Are You A Gnostic without Knowing It?
Rev. Ted Tollefson February 7, 2010 UU Society of River Falls, WI

I. Prologue
Do you follow your hunches?
Remember your dreams?
Solve problems with help from sudden insights or “aha!” moments ?
Do you trust yourself?
Keep a journal? meditate? cultivate your “inner Light”?
Do you believe that a clear intent can help you live the life you
dream of living?
Then you could be a “Gnostic” without knowing it.

II. Many Christainities, not just One
Most of us came to Unitarian Universalism from Christian churches.
The “no's” that we said to the churches of our childhood were liberating,
but they may leave us with a misleading impression:
that we are necessarily opposed to all forms of Christianity.

When we turn out thoughtful attention to the ancient world
in the first three centuries following the ministry of Jesus
there were many Christainities, not just one.
The churches that many of us attended in childhood
derive their authority from the church which Peter and Paul founded in Rome.
This version of Christianity had the fortune and the also misfortune,
of becoming the offical religion of the Roman Empire
during the reign of the Emperor Constantine.
This version of Christianity---
which reduced faith to “correct and obedient belief”,
emphasized human sin, and encouraged true believers
to place their trust in external hierarchies of power and privilege---
is still repellent to many Unitarian Universalists.
But there were at least two lively competing Christianities
in the first three or four centures AD.
One might be called “practical Christianity”.
It based itself on the life and teachings of Jesus,
not the mystery religion founded by Peter and Paul.
It sought to practice loving kindness in this world
and to establish peace and justice without violence.
This “practical Christianity” is well summarized
by Jesus sayings collected in the Sermon on the Mount
and also the closing words we say each Sunday,
adapted from Paul's Letter to the Thessolonians:
Go out into the world in peace.
Have Courage.
Question Everything.
Hold onto what is Good.
Return to no person evil for evil.
Strengthen the faint-hearted.
Support the weak.
Help the suffering.
Honor all beings.
Our commitment to live these principles is well documented
by our support to our local homeless shelters, free clinics, food shelves...
We will, I hope, continue to be good neighbors and allies
to all those who practice the Law of Love that Jesus proclaimed and lived.

Today I want to introduce you to another branch of the Christian family,
a mystical form of early Christianity called “the Gnostics”.
They took their guidance from the secret teachings of Jesus
and their direct experience of the Light within.
They placed their faith in human goodness
and looked at Jesus as a reminder of their own spiritual gifts.
Their loosely organized communities
and delight in the free play of the religious imagination
makes them our “second cousins”:
both like and unlike us but joined by the same irrational bonds of affection
that keep all families connected.

III. Three Tickets to a Better World: Faith, Doubt, Gnosis

In the first three centuries following the ministry of Jesus
there were three forms of trustworthy knowing,
three tickets to a better self, world or world view.

Perhaps the best known to many of us as faith (Greek: Pistis).
Though some Biblical scholars now claim that “passionate conviction”
or “heartfelt conviction” might have been a better translation,
St. Jerome chose instead to translate the Aramaic/Herbrew “faith” as “belief”.
This unfortunate choice stripped away the lively connections
between intellect, heart and will that might unify the soul.
By the time that the Emperor Constantine gave the Roman Church
his imperial stamp of approval,
faith had become for all practical purposes “correct and obedient belief”.
Those of us growing up in a Catholic or Protestant church
repeated a creed most Sunday services:
“I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth
and in his only begotten Son, Jesus...”
(Nicene Creed, 325 AD; Council of Constantinople 381 AD).
Even though most Christians don't understand these words
and can't give a coherent explanation of the Trinity,
it's enough to mouth the words and pretend to believe.

There was a second path to trustworthy knowing in the ancient world
that came from Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
They called it knowledge (Greek: Theoria)
and the method of arriving at it called dialogue or dialectic.
We call it Reason, Creative Doubt or Critical Thinking.
The key is to test truths we receive from tradition
by checking for internal contradictions (A and -A cannot both be true)
or finding a single counter-example.
This impulse to test received truths
also shows up in our closing words, adapted from Thessolonians:
“test everything” or “question everything”.
A clear, if silly, example comes from the writings of Aristotle.
Aristotle proclaims that since men are the primary sex
they must have more teeth than women.
How did he arrive at this idea?
Why didn't he ask Mrs. Aristotle to open her mouth, count her teeth,
and then reverse roles?
Kristen and I did this experiment in truth-testing last night:
she has 32 teeth; I have 24.
Go home and count again, Mr. Aristotle!

