Rev. Dave, like many of you, knows very little about The Da Vinci Code. He has not read the book. He may or may not see the movie. He leaves for his day job as an attorney every morning at 6:30 a.m. and misses most of the media hype about the release of the movie this weekend. However, many of Dave’s clients know that he has another life as a United Methodist minister. On Monday morning, what will Rev. Dave say to the person who meets him at the water cooler, and says, “So, Dave, I saw that movie this weekend, The Da Vinci Code, is it real?”

My husband, Bob, like many of you, has not read the book; but, does see the movie this weekend. I tell him that I am planning to preach on the Code this Sunday; so, when I announce that we have Friday evening tickets, he says, “Yes, dear!” Bob leaves the theater that evening, saying, “What a great story!” What is Bob going to say to Brian, one of his twenty-something engineers-in-training, when they meet at the coffee pot on Monday morning? Knowing that Bob is a practicing Christian, even married to a female pastor, Brian asks, “So, Bob, is it real? The code, you know, is it real?”

You, on the other hand, may have read the book and seen the movie. You may have attended the Christian Connection classes. You may have heard the arguments about the books of the Bible and those “other” gospels, the ones that hint at a close relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

You may have even taken curiosity a step further, purchasing one of the myriad books about The Da Vinci Code, either confirming or debunking the claims of the novel. You may have ratcheted up your own scholarship, going online to read the Gospel of Philip. You may done some research into church history and have an opinion about biblical scholarship or church councils.

What are you going to say tomorrow to your colleague at the water cooler, or to your neighbor over the backyard fence, or to your walking partner in the morning, or to the coach at the soccer game, when they ask, knowing that you attend a church, “So, _________, is it real?”

Now, don’t answer that question yet! Freeze the action. Step back. Get some perspective. How do we understand the phenomenon of forty-six million book sales? How do we interpret the hyper-media attention over the release of the movie?

Let me suggest a framework.

I am studying postmodernism at Drew University as a part of my Doctor of Ministry program. This lens is framing new questions about the life of faith. What are the signs of this emerging age? How is grace made known in this changing culture?

Walter Truett Anderson writes that “we are in the midst of a great, confusing, stressful, and enormously promising historical transition, and it has to do with a change not so much in WHAT we believe as in HOW we believe.” (Walter Truett Anderson, ed. The Truth About the Truth)

The preceding modern age assumes that knowledge is objective and able to discern absolute truth. This assumption is now being called into question. Today, technology is changing the way knowledge is shared. In this multicultural, pluralistic world, we are exposed to a babble of contradictory stories. As a result, we experience what is called, “an overexposure to otherness” in the relentless and ever-increasing flow of information. (2) Surrounded by so many truths, we can’t help but revise the concept of truth itself.

So the way we use language is changing. We de-construct everything, like peeling away the layers of an onion. We question tradition. We don’t trust authority. We suspect institutions.

In this new age, each of us becomes a “perspectivist”, always clarifying our own perspective in the midst of difference. We suspect that every one has an agenda, whether they can define it or not. Therefore, conversation becomes polarized. We criticize those who claim to have the truth.

As a sign of postmodernism, the word, truthiness, is named Word of the Year in 2005 by the American Dialect Society. It is an old word that is re-invented by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert. He spoofs the way politicians insist that what they feel and want to be true must be treated as true, no matter the facts.

It is the phenomenon of truthiness that best accounts for the extraordinary success of The Da Vinci Code. (The Christian Century, May 16, 2006)

In a culture saturated with information, none of us is immune to the allure of truthiness. Besides the torrent of books, movies, radio voices, television shows, magazines, and newspapers, we must now take into account the World Wide Web, 24/7 news shows, 200 channel channels, video gaming, DVDs and iPods.

It’s tiring to keep up with even a few of these media. Our attention is stretched thin. As we shoot the rapids of hyper-media, we are often forced back onto our intuition, on some sense of what “feels true.”

Enter The Da Vinci Code into the world of truthiness.

Two of Dan Brown’s previous books are techno-thrillers that also delve into hidden worlds. The books are praised for Brown’s research into realms that very few readers know about but are important to their everyday lives. All laptop-using readers of Digital Fortress can relate to concerns about the security of computers. And readers of Deception Point have seen rocket launches and know about the search for life on other planets. Whether or not the books are accurate, they seem plausible and “truthy” to non-experts.

If science gives Brown’s books a magnetism, he soon discovers that religion serves that end even more dramatically. Built into the plot of The Da Vinci Code is the thesis that the central figure of the world’s most populous and most powerful religion does not actually die on a cross, but survives, marries Mary Magdalene and sires children. Controversy is guaranteed.

A pastor friend tells me that in his congregation the people most drawn to The Da Vinci Code tend to be folk who think they have a reason to be suspicious of the Roman Catholic Church. He says that the book appeals to those who feel that the church harbors something shady at its depths.

Just a scan of the 3000 customer reviews at Amazon.com echoes this opinion. One reader, in light of recent scandals and secrecy says, “With all that is going on in the Catholic Church today, it makes you wonder if some of the fiction is actually true.”

But in a culture of truthiness, actual evidence or contrary details are readily ignored.

At the heart of the story of The Da Vinci Code is a supposition that Leonardo da Vinci in his fresco of the Last Supper, depicts John, who sits at the right of Jesus, as a woman, as Mary Magdalene. And the conspiracy theories unfold from there.

According to the Bible, Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the new life of the risen Jesus. According to the novel, and suggested in other Christian writings, she was the first among the disciples and leader of the movement.

However, my hope is not to get you to read this book but to encourage common ground by seeking higher ground as you talk with your family, friends, and colleagues.

The phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code proves that when people think about Jesus, their thoughts are generally positive. People respect him for what they believe he stands for, even if they don’t know his teachings. People are simply open to talking about Jesus.

The barrier to conversation is mistrust of the church. People are open to Jesus; but not to the church. In the age of “truthiness”, Christianity is perceived as a religion with a political agenda.

If we want to be authentic, we need to confess that religion has not always played a positive role. It has too often been divisive. Religion is often used as a sword to hurt, rather than a balm to heal. .

How can we be real at the water cooler when people ask questions about the Christian faith?

We listen. We ask questions. We open the conversation instead to trying to defend what we believe.

“So, Dave, I saw that movie this weekend, The Da Vinci Code, is it real?”

“You know, I’ve not had the chance to see the movie; but I have heard a little bit about the novel. What did you think about it?”

“So, Bob, is it real? The code, you know, is it real?”

“Janet and I went to see the movie on opening night. We enjoyed it. What do you think about the way Jesus is portrayed?”

“So, _______, is it real?”

“My goodness, this movie is generating a lot of conversation. I’m curious about what you think. How about a latte? I’ll buy.”

The Da Vinci Code is telling us important things about the image of Jesus that is being portrayed by many Christian voices. People are not finding that portrayal to be genuine, so they are looking for something that seems more real and authentic. They are looking for someone to trust. That someone might be you.

Scott Wesson of our Christian Connection class writes, “I have hope that the swirling eddies surrounding this movie and the dialogue created by the (original) book, will move many to what may have been a lost dialogue. And that is good news!

People are looking for someone to listen. That someone might be you.

Dan Brown’s novel plays perfectly into the postmodern culture and to the allure of truthiness.

But, however much it consumes our attention at the moment, The Da Vinci Code is a sand castle on the beach, one that will soon erode and melt from view.

The far more pressing challenge and the one that will not go away, is how we who are admirers, friends, followers, disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ will shape a real community in a world more and more susceptible to truthiness.

People are looking someone to be their spiritual friend. That someone might be you.