From The Secret Revelation of John
“Demolishing Gnosticism” in After Jesus: Before Christianity (Westar)
Today’s scripture is from a book most of us have never read, The Secret Revelation of John. It begins by asking questions every first century follower of Jesus must have asked: How was the Savior appointed? Why was he sent into the word by his father who sent him? How is his father? And of what sort is that aeon to which we will go? He told us that the aeon is modeled on that indestructible aeon, but he did not teach us about what sort the latter is.
Christianity has answers to those questions, but Christianity didn’t exist in the first century. The people who were attracted to Jesus and his teachings were just beginning to figure out answers, and they came to a variety of responses. One of those is in the second part of our reading: “The Unity…is pure light. It is the Spirit. It is not appropriate to think about It as God or that It is something similar. For It surpasses divinity. It is a dominion having nothing to rule over it.” We recognize the idea that the being whom we call God is greater than all that is. Many strands of those who thought and taught about Jesus would answer in a similar way. They reflected a strand of thinking in their time which believed there was a pure, holy existence of which our earth is an imperfect mirror. Those who gain divine knowledge can see the qualities of that existence and after death participate in it. Over time some parts of that thinking have been labeled Gnosticism (for the Greek word gnosis which means knowledge).
In the last seventy years, particularly as more ancient manuscripts have been discovered, scholars have studied Gnosticism. They’ve written thick books about it. I’ve taught adult education classes about it. To start with Gnosticism was a traditional heresy – seen as a branch of Jesus followers in opposition to true Christianity. In the fourth and fifth centuries its theology was denounced and driven out of the orthodoxy of Christianity. More recently as more of the writings have become available to more people, folks have seen some ideas as commendable.
Today’s chapter in our book has a shocking suggestion: Gnosticism doesn’t exist. At least it doesn’t exist as an identifiable movement separate from the Jesus movement which became Christianity. Gnosticism isn’t a wrong way to be Christian. The writings we identify as Gnostic were a part of the rich, varied soup which eventually produced what we know as early Christianity. And over the years they were written out of what leaders determined were acceptable ways of thinking about Jesus. In the beginning there weren’t Gnostics. There weren’t Christians. There were just people attracted to Jesus’ teachings and trying to figure out what it all meant.
Today’s scripture opens with a Pharisee telling John that Jesus was a false teacher, turning people against the tradition. That too was part of the conversation. Was Jesus a reformer in the tradition of Abraham, or was he leading people astray from that tradition? Was he a good Jew or a trouble maker? Was he a Martin Luther? A John Calvin? Or a cult leader confusing followers with lies? In the first century that was a real question and people spent time and energy trying to find answers. Just as people have always spent time and energy looking for answers to spiritual questions. Finding those answers is always an evolutionary process and always related to the moment in which it takes place. Religions begin in cultural and historical settings which impact their stories and their theology. Religions, if they are living, evolve.
We live in a moment when Christianity as a religion is facing significant change. When I was a child, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States had a major social and political influence. They elected their members to congress. They were a driving force in support of civil rights, fair housing, and other reforms. Today that influence has shifted to the Evangelicals. This is a theological shift in the ways we understand the teachings of Jesus and it has an impact on political policy.
Most of us can remember when churches were full of families, when community leaders were expected to be church leaders, when confirmation was more important than school activities. None of that is true anymore. The fastest growing church affiliation in our time is “none.” Many of the political issues that divide us have roots in vast differences in how we think about God and humanity. Lots of people are uncomfortable with these significant changes and long for the “good old days.” But in reality there are no “good old days” when the church was exactly like we remember it because in every generation the church has been changing.
There is a thought in our faith that God never changes. I’m not going to tackle that one today. But I can guarantee that the way people think about God changes – with cultural change, with the advancement of science and technology, with major events (wars, earthquakes, volcanoes). Some say we should go back to the “purity” of the way Christianity has always been because that’s what God wants. But there is no way Christianity has always been. There has always been variety. This week Pope Francis criticized conservative American Catholicism for being too slow to change. Even the Pope understands that a living faith responds to contemporary realities. Even Christianity can change and grow.
The key questions are those our scripture today starts with: Who is Jesus? Why was he here? What did he tell us about life? Just like in the first century, there are going to be varieties of ways to answer these important questions. We don’t need to find the one right answer, but we can hold that variety as possibility. How is it that we as Family of God intend to follow Jesus in our moment in history and allow his teaching to shape our lives?
We’ve already begun to answer that, and our answer is evolving. We aren’t the same as we were ten years ago before we came together, five years ago before the pandemic, or even this time last year. We’re not the same as we’ll be a year from now. Life is going to keep on changing, but we have the opportunity to shape that change. We get to say what matters to us and what values we’ll follow. We get to choose what we’ll do and with whom we’ll do it. We’ve already made some good choices. What will we choose next?
I’m going to suggest that when we finish this book in a month, we take a fresh look at the teachings of Jesus and think together about who we are and how we serve. I hope you’ll join me in that adventure.