The Gnostics practiced a third path to trustworthy knowing: “Gnosis”.
Gnosis is first-hand knowing, not second or third hand.
It is knowing that comes from direct personal experience,
not an external or social authority.
Gnosis is often translated as “insight” or “awakening”
or “inward illumination”---the kind of “aha moments”
that give us access to self-evident truths:
things we know with a felt sense
but don't know how we know.

An example of Gnosis comes from breathing:
I breathe in and become aware that I am alive.
I breathe out and become aware how my life is connected to your life.

This pre-reflective, intuitive way of knowing is closely akin
to the Buddhists called “bodhi” (light, enlightenment, awakening).
It is this experience that makes one a “Buddha” --- an awakened being.
It's possible that the Gnostics were either influenced by Buddhism
or re-created the core experience of Buddhist practice
clothed in the robes of Biblical religion.
St. Thomas is revered in India as the founder of the Christian church of India.
Some authors claim that the lost years of Jesus were spent in India,
mastering the tools of Buddhist meditation
that later trans-formed him into “Yeshua Buddha”.
IV. Major Themes of Gnosticism: God and Community
If we step back from the particularities of their ways of knowing,
we can see broad thematic patterns
that differentiated the Gnostics from the orthodox Church of Rome
and link them to Unitarian Universalists.

From the time of Councils of Nicea (325 AD) andn Constantinople (381 AD)
orthodox Chrianity offered its followers
three authorized images of God:
God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Unitarians have argued for centuries
that this formula is nowhere explicitely named in the Jesus sayings.
Jesus uses many metaphors for the Divine---
Father, Spirit, Heaven, Mystery, Secret, Light, Power
and often speaks of himself as the “Son of Man”.

The Gnostics, because they were driven by personal revelation
rather than external church policies
developed a wide, and some would say wild plurality of God images.
The spoke of the Divine as Father and also Mother Wisdom,
as Light, Heaven, Power, Mystery, 'Thunder Perfect Mind”,
a Wheel with Three Spokes (Grace, Fate, Will)
and even a being with the head of a chicken!
Some Gnostic authors depict the creator of this world
as a Demi-urge, a bumbling creator or trickster
who rarely got a design perfected before going into full production.
The Gnostics, like many Unitarians, delighted in the play
of free religious imagination
and were resistent to attempts to standardize their visions.

Imperial Christianity established orderly pyramids of power and privilege
which mirrored and sanctioned the structure of the Roman Empire.
It taught people to distrust themselves because they were sinners
and turn to external authorities to shape their beliefs
and administer the sacraments
that could buy a ticket to Heaven.
The Pope instructed Cardinals,
the Cardinals instructed Bishops,
Bishops ruled over Priests,
Priests instructed Husbands,
Husbands ruled over wives,
wives instructed their children.
It was an orderly and efficient pyramid of power
that rewarded conformity, obedience and submission
or as we use to say, those willing to 'pray, pay and obey'.

The Gnostics had more fluid, self-organized communities.
Because anyone could be moved by the Spirit,
they rarely established vast hierarchies of authority.
They valued the spiritual authority of women and men:
Mary Magdalene and Thomas both wrote highly revered gospels.
In some Gnostic communities, roles were assigned by lottery:
one would preach the sermon next week,
another would lead the liturgy.
And there would be room left for those moved by the Spirit
to share their visions aloud.

Does the Gnostics' delight in a plurality of God-images
and in fluid, non-hierarhical communities sounds familiar?
I hope so.
I suspect that once we got used to visions taking the place of honor
that we often reserve for announcements or joys and concerns
many of us might feel quite at home among our second cousins,
the ancient Gnostics.

