FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth
May 23, 2004
Scripture: Colossians 4:1-18
Several weeks ago, I decided to do some spring-cleaning in the pastor’s office here at the church. Rummaging around in the desk drawer, I found three letters buried beneath some old photographs and much to my surprise, I realized they had been there since my installation Sunday on the 13th of May, 1990.
The letters were given to me by Mr. Fred Rogers, who was not only here for that service 14 years ago, but had also been present up in Pittsburgh for our final Sunday in Sewickley. He heard me tell the story about a Presbyterian pastor who decided to retire from the ministry and who left for his successor three envelopes in the pastor’s desk drawer. The first one said “When things get difficult,” the second read “When things get more difficult” and the third one was marked “When things become extremely difficult.” And having left those envelopes behind, the pastor retired to New Hampshire.
When the new pastor arrived, sure enough she found the three envelopes in the drawer, and within a couple of months, there was a problem with one of the staff members. She took out envelope #1, marked “When things get difficult,” opened it and the note inside said, “When things get difficult, blame your predecessor.” Well, that’s what she did, and before too long, the problem was resolved.
Time passed, and six months later the pastor ran into a more serious problem, this time with the session. She took out envelope #2, marked “When things get more difficult,” and the note inside read, “When things get more difficult, blame the denomination.” And she did, and within a short time, the trouble was over and things seemed to get back to normal.
More than a year later, the pastor, who wasn’t so new anymore, ran head on into a problem so serious that it rippled through the entire congregation. People took up sides, arguments turned into accusations, and in the midst of the storm, the pastor went to the desk drawer and opened envelope #3, hoping the contents would lead to some kind of resolution. The note read “When things become extremely difficult, it’s time for you to prepare three envelopes!”
Well, Fred Rogers had heard that story in Sewickley, and you may remember that he came down from Pittsburgh on Mother’s Day of 1990 to celebrate with us in worship and to offer the installation prayer. When the service was over, walking back to the office, he slipped these enveloped into my hand, hugged me and said with a smile on his face, “Keep these in a safe place – someday, you might need to read them.”
Fourteen years later, just a few weeks ago, I found these letters in the desk drawer, opened them, and in Fred Rogers’ distinctive handwriting, this is what they say:
#1 – When things get difficult, remember, we love you.
#2 – When things get more difficult, remember, we love you more than ever.
#3 – When things get extremely difficult, remember, we love you extremely much. Make out three envelopes if you wish, but come see us first. You’ll be assured of intensive care.”
Well, I began to laugh and then tears came to my eyes, remembering that special man who meant so much to all of us and touched our lives in more ways than we will ever be able to fully understand.
I.
Now the truth is, these letters from Fred Rogers, rest his soul, weren’t lost – they were right there, buried in the bottom of the desk drawer, waiting for me to re-discover them again. But nearly 2000 years ago, it appears that one of the apostle Paul’s letters really was lost, and to this day, no one can say for certain what happened to it.
Our scripture lesson from Colossians 4, beginning with verse 2, records that Paul wrote to those first century Christians:
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; and pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ… (Colossians 4:1-3).
The apostle was talking about the mystery of faith and the grace of God which was being revealed to those early Christians in Colossae. But at the end of this letter, Paul goes on to write about another mystery which has been debated by Biblical scholars down through the centuries:
Give my greetings to the brethren at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea…I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand… remember my fetters. Grace be with you. (Colossians 4:16-18)
William Barclay tells us that in the Christian New Testament, “There are 13 letters attributed to the apostle Paul, covering a time span of 15 years. But it is quite certain that Paul did not write only thirteen letters…and it may be that the letter to the Laodiceans was lost.” (The Daily Study Bible Series by William Barclay, “Colossians,” page 205).
Among a number of other theories, Barclay identifies an actual letter which can be traced back to the fifth century when one of the church fathers named Jerome declared that it was a forgery. Written in Latin, the original copy is now in the British Museum, and the letter is entitled “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Leodiceans.”
More than likely, says Barclay, it was probably written by someone who read in Colossians 4 that there had been a letter to the church in Laodicea, who believed that it was lost and who proceeded to compose what he (or she) thought such a letter would have said. (Ibid, page 207). I have made some copies of that alleged “Lost letter to the Laodiceans,” and if you want to read it for yourself, then pick one up on the table outside the reception room after the Benediction. But please don’t tell anybody that the preacher at First Presbyterian Church was handing out copies of the authentic long lost letter to Laodicea, because that would get me in a lot of hot water with the Presbytery!
II.
