MAUNDY THURSDAY SERMON - CHRIST CHURCH COLNE

You may not know that website which trade in books have a desirability index. This compares the number of copies available to swop or buy which the number requested. So, for example, a book which has only one copy available and one hundred people wanting it has a very high index. You might be interested to know that the least desirable book on the planet by this measure, is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown—hundreds of thousands of copies and none wanted, because everyone already has it! I read it, of course—clearly most people have! I can’t, however, remember much about it, except that it involved complex and intricate plots concerning the Holy Grail. In this interpretation the San Greal was actually the Sang Real, the Royal Blood, and concerned the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Need I say more!

I have just finished another book, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. This too concerns a search for the Holy Greal—this time a formula from pre-Christian times for the ‘Elixir of Life’.

Both of these demonstrate some preoccupations; the first to find out more about the life of Jesus than the Gospels vouchsafe to us; the second, with the whole question of mortality, or more to the point our desire for immortality. Both these interests abound in modern ‘New Age’ publications—but they are not merely modern. The Apocryphal Gospels from the second century onwards give us much weird and wonderful information about Jesus, as well as, possibly, a few nuggets of truth. The Alchemists of the late Middle Ages  had a keen interest in the ‘elixir of life’—something very precious to those who are beginning to discover, like I am, that life is limited, and that we are all mortal.

None of this is new. The Holy Grail was a favourite topic of mediaeval fantasy literature. Curiously, even then, surprisingly little attention was focussed on the ‘real’ Holy Grail—the cup which Jesus used at the Last Supper. Some years ago Joanie and I were invited to a Wedding Reception at a great house called Nanteos, near Aberystwyth. It was only later that I discovered the legend that the Holoy Graal was kept there by the Powell family, who were given it by monks from nearby Strata Florida Abbey, who had fled at the Reformation from Glastonbury. According to the history notes “The Grail was famous for its supposed healing powers, and water poured from it was highly sought after as a cure for various diseases.”

When I was much younger I adored the whole cycle of King Arthur legends, and I was fascinated by the legends that Joseph of Arimathea visited England and planted his staff at Wearyall Hill in Somerset. Later it budded and became the Holy Thorn. I was so excited by the thought that I was sitting in the same room where, for centuries, a very plain wooden cup was kept, which the legend says was the Holy Grail. I found myself feeling excited to be so near that place, and wondering to myself “If only it had still been there. If only I could have seen it!”

http://www.nanteos.co.uk/history.html

But what if I had? What would I have gained? What would we all gain if I could pick up a bag and produce from it the Holy Grail, the actual cup which Jesus raised at the last Supper?

There are a number of Christian answers to the issue of the Holy Grail.

We don’t need to know more about the background and history of Jesus. The past is notoriously diffident about giving us any more hard facts. We don’t need to make them up like Dan Brown or the authors of the Apocryphal Gospels did. The Gospels are all we need to know; and they give a lifetime of opportunity to read, study and grow closer to our Lord.

If we want to know about the descendants of Jesus all we need to do is look around us. Augustine of Hippo said that when we celebrate the Eucharist the Body of Christ is at the Table as well as on the Table. We are the Body of Christ. If we have faith that is all we need, and we are all the world needs.

We don’t need to seek for immortality through formulas, potions, or incantations, or even through philiosophy. Again I quote Augustine, that famous prayer of his  “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” Jesus in St John called that rest ‘eternal life’, something we experience today, but something we long for, in faith that ‘he who promises is faithful’.

We do not need the Holy Grail. We have it every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. When the Minister raises a cup of wine—be it gold, silver, pottery, wood or even polystyrene—that is the Cup of the Last Supper. If we think we need a souvenir to connect us to that original historical event, then we already have one. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we are connected to the original Supper. We might disagree on the exact relationship, but as we obey that command, we are connected in a mysterious way to the Body of Christ who celebrated the Passover with his Disciples in Jerusalem.

By all means read the thrillers and the romances. I suspect the Holy Grail will continue to exert a fascination on the human imagination. But just remember, tonight as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we have the Cup, we are the Body of Christ, and we celebrate the New and Eternal Covenant sealed in the blood of God’s precious Son, shed upon the Cross.

“Every time we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”