Gnostic self-reliance was not a good fit
for the church-state partnership
that was trying to shore up the Roman Empire.
They were not politically compliant.
They did not kiss the ring.
They did not 'pay, pray and obey'.
Bishop Ireneus called the Gnostics names
that Unitarians have sometimes been called:
“Heretics” “Unbelievers” “Atheists”.
Are you a Gnostic without knowing it?



V. Digging Deeper: The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

Who is Jesus? And how is he related to his followers?

If we want to dig a little deeper into the Gnostic tradition,
we need to choose a particular Gnostic text.
I've chosen the “Gospel of Thomas”
which many scholars now believe is the oldest existing gospel,
perhaps the closest to the oral collection of Jesus sayings
which scholars call “Q”.
My selections from Thomas are drawn from the book memory,
but informed by a wonderful on-line translation at
the web-site of The Gnostic Society:
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html.

Who is Jesus according to the Gospel of Thomas?
He is the twin of Thomas, his mentor, his teacher, his beloved friend.
He is a mirror that reflects back the light of his friends and disciples
not a window into the grand cathedral
that Church of the Roman Empirem was busy constructing.

Listen to what Thomas calls the “Living Jesus”:
“Those who drink from my cup become me and I become them...
and what is hidden will be disclosed” (Saying #106)
What is important is not separate personalities
but the Light that shines thru them.

At the seminary where I have taught for almost 20 years,
it is often presumed that one has either a “high Christology”
(Jesus is way above sinful humankind)
or a “low Christology”
(Jesus is more like than unlike us).
When asked, I usually say that my Christology or Buddhology
is neither high nor low, neither male nor female.
My Unitarian Universalist Chrisology/Buddhology is trans-parent:
its purpose is to let the One Light shine through from both directions
that we might come to more fully know who we are
and why we are here.

The Kingdom of Heaven
A second important question that differentiates the Gospel of Thomas
from the orthrodox Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John
is where or what is the Kingdom of Heaven?

The Gnostic Jesus takes up this question in one of his first declarations:
“If your leaders say the Kingdom of Heaven [or your Father] is in the sky,
they are mistaken.
The birds have proceeded you there.
If they say the Kingdom of Heaven [or your Father] in deep in the ocean,
they are wrong.
That's where the fish live.
The Kingdom of within you and among you.” (Saying #2)

Elsewhere, the Gnostic Jesus says:
“The Kingdom of Heaven is spread out on the earth
but you do not see it”. (Saying # 51)

In these passages, we see something rare in Biblical literature
but quite common in Buddhist texts:
the tradition is “demythologizing” or “de-literalizing” itself.
The “Kingdom of Heaven” is not a place that you can buy your way into.
It is not “pie in the sky when you die”.
It is not a gated community for people just like us.

The “Kingdom of Heaven” is a metaphor
for a sudden awakening of heart and mind.
We see the world and our selves with new eyes.
We are called to act from love and truth,
not power and privilege.
The Gnostic Jesus, like William Blake and Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Mary Oliver and Peter Mayer,
is proclaiming a new gospel based on seeing clearly not blind faith.
When we see in a sacred manner
all things are seen in a new Light:

Every life is precious!
Every one is connected!
Every thing is holy!
VI. Conclusion: Let Your Light Shine!

The Light that 'makes all things new' is not bottled up inside of Jesus or Buddha
it's not a commodity to be hoarded by a tiny elite
or sold to the highest bidder.

There is One Light, indivisible, within and among us
and where that Light shines
there is neither stranger nor enemy.

Let the Light of Truth shine from your undivided mind
and let that Light illumine the dark corners of our selves and our world

Let the Warmth of Compassion radiate from your open heart
and let that Kindness and Generosity
soften the edges of habit
and warm the hearts of the powerful

Let the Power of Human Goodness move through us into our world
there are hungry to be fed,
and homeless to be sheltered
and peace-with-justice to be established
without violence
in our time, in this world.
Amen. Blessed Be.

VII. Resources for further study
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, “The Masks of God”.
Marvin W. Meyer, The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels.
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels.
Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
“The Gospel of Thomas” from www.gnosis.org
The Gospel of Thomas Homepage: http://home.epix.net/~miser17/Thomas.html
Holger Kersen, Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion.
Jay Williams, Yeshua Buddha.
Creeds of Nicea and Constantinople: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed