Name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. That last sentence that Herod was very curious to see Jesus, I think is significant. I think of it in terms of my well chosen remarks of last Sunday. The theme of that little homily was outside of the church, there is no salvation.
And, of course, them are fighting words. Some people are affronted when you say it. But that's the doctrine of the Catholic church. And I was I thought I tried to be very careful in explaining that what that means today, what it has meant, and that it includes, it allows for invincible ignorance. Meaning that you are ignorant that you do not know, and it's not your fault that you don't know.
Because obviously, if if ignorance that you have is your fault, if you're cultivating it, then you're responsible for the consequences of that ignorance. That's just plain common sense. Now, what did Herod do about this curiosity? Here was a real problem. Here was somebody who was roaming around and there's some people were saying that's John and Herod had beheaded John.
Well, that's a rather a startling statement or let us say phenomenon that a man you've beheaded is now walking around and preaching. Was it true or false? Others were saying, well, he's that it's one of the prophets. Others were saying that it's Elijah. Well, any one of those statements calls for something like a retort that you're crazy, that that you've been drinking too much, that you're seeing things, or what?
Or what? And Herod was very curious about Jesus. You take our modern world. Can anybody escape, first of all, the name Jesus? We write the date, nineteen eighty two AD.
What does AD mean? That's not like in God We Trust, notice. What does AD mean? And then if you're dealing with some other date, it'll be BC. What does BC mean?
Boston College? So you can't escape that, you see. Who is this? Who or what is this thing called Christ? Can't escape it.
Some people aren't even curious. But supposing they are curious, have they, have we, a responsibility of pursuing that curiosity? Here in 1982 in Garrett Park, we're dating our letters nineteen eighty two AD. Anno Domini. Who's the Domini?
If I talk about Aristotle or Plato or Socrates or Plutarch or Aristophanes or Euripides, I'll say BC before Christ. Who's this Christ I'm talking about? Somebody that's so important that the whole calendar of the Western world begins with him? Who is he? What is he?
Did he live? Is it a fiction? If it's a fiction, who created it? When was it created? See, these are just plain common sense questions.
Can a person in the Western world today claim invincible ignorance about Jesus Christ? I think it's a good open question. Can you, in the face of facts, I say facts. I'm not there saying what Christ was, I'm saying here he impinges upon you. You can't avoid it.
He's inescapable. And even in much of the oriental world now, they're following our calendar. And again, we have BC and AD. Who's the c? Who's the d?
Why is it if there was a person, was he that important that you had to start the calendar with him? And if that's true, who in that world was he? Do we know anything about him? Well, you say, yeah, we know a lot about him. Compared to anybody else living at that time, we know an awful lot about him.
What do we know about him? Then you can go on and on and on. Now, remember, as I've said, and what every good reformer said, the word of the Lord has a message for each one of us. Each one of us is called to know Jesus Christ. Now you don't get knowledge by infusion or osmosis.
Knowledge is often hard to come by. Ask any kid trying to read. Ask anybody studying mathematics. Ask any serious student of the sciences. Ask any boy or girl trying to learn Latin or Greek or anything else, ask them if it's a fun game.
I know we've been talking about making education fun. Of course, it's absurd. Anyone says that hasn't tried it. And to learn something about Jesus Christ is no fun. As a matter of fact, you may be in the way of finding out things you don't want to know.
Christ may get in your way. It's better not to know. Let sleeping dogs lie. Is this principle or invincible ignorance? And how about little old me?
What do I know about Christ? Am I as an adult trying to live with what I got out my first year in CCD or something, which may have been absolutely nothing. Even in the seventeenth year of the CCD, it may have been absolutely nothing today about Jesus Christ or his church. What do I know about Christ? We assume it's a funny thing, but we assume that everybody knows.
We assume that everybody can teach CCD. That's like assuming that everybody can step into a biology class and teach biology. Well, you say, don't be absurd. That's impossible. We do it with religion.
We do it with religion. Can you make any sense out of that? You say that that the most important thing in this life is this is to know and love and serve God. How do you get to know him? And you can't serve him without knowing him.
And you can't love what you don't know. So who and what or where is this thing you're loving? Who is Jesus Christ? Who is God? What is God?
Where is God? What's the relationship between God and your coming to church here this morning? Is there a connection? What is the connection, if any? You see, these are important questions.
It's easy to live on a certain level of unquestioning acceptance. But can we afford to do that without suffering the charge of ignorance? And maybe it's invincible, meaning it's comparable, meaning we're responsible for it, and we're responsible for the consequences. I happen to have a nephew, I still have a nephew, who after he left the University of Maryland, not so much twenty five years ago, guess, got immediately into computers and was a big shot at it. In a few years, he was doing very well.
Now he says, I'm obsolete. I'm an old man in that field. And he is. I take his word for it. Other words, he has not grown with the advances in that field.
He he now, twenty five or thirty years later, is floating along mostly on what he had acquired when he was just after he just left the University of Maryland. You see, that's exactly what a lot of us do with our religion. As adults, we float along on what we have or think we have. We're not sure where we got it. We're not even sure what it is if we're put to the test.
It's a vague kind of thing. Now, can we justify that? Now I am not at all saying that every man has to be a theologian. Most men and most women don't have the time, the ability, or the urge. And this is what one of Descartes great arguments.
That's the reason we have a church of Jesus Christ. Not everybody has to go back and reinvent the wheel. Plenty of people have to spend their days and their nights worrying about where their next meal is coming from, or how to put clothes on their children. And so, if the word of God is going to come to men and women, as he said he wanted it to do, where is it going to come from? It's going to come from the living voice of Jesus Christ speaking in the contemporary world from the lips of his church.
The name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit. Amen.