The Perfect Light That Does Not Set (9/1/13)

The Perfect Light that Does Not Set

John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

September 1, 2013

Gospel of Truth 2:1

All things have searched

for the one from whom

they have come.

Gospel of Truth 10:1-6

His Wisdom meditates on the Word

and his teaching speaks it,

his knowledge reveals it

and his patience is a crown upon it. 

His joy is in harmony with it

and his glory has exulted it. 

His manner has revealed it

and his rest has received it. 

His love made a body for it

and his trust has embraced it. 

In this way the Word of the Father walks in creation, as the fruit of his heart and the face of his love.  It bears all things and chooses all things, and it receives the face of all things and purifies them, bringing them back to the Father, to the Mother, Jesus of boundless sweetness. 

Gospel of Truth 17:1-16

He is the shepherd who left behind the ninety-nine sheep that had not strayed, and went and searched for the one who had gone astray.  He rejoiced when he found it, for ninety-nine is a number in the left hand which holds it.  When the one is found, the whole number moves to the right hand. In this way, what is in need of one—that is, the whole right hand—draws that which it needs and takes it from the left hand and moves it to the right so the number becomes one hundred.  This is the sign of the sound of the numbers.  This is the Father.

Even on the Sabbath he worked for the sheep he found fallen in the pit.  He saved the life of the sheep—he brought it up from the pit.  Understand this in your hearts, children of the heart’s knowledge.  For what is the sabbath?  A day on which it is inappropriate for salvation to be idle.  Speak of the day from above which has no night and of the perfect light that does not set.  Say then from the heart that you are the perfect day and within you dwells the light that never ends.  Speak of the truth with those who seek it and of knowledge with those who have sinned through their transgressions. Strengthen the feet of those who stumble and stretch your hands to those who are weak.  Feed those who are hungry and give rest to the weary. Raise those who wish to arise and awaken those who sleep—for you all are understanding drawn forth.  If strength does these things, strength becomes stronger.

Today we are looking at one of the most beautifully written texts of early Christianity, the Gospel of Truth.   Two copies were found in the Nag Hammadi collection in 1945.   Before 1945 scholars knew about the document but didn’t have a copy.   One of the church fathers, Irenaeus, condemned it as heresy and different from the gospels “the apostles handed downto us,” says Irenaeus.    

The Gospel of Truth was composed between 80 and 160 and was apparently widely read and used given the fact that Irenaeus felt the need to dispute it.   Also, finding two copies at Nag Hammadi that are divergent provide evidence that that the Gospel of Truth was copied and distributed.   

We should take a moment and talk about heresy and Gnosticism.  Hal Taussig has an excellent chapter on this in his book, A New New Testament:  A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts.    I am not going into this in depth except to say that when I was in seminary I learned church history this way.  First was the orthodox version of Jesus as preserved in the New Testament and handed down by the apostles.  Then the heretics took over, some were too Jewish on one hand and others too Greek or Gnostic on the other.   Orthodoxy was neither and travelled the narrow path of truth between these two divergent paths.

Now scholars of early Christian origins are saying this isn’t the case.   There was no pure form of Christianity at the beginning.   There were many divergent streams from the start.   It was only later that the story of origins began to be told in such a way that there was one true apostolic path that was later distorted by various errors. 

This is important because modern Christians have often dismissed important texts in our past, such as the Gospelof Truth, because it is supposedly heresy or gnostic.     If, however, we look at these texts as reflecting the early diversity of Christianity, we can read them not as error or heresy but as early attempts to make sense of their experience.    In fact, we may find that their viewpoints have resonance with twenty-first century Christians.    That has been my personal discovery.   This Gospel of Truthmakes some sense to me. 

Also the word gnostic or Gnosticism is less than helpful in describing these texts. It assumes that there was a uniform gnostic movement or philosophy.  That doesn’t seem to be the case.   Rather than invent some theory and call it Gnosticism and then try to fit these texts into this invented philosophy, it might be more helpful just to look at these early texts and try to understand what they are saying on their own terms.    Rather than label it, just read it. And as spiritual leaders will say, let it read you.

So what does the Gospel of Truth say?

The Gospel of Truth is not like the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Mary, Luke, or John, in that there is no narrative.  It is not a story about Jesus.  It is more like a sermon or a letter or a poem.  It has all of those elements but does not quite fit any of those forms.      

A key statement to this gospel is this sentence:

All things have searched for the one from whom they have come.  2:1

The “Father” in the Gospel of Truth is the symbol for truth and knowledge.   

The text says, “All things were within him.”  2:2

That sounds a lot like the Gospel of John.  So what happened?   Why are we messed up?  The Gospel of Truth says:

“Ignorance of the Father produced disturbance and fear, and disturbance enveloped like a mist so that one was able to see.  In this way Transgression found strength, and she fashioned materiality with emptiness.  She did not know the truth and became a molded form, preparing—in power and beauty—a substitute for truth. “  2:3-5

Transgression is personified as a she and she causes forgetfulness and fear.      That is why we suffer.   We live in a mist of forgetfulness and fear.   But the story isn’t over…

“Through the hidden mystery, Jesus Christ shone to the ones in the darkness of forgetfulness.  He enlightened them and showed them a way. The way he taught them is truth.”  4:3

Again, it sounds a lot like the Gospel of John.   Then Transgression becomes angry and nails him to a tree.   Here is how the Gospel of Truthunderstands the cross:

“He was nailed to a tree and became the fruit of the Father’s knowledge.  It did not cause destruction when it was eaten, but it caused those who ate it to come into being and find contentment within its discovery.  And he discovered them in himself, and they discovered him in themselves—the uncontainable, the unknowable Father, the one who is full and made all things.  All things are in him and all things have need of him.”   4:5-8

Then, the text says that after being nailed to the tree…

He drew himself down from death, clothing himself in never-ending life.  He stripped off the perishable rags and put on imperishability, which no one can take away from him.   6:9-11

Then, it says…

“When he entered empty ways of fear, he passed through those stripped by forgetfulness.  He is knowledge and fullness, and he promises the things that are in the heart and teaches those who learn.  And those who will learn are the living who are written in the book of the living.  They learn about themselves and receive instruction from the Father and return to him again.” 7:1-4

The work of Jesus then is to bring people to enlightenment, to knowledge, to bring them out of the mist of forgetfulness and ignorance and to discover their true nature as children of the Father.   

Listen to how beautifully written this is:

His Wisdom meditates on the Word

and his teaching speaks it,

his knowledge reveals it

and his patience is a crown upon it. 

His joy is in harmony with it

and his glory has exulted it. 

His manner has revealed it

and his rest has received it. 

His love made a body for it

and his trust has embraced it. 

In this way the Word of the Father walks in creation, as the fruit of his heart and the face of his love.  It bears all things and chooses all things, and it receives the face of all things and purifies them, bringing them back to the Father, to the Mother, Jesus of boundless sweetness. 

Imagine this, that Jesus, the Word of the Father, is constantly present walking through creation dissolving ignorance, revealing what has been hidden, bringing you and me to a fuller sense of who we are as human beings.   Like a Bodhisattva, Jesus uses skill and means to bring us to awareness of our true nature.   There are parallels between the Gospel of Truth and other texts of various spiritual traditions.    If spirituality is about awakening from slumber, clearing the fog, making the dark light, discovering joy, the Gospel of Truth is all about that. 

When we think about the various things we do, like going to school, or going to church, or reading, or listening to music, or making music, or reading poetry or writing it, or doing our work, what are we doing?   We talk to our therapist.  We search for our genealogy.  Our scientists look through their telescopes and microscopes and tell us what they found.  What are they doing, and what are we doing when we learn from them, if not what theGospel of Truth says:

“All things have searched for the one from whom they have come.” 

They, we, all are searching from whom or what we have come.   We go for walks. We meditate.  We have conversations with others.     Why do we do all of that?  Are we not, if we think about it, really searching for who we are?  Are we not searching for our place?   Are we not searching for what it is we are “supposed to be doing?”   I often hear people say, “I am trying to understand what I am supposed to be doing.”    There is an assumption there in just the use of the phrase “supposed to” that there is a goal for this quest.     It isn’t an empty quest.  There is a finding for the seeking.    There is a sense, even if provisional, of saying, “This is where I am and who I am and I am OK.”   Isn’t that the spiritual revelation? 

Somehow in this quest, in this search, I trust am not alone.   The Universe, God, Life, Jesus, Buddha, whatever, is on my side.   The way of walking through this quest is a way of trust.   You trust that you will get what you need when you need it.   It requires an openness, a willingness to check it out.    I am not being spooky here.  You can have a completely naturalistic point of view toward life and be open to wonder, the unexpected, the surprise.    It is an openness to the reality that the Universe is bigger than you and there is stuff yet to learn.   This learning is not intellectual alone.  It is learning with the whole of one’s being.    You have to have some confidence, some trust, to take the risk and make the quest.

That is the opposite of sitting the mist of forgetfulness and fear, as theGospel of Truth puts it.   In the mist of forgetfulness and fear we are told that we are consumers.  We are told that we are violent and greedy.   We are told there isn’t enough.   We are told that we aren’t enough.  We are given false choices:  be violent or be a victim.   We are sinful and bad.    We can go on for some time about how that metaphor of the mist of forgetfulness and fear applies to us as individuals or as a society or as human beings.  

What I found encouraging in this Gospel of Truth as I have really just begun to read it, is how optimistic it is about the possibility of dissolving that mist.   I don’t know about you, but there are times when I need a little optimism in my life.    This week I have been absorbed with the news out of Syria and the possibility response of military strikes by the United States and I wonder, is this the best humanity has to offer?   Is this our epitaph?  Will this be on our gravestone should someone be around to engrave it?

“Here lies Humanity.  Inventors of plastic.  These creative creatures unfortunately destroyed themselves and the planet with greed, fear, forgetfulness and sophisticated weapons.”

So, yes, I could use a little optimism.   The Gospel of Truth says don’t go there.   Don’t stay in the mist.  There is more to humanity than the making of plastic and weapons of mass destruction.    We are not consumers, sullen and greedy, who only know how to be violent or to be a victim.   No, says theGospel of Truth, here is who you are:

Understand this in your hearts, children of the heart’s knowledge.  For what is the sabbath?  A day on which it is inappropriate for salvation to be idle. Speak of the day from above which has no night and of the perfect light that does not set.  Say then from the heart that you are the perfect day and within you dwells the light that never ends.  Speak of the truth with those who seek it and of knowledge with those who have sinned through their transgressions.  Strengthen the feet of those who stumble and stretch your hands to those who are weak.  Feed those who are hungry and give rest to the weary.  Raise those who wish to arise and awaken those who sleep—for you all are understanding drawn forth.  If strength does these things, strength becomes stronger.  17:7-16

Now that is some spiritual literature.

“You are the perfect day and within you dwells the light that never ends.”

The instruction is to speak of it.   Talk about that.  Tell that truth.   Talk about the perfect light that does not set.    Speak of truth to those who seek.    This instruction is to all of us.   We are to speak of the light.  Speak of it to your neighbors, to your friends, to your students, to your family, to your children, to your parents, everyone.   How do we do this?  How do we speak of the light?  Here is an example:

This past week in the midst of wars and rumors of war we were reminded of a dream.   Fifty years ago on the mall in Washington D.C. a young preacher, weary but hopeful, told a restless and cynical nation that we could rise up beyond our differences, our prejudices, our pettiness, our fear and our forgetfulness and that we could be the nation our founders dreamed for us.  We could live out the meaning of our creed.  

He reminded us that we are human beings.   We are bigger and better than the smallness of mind and the cowardice of heart that at times shows its ugliness.   We aren’t that.    

We don’t need to be a Martin Luther King to speak of the light.  We just need to talk about the dream.  Talk about our own dream and to do our best to follow it ourselves.  We are the dream.  We are the light. 

• We are the light of generosity that gives freely to the neighbor and to the stranger.  
• We are the light of laughter that erupts from the joy of reunion of separated friends.  
• We are the light of courage that stands and supports those who are put down.  
• We are the light of forgiveness that admits our faults and shortcomings, so we can honestly seek reconciliation with those who have hurt us. 
• We are the light of hope that sees the possibility of transformation and renewed relationships. 
• We are the light of compassion that feels the hurt of others as our own and comforts. 
• We are the light of knowledge and intelligence and creativity that finds a way out of no way. 
• We are the light of peace that builds a society and a world that is peaceful for all people because it is just for all people.    
• We are the light of strength.  This light is the nature of reality itself.  We are not alone. 
• We are the light of strength that can do these things, because it is who we are. 

 And that is the truth.

Amen.