Sunday, 14 June 2026 (The Second Sunday after Trinity)
Exodus 19.2–8a; Psalm 100;
Romans 5.1–8; Matthew 9.35 – 10.8
Orthodox Icon of the Tree of Jesse (a genealogy)
I’d like to talk a little today about Christianity and Reality.
For many
people what I am going to say would be better expressed as Christianity versus
Reality, because they cannot imagine categorising Christianity as anything
other than a myth.
And when
they use the word ‘myth’ they mean something akin to a fantasy or a fable.
Well to
begin with I think this is an inaccurate, characterisation of myth. I have heard
myths described as ‘doorways to the sacred’ because they are somehow
transcendent. They connect us to deeper, existential truths that deal with
questions of life and death and the beyond, as well as values and questions of
identity.
For some
(like the psychologist Carl Jung) myths serve to articulate deep, hidden truths
about the human psyche. He noted that there are striking similarities between
myths originating from very diverse cultures in very different parts of the
world. So there are creation myths and myths about a primordial flood; there
are myths about the origins of evil and myths about how sacrifice re-orders the
world and appeases the gods. There are even multiple myths about the dying and
rising God (see Osiris – Egyptian; Adonis and Dionysius – Greek; Inanna –
Babylonian; Baal – Ugaritic; Attis – Phrygian; etc.)
But there is
a big difference between these diverse myths and ours: All of the ones I have
mentioned serve a very particular purpose, and that’s to articulate the obvious
fact that everything seems to die in winter and get reborn in spring.
The ‘dying
and rising god’ archetype spans multiple ancient mythologies and these gods
typically represent the seasonal cycles of vegetation, agriculture, and
rebirth.
Christianity
has never admitted to such an interpretation of the dying and rising of our
God.
Unlike
ancient mythological accounts of dying and rising gods (like Osiris or Adonis)
that represent agricultural cycles, the existence of Jesus is rooted in
concrete, first-century history, supported by historical consensus regarding his
life and crucifixion.
The ‘myth’
of Jesus reads like a factual narrative.
One of the
things that strikes any reader if they decide to read the entire Bible, cover
to cover, is the amount of humdrum, prosaic information it contains. As well as
supernatural stories and accounts of miracles and beautiful poetry the Bible
contains list after list. There are lists of ancestors going back 77
generations from Adam to Jesus; there are lists of all the places the
Israelites passed through on their way from Egypt to the promised land; and
there are endless lists of all the materials used for the building of the
Tabernacle (a moveable temple in the desert) and the Temple in Jerusalem.
And all that
amounts to a fraction of the lists it contains. The lists go on and on and
sometimes it makes for mind-numbing reading.
But I LOVE those
lists, not because I love lists per se, but because they root the story in
history, and they point to the fact that this heavenly story is a very earthly
one.
That Jesus
existed; that he taught and healed; that he was crucified and that his
followers (initially a core group of women and the apostles, but later more
than 500 people) claimed to have seen him risen from the dead is beyond dispute.
There are historical records by secular writers who were hostile to
Christianity that preserve those facts for us.
You see,
what we are claiming as Christians is not that Christianity is not a myth, we
are claiming that it’s the myth that happens to be true.
It’s
mythical because it deals with existential matters like life, death and the
beyond; it talks of God and angels and demons; of sin and evil and the way to
salvation; but it’s also unlike any other myth in startling ways.
A celebrated
mythologist (yes that’s a word) called Martin Shaw, who recently became an
Orthodox Christian put it like this: you're
never in a million years going to encounter something like the Sermon on the
Mount coming out of Dionysus' mouth because it cuts against the warrior
spirit of ancient mythology.[i]
Remember the
Sermon on the Mount? The one that goes Blessed are the poor in spirit and
blessed are the meek; blessed are the pure in heart and those who are
persecuted for the sake of righteousness; and blessed are those who mourn? Well
you are never going to hear that spoken out of Odin’s mouth, or Thor’s; it’s
never going to be uttered by Achilles or Zeus.
CS Lewis
said something similar back in 1964: “…the story of Christ is simply a true
myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous
difference that it really happened…” (Letters to Malcolm)
Now to today’s
list: our Gospel reading from Matthew says this: 10Then Jesus summoned his
twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them
out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2These are
the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his
brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip
and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus,
and Thaddaeus;4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who
betrayed him.
Now you
might think it a bit odd of me to focus on a list of names rather than the
striking fact that he gave these men supernatural power over sickness and
demons but the text demands our attention because it seems to be inviting us to
check up on the men it names.
I can
imagine an early Christian in conversation with a pagan and the Christian says,
“Jesus gave power over disease and demons to a group of his Apostles”. Well if
I was that pagan I’d say, “OK. Interesting. Who were they? Names please. I am
going to check this out because I am not sure I believe you.”
So here are
the receipts: Peter was crucified upside down in Rome around 65 AD by Emperor
Nero; Andrew was martyred by crucifixion in Patras, Greece between
60-70AD; James the brother of Jesus was executed with a sword by King Herod
Agrippa I in 44 AD; Philip was martyred in about 80 AD, possibly by crucifixion
or hanging, in Hierapolis (modern-day Turkey); Bartholomew (Nathanael): was
martyred in Armenia either by being flayed alive or beheaded in 69–71 AD; Thomas
(Didymus) travelled to India to preach the gospel and was martyred there by being
stabbed with a spear in 72 AD; Matthew (Levi) the historical record is hazy but
early church tradition suggests he was martyred for his faith in Ethiopia or
Persia between 60 – 74 AD; James (Son of Alphaeus) died in 62 AD and the
records here are hazy too because he was either stoned in Jerusalem or
crucified in Egypt; Thaddeus (also known as Jude) was clubbed to death and
beheaded in about 65 AD in Persia or Lebanon; Simon
the Zealot was martyred in Persia or modern-day Georgia and the date is pretty unsure.
Historical
records from that time can be unreliable, I grant you that, but that applies to
all dating from the era, and there are pagan records of the deaths of some
Apostles: so Josephus recorded James’ death in Jerusalem and Tacitus recorded
Peter and Paul’s in Rome.
What’s more
it’s an interesting fact that most modern historians affirm that Christian
historical records are no less or more accurate than Greco-Roman pagan
historical records of the time. In addition the Christian record (particularly
the New Testament) has far more surviving manuscripts and closer proximity to
the original events than almost any pagan secular work.
I’ve gone on
a long, rather academic ramble to prove a point today. Apologies for that, but
I think the point is worth making: our story is rooted in fact; our myth
happened; our God walked the earth at a particular moment in time, and in a
particular place.
His
followers (apart from John who survived and died of old age) all gave their
lives because they believed with all their hearts that God became flesh and
dwelt among us, in order to liberate us from the powers of darkness and death.
And what are
we to do about that?
Well first
off we need to meditate on it until it sinks deep into our own souls and
transforms us into the kind of people who will proclaim it, no matter the cost.
And once
that happens nothing on God’s earth will be able to stop us from proclaiming
the thing we have come to believe and live by.
How, if we
believe that our myth is the true myth; the myth that actually happened in time
and space; the myth that frees and heals us and reconciles us to the God who
loves us beyond telling; how can we ever allow those we love and our friends
and neighbours to remain ignorant of the fact?
O God, fill
us with your Holy Spirit and give us the boldness to witness to your goodness
and love as revealed in your Son Jesus.
Amen.
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