Hic Sunt Dracones

(Here Be Dragons!)

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those

who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”

(John 9:39; with a reading from Luke 4:21-30)

 

 

A sermon by Siegfried S. Johnson on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, January 28, 2007

 

 

Medieval mapmakers, with limited knowledge of distant lands and uncharted seas, often depicted dragons at the far edges of their maps.  This warning, written at the edges of the known in Latin, was Hic Sunt Dracones (Here Be Dragons!).  Our children were introduced to the phrase when “Here be Dragons!” was a line spoken by the evil pirate Barbossa, Captain of the Black Pearl, as he faces Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. 

 

It’s a new world.  I don’t think Rand/McNally any longer puts dragons at the edges of our maps.  Yet, human fear of the unknown has not changed.  Called to face the unknown, we discover that dragons still exist, dragons fashioned by fear and anger.  In our lectionary reading from Luke 4, Jesus discovers, in challenging people to change, that something ferocious stalks the edges of chaos. 

 

An alternate Latin title for this sermon would have been Ne Plus Ultra, a phrase from a much more ancient literature than Pirates of the Caribbean.  Ne Plus Ultra is from Homer, who wrote about the Pillars of Hercules, a legendary spot which became the classical symbol of that which lies at the edge of the known world, the brink beyond which one should not venture.  The inscription on the Pillars of Hercules was Ne Plus Ultra, “no more beyond.”  It means, Venture no further!

 

We live in a rapidly transitioning culture which has embarked upon a new millennium with more tools to unlock the mysteries of the unknown than ever before.  In science and technology we often brush up against the Pillars of Hercules.  Our escalating technology leads us to ask, “How far do we go before we say, Ne Plus Ultra: Venture no further?”  How far do we go in genetic manipulation, in bio-engineering, in cloning, in stem cell research, before we throw a gate up in front of science and say, Ne Plus Ultra:  Science was never meant to visit here?  How far do we go in space exploration and perhaps, space colonization, before we throw up the gate and say, Ne Plus Ultra? 

 

These and a host of other questions will be with us as we forge our way into the Third Millennium.  There are those who say religion must have a voice to help us navigate these uncharted seas.   Conversely, there are those who say that religion IS the problem, that religion itself has thrown up imaginary dragons, strategically places to frighten us into staying where we are, not venturing beyond.  I, of course (and I will assume, you) fall into the former camp, believing that religion and faith must help us navigate the turbulent seas of change.  I don’t mean to say that religion must be anti-intellectual, spouting an irrational sort of fundamentalism that disregards the tenets of science.  Rather I mean that religion must be willing to ask the tough questions -- questions which will help us encounter the inevitable ethical dilemmas arising with new discoveries. 

 

In the four hundred years since science proved that the earth was not flat, not the center of the universe, religion has had to develop new eyes to see that to which they had previously been blind.   Likewise, especially in recent years, the scientific world has tilted toward an understanding that it, too, must develop eyes to see that to which they have been blind – an acknowledgment that science cannot uncover all the answers to humanity’s deeper questions of meaning.  Many in science seem to be developing a stronger sense of the Transcendent which is beyond the mapping and measuring abilities of science.  This is promising indeed, the dialogue between science and religion growing more respecting of each others’ uniquely gifted eyes.  Both science and religion are crossing the boundaries by which once they allowed themselves to be defined, developing eyes to see a new thing in a new way.

 

Certainly one effect of advancing technology is that we become blind to the old as we are given eyes to see new and wonderful things.  Things that once would have frightened us (not to mention, our ancestors), things we might once have been certain would destroy the faith if ever proven, now are seen, not to destroy faith, but to thrive within the context of a re-envisioned faith.  As this was true with the arrangement of the solar system, this can also be the case with areas such as evolution (our own centuries’ hot button).  Here be Dragons!, we think, that will surely destroy us -- until we develop new ways of seeing.

 

People of faith are often called to cross boundaries, to develop new ways of seeing.  To each generation falls the task of discerning which boundaries are to be crossed, and which are to be diligently guarded.  In Jesus’ time, he challenged his people to develop new eyes, to cross cultural boundaries.  When he issued such challenges, he confronted in the people’s anger, the dragons of resistance. 

 

What new ways of seeing will be required for the church in the new millennium?  Are there some things to which we must become blind, in order to see the new things God has for us?  How many daunting boundaries will we be called to cross?  People of faith are to see the unseen.  As Paul wrote, “we look, not at things that can be seen, but at things that cannot be seen, for things which we can see are temporary, the things which we cannot see are eternal.”

 

I loved the movie, The Matrix, which sought to help us see with different eyes.  In one of the famous lines of the movie, Morpheus said to Neo, “the choice is yours -- take the blue pill and live within the reality you now see and experience or, if you dare, take the red pill and see how far down the rabbit hole goes.”  Perhaps we should stretch the analogy to understand the blue pill as science, the observable measurements of this molecular world -- things we can see and feel and measure and weigh.   The red pill could be seen as faith in another realm of reality, a Transcendent reality, another dimension of experience without basis in that which science can test in a tube.  Your choice.  Blue pill, or red pill? 

