The Oracle

Scripture Reading

Psalm 119:104–112 (NLT)

104 Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life. 105 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. 106 I’ve promised it once, and I’ll promise it again: I will obey your righteous regulations. 107 I have suffered much, O Lord; restore my life again as you promised. 108 Lord, accept my offering of praise, and teach me your regulations. 109 My life constantly hangs in the balance, but I will not stop obeying your instructions. 110 The wicked have set their traps for me, but I will not turn from your commandments. 111 Your laws are my treasure; they are my heart’s delight. 112 I am determined to keep your decrees to the very end.

Focus Statement

While the world tries to sell us a bill of goods when it comes to our identity and morality,

the Bible is our PRIMARY source of divine and eternal truth, our identity, and our purpose.

Series Recap

In the first part of the series,

We learned of a person named John Anderson, who is a software engineer by day and a black market hacker by night.

One evening he awakes to notice words typing on his green monochrome screen...

“Wake Up Neo, the Matrix has you.”

The computer proceeds to give him instructions that lead him to a legendary hacker named Morpheus,

Who has been warning fellow hackers of the Matrix.

Neo, John Anderson’s hacker name, is told by Morpheus that all of the visible, physical world is fake...

That it is a computer software simulator that is plugged into the back of our heads…why?

So that as we dream our realities, our bodies are producing energy for machines run by artificial intelligence.

Creepy right?

We also learned that for us, the MATRIX is the current world order…and all of it’s ways....

That we are living our lives according to this world order...

When in reality, we are just slaves to a system that is going down in the end…a system that keeps us from truly knowing and FOLLOWING God.

What’s more, everything the world gives us is nothing more than an illusion...

Especially the illusion that we are in control.

Last week we learned that, outside of Jesus Christ there IS NO SPOON...

If any of this isn’t making sense, go back and watch the previous sermons on YouTube.

Point of Relation

After his experience with the boy in the living room of the apartment of the Oracle...

After realizing that there IS NO SPOON.

Neo is brought into speak with the Oracle…to find out if he is, INDEED, The One.

Okay, I have to pause here to bring you up to speed on some details that I have intentionally left out up until now.

When the movie opens up and we see the data raining down character-by-character, and we hear chatter....

That chatter is between two characters: Cypher and Trinity...

Yes, you heard me right, her name is Trinity…KEEP THAT IN MIND.

Cypher was asking her if she really thought “he” was The One.

Trinity, answered him, “It doesn’t matter what I believe.”

“You don’t do you?” Cypher quipped back.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Are you sure the line is clean?” Trinity inquired.

“Yes, the line’s clean.”

From there, skipping over a few details, we eventually come to the blank screen with the blinking cursor...

and we see the words, “Wake up, Neo. The Matrix has you.”

Those words are being typed by Trinity...

the one who tells him to follow the white Rabbit...

And, when he follows the girl with the White Rabbit tattoo to the club...

it is Trinity he meets and who introduces him to Morpheus.

So, right from the beginning, Neo is being told by Morpheus that he is The One...

Meaning, he is the Savior he and others have been waiting for…the savior prophesied about...

who would be able to not only expose the Matrix for what it is…but he would also have complete power over it...

To destroy it and bring the world back to peace and order.

To restore life and destroy the death that the machines wrought upon the earth.

In this series, you can pretty much equate Morpheus to God, Neo to Jesus Christ, and Trinity the Holy Spirit.

And, as it were, Cypher (who was just mentioned a minute ago) goes on to be the Judas character in the group.

But they don’t truly and fully fit with Christian theology because, as I have said before,

The Wachowskis are not trying to write a Christian story...

but a story that employs religion in a way that grounds it in Spirituality and philosophy.

To do so makes it inherently a HUMAN story....one that connects us to our very souls.

But, we can also relate to those characters in other ways...

We can see Morpheus, Neo (especially), and Trinity in ourselves.

So, back to Neo at the Oracle’s. He is invited in to speak with her, and she impresses him a prediction that comes true...

She tells him to watch the vase. “What vase,” Neo turns and questions, only to knock a vase over and break it.

“What will really bake your noodle later,” the Oracle proceeds, “is whether or not you would have broken the vase if I hadn’t said anything.”

The Oracle sits down and looks up at Neo.

“You know why Morpheus brought you here.” Neo nodded that he knew. “Then let me ask you, what do you think? Do you think you are the One?” The Oracle asked.

Neo, looking confused and distraught, answered, “Honestly, I don’t know.”

Pointing to a sign above Neo, a sign that read Temet Nosce (pronounced tem-et Nost-ay),

the Oracle asked Neo, “Do you know what that means? It means, ‘know yourself’. Let me tell you a little secret,” she went on,

“Being the One is a lot like being in love. No one can tell you that you are, you just know it, through and through, balls to bones .”

The Oracle then got up and inspected him like a doctor would.

She then said, “This is the part where I am supposed to say…’Ahhh, that’s interesting…but...’

“And you will ask...” the Oracle paused.

“But what?” Neo asked.

“But you already know what I am about to tell you.” She paused again.

“I’m not The One.”

“Sorry kid,” The Oracle said, “You’ve got the gift, but it looks like you are waiting for something.”

“What?” Neo inquired.

