It seems terribly appropriate for this first sermon inspired by scenes from Life of Brian that the first one should be on the subject of blasphemy, since it very nearly didn't get made or released for that very reason.
As the film went into production, the head of EMI withdrew funding from the movie afraid that a comic film set at the time of Jesus that found humour in many of the situations from the gospel stories would incur the wrath of the religious right. To be fair they were entirely right. Of all the comedians in the world, they should have expected The Spanish Inquisition!
A copy of the script found its way to Mary Whitehouse who was a well known campaigner for 'cleaning up' film and television at the time, and a major letter writing campaign was launched against the film even before it had reached the censor. Mary Whitehouse was the only woman to have secured a successful prosecution under the blasphemy laws against 70's newspaper Gay News.
The campaign did end up with the film having a restricted release - banned in certain countries altogether - and in the UK certain councils refused to let their cinemas show it. Famously two of the pythons ended up defending the film on a TV talkshow against the then Bishop of Southwark and intellectual Malcolm Muggeridge. Oddly enough it was the two professional comedians who came across as reasoned and balanced.
This defence has strange echoes in the scene from the film where John Cleese plays the Pharisee who supervises a stoning. A stoning strangely conducted by an all-women crowd wearing false beards. Malcolm & The Bishop ended up behaving like the very people the film satirises.
The command to hold the Lord's name as holy and not to take it in vain takes us right back to the Ten Commandments. Nowadays you would figure that this would be a very easy thing to hold. The world has changed an awful lot since the 1970's however, and using "God" and "Jesus" as expletives is common place not just in the media but in everyday language.
Does this offend God? We know that sin is sin, there aren't levels of sin, only when we start to put our own values onto God's law - we can all see that a random "Jesus!" when we are shocked by something is not as destructive or as unkind as violating someone else's relationship or stealing. Does that make it any less wrong? Does that make it something we shouldn't do? Does God need protecting from our mouths? Or has God got bigger fish to fry?
Life of Brian
isn't a film about Jesus - Jesus does make fleeting appearances in the film
- but every word he speaks, and every action of his that is reported, is faithful
to the word of the gospel. (Brian is NOT the Messiah - he's a very naughty
boy!) Aside from being a comedy, the film is a commentary on religious fanaticism
and the damage that it causes - the misdirection of energy and hurt. By mistaking
Brian for the Messiah, the film satirises those folk who see their zeal for
their faith as a means in itself and consequently lose perspective for what
faith really means.
Too often the cry of 'blasphemy' is used to protect the power-base of folk
and their own self importance - just like the very Pharisees who challenged
Jesus.
The language we use affects other people - Jesus reminds us that it is what comes out of our mouths that poisons us, not what we put in them. So we do need to think about how we speak - about the terms we use to describe other people.
One of the things that I first noticed when I started to attend MCC many years ago, was its commitment to using language that included everybody, and also reflected broader ideas about how people see God - which I found refreshing and inspiring.
Different churches take this duty on in different ways. Some examples I've heard in other churches are just plain bizarre, and all that ends up happening is that newcomers to church would end up asking questions about why we sang this or said that, instead of hearing God's message of love for all people
It can happen so easily - we spend so much time thinking about how we say what we say when we are in public worship that we end up losing the perspective of the real act of worship that we bring to God - our lives.
It is so much more important that we get the big things sorted out first - deal with the planks instead of the splinters.
Is our behaviour and language respectful towards other people? Do we build other folk up or tear them down. I fancy that the all powerful God who created the heavens and the earth is more bothered about that.
Is God offended by the use of "God" and "Jesus" as an exclamation? When you hit your thumb with a hammer, when you're shocked by a loud noise…I'm sure we can all think of many occasions when people might call upon the name of the lord - and is God offended by it? In my opinion - he's possibly not as happy as he might be, but there doesn't seem to be a hail of thunderbolts raining down every time someone shouts "Oh God".
I believe that God has a sense of perspective about such things - and it's important that we have one as well. This particular commandment should in theory be one of the easiest ones to keep. There is always another word we could use. Our lives have to try and lead by example, showing that we are in control of our mouths even when others are not: not because I think God is so fragile that he can't cope with it - we know God has to cope with being witness to every horror in the world - but because it can be a very small way in which we continue to grow and change.
The scene from Life of Brian is more than a little light relief - it satirises what can happen when folk try to impose their own beliefs about what you can or cannot say - people end up getting hurt.
At a time when the Government has been trying to bring in legislation to stop comedians holding faiths up to ridicule, we need to think about just how secure our faith is: can we watch a film like Life of Brian or even a film like The Da Vinci Code and come out of it with our faith intact?
The Da Vinci Code is one little novel - yet the number of books written about it (chiefly saying that it's not true) take up far more shelf space than the original!
For me the willingness to cry 'blasphemy!' is rarely about defending God and more about intolerance of others - we are called to be in this world but still to be part of God's Kingdom - part of that is to recognise and respect that many people do not share our faith.
When we watch
the scene from the python film - folk laughed - it's funny. But sadly there
are people out there who are so insecure in their faith that they can't watch
a piece of fiction - So next time we hear someone cry 'blasphemy' before we
join the mob and pick up our stones, we have to take a closer look…is
that a false beard they're wearing?…
(Dan Joseph)
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.