accomplish great things in Wilkes County, in California, in the Middle East, wherever your life leads you. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow belongs to you.
ADDITIONAL SERMON
A Baccalaureate Message
By Chuck Cammarata
I had an aunt when I was in high school who would often say to me: "These are the best years of your life.
It used to make me want to scream. I'd be thinking -- while she was speaking -- "If these are the best years -- I might as well go out and shoot myself now."
They were not great years for me. I was this skinny, little, geeky-looking, painfully shy, bumbling around girls, awkward kid.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: HE WAS SKINNY?
YES! I was and I have the photos to prove it
High school was a series of embarrassments and disappointments. I was glad when it was over. When Donna and I started raising kids, we tried to make sure that our kids had a better experience of high school. They all did.
They were all good students, involved in sports and plays and student government, with lots of good friends. But whether high school has been good to you as it has to my kids or not so good to you as it was for me, I want to say to you tonight -- unequivocally -- these have not been the best years of your life
The best is yet to come -- the best is yet to come.
So, what is the best? What is it you should be looking for and trying to fill your life with? I can't give you a definitive answer for that. All I can do is to tell you what has been the best for me. Where has the most satisfaction and genuine joy come from for me?
It came when I stood at the foot of a long aisle in Shadyside Pres church and watched my girl soon to be my wife float down the aisle. She was beautiful and I felt like I had somehow cheated fate -- for a guy like me to get a girl like her.
That was and has continued to be the best. It came when, couple of years later, I would come home from work to our third floor apartment and as I walked up the stairs, 18-month-old Lori would be standing at the top of the stairs smiling and shouting, "DADDY!"
And now it comes when I come home and my six-month-old grandson Caden also smiles and giggles and reaches for me - "Hold me, Grandpa."
Those are the best.
It came when Donna and I and the kids took a five-week camping trip across America when they were nine, ten, and eleven years old. The five of us stood in awe as we got our first look at the Grand Canyon.
Or we sat on a huge rock beside a glorious waterfall in Yosemite. Or drove through a herd of huge and powerful buffalo in Yellowstone. Or sat in our tent at night and played cards by flashlight and laughing into the wee hours.
That was the best.
It comes when I attend a meeting of my five best friends. We meet every other Wednesday. We eat and talk and laugh.And listen to one another's hurts. And encourage, and challenge, and forgive.
Those guys love me -- and I love them.
That's the best.
And it comes when I go to the Albion prison to teach a class on faith to a group of inmates. And one of them -- 6'5" 300 lbs -- hugs me and says with tears in his eyes: "Thanks, pastor, not many people care about us. Thanks for helping us.
That's the best
Do you see what I'm getting at? You all have been taught all your lives by this world we live in that it is your grades, your SAT scores, your athletic achievements, your looks, your income, the amount of power you have. You have been taught that these are the things that count. But they're not.
Life's best -- the things that count -- are families, friends, people to love and be loved by. Giving, caring, standing tall for the right thing. Making a difference in the lives of people in need. Those things are the best
In Timosoara, Romania, there is a large city square where, if you went there, you would see in the middle of the square a small plaque which is usually surrounded by flowers people have placed there. The plaque says: In December 1989, fifteen students were martyred on this spot. The students were young, between the ages of eleven and eighteen. They were shot to death for singing Christmas carols and worshipping. The communist regime in Romania back then was brutal and oppressive. Nicolae Ceausecu had come to power twenty-four years earlier vowing to crush the Romanian church. He did not permit celebrations of Easter and Christmas.
Just before Christmas 1989 about 150 Christian adults and students came to the city square to light candles and sing carols. Ceausecu sent an army brigade to disperse them. The adults all left. But the students stayed, unwilling to stand for this oppression.
The soldiers again ordered the students to disperse, but they were determined. Finally, as the students raised their candles high, Ceausecu ordered them to be shot. And they were.
Three days later on Christmas Day, 1989, 250,000 people stood in that square singing Christmas songs. They were saying no to oppression and standing tall for truth.
And Ceausecu was overthrown and democracy came to Romania.
That was the best. Those students stood up and said no to evil. And though they died, they brought freedom to millions. They lived for something more than a dollar, an image, an honor.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said, if you haven't yet found something you're willing to die for you haven't yet begun to live. Those kids were living. And in that moment, as the gunshots rang out, they lived the best life has to offer.
The ballgame was over and fans at Wrigley Field in Chicago were filing out. A few players were signing autographs. Then someone noticed an unusual scene playing out on the field. One guy nudged another and another and soon people all over the stadium had stopped to watch. One of the players, I can't remember his name, had received an unusual request.
A father had brought his ten-year-old daughter to her very first game. She had had a great time -- the roar of the crowd -- smell of popcorn and taste of cotton candy. It had been great even though she hadn't seen a thing -- being blind.
All during the game she had been asking her dad to explain to her how the field looked, and he had tried his best, but she still hadn't quite got it. So she wondered if she could walk around the field to get a better sense of it. But you don't just wander out onto a professional baseball diamond.
So they had hung around and instead of asking for an autograph, they had asked if the girl could walk the bases.
One of the players lifted her over the rail and together they walked past the guards to home plate. The little girl bent down and felt it. Then they started walking slowly around the bases with the players describing what the girl couldn't see. They touched first base, then second, then third. The whole time the little girl was grinning.
