The Gospel According to Harry Potter

Matthew 9: 9-13

 

Harry Potter has become a household name these days.  Even if you haven’t seen the movies or read the books, you are aware on some level of the Harry Potter craze.  The books’ author J.K. Rowling was unemployed and living on welfare when she began writing this novel on scraps of paper at the local café as her infant daughter napped.  The magic she describes in her books has actually happened to her… The first two books alone, sold 2 million copies in the UK and 5 million in the United States.

          Harry Potter has received a lot of criticism from the religious right—saying it is wrong to paint a positive picture of wizards and witches.  But there are many people, myself included, who are convinced that Harry is not evil.  He doesn’t worship Satan.  He doesn’t subvert goodness or undermine morality.  Quite the opposite.  Listen to some quotes from Harry:  “It is our choices that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  “You place too much importance on the so-called purity of blood.  You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”

Well, who is this Harry?  We know his life is going to be less than tolerable with relatives named the Dursleys.  There is Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and their spoiled bratty son, Dudley.  Since his parent’s death, Harry has been forced to live in their house in a spider ridden closet under the stairs.  But as his 11^th birthday approaches all this is about to change.  The Hogwarts School of Wizardry tries to contact Harry by mail but his aunt and uncle keep the letter from him.  They board up the mail slot and even move to a deserted castle to keep Harry from finding out who he really is.  But the gentle giant Hagrid finds Harry to deliver the news that Harry is a wizard.

Now you may be wondering what all this has to do with the church and the gospel—since the title for today’s sermon is “The Gospel—according to Harry Potter.”  ‘Gospel’ is anglo saxon translation of the Greek word, evangelion which means good news.  It is used to refer to what Jesus said and did.  Sometimes it is used to describe Jesus himself, and of course the first four books of the New Testament that chronicle Jesus’ life, are called gospels.

          It’s interesting that the earliest manuscripts of our four New Testament gospels have no titles—no identity of the author.  Probably no one person produced a gospel.  Instead, our gospels were the result of a whole community giving shape to their memory and experience of Jesus.  Later the gospels became associated with the names of some of the disciples in order to give them authority.

          Have you ever wondered why we have four gospels instead of just one?  I mean, after all, Jesus lived one life.

Each gospel represents a unique portrait of Jesus.  There were actually several gospels of the life of Jesus, but only 4 made it into the New Testament.  The reason these 4 did is because they rang true, they resonated, with the church’s experience of Jesus.

And so today, when we say something is the ‘gospel truth’ or we use phrases like, ‘the gospel according to’ we are indicating that there is something in a book or a concept or a person’s life that rings true or resonates with human experience.

What can we learn from Harry Potter that rings true to the gospel of Jesus Christ and resonates in our own experience?   Hagrid calls Harry’s aunt and uncle Muggles.  Muggles are non-magic folk.  Now, I have to say, I have a particular affinity with Hagrid, as a fellow motorcycle rider.  Hagrid tells Harry, “It’s your bad luck you grew up in a family o’ the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on.”

I think there are some Christians who are Muggles.  Christians who have lost a sense of the mystery and miracle of God.  The Enlightenment and the age of reason turned all of us into Muggles to some degree. I am not suggesting that we go back to the Dark Ages, but Quantum Physics is more a believer in mystery than we are as Enlightenment Christians.

This is the season of Pentecost, and just a few weeks ago we read a powerful story full of mystery and miracle of the coming of the Holy Spirit.  On Pentecost the Holy Spirit burst into the lives of the disciples like Hagrid.  Instead of a motorcycle and smoke, there was wind and fire.  And the disciples were filled with a power unlike any wizard’s wand.

It amazes me that people would get all bent out of shape about the supernatural in Harry Potter books and call it unchristian.  Take a look at what happens in the book of Acts after Pentecost:  prison doors fly open in the middle of the night and set the disciples free, visions of sheets floating down from heaven, Damascus road experiences with voices and blinding light, people being transported from one geographical location to another by an angel, instead of a Nimbus 2000. Sisters and brothers, we need to reclaim our heritage as people who believe and practice the mystery and miracles of God!

 

 

Probably the biggest resonance we find in Harry Potter is this: ALL OF US ARE MORE THAN WE THINK.  Harry lived his life in a closet under a staircase.  He thought he was only an orphan and glad to at least have a roof over his head.  He put up with all kinds of abuse from his aunt and uncle and cousin.  He was always being threatened by his uncle to keep his wizardry under wraps.  In the beginning, Harry denied his true self, kept himself small in order to survive.

His aunt and uncle could not hold back who Harry was to become.  They tried silencing and shutting out the news of Harry’s true identity, but they could not.  There was a force at work much larger than their fear and small mindedness, and it burst beyond the barriers they had erected and set Harry free.

My friends, God’s Spirit works like that.  God’s Holy Spirit animates and enlivens us to be not wizards, but Sons and Daughters of the Living God.  Trouble is, we keep ourselves small.  We don’t quite know what to do with the power of God that dwells within us.  We may even be afraid of what will happen to our carefully constructed identities if we give ourselves over to this transforming liberating power.

Nelson Mandela has said that it is our light, not our darkness that we are afraid of.  Our playing small doesn’t serve anybody. Jesus knew this when he called Matthew in our gospel lesson for today.  Matthew, who thought he was just a tax collector, gave himself over to the transforming power of Jesus.  Jesus was simply walking by and uttered two words “Follow me.”  And without discussion, or hesitation, Matthew got up, and followed Jesus.  That action changed Matthew’s life forever, and an entire gospel is associated with his name.

Well, Harry does go to Hogwarts School despite his aunt and uncle.  But he doesn’t stay there.  He returns, a different person, to his aunt and uncle’s house.  Listen to some parting words the head wizard, Dumbledore, shares with him: 

“Your mother died to save you…love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark.  Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”

Not only is there this miraculous power that dwells within us as God’s children, there is also a deep abiding love that sustains us as we move through the world of Muggles, living out our true identity.  Amen