Now if you’re wondering why I would spend our time on this subject today, let me get right to the point. Last year, two books were published which have stirred up considerable controversy about the authenticity of the Bible and raised some questions about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown is still #1 on the New York Times fiction best-seller list (it has been there for 60 weeks), and “Beyond Belief” by a Princeton University religion professor named Elaine Pagels has also sold millions of copies.
Both books came out in 2003, and if you have read “The Da Vinci Code,” then you already know it’s about a murder in Paris which is connected to a wider web of sub-plots and purported secrets, including a centuries-old cover-up by the church to suppress some embarrassing theological and Biblical details:
· that Jesus was far more human than divine,
· that He was actually married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a child who founded the Merovingian Dynasty in France,
· and that Mary Magdalene was not only a disciple but became the most important one of all, upon whom Jesus conferred a special gift of esoteric wisdom.
The Vatican is also hammered hard in this book, along with Opus Dei, the right-wing Catholic organization known to be a particular favorite of the pope and of Mel Gibson, director and producer of a film you my have heard about recently – “The Passion of the Christ.” A New York Times book review of “The Da Vinci Code” made the observation that “at the same time when religious fundamentalism is on the rise in this country, there are apparently millions of people who are willing to bring to organized religion the same kind of skepticism and distrust that they bring to our government” (From an article entitled “A Holy Mystery” by Charles McGrath in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, November 23, 2003).
Now it’s not my purpose to tear this book apart, neither do I feel the need to defend the Christian Church against all of these conspiracy theories. “The Da Vinci Code” is a work of fiction, and that’s how it ought to be read. But one thing I do believe for certain: if Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and together they had children, that detail would not have been lost, nor could it have been cut out of the New Testament.
How do we know that is so? Because when the four gospels, the twenty-one epistles, the Book of Acts and the Book of Revelation – twenty-seven in all – were finally canonized into their present form in 327 A.D., the leaders and scholars of the church had spent nearly three hundred years in discerning and determining the veracity and authenticity of the texts and documents which were included, going all the way back to the eye-witness accounts of the apostles themselves (read “The Making of the Bible” by William Barclay, pages 84-87).
And if we believe, as the Presbyterian Church declares, that the Bible is “by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ…and God’s word to us” (Book of Order, G-14,0207B), then we can be confident that the accounts in these sacred scriptures are reliable and true.
III.
So what are we to do with the ancient writings that were not included in the Bible? Elaine Pagels, in her book “Beyond Belief,” advocates for at least one of those documents called the Gospel of Thomas, discovered in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. It is one of many manuscripts produced and preserved by a group known as the Gnostics, who believed in salvation through wisdom and knowledge, rather than by faith and God’s gift of grace, and who focused more on the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth than on the divinity of Jesus the Christ.
We don’t have the time today to drill down to the bottom of Pagel’s theories about those theological mysteries, but before we close, there are two observations I want to make, and the first is this.
No Christian needs to be afraid of the challenges which have been made to our faith through books like “The Da Vinci Code” and “Beyond Belief.” To the contrary, all of a sudden, a lot of people are talking about the Bible and about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! And I would suggest that gives us an opportunity to think and to pray more deeply about what we really do believe, and to share with others the convictions in our hearts along with the questions in our minds.
And the second and final observation is this: I have been somewhat perplexed by all of the recent commotion and conversation about what’s not in the Bible – Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene and having a child, the Gospel of Thomas and a laundry list of other so-called lost books and letters – and I’m wondering this morning if we might do better to concentrate our time and attention on what is actually in the Bible, beginning with reading the scriptures each and every day and seeking to discover what the Word of God has to say to us.
That’s what happened to the Presbyterian author Kathleen Norris when she left New York City in 1974 and moved back to her homeplace in South Dakota. She tells her story in the book “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith,” especially in a chapter entitled “The Bible Study.” Please listen:
“…At the first Bible study I attended with the women of Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church, it was the sight of the well-worn Bibles carried by the mostly gray-haired women…that stunned me into silence. Looking at them, I felt as if I were seeing my own grandmother again. Her Bible, spine-broken, binding cracked, that I had discovered when I moved back into her house, looked very much like theirs. These women knew things about the Christian religion that I did not, the kind of things that are learned…through a lifetime of faith and the steady practice of both study and prayer.” (From “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith” by Kathleen Norris, Riverhead Books, New York, 1998).
I don’t know about you, but I think that is exactly what we need to do – to focus our attention here – on God’s Word and not to worry about all of the theological controversy and commotion “out there” in the world. Instead of getting all stirred up about books that were lost or left out of the scriptures long ago, maybe the time has come to be inspired by what has already been found and written down…right here in the Bible. Now I hope that doesn’t sound anti-intellectual. In fact, I think it’s a rather practical suggestion. What do you think?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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