Now she understood. Finally they crossed home plate and a roar of applause surprised both the girl and the player. Thousands of fans had stopped and watched. They had seen the little white cane and the ballplayer holding the little girl's hand. Thousands of fans had watched and cheered this very same player sprint to first to beat out a hit, or trot around the bases after hitting a home run, but this time, walking slowly around the bases holding a little girl's hand, this was his best home run ever
So they gave him and his little teammate a standing ovation they'd never forget. That's the best -- that kind of kindness and love.
It does not matter if you are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or something else. God is not interested in your academic or athletic awards. He doesn't care that much what your SAT and GPA are. It is not an issue with God whether you get into one of the Iives. All those things are nice, and some of you have achieved at very high levels and we are proud of you for that - those are worthy things. We are proud of your achievements. These things are great, but they are not the best in life.
There is a great song from the musical Rent. It goes: "525,600 is the number of minutes in a year. 525,600 minutes -- how do you measure a year? In daylights in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee?"
Not a million dollars made by a ballplayer, but a player leading a little girl around the bases. Not staying alive in repression, but giving your life for others' freedom. Not climbing the corporate ladder, but loving your family. Not becoming famous, but becoming good -- these are the best.
I know this class. It is a class filled with great kids. High school is going to miss you guys. And what we want to say to you as we send you off into the world is this: Go make us proud. Seek the best in life. Live for love. In the end, that's all that really counts.
OTHER BACCALAUREATE RESOURCES
Comments from high school students (compiled by Carter Shelley): I had the opportunity to converse with some of the soon-to-graduate high school students this evening and their answers to my questions fit pretty well with what I already thought I'd be saying. The biggest difference between where they are and where I thought they'd be is in long range planning. Where I've always tended to have a five-year plan, even at 17, they just aren't there. They are anticipating a freer future, going away to college, not having to go back to school in August, but they really aren't ready to think about 5 years or 10 years ahead.
Excited about college and leaving home --excited but still doesn't seem real yet. Lot of people in our country will be going to local community college.e Some will stay home and work on the farm. The military is recruiting hard and heavy and many are signing on. Some will be going to work at Tyson's chicken factory or for Lowe's Hardware. We have a lot of Latino kids, but few are likely to attend baccalaureate because it's optional to come. On the other hand, some kids who aren't Christian will attend.
Superficial worries -- We talk about what's going on in other parts of the world, but it is not real to us. Biggest blow was the accidental death of one senior at end of April who passed out at a party and later died. Still not clear if from drugs or some other cause, but "people pass out at parties all the time and nobody thinks about it!" so it really scared folks and many grieved heavily that they hadn't done anything or even known what to do. Recognize this kind of drinking into a stupor behavior is typical for both high school and college kids.
Many are very excited about the future and view life as so open -- full throttle-so many options, with multiple choices and opportunities from which to choose. It's almost scary to think one is old enough to make one's own decisions and that some day we might have 8-5 jobs like our parents.
Similarity among all seniors irrespective of economic status or ambitions is realization that this is the biggest thing that's happened to any of us so far -- going into world and making decisions for self -- won't have to go to school in August. This summer will be the first time going back to school won't be inevitable. Finally! the last 12 years have counted for something; we've finally made it!
Parents can screw up so much -- my parents had done all little things right and loved us like crazy all the time. Reality is: kids are going to do what they're going to do, but it's important to let them know the boundaries. Can't let it slide. If a parent sees his or her kid is doing something wrong, the kid deep down would be disappointed if parent didn't get mad. Encourage to do what want to try stuff -- sports, dance, music, art, etc.
The kids in our class are so different. People have lots of skills but different ones. Everybody has their niche. Some are the ultimate artists, others are great jocks, some are really talented at drama or writing, or like people a lot and make friends easily.
The Immediate Word, May 25, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
The Matrix Reloaded is poised to be one of the highest grossing films in recent history. One of the factors that make this so remarkable is the not-so-subtle religious imagery and language that permeate the film. The movie is an action flick packed with theology, and the content of that theology bears close scrutiny.
We at The Immediate Word have asked team member George Murphy to explore the lectionary texts for this week in an effort to help us understand the religious significance of this film, along with some others. As always, this installment includes comments from team members, relevant illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
This installment also includes some bonus material. Since many of you may be called upon to offer Baccalaureate messages during this season of graduations, we are offering some special material for those unique preaching opportunities.
The Gospel Reloaded
By George Murphy
John 15:9-17; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6
The biggest religious news at least of this month may be the release of The Matrix Reloaded, the long-anticipated sequel to the 1999 film The Matrix, which opened on May 15th. Yes, it's still the Easter season and our Sunday readings continue to speak to us about what Jesus' resurrection means. And, yes, the Shiite branch of Islam continues to be a powerful influence in post-war Iraq, and there are other important religious news items from throughout the world. But many people will be more strongly influenced by the views about the nature of reality and the meaning of life in the second movie of the Matrix trilogy than by anything that they're hearing from representatives of organized religion -- and that includes some of the people who will be sitting in the pews on Sunday.
The Matrix films aren't unique in using religious themes and influencing religious views. If you want something lighter, .Bruce Almighty will debut May 23, 2003. Here Bruce, played by Jim Carrey, will get to fill in for God (Morgan Freeman) and exercise divine power.
The task of the preacher is to communicate God's word, law, and gospel to people in the world in which they live. How are we to do that when their view of the world -- and in fact ours as well -- is influenced in subtle and not-so-subtle ways by the religious views circulating in the media? These influences are not all bad or all good, and some care is needed in challenging some and using others to reinforce the Christian message.
