In sermons in years gone by, the point has been made that our Lord's Ascension does not mark the end of His Incarnation; rather, it marks the completion of it. Which is to say, when He ascended, He did so bodily, with His full humanity. Yes the Ascension was the end in the sense that our Lord's days on earth in His incarnate form were over, but most definitely not the end in the sense that the Incarnation was God's taking on of human nature. The Son of God took our nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and never put it off. The statement in the Apostles' Creed, "He ascended into Heaven," teaches us the eternity of the Incarnation. He, Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man ascended into heaven, not just some residual divine essence.
Much as we could spend the rest of this message contemplating the significance of that event, the very nature of the Ascension begs us to consider also an associated topic - the relationship of heaven and earth. Now to be sure, that too is an enormous topic itself; we shall but scratch the surface today. In particular, that which kept rearing its head in my mind this past week was the alarming, socially influenced drift that, for decades, has been influencing the thinking of very many churchgoers.
And why it should be alarming to all of us is that we have allowed ourselves to fall into the trap of focussing on earthly happiness, satisfaction, success - the list goes on - at the peril of everlasting blessedness.
Typical of the subtle influence is how it might be couched in humanist fuzzy-speak. For example let’s take the issue of earthly happiness (or at least perceived happiness), “As long as no one is being harmed, and it makes him/her/them happy, how can the Church persist in calling it a sin?”
I am reminded here of Satan’s statement in Genesis, about something that from our limited human perception appeared absolutely harmless, “Did God really say that you may not eat of every tree in the garden?”
“Does the Bible really condemn this or that?” “Did Jesus really say that we could or could not do this or that? After all, He was just behaving according to the social standards of the day.” The last part of that is most often said in utter ignorance of the social standards of Jesus’ day, and also of His actions or teaching within the milieu of Palestinian society 2,000 years ago.
On Wednesday past, there was a joint presentation of Augustine College of Ottawa (of which our Dr. Edward Tingley is Dean), and St. Stephen’s University of St. Stephen’s New Brunswick. Even though their respective curricula are very broad, both of these schools of higher learning are unabashedly Christian. During the course of the evening, the last speaker was Dr. John Patrick, one of the founders of Augustine College, its current President, and also a member of our parish of St. Barnabas in Spencerville.
In his talk, during which he mused about the College’s growth, and his own growth, he lamented the abysmal state of the average North American’s knowledge of the Bible. Dr. Patrick is sometimes a painfully plain speaker - his sword of condemnation regarding ignorance of God’s Word was, revealingly, and painfully truthfully, wielded equally against very many churchgoers.
At least to some extent, that "dumbing down" of knowledge of the Bible and fundamentals of theology was a catalyst for the founding of Augustine College.
Also this past week, I finally got 'round to reading a link that Mary Wells sent to me a week-and-a-half ago. It was from Dick Staub's blog site (web log for you non-Internet types). Dick is a journalist and broadcaster of some experience. His post-graduate work included studies at the Harvard Divinity School, and he advises the C. S. Lewis foundation.
It is no doubt this last association that prompted one of his friends, the equally accomplished Eric Metaxas to send him something on a very topical book and now movie. Mr. Metaxas, also a devout Christian, has written for all levels of society, including children's books such as The Gourd of the Baskervilles and The Boy Who Cried Waffle. He is the founder and host of Socrates in the City: Conversations on the Examined Life, where he has hosted such notables as Peter Kreeft. He was recently honoured to debate at the Oxford Union, the world's oldest debating society.
He sent something to Dick Staub entitled, Screwtape on the DaVinci Code, written in C. S. Lewis Screwtape Letters style. Anyone who has read The Screwtape Letters may recall that, lack of knowledge and understanding are the playground of the devil. Anyone who has read The DaVinci Code knows that there is very much "historical" information presented within the framework of this work of fiction. Anyone who knows their history also knows that the author of the book has played extremely loose and fast with history, sometimes blatantly. Yet, if the typical reader doesn't know his or her history, then someone who can spin a good yarn has them playing right into their hands. Screwtape and Wormwood.
Some of the quotations from Eric Metaxas' Screwtape on the DaVinci Code: (keeping in mind that these conversations, letters are between two devils whose purpose it is to keep individual souls from the truth; and I must warn you, he is, well, forthright):
· "Now, Wormwood, before you object to my calling this book "non-fiction"— since it is technically classified as "fiction"— let me say that it is essentially non-fiction, at least as far as our purposes are concerned. That's because its principle delight for our side is that in the tacky plastic shell of some below-average "fiction" the book parades as "fact" a veritable phalanx of practical propaganda and disinformation that would make our dear Herr Goebbels (Hitler's chief propagandist) jade green with envy! Souls by the boatload are blithely believing almost all of the deliciously corrosive non-facts that are congealed everywhere in it, like flies in bad aspic, and it is that precisely which most recommends this glorious effort as worthy of our dedicated and especial study."
· "Now then, another extremely admirable facet of this book is the author's intimate knowledge of his audience's skyscraping ignorance, which he exploits to devastating effect. One must ever endeavour to capitalize upon ignorance, Wormwood. This is one of the chiefest weapons in our arsenal, and let me observe — and not without some glee — that the ignorance of contemporary Western Society in matters of history and theology both, is of an absolutely unprecedented greatness. Never before have so many known so little about so much of great importance. Ask your average fellow in the street the slightest detail of a daft sitcom of forty years ago and he will move heaven and earth to supply you with the answer, and then will likely prate on with other similarly inane details — as if knowing who lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane was his very passport to the Elysian Fields (paradise of the heroes in Greek mythology). Ha! But ask him to tell you about the Nicaean Council, or ask him what are the Synoptic Gospels and you will suddenly find yourself in the presence of a weatherbeaten cigar store Injun! But then go ahead and ask him who played drums for The Monkees, or the name of that blasted itinerant peddlar on Green Acres and you will think yourself in the presence of a very Voltaire!"
<<For anyone who wishes to read the whole article:
http://www.dickstaub.com/culturewatch.php?record_id=985 >>
Now, to bring us back to the consideration of heaven and earth. If any of us aspires to spending eternity in heaven with our ascended Lord - and I suspect that most of us do; and if we acknowledge that certain fundamental beliefs are of some importance in realizing that reward - and I suspect that most of us acknowledge that - then is it not incumbent upon each of us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest those fundamentals, so that neither Eric Metaxas, writing as Screwtape, nor Dan Brown presenting pseudo-history and blatant falsehoods, will cause us to display skyscraping ignorance by falling for their humanistic or even devilish ploys?
And truly, the influences are all around us too. Many seekers that come to us have fallen for the cafeteria style Christianity that Pope John Paul II warned about: "Well, I believe this, but I don’t believe that." Further, upon discovering that we do believe "that," they disdainfully accuse us of various things: lack of enlightenment, being uncaring towards marginalized people, and the list goes on. Neither is it helpful for us to return their disdain; they are confused souls, in need of some guidance. They are often so far down a false path, absolutely convinced of the correctness of their beliefs, that a great deal of gentle persuasion is needed to make them see that they have wandered.
As mentioned at the outset, I suspect that very few of us indeed are immune to influences that steer us away from holiness. That is certainly nothing new under the sun. The prescribed Offertory Sentence in the BCP for a said Eucharist begins, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt." Of course this is the second part of a quotation from our Lord in Matthew Chapter 6; the part leading up to it being, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth …" where all of these things mentioned will render them eventually worth nothing more than a pile of dust or thieves will steal them.
Our Lord was referring to material things that divert our attention away from heavenly pursuits; but likewise we must be on guard against habits, feelings, beliefs that equally might bind us to earth. Some of us are more inclined than others, quite unawares, to sacrifice eternal blessedness for temporal happiness, to be prepared to accommodate novel directions in society, apparently to show that we care. But what each of us should care most about, both for ourselves, and those with whom we have to do, is that not all novelties in society are pointed heavenward. Earthly satisfaction, no matter how apparently harmless, if it is clearly contrary to God's will, is not worth sacrificing salvation.
THE ANNUNCIATION, OTTAWA 2006 CLRK