“Your next life maybe, who knows? That’s the way these things go.”

Neo, then laughed and brought up how Morhpeus almost had him convinced.

“I know,” agreed the Oracle, “Without him we’re lost.”

From there the Oracle shares that Morpheus believes that Neo is the One so much…that he is willing to sacrifice his life to prove it.

That, in fact, he will be sacrificing his life very shortly.

Things to Consider

These words from the Oracle change the course of the rest of the film...

Just as, in the same way, Scripture changes the course of our lives by pointing us in the right direction.

You may be wondering, gee, what direction did the Oracle really send him in...

That is a good question. On the surface she seemed to contradict everything he was told about himself...

And she caused him to be even more confused and unconfident in himself.

Yet, I would answer that the Oracle did set a course for him...

One of soul searching, of growth, of community, of understanding, and action.

The Bible does the very same thing for us...

And ultimately is OUR ORACLE…our PRIMARY source of divine and eternal truth and purpose.

The Bible tells us who we are, in whom we belong, and how to avoid the tricky, sticky path of Sin and Death.

It sends us on a course of soul searching, of growth, of community, and of wisdom or understanding, and action.

What Scripture Says

Today’s Scripture comes from a MUCH larger Psalm.

Pslam 119 is 176 verses in length, and it is impressive but imposing and even intimidating because of its length.

One Scholar, Claus Westerman, once said, “If a person succeeds in reading this psalm’s 176 verses one after the other at one sitting, the effect is overwhelming.”

And, of course, that is what the psalmist intends!

Because, for this pslamist, the importance of God’s instruction is overwhelming…it can’t be stressed enough.

In fact, the repetition throughout the whole of the psalm and whatnot points this Psalm possibly being written to serve as a sort of inducement for the revelation and insight it pleads for

In the verses we looked at today, the Psalmist is reminding us that God’s revelation, found in Scripture, is the TRULY reliable guide to life.

In verse 105, the Psalmist writes his most famous line of the song,

“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

Despite all that is going on to the person writing this, he is vowing to never lose sight of God’s laws and regulations.

In fact, the more under attack he feels…the more pressured to abandon God and follow the world...

The more he clings to God’s instructions even more.

He sees Scripture, including the Laws of the Torah, to be his treasure, his heart’s delight.

And he is hellbent (an odd expression in this case I know) on keeping God’s decrees to the very end.

For this Psalmist, the overwhelming urgency to read, study and FOLLOW the instructions of God, as found in the Holy Bible, is FRONT and CENTER.

There is no room for slacking off or compromise here.

The Bible…Scripture…the heart of God’s laws as found in the 10 commandments

and in Jesus’s summation of LOVING GOD and LOVING NEIGHBOR as being the two greatest commandments...

It is that which we should treasure over the ways of the world because the Holy Bible is sufficient to lead us to Jesus and to the Kingdom of Heaven.

But notice something…

nowhere in this verse does it promise that by reading, knowing, and following God’s Holy Word

will mean that it will be easy or that we will have all the answers.

The truth is, just as it was for Neo meeting the Oracle and heeding her words...

Scripture often leads us to more questions long before we start to have any answers.

The point of reading and studying the Bible is not to become Christian know-it-alls…given all the answers.

but so that we can be LED to the ONE who has ALL the ANSWERS! Amen!

What This Means for You

It is important, just as it was for Neo, to consult our Oracle…our Holy Bible…which points us to God through Jesus Christ...

Just as in the Matrix, God and the Holy Spirit are working in and through us to craft us more and more into the image of God...

As perfectly expressed and embodied in Jesus Christ.

Remember...Neo was not given answers…and he was NEVER told by the Oracle whether he was or wasn’t The One...

She simply asked him what he “knew” she would say...

And he determined it was that HE WASN’T THE ONE.

She only confirmed that while he had the talents…he was waiting for something…

Perhaps the next life.

In other word NEO was in a place where he could truly see who he was…or what his potential was.

He was waiting for all the signs…when the signs were right in front of him.

Like Neo, you too will not be given all the answers, nor will you be told who you are in the grand scheme of God’s plan for your discipleship...

You will simply be pointed to beconing a disciple and shown the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.

How you get there, and what purpose you find along the way, is between you, God and your Christian community.

What This Means for Us

For us, as the Christian Church, how do we better point people to the Bible…

so that they too can begin their journey of soul-searching, connecting with God and with others in the context of a Christian community?

For starters, we cannot teach what we don’t know.

If we are not engaging in the Bible ourselves,

then we too are lost as to the eternal, overwhelming importance of it.

Friends, the first thing we as Christians need to do is to start studying the Bible.

We have a tremendously strong Christian Education program here,

Where you can learn, grown and…eventually…lead.

You can also start your own study, perhaps one focused on being women of faith, or one focused on being med of faith...

Or one focused on any endless host of things.

Second, we need to invite other to join us...

To speak of the Bible with knowledge and passion (not overzealousness)…

Leading them to have an interest in it.

As we heard from John Galandak of the Sussex Camp of Gideons International...

The Bible has the power to transform lives, pointing the lost to Jesus Christ who IS The One! Amen?

Amen! Let us the begin to make the Bible a part of our daily practice.

I expect to see an increase in Bible Study attendance this year! LOL! Let us pray.