I mean my title, The Gospel Reloaded, to be more than just a rather obvious parody of the film's name. With all our desire to make preaching relevant to what's going on in the world and in the lives of our listeners, we have to make sure that we keep restating in clear ways the basic and distinctive teachings of the Christian faith. If we speak only in religious generalities about "God" and "love" then it may be hard for our hearers to distinguish what we're saying from what things that they see and hear in popular media, things that may be in some tension with the gospel.
The Matrix films don't use explicit God language, but the religious images are pretty obvious. One of the heroes is named Trinity and the last human city holding out against the machines that have enslaved the world is Zion. Keanu Reeves' character Neo, who has been described in a number of reviews as a "Christ figure," often wears a black cassock-like garment which makes him look for all the world like a Roman Catholic or Anglican priest. There are plenty of other hints and allusions in the film -- not all of them religious -- and I won't spoil your fun in finding some for yourself.1
But the religious content goes beyond symbolism. In The Matrix films, the world most people experience is an illusion, the product of a tremendous computer program. They think that they're living in a society much like ours, but in reality they are stuck in pods and the energy they generate is being used by the machines that have taken over the world after a terrible war. Neo and others who have been freed from the world of the Matrix are among the defenders of Zion, but they also have to go back into it in order to free others and fight the agents of the machines if humanity is ever to be saved from its enslavement.
The film is well done and I like it simply as science fiction. (Some of the techno-babble is, however, overdone.) There will be some objection to the violence in the martial arts and chase scenes, but it needs to be remembered that these things are taking place in a computer program rather than the real world. They are not blood and guts scenes, and are so well done that I often felt that I was watching elaborate choreography rather than a typical action film. (The Matrix Reloaded is rated R, but neither the violence nor the sexuality is of a type that would have made PG-13 impossible.)
But what about the religious message? From a Christian standpoint there are some questionable aspects. The idea that the world we experience is not the true reality has a lot in common with the teachings of the gnostics who were one of Christianity's main competitors in the early centuries. They held that the material world was the creation of an inferior deity (perhaps the God of the Old Testament), that our souls are trapped in the darkness of this material realm, and that the true God beyond the world sends the redeemer to enlighten people with the knowledge (gnosis) of their situation and thus free their souls and save them from the world.2
This contrasts strongly with the Christian belief that the world is the good creation of the God who sent his Son into the world to save human beings from sin in their entire body-soul-spirit reality through faith in his death and resurrection. The Christian hope is the resurrection of the body in a transformed creation, not the salvation of some immaterial part of ourselves from the world.
To put the worst construction on it, the Matrix films might be seen a kind of cyber-gnosticism, with Neo as an example of the gnostic redeemer myth rather than as a genuine Christ figure. It wouldn't be surprising to encounter something like this in a time when some versions of New Age thought have a lot of resemblance to classical gnosticism.
I don't think that it would be fair to the movie to leave it at that, however. The goal of those fighting the Matrix isn't simply to get rid of the computerized illusion but also to free people from its bondage and give them full physical life. The Matrix films display no gnostic contempt for physical reality, as some of the scenes set in Zion make clear. We'll have to wait for the final third of the trilogy, scheduled for November, to see how it all turns out.
Meanwhile in our world, there are strong attempts to impose false realities upon people. Perhaps the most pervasive and widely accepted is our whole culture of consumerism which promotes the illusion that people can be happy and secure if they keep accumulating more and more possessions. Various kinds of political and religious propaganda provide other examples. And while Christianity teaches the saving role of faith rather than of knowledge, the latter is not insignificant. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," God declares through Hosea (4:6), and Jesus says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32).
Bruce Almighty is not likely to fare very well in comparison with The Matrix and its sequel, at least as far as depth is concerned. Previews showing Bruce using his power to increase his girl friend's breast size and getting his dog to use the toilet aren't promising. But there is a hint that perhaps he's going to find out that there's more to being God than just throwing arbitrary miracles around. You'll have to see the movie when it opens if you want to pursue this. But I wouldn't ignore the film's impact just because it's unsophisticated. In the last generation (1977), George Burns as the deity in Oh, God was pretty influential in presenting a warm-hearted but rather simple-minded deism.
How might proclamation this Sunday take some of these matters into account? In the lectionary texts for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5:1-6, and John 15:9-17) the most obvious single theme is that of love in the Second Lesson and the Gospel, and that would be a good thing to focus on.
The type of love, agape, of which these texts speak, goes much deeper than "Can't we all just get along?" This idea is encouraged, and of course is fine as far as it goes, by films like Oh, God. It is broader than the love connected with sexual attraction. The love between Neo and Trinity is sexual but isn't limited to that. Their willingness to suffer and die for one another is an important part of the plot. We know what genuine love is, and therefore can understand Jesus' commandment that we are to "love one another," because "I have loved you" (John 15:12). And that, in turn, is something that flows from the love of Father and Son (15:9-10).
Love in fact defines the character of God. "God is love (agape)" (1 John 4:16) was one of the texts for last Sunday and is the background of the reading from 1 John this week. It is, of course, a frequently quoted phrase, but its full depth often isn't appreciated. The belief that God is love in God's own being ultimately requires something like a trinitarian understanding of God.3 Thus any representation of God by a single actor, even one as good as Morgan Freeman, is bound to be inadequate. On the other hand, some of the visual images of Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus together in The Matrix Reloaded are intriguing.
Equally unsatisfactory is any representation of God simply as "the Almighty" without reference to God as love. To play off the idea of Bruce getting to be "almighty" for a day, a preacher might develop a story sermon in which someone has the opportunity to show the love of God in its fullness for a day. That could be introduced with a brief reference to the movie's theme, and hearers wouldn't even need to have seen the movie to get the point.