 

Twenty years ago you might have found me in the concourse of the mall in Ann Arbor, hypnotically staring at strange pictures.  What was I doing?  Adjusting my eyes to a new way of seeing, in 3D.  It was called, Magic Eye.  Blobs of contrasting light and shadow and color, in which are hidden images in 3D.  Printed on the back page of this sermon are two examples I copied from the Magic Eye website.  Do you have eyes to see it?  What do you see in the top rectangle?  If you have eyes to see it, it is the planet Saturn and its rings.

 

Magic Eye pictures are wonderful parables for the church, teaching us that to do creative ministry in the Third Millennium we must be willing to see in new ways.  Perhaps the images I just described remain, for you, tantalizingly hidden.  If so, it’s because your eyes are trained to traditional focus.  Using two or three simple principles, you may be led to discover wonderful 3D images materializing out of these blocks of seemingly meaningless contrasts of dark and light.  First, you must LOSE FOCUS.  If you try to hard to see it, you never will!  Loosen up.  Let things get fuzzy.  I know that goes against everything you ever were taught about seeing clearly.  In this case, in order to see crystal clear, you must allow yourself to lose focus.  Try not to blink.  Stare THROUGH the picture without focus.  As you do so, you will be amazed when Saturn emerges. 

 

Your choice.  Take the blue pill of traditional focus, and see a blob of squiggles and star like shapes.  Or, take the red pill and see how far down the rabbit hole goes.  

 

Morpheus told Neo, “No one can be told what the Matrix is.  You have to see it for yourself.”  You see, I can tell you that this block has a 3D picture of Saturn, but I want you to see it for yourself, and that means losing focus in order to gain a more profound focus.  Sometimes, you see, we must de-construct old paradigms and relinquish pre-conceived notions if we are ever to make progress.  That’s not easy.  Here Be Dragons!

 

We have a hard time seeing Saturn because our eyes naturally rely on old ways of seeing.  The problem is not that we can’t see it, but the fear of becoming blind to old ways of seeing.  It’s the same, I think, for the church. 

 

Perhaps that’s why Jesus spoke in parables.  When his disciples asked why he taught in parables, Jesus said, “Because unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto them it is not given.”  In other words, Jesus was giving them the red pill, giving them eyes to see what others, blinded by traditional ways of focus, refused to see.

 

I think Jesus was telling the disciples, “Take the red pill.  No one can be told what the Kingdom of God is.  You have to see it for yourself.  Lose focus.  Don’t just look AT the story, look THROUGH the story, and the truth of God’s kingdom will magically emerge.  Don’t get bogged down in the particulars of the story.  If you do, your debates will NEVER end.  See THROUGH the story.  When you do, you will see that the Kingdom of God is within you, among you, that your hearts are temples, sanctuaries of God’s presence.” 

 

Suppose this rectangle of squiggles were your church.  As you stare through it, what do you see emerging?  Do you see a new building emerging, new facilities such as a Family Life Center?  Do you have eyes to see that?  Do you see new classes?  New faces? 

 

In closing, I want to ask how many see the hidden image of the lower rectangle?  It is a woman with a clay jar.  I chose this because Jesus’ sermon mentions Elijah going to a Gentile widow from Zarephath in Sidon.  She would have known this pose, walking and carrying a clay pot (a pithos).  Jesus was asking the folk of his hometown of Nazareth to swallow the red pill, to see something similar to this image – yet, not a Jew, but a Gentile.  These new eyes he invites them to develop are too much, way beyond the border of their religious and cultural understanding.  Here be Dragons! 

 

So they took Jesus to a cliff to throw him off, a place known as Mount Precipice.  It’s a place I love to take pilgrims, where the beauty of the Jezreel Valley and the Galilee below contrasts with the ugliness that was intended there for Jesus.  Across the valley in plain view from Mount Precipice is Har Megiddo (the hill of Megiddo), better known as Armeggedon.  If ever there was a word that warns, Here be Dragons!, it is Armaggedon.   Here the boundaries of human history are said to be placed.   

 

Jesus passed through their midst, Luke tells us, unharmed.  May it be our prayer, that our generation, too – despite the power we have developed with modern weapons to cause world wide calamity – will pass through the dragons, unharmed.  May God’s grace make it so, and increase in the hearts of humankind.

 

  

Sources and notes:

 

Dr. Leonard Sweet’s book,  SoulTsunami, Sink or Swim in the New Millennium Culture (Zondervan, 1999), uses the Magic Eye pictures as an illustration of the church’s need to develop new ways of seeing.  The Saturn image and the woman/clay jar image are taken from www.magiceye.com.