tabletalk

The Da Vinci Opportunity

With the advent of the Da Vinci Code movie very close at hand, let me recommend a site that is better researched and thought out than any I could do. Though I intend to make my comments, Mark Roberts, Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church has written a great series of articles called The Da Vinci Opportunity. Click on the link and it will take you to Mark's blog and there you can read the articles under the above name. One thing to note up front, is that the issues that are being raised around the book and film are not new. They are issues the church has handled for 2,000 years - and handled well. It is an opportunity for conversation and growing deeper in the knowledge of our faith. But it is not a time to be threatened.

(Just for your enjoyment I'll include a picture from Rosslyn Chapel, just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. Some suggest the grail is hidden under its floor! Doubt it. But hey, my ancestors, the Sinclairs, were significant in the building of the chapel. We visited there last summer. Dan Brown has put Rosslyn on the map - it was jammed with tourists. We sat next to a woman on the bus who was almost hovering with excitement to reach this "holy" site.)

The picture is of one of the many stone carvings in the chapel. The Masons used the chapel as a showcase for their talent as well as an opportunity for their apprentices to perfect their craft.

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

This novel by Anne Rice was a welcome interruption in my usual readings. I'm still plugging through "A Team of Rivals" and enjoying it when I can. But this novel grabbed my attention. I've never read an Anne Rice novel. I understand them to be sexually provocative, quite vampirish, disturbing, and historically representative. The Author's Note at the back of the book gives you an insight into Rice and why the change of subjects. It also gives you a listing of the fine scholarship she consults as the background for her story. It was enough to give some confidence in reading the book.

When we read the Bible, we often fail to imagine the circumstances of the stories. We immediately put Jesus in stereotypical scenes we have come to imagine as authoritative. Often we just don't fill out the details in our minds, and the stories hang there as disembodied spirits, with ideas as the main focus, not people. One of the things that I often do with the scriptures is to try to get to the point. What's the main objective here so I can have my "talking points" in order. In this novel, and let me stress that it is a novel, not to be confused with truth or reality, Rice tries to get inside Jesus. To live in his skin if just for awhile. This book is a refreshing perspective on the young Jesus. It is reverential, a little too Catholic for me at times (I don't know that Jesus' miraculous deeds were wrought before his ministry began), historically accurate on many points (the portrayal of the customs and divisions of the time were masterfully conveyed) , and quite imaginative.

I must say that Rice opened up my imagination to what it would be like for Jesus to grow up; to learn of himself; to gain insight into who he was announced to be; and how, as a young boy he would cope with this extraordinary knowledge. We forget that Jesus' life is a story of details, just like our own. I think, sometimes, in order to preserve Jesus' divinity, we make him out to be super human. But Rice reminds us that part of Jesus purpose was to grow in understanding. To learn, to seek wisdom, to grow, these were as necessary for Jesus to be human as they were for him to be born. There is a fine moment towards the end of the book where Jesus comes to a profound understanding of what he is doing. I won't share it here, though it is a great preachable moment.

At one point in the novel, Jesus is reflecting on the stories of his heritage. He narrates it this way:

"Stories were our history, and who we were, and there were times when I liked nothing better than the stories.
"Yet I was coming to understand something of the greatest importance: all stories were part of one great story, the story of who we were. I hadn't seen it so clearly before, but not it was so clear that it thrilled me." - p.228

Our story is caught up in the story of Jesus. Rice's novel is an imaginative invitation to walk with Jesus in one part of his life. I think I'm changed by the walk. I know I'm eager for the next installment.