The fact that the love of God "spills over" from the inner life of God to the world is also important for understanding the goodness of creation over against gnostic devaluations of it. The text found in John 3:16 is, of course, quoted even more often than "God is love." God's love for "the world" means first of all for the world of human beings, a world which is estranged from God by sin but which is still God's good creation. And God's love is not limited to human beings. The thanksgiving at the beginning of Evening Prayer in Lutheran Book of Worship sings simply, "You love your whole creation." At this time of year, many churches have a Sunday with some emphasis on care for creation (Earth Sunday, Rogationtide, Stewardship of Creation Sunday, Soil and Water Stewardship Sunday). This week's Psalm 98, in which all the earth is to "break forth into joyous song and sing praises" (v. 4), would fit in with such a theme.
Alternatively, a sermon might speak to some of the illusions that our culture tries to impose on us -- "The one who dies with the most toys wins," "You've got to look out for Number One," "Power grows from the barrel of a gun," and so forth. These aren't as all-encompassing as the false world of the Matrix, but are ubiquitous enough to make the analogy worth pursuing. The true reality, the hidden ground of all being, is the Love willing to die for the other. One of the questions The Matrix Reloaded poses has to do with the nature of power and control. The Christ who saves by letting go (Philippians 2:5-11) is one biblical answer.
Notes
1 There is no lack of reviews and analyses of the new Matrix film right now. One which may be helpful for preachers can be found at: http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2003/05/14/ .
2 The article "Gnosticism" by R. McL. Wilson in The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology gives further information.
3 See, e.g., Eberhard Juengel, God as the Mystery of the World, Eerdmans, 1983.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: In his book, High Tech, High Touch, John Naisbitt takes on the rapidly-advancing technology of our culture. He identifies six symptoms of our "Technologically Intoxicated Zone":
1. We favor the quick fix, from religion to nutrition.
2. We fear and worship technology.
3. We blur the distinction between real and fake.
4. We accept violence as normal.
5. We love technology as a toy.
6. We live our lives distanced and distracted.
It's instructive to consider this list as we view the films of the Matrix series, or any one of a number of recent films that glorify technology as our species' savior. Technology is a wonderful blessing, but it fails those who plumb its depths for higher meaning.
The Matrix films are but a new twist on an old sci-fi theme: the search for Someone Else in the universe. The innovation of these films is that they seek the otherworldly not outside the galaxy, or even the universe, but within it. The premise that another, ultimately more real world exists within the technology of bits and bytes is extremely creative, and can speak to those of us who've become fascinated with the illusion computers give us that there is an actual place called "cyberspace."
Carter Shelley responds: This subject appeals to me because it pushes us to think about John's Gospel and 1 John in a little different way. Moreover, it illustrates the reverence many fans hold for the world Larry and Andy Wachowskis have created. For a world in which technology and artifice replace reality seems very real to many whose lives are lived more in front of computer screens than they are in ordinary face-to-face human relationships. With its 1000+ special effects, religious symbolism, and awe-inspiring twists and turns and stunts, The Matrix movies hold fans' attention and enthusiasm in a way religious revivals added excitement to a dull existence in small town America during the late 19th century.
Not only has more money been poured into making The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions (a combined budget of more than $300 million), Matrix: Reloaded will pull in far more money during the next eight weeks than any national Christian denomination expects to collect from our offering plates and tithes. In 1999 when The Matrix appeared, it earned $171 million domestically and $460 million worldwide (Entertainment Weekly magazine, May 16, 2003, p. 27).
The territory The Matrix treads isn't brand new. Think "It" in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, where a giant brain-like thing absorbs all human individuality and uniqueness, forcing all inhabitants to be exactly the same. Ultimately, "It" can only be defeated by love, something "It" is not capable of experiencing, understanding or resisting. L'Engle's book first appeared in the early 1960s; Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey appeared towards the end of the same decade. The latter, projected a time and place where a computer named Hal would turn on its human astronaut operators and destroy them in order to maintain control.
These creative minds and others warn of an Armageddon brought about, not by God, but by the dehumanizing potential possible in a 20th and 21st century world where technology and computers are so central that human beings have the potential to be lost or overpowered by our own inventions. "We like kickboxing. We like guns. We like blowing stuff up. We like action movies," says Larry Wachowski. "But we always wanted more from them" (EW 27). Hence they create a hero with a messianic subplot along with a nod to existentialism and what the nature of human existence might become in a virtual reality world.
I appreciate the discussion of gnosticism and the concept of light and darkness George provides, but I would recommend including more details. Elaine Pagels and seminary trained ministers may have a clear understanding of gnosticism, but I'd supplement George's description with a few more details for the person in the pew who may need them. Consultation of the section in International Dictionary of the Bible under "gnosticism" or in something as straightforward as a World Book Encyclopedia would provide additional information. It's worth the effort because gnosticism was an early Christian heresy that still influences Christians subtly today. The whole rejection of the physical body and the material world and the elevation of virginity and celibacy in the medieval church owe much to gnosticism.
The discussion of the illusions that our advertising, consumer-mad culture provide works well. Rather than determining who we are and how we shall live in the world, we are told who we should be, how we should look, and what we should drive, and encouraged to cut, slice, and botox our way into an image labeled "beautiful" based on a very limited and uncreative standard: the rail-thin, blue-eyed blond, woman with outsized breasts and the muscle-pumped, tanned, full-head-of-hair and perfect-featured white man. Ironically, the intangible love and connectedness Jesus offers in John 15 promises a far more tangible world and genuine relationship than any reality show mating ritual can hope to provide. Hence what we see on TV or in the theater is not as real as is "Our Father, who art in heaven" or our "Lord Jesus Christ" and the ever-present "Spirit of God".
George, I really like the way you bring the Psalm into your discussion in the second to last paragraph. You also offer a powerful conclusion with your words about the "true reality" being "Love willing to die for the other." While Jesus' act of heroism lacks the special effects and amazing feats Neo and his allies supply, the results of Jesus' sacrifice remain applicable to us today, and we don't even need $7.50 as the price for admission.
Related Illustrations
It was William Barclay who identified Christianity as "the most materialistic" of all world religions. That's because we worship a Lord who was not only incarnate in the material world, but who also died for it. While our faith does contain the bright hope of a transfer to a new realm following death, it does not do so (as the Gnostics insisted) at the cost of denigrating the material world. God's creation, while fallen, is still fundamentally good.
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Poet and funeral director Thomas Lynch raises concern about the limitations of technology in the following selection from his philosophical rumination, The Undertaking:
Thus, the great divisions of the last half century and the next half century seem based on the contemplation of Life and Death: when one becomes the other and under whose agency. The advance of our technology is coincidental with the loss of our appetite for ethical questions that ought to attend the implications of these new powers. We have blurred the borders between being and ceasing to be by a technology that can tell us How It Works but not What It Means. Nor do we trust our instincts anymore. If we sense something is Wrong, we are embarrassed to say so, just as we are when we sense it is Right. In the name of diversity, any idea is regarded as worthy as any other; any nonsense is entitled to a forum, a full hearing, and equal time. Reality is customized to fit the person or the situation. There is your reality and my reality, the truth as they see it, but what is real and true for us all eludes us. We frame our personal questions in terms of the legal and illegal, politically correct or incorrect, function or dysfunction, how it impacts our self-esteem, or puts us in touch with our feelings, or bodes for the next election or millage vote or how the markets will respond. And while business of all sorts can be conducted this way to the relative advantage of all concerned, on the Big Questions, the Existential Concerns, the Life and Death Matters of who is and who isn't to be, what is called for are our best instincts, our finest intuitions, our clearest intellections and an honesty inspired by our participation, not in a party or a gender or a religion or a special interest or ethnicity, but by our participation in the human race.
And here, the dialogue seems oddly hushed. Is it possible we are just too busy, just don't care? Are we willing to leave it to the experts?
-- Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking (New York: Penguin, 1997), pp. 158-159.
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Among the best words on this subject (but assuredly not the last) are those penned by the poet R. S. Thomas, who identifies the brash self-confidence of value-free science as "the Last Sacrament of the species":
As they became
cleverer, they became worse ...
They have exchanged
their vestments for white coats,
working away in their bookless
laboratories, ministrants
in that ritual beyond words
which is the Last Sacrament of the species.
-- Experimenting with an Amen (New York: Macmillan).
Worship Resources
By George Reed
OPENING
Hymns
God of Many Names
God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale
Amen Siakudumisa
Songs
Sing unto the Lord a New Song
Awesome God
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE IN THE DIME NOVEL I READ?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE SCARLET IN GONE WITH THE WIND?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE JULIET AND ROMEO?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE GEORGE BURNS IN OH GOD?
Leader: Not exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LIKE JESUS CHRIST IN THE GOSPELS?
Leader: Exactly. God is Love!
PEOPLE: LET US WORSHIP AND FOLLOW OUR GOD WHO IS LOVE.
LET US WORSHIP AND FOLLOW JESUS THE CHRIST.
COLLECT/OPENING PRAYER:
O God who is far beyond our knowledge: Grant us the wisdom to allow you to make us into your image rather than try to make you into ours; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We know that you are Love, O God, but we fashion you in the way we see love. We forget that your love is beyond our knowing and that only through Jesus Christ can we discover what you and your love are truly like. Open our minds, our hearts, and our lives to your Son and to your Love. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns
Holy Spirit, Truth Divine
Songs
You Are
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION/PARDON
ALL:
O God of Many Names, we know you are the great I AM; you are the One who will be who you will be. You are beyond our knowing and yet we form images of you and worship them. Our images are in our minds and in our media. Often we take the images that others offer us and accept them as true. We do not wrestle with you to discover your Name. Then in our idolatry we act as if these images made with human minds are true. Forgive us our presumption. Put us in awe of you. Help us to know that while you are closer to us than our own breath and while you love us more than a parent can love a child, you still are God. You are the Most Awesome of the Most Awesome. Let us once again be creatures who own you as their Creator. Amen.
ONE:
Hear this good news! God knows our frame that we are dust. God loves us and claims us in all our folly. We are the forgiven people of God. Let us worship in spirit and in truth.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC
Lord, you do marvelous things. All creation breaks forth in praise to you. You are the Eternal One. Your ways are beyond our ways and your thoughts beyond our thoughts.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess to you, O God, and before our brothers and sisters, that we try to control you. We have tried to condense your majesty and power into manageable ideas. We have tried to harness your might and power into doing our bidding. We have used your judgment against others while excusing ourselves. Forgive us in the grace of your great love, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, awake us to greatness. Help us to truly worship and serve you as our God.
We bless your Name and thank you, God of Love, for all the ways you have shown your care and loving kindness to us. We thank you that you have given us minds that seek knowledge, even knowledge that is beyond our ability to understand. We thank you that you have given us community so that we can learn the wonderful diversity of humankind. We thank you for all the variety of creation that stuns us with its beauty and delights us with its gifts. (Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.) We thank you for Jesus of Nazareth who walked among us as one of us and who taught us what it means to be shaped in your image of love.
Because you are Love, we offer you the cares of our hearts. We want to share with you, as your children, those things that trouble us and confront us. There are those who are abused and ignored and who find it difficult to understand there is a God of love. There are those who find strength and health slipping away and need reassured of your loving presence. There are those who are dying and need to be reminded by loving acts that their loving God waits to hold them in arms of tender mercy. (Other petitions may be offered.) We offer up to you these and all your children in their need. Join our spirit and love with your great Spirit and Love in caring for them. Receive us, also, into your loving care that we may be your presence of love for this community and our world. Make us be, as Jesus, a sure sign of your love for all your creation for we pray as he taught us. Our Father....
Children's Sermon
By Wesley Runk
John 15: 9-17
Text: I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. (v. 15)
Object: a letter, telephone, lunch in a bag or lunchbox
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about something very special for all of us. We are going to talk about friendship. How many of you have a friend? (let them answer) Very good! We all have friends and they are some of the most important people we will ever know.
I brought along some things that friends do with one another. First, I have something that friends do almost every day. (hold up the lunch) What do you think is in this box? (let them answer) That's right, it is a lunch. Do you ever eat lunch with your friends? (let them answer) Even big people like to have lunch with their friends and they do it often. Lunch is a good time to talk and tell one another about things that have happened when they were not together.
I also brought with me a telephone. Do friends talk on the telephone? (let them answer) They sure do. Some friends talk to each other every day on the phone and sometimes they talk more than once a day. If you can't be together, the next best thing is to talk on the phone and tell each other what happened in school or at the game or when you stayed overnight with another friend.
I also brought a letter. (hold up the letter) Friends write lots of letters. Today they may write e-mails or they may send a card. But letters are the best. You can move away from where you live now to some other city or state, but you can always keep in touch with a friend by writing a letter. In a letter you tell your friend all about your new home, your new school, and your new friends. But most of all you can tell your friend about how much you miss them and how soon you will see them again. A letter is a very good sign of friendship.
Jesus talked about friendship. He told his disciples that he no longer considered them just followers or students. He said they were more than people who served him. Jesus told his disciples that they were his friends and the reason that they were friends was because he shared everything with them, including what the Father in heaven told him. You have to be pretty special to share God with one another. Not everyone can do that, but Jesus did with his disciples.
I think my best friends are people I share my faith in God with every day of the week. Many of my best friends are people that go to this church and with whom I worship God every Sunday and on other special occasions. I love these kinds of friends who work together to help others know Jesus. Sometimes we eat together, sometimes we study together, sometimes we serve together, and we always talk about our love for Jesus.
How many of you want Jesus to be your friend? (let them answer) Everyone wants Jesus to be his or her friend. Remember what Jesus said about friends. He said that he shared even the things that the Father in heaven shared with him with his friends. That brings you pretty close to heaven.
The next time you have lunch with your friends or talk to them on the phone or even write them a letter I want you to think about having good friends. And while you are enjoying some time with your friend, think about being a friend of Jesus. Jesus will be the best friend you will ever know. Amen.
BONUS MATERIAL
Resources for Preaching Baccalaureate Services
Tomorrow Belongs to You
By Carter Shelley
Baccalaureate Sermon for High School Graduation 2003
Matthew 6:25-34
Here you are Sunday night June 1, 2003, politely attending a baccalaureate worship service, no doubt with the intention of daydreaming for the next few minutes while this woman you've never met preaches a sermon you'd just as well not hear. After all, she's someone most of you have never seen before and don't know from Adam - correction -- make that, Eve. Along with which, she's older than dirt, and couldn't possibly know what your life is like or say anything that doesn't ring of ministerial cliches and parental advice you can hardly wait to escape.
So, while I still have your attention, I invite you to turn your bulletin over to the blank space on the back and write a couple of things down. If you don't have a pen or pencil, use one from the pew or borrow one from someone who has one since he or she is used to doodling in church. Write down what your goals are for your future. Where do you hope to be and what do you hope to accomplish in the next ten years? Some of what you write will resemble the goals and ambitions of all generations: go to college away from home, go to Wilkes Community College, join the military, get technical training so you can get a good job, fall in love and marry, have a career, have children, buy a house -- the standard stuff. Some of what you write may be unique to you: write a novel, travel all over the world, run for political office, become rich and famous, or play in a rock and roll band.
One goal, however, is so implicit most of you wouldn't think to write it down: that's not to live with your parents anymore! To move out of the house, the apartment, or trailer you share with your parents or parent or some other supervisory adult. You are ready to become free, and responsible for yourself. You look forward to living your own life and making your own future without someone else forever telling you what to do, what time to come home, how to behave, and how to succeed. You are eager for a life where there's no one around to make annoying demands, or worry about your actions and behavior. After all, what they don't know won't hurt them, right?
This break away from childhood, teen-hood into the nether land of pre-adulthood is crucial for you. It's a challenge all of you are up to,but that doesn't make the prospect any less exciting or scary. Where you go and who you become will be determined by what you value most in your life. Will it be relationships? Money? Wine, men or women, and song?
Tomorrow belongs to you. Your generation faces great challenges and great opportunities: greater population, ethnic, and cultural diversity in the United States, the ongoing explosions of invention and communication linked to computers and other advanced technology, the balance between American nationalism and international interdependence, decreasing natural resources such as coal and oil, unemployment, the ongoing destruction and costs of diseases such as SARS and AIDS, new inventions, new ideas, new ways of being in this world. How it goes is in your hands.
Tomorrow belongs to you, and you have within you the potential for great good and the potential for great evil. The title of today's sermon comes from a slight shift in the wording of a song sung by German youth in the movie Cabaret. That song's refrain is "tomorrow belongs to me" and it begins as a lilting, lovely tenor solo, then builds to a terrifying and angry chorus sung by young Nazi soldiers, no older than you. The message they sing anticipates the great evil that Germany and the rest of Europe will suffer due to the idealism, ambition, and blind devotion Hitler inspired. This national idolatry and unquestioning obedience led to the death of millions of people on the battlefield and millions more killed in bombings or in concentration camps. Elie Wiesel, author and holocaust survivor, was the first modern person to use the term "holocaust" to describe the horrors of World War II. Wiesel traces it back to its Old Testament meaning of "a sacrificial offering dedicated to God." Jews, gypsies, gays, the mentally and physically challenged, all died as a result of bigotry, greed, and a false sense that some people are more valuable than others. You have within you the potential for great good and the potential for great evil.
Tomorrow belongs to you. In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus invites his followers to focus upon God and put their future in God's hands. With God as your focus, you do not have to worry about tomorrow, because with God's help you can accomplish great things, and be a force for good in the world. It doesn't matter whether you identify and name God as "Creator," "Yahweh," "Father" or "Mother," "Allah," or are still seeking some unknown, indefinable something of which you are not sure. Those who seek God and trust in God, irrespective of the religion they practice, become people of compassion, humility, and grace.
Tomorrow belongs to you. Do not worry about your life or your future. May it be an exciting and wonderful adventure. May God be a part of that adventure. With God on your side, your own youthful energy and ambition, and a desire to work for the good of humanity, and not do others ill, you can accomplish great things in Wilkes County, in California, in the Middle East, wherever your life leads you. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow belongs to you.
ADDITIONAL SERMON
A Baccalaureate Message
By Chuck Cammarata
I had an aunt when I was in high school who would often say to me: "These are the best years of your life.
It used to make me want to scream. I'd be thinking -- while she was speaking -- "If these are the best years -- I might as well go out and shoot myself now."
They were not great years for me. I was this skinny, little, geeky-looking, painfully shy, bumbling around girls, awkward kid.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: HE WAS SKINNY?
YES! I was and I have the photos to prove it
High school was a series of embarrassments and disappointments. I was glad when it was over. When Donna and I started raising kids, we tried to make sure that our kids had a better experience of high school. They all did.
They were all good students, involved in sports and plays and student government, with lots of good friends. But whether high school has been good to you as it has to my kids or not so good to you as it was for me, I want to say to you tonight -- unequivocally -- these have not been the best years of your life
The best is yet to come -- the best is yet to come.
So, what is the best? What is it you should be looking for and trying to fill your life with? I can't give you a definitive answer for that. All I can do is to tell you what has been the best for me. Where has the most satisfaction and genuine joy come from for me?
It came when I stood at the foot of a long aisle in Shadyside Pres church and watched my girl soon to be my wife float down the aisle. She was beautiful and I felt like I had somehow cheated fate -- for a guy like me to get a girl like her.
That was and has continued to be the best. It came when, couple of years later, I would come home from work to our third floor apartment and as I walked up the stairs, 18-month-old Lori would be standing at the top of the stairs smiling and shouting, "DADDY!"
And now it comes when I come home and my six-month-old grandson Caden also smiles and giggles and reaches for me - "Hold me, Grandpa."
Those are the best.
It came when Donna and I and the kids took a five-week camping trip across America when they were nine, ten, and eleven years old. The five of us stood in awe as we got our first look at the Grand Canyon.
Or we sat on a huge rock beside a glorious waterfall in Yosemite. Or drove through a herd of huge and powerful buffalo in Yellowstone. Or sat in our tent at night and played cards by flashlight and laughing into the wee hours.
That was the best.
It comes when I attend a meeting of my five best friends. We meet every other Wednesday. We eat and talk and laugh.And listen to one another's hurts. And encourage, and challenge, and forgive.
Those guys love me -- and I love them.
That's the best.
And it comes when I go to the Albion prison to teach a class on faith to a group of inmates. And one of them -- 6'5" 300 lbs -- hugs me and says with tears in his eyes: "Thanks, pastor, not many people care about us. Thanks for helping us.
That's the best
Do you see what I'm getting at? You all have been taught all your lives by this world we live in that it is your grades, your SAT scores, your athletic achievements, your looks, your income, the amount of power you have. You have been taught that these are the things that count. But they're not.
Life's best -- the things that count -- are families, friends, people to love and be loved by. Giving, caring, standing tall for the right thing. Making a difference in the lives of people in need. Those things are the best
In Timosoara, Romania, there is a large city square where, if you went there, you would see in the middle of the square a small plaque which is usually surrounded by flowers people have placed there. The plaque says: In December 1989, fifteen students were martyred on this spot. The students were young, between the ages of eleven and eighteen. They were shot to death for singing Christmas carols and worshipping. The communist regime in Romania back then was brutal and oppressive. Nicolae Ceausecu had come to power twenty-four years earlier vowing to crush the Romanian church. He did not permit celebrations of Easter and Christmas.
Just before Christmas 1989 about 150 Christian adults and students came to the city square to light candles and sing carols. Ceausecu sent an army brigade to disperse them. The adults all left. But the students stayed, unwilling to stand for this oppression.
The soldiers again ordered the students to disperse, but they were determined. Finally, as the students raised their candles high, Ceausecu ordered them to be shot. And they were.
Three days later on Christmas Day, 1989, 250,000 people stood in that square singing Christmas songs. They were saying no to oppression and standing tall for truth.
And Ceausecu was overthrown and democracy came to Romania.
That was the best. Those students stood up and said no to evil. And though they died, they brought freedom to millions. They lived for something more than a dollar, an image, an honor.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said, if you haven't yet found something you're willing to die for you haven't yet begun to live. Those kids were living. And in that moment, as the gunshots rang out, they lived the best life has to offer.
The ballgame was over and fans at Wrigley Field in Chicago were filing out. A few players were signing autographs. Then someone noticed an unusual scene playing out on the field. One guy nudged another and another and soon people all over the stadium had stopped to watch. One of the players, I can't remember his name, had received an unusual request.
A father had brought his ten-year-old daughter to her very first game. She had had a great time -- the roar of the crowd -- smell of popcorn and taste of cotton candy. It had been great even though she hadn't seen a thing -- being blind.
All during the game she had been asking her dad to explain to her how the field looked, and he had tried his best, but she still hadn't quite got it. So she wondered if she could walk around the field to get a better sense of it. But you don't just wander out onto a professional baseball diamond.
So they had hung around and instead of asking for an autograph, they had asked if the girl could walk the bases.
One of the players lifted her over the rail and together they walked past the guards to home plate. The little girl bent down and felt it. Then they started walking slowly around the bases with the players describing what the girl couldn't see. They touched first base, then second, then third. The whole time the little girl was grinning.
Now she understood. Finally they crossed home plate and a roar of applause surprised both the girl and the player. Thousands of fans had stopped and watched. They had seen the little white cane and the ballplayer holding the little girl's hand. Thousands of fans had watched and cheered this very same player sprint to first to beat out a hit, or trot around the bases after hitting a home run, but this time, walking slowly around the bases holding a little girl's hand, this was his best home run ever
So they gave him and his little teammate a standing ovation they'd never forget. That's the best -- that kind of kindness and love.
It does not matter if you are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or something else. God is not interested in your academic or athletic awards. He doesn't care that much what your SAT and GPA are. It is not an issue with God whether you get into one of the Iives. All those things are nice, and some of you have achieved at very high levels and we are proud of you for that - those are worthy things. We are proud of your achievements. These things are great, but they are not the best in life.
There is a great song from the musical Rent. It goes: "525,600 is the number of minutes in a year. 525,600 minutes -- how do you measure a year? In daylights in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee?"
Not a million dollars made by a ballplayer, but a player leading a little girl around the bases. Not staying alive in repression, but giving your life for others' freedom. Not climbing the corporate ladder, but loving your family. Not becoming famous, but becoming good -- these are the best.
I know this class. It is a class filled with great kids. High school is going to miss you guys. And what we want to say to you as we send you off into the world is this: Go make us proud. Seek the best in life. Live for love. In the end, that's all that really counts.
OTHER BACCALAUREATE RESOURCES
Comments from high school students (compiled by Carter Shelley): I had the opportunity to converse with some of the soon-to-graduate high school students this evening and their answers to my questions fit pretty well with what I already thought I'd be saying. The biggest difference between where they are and where I thought they'd be is in long range planning. Where I've always tended to have a five-year plan, even at 17, they just aren't there. They are anticipating a freer future, going away to college, not having to go back to school in August, but they really aren't ready to think about 5 years or 10 years ahead.
Excited about college and leaving home --excited but still doesn't seem real yet. Lot of people in our country will be going to local community college.e Some will stay home and work on the farm. The military is recruiting hard and heavy and many are signing on. Some will be going to work at Tyson's chicken factory or for Lowe's Hardware. We have a lot of Latino kids, but few are likely to attend baccalaureate because it's optional to come. On the other hand, some kids who aren't Christian will attend.
Superficial worries -- We talk about what's going on in other parts of the world, but it is not real to us. Biggest blow was the accidental death of one senior at end of April who passed out at a party and later died. Still not clear if from drugs or some other cause, but "people pass out at parties all the time and nobody thinks about it!" so it really scared folks and many grieved heavily that they hadn't done anything or even known what to do. Recognize this kind of drinking into a stupor behavior is typical for both high school and college kids.
Many are very excited about the future and view life as so open -- full throttle-so many options, with multiple choices and opportunities from which to choose. It's almost scary to think one is old enough to make one's own decisions and that some day we might have 8-5 jobs like our parents.
Similarity among all seniors irrespective of economic status or ambitions is realization that this is the biggest thing that's happened to any of us so far -- going into world and making decisions for self -- won't have to go to school in August. This summer will be the first time going back to school won't be inevitable. Finally! the last 12 years have counted for something; we've finally made it!
Parents can screw up so much -- my parents had done all little things right and loved us like crazy all the time. Reality is: kids are going to do what they're going to do, but it's important to let them know the boundaries. Can't let it slide. If a parent sees his or her kid is doing something wrong, the kid deep down would be disappointed if parent didn't get mad. Encourage to do what want to try stuff -- sports, dance, music, art, etc.
The kids in our class are so different. People have lots of skills but different ones. Everybody has their niche. Some are the ultimate artists, others are great jocks, some are really talented at drama or writing, or like people a lot and make friends easily.
The Immediate Word, May 25, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
