The Truth about Jesus
A sermon preached by Father Arthur Fellows at High Mass on Sunday 18th August, 2002
Twenty-eight years ago I stood in the pulpit of the Cathedral of St Peter & St Paul at Dogura, in Papua New Guinea. Bishop Henry Kendall had invited me to preach, and said, "I will give you an interpreter, so please have simple sentences, and for goodness sake don't start one with a subjunctive!" Now embedded in the base of that pulpit is a set of sorcerer's stones. The sorcerer who had been converted asked that the stones be placed under the feet of him who gave the true teaching. This tends to put a man on his mettle! Well, of course, if we can't give true preaching, why preach at all?!!
The second half of the Athanasian Creed begins thus - "Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that a man believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ". Well, if we aren't going to believe rightly we'll fall into error, and that can mean moral error. We must say how silly it is for anyone to declare that it doesn't matter what a person believes, so long as he or she does what is right. For right action depends on right belief.
THE GREAT "I AM"
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney said, not long after his election, "We are in the truth business". For us religious truth centres on the person of Jesus, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6). Our Lord is the great "I AM". Many times he made that claim - "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12); "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35); "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11); "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25); "Before Abraham was I am" (John 8:58).
All that Jesus said, and even more, what he did, were epiphanies of his divine nature. The walking on the water; the stilling of the storm; the changing of water into wine; the healing of a leper by touch (forbidden by the law) and of ten at a distance; the healing of the centurion's servant; the casting out of devils; and the raising to life of Jairus's daughter, of the young man being carried out for burial, and of Lazarus. They all shone light on the person of Jesus, and for Peter, James and John they culminated on the Mount of the Transfiguration, when Jesus' body and clothes were suffused with light, and they witnessed the glory which Jesus said he had with the Father before the creation of the world.
All these led to questioning - "Who is this?' "What manner of man is this?" They forced admissions - "You are the Son of God" (Nathanael and the disciples - John 1:49); "You are the Christ" (St Peter - Matthew 16:16); "My Lord and my God" (St Thomas - John 20:28).
What were the implications of these words? They can be seen in the words we have just sung in the Nicene Creed. Here is a precise expression about the person of Jesus, formulated in 325 at Nicea, in what is now Turkey.
THE COUNCIL OF NICEA
This great Council was made possible by the Emperor Constantine's Edict of Toleration of Christianity after 300 years of persecution. It was called by him, and in its early stage was attended by him. It dealt with many things, but chiefly with the teaching of Arius, who taught that, because Jesus was the Son of God, he was subordinate to the Father. There was a time, he said, when he was not. Jesus was the highest of all created beings. This is a term which we properly allocate to Our Lady.
So the Council laid it out, using the Greek language which could convey the precision needed. This language was one of the preparations of the Gospel; the "fullness of time" that Paul spoke about in Galatians 4:7. It was the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world.
Some people question why we have a Creed at all in worship. Indeed there are some denominations which never use the Creeds. We have a dear friend who had been absolutely ignorant of any Creed in belonging to her Church. How impoverished they are!
Now we don't use it to tease theological or philosophical thought. This Creed is there for worship. We sing it or say it as a delighted affirmation of the Faith which we didn't and couldn't invent, which has been hammered out for us in the experience of our Fathers in the Faith, who suffered and bled for us. Many of the bishops, priests and laymen who attended that Council showed evidence of the torture which under Diocletian had now come to an end. There were empty eye sockets, crippled limbs.
There are Christians who seem unable to understand why we pay such attention to the Fathers. For them it seems that there is not much worth mentioning before the Reformation in the 16th century! But here we are, the Body of Christ, thanking and praising God for the truth about Jesus, the divine and the human natures in the one Person.
The decision at Nicea was not universally accepted in the beginning. Constantine appeared to favour Arian bishops. Athanasius was a Deacon at Nicea and became Bishop of Alexandria. He was banished from his see at least twice. Arianism continued in the south of France for a long time, and further Councils were summoned to deal with other aspects of the Person of Christ.
VINCENT OF LERINS
In the year 434, three years after the Council of Ephesus, St Vincent of Lérins wrote his treatise, the COMMONITORIUM. He was a monk, and Lerins was the monastic capital of Provence. In this work he reflected on the "subtle errors evolved by heretics in the mad pride of their intellectuality". He gave us a standpoint for faith when he said that was to be believed which was held "Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus" - i.e. everywhere, always and by all. This accords with the word 'Catholic' - "according to the whole".
Our Anglican Communion has up to the last decade stood by that. A prime example is in the Book of Common Prayer. The bishops at the Savoy Conference in 1661, dealing with all the Puritan objections mustered up about a new Prayer Book, said they rejected all such as were of dangerous consequence, as secretly striking at some established doctrine or laudable practice of the Church of England, or indeed of the whole Catholic Church of Christ. You can read it in the Preface, and it's very instructive.
WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING
But there is nothing new under the sun! St Paul wrote to Timothy - "the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
He also said to the leaders of the Ephesian Church:"Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock . . . I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 29-30)" This echoes the words of Jesus - "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15).
You can see in the New Testament that the early Church was no bed of roses or an ideal community of love. St Paul had disciplinary problems with the Corinthian Church; St John had to warn the seven Churches of Asia Minor about the Nicolaitans, and so on.
THE HERETICAL SPONG
Yes, we have heretics in our time. Perhaps the most prominent is the former Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, Bishop Spong. This man has been in this country not so long ago, involved in speaking engagements and promoting his latest book. He does not believe in the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus. For him Jesus' body must have been thrown out on to the common grave.
But he says that his followers can have a resurrection experience! I've heard people say of him "He's a good speaker, very sincere, and a charming man". My response is - GET REAL! This is exactly the kind of man that Arius was. He was parish priest of the most important parish in Alexandria. Not all that handsome, yet he had a certain charisma. Several hundred women of the parish doted on him. He wrote, too, and ditties promoting his beliefs were sung on the waterfront of the city. What's new?
A FALSE PROPHET
You might say - "How could a bishop not believe in the Resurrection? The answer is in St Paul's words to the Corinthian Church - "What I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness" (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).
Sincerity has got nothing to do with it. Wittingly or unwittingly we can do the devil's work. What is disturbing about Bishop Spong is that for years he has been allowed to carry on as a bishop in the Episcopal Church of the USA. He has not been called into account before a tribunal. No disciplinary action has been taken against him, although the Diocese of Sydney did forbid his functioning as a bishop in that diocese!
Is it because the Church itself is so uncertain of its faith that it cannot proceed against him for heresy? Or is afraid for other reasons? St Paul says - "If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for the battle?" I suggest that it is the perceived lack of definite faith that is one reason why numbers in many of our congregations dwindle. People who have been wandering in a wilderness in society aren't going to be attracted to a Church which appears to have a similar muddle in its theology.
Jesus is the great I AM. We have to take him at his word. He was either what he claimed to be, or else he was mad, a "fruit cake". There is no middle ground. We can't come to Jesus in a patronising way, acknowledging him as the greatest teacher the world has ever had. Worse, we dare not treat him as just one of many great world religious leaders.
So, beware of itching ears and spiritual itches of various kinds. St John writes to his beloved converts "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Go into any large bookshop and see the assortment of religious literature on its shelves. Then we have Christian bookshops which have an astonishing display. Every bishop and priest promises at his consecration and ordination to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God's Word, but it is impossible for them to vet everything that is published.
So we need a discerning mind, a discriminating mind which can sort out truth from error. The Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth, and his function is to throw the spotlight on Jesus, and to form Christ within us. He is not a spirit of disharmony and confusion. Nor can it be his work that denies such truths as the resurrection, and dishonours Jesus.
One of Bishop Spong's critics has said - Religious ideas circulate in a post-Christian world with a vigour in inverse proportion to their value. Spong's publishers know this. He may not. You should!
GUARD THE TRUTH
I close with some words spoken by a layman before the Council of Nicea formally got under way. It took a few weeks for all participants in that 4th century Council to come together. The theological arguments were being canvassed in the open, well before the opening of the Council, and even pagan philosophers joined in debates.
Dean Stanley in his "Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church" relates how at one gathering the disputes had generated a large head of steam, and many were arguing simply from the love of arguing. This layman stepped forward - and they could tell by looking at him that he had suffered under the persecution - and said - "Christ and the Apostles left us, not a system of logic, nor a vain deceit, but a naked truth, to be guarded by faith and good works".
