A Gnostic Sampler

Gnosticism is a very broad group of religious philosophies spanning centuries and continents.  This article is primarily concerned with the gnosticism that adopted into its system forms of Christian belief or Christian communities that absorbed into its system gnostic beliefs in the first several centuries of Christian church history.  A great deal of scholarship has been devoted to exploring the relationships between gnosticism and Christianity.  Gnosticism had no definable set of doctrines due to the fact that there were many variant manifestations of gnostic teachings and theories.  In some ways it mirrored some Christian beliefs but included esoteric knowledge that led to salvation, (usually as an escape from this world), and produced numerous apocryphal gospels and literature that carried its spiritual wisdom.  Some very general characteristics are the emphasis on the salvation of the soul (as opposed to the body), that matter or the created world was deficient, that the spiritual was good and the material evil.  It stood quite apart from the orthodox teachings of the church and many of the early treatises produced by early church leaders addresses the heretical tendencies of the gnostics.  While some aspects including an elevated role for women or emphasis on an internal spirituality are not completely out of place, as a whole, gnosticism presented some problems with respect to Christian doctrine which is why it was rejected by the church that produced the canon of scripture.  The following quotations are a small "gnostic" sampler intended just to give some flavor of gnostic thought…

From Valentinus writing in "Incarnation" Second Century Christianity, cited in Clement of Alexandria Stomata, Book III chapter 7

Jesus certainly didn't do that...

"Having endured everything he was continent; thus Jesus exercised his divinity.  He ate and drank in a peculiar manner, not evacuating his food.  So much power of continence was in him that in him food was not corrupted, since he himself had no corruptibility."

Early Christian Writings

From "The Gospel of Truth" the Nag Hammadi Library

Speak concerning the truth to those who seek it and of knowledge to those who, in their error, have committed sin. Make sure-footed those who stumble and stretch forth your hands to the sick. Nourish the hungry and set at ease those who are troubled. Foster men who love. Raise up and awaken those who sleep. For you are this understanding which encourages. If the strong follow this course, they are even stronger. Turn your attention to yourselves. Do not be concerned with other things, namely, that which you have cast forth from yourselves, that which you have dismissed. Do not return to them to eat them. Do not be moth-eaten. Do not be worm-eaten, for you have already shaken it off. Do not be a place of the devil, for you have already destroyed him. Do not strengthen your last obstacles, because that is reprehensible. For the lawless one is nothing. He harms himself more than the law. For that one does his works because he is a lawless person. But this one, because he is a righteous person, does his works among others. Do the will of the Father, then, for you are from him.

He revealed himself as a Pleroma, i.e., the finding of the light of truth which has shined towards him, because he is unchangeable. For this reason, they who have been troubled speak about Christ in their midst so that they may receive a return and he may anoint them with the ointment. The ointment is the pity of the Father, who will have mercy on them. But those whom he has anointed are those who are perfect. For the filled vessels are those which are customarily used for anointing. But when an anointing is finished, the vessel is usually empty, and the cause of its deficiency is the consumption of its ointment. For then a breath is drawn only through the power which he has. But the one who is without deficiency - one does not trust anyone beside him nor does one pour anything out. But that which is the deficient is filled again by the perfect Father. He is good. He knows his plantings because he is the one who has planted them in his Paradise. And his Paradise is his place of rest.

Gnostic Library On Line

On baptism from "The Gospel of Philip", 

If one go down into the water and comes up without having received anything, and says, "I am a christian" he has borrowed the name at interest.  But if he receive the Holy Spirit, he has the name as a gift.  He who received a gift does not have to give it back, but of him who has borrowed it at interest, payment is demanded.  This is the way (it happens to one) when one experiences a mystery.

By perfecting the water of baptism, Jesus emptied it of death. Thus we do go down into the water, but we do not go down into death, in order that we may not be poured out into the spirit of the world. When that spirit blows, it brings the winter. When the Holy Spirit breathes, the summer comes.

From "The Gospel of Thomas"

These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded.

49. Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again."

75. Jesus said, "There are many standing at the door, but those who are alone will enter the bridal suite."

77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.  Split a piece of wood; I am there.  Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

90. Jesus said, "Come to me, for my yoke is comfortable and my lordship is gentle, and you will find rest for yourselves."

108. Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him."

110. Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world."

114. Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life."
Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."

Gnosis Library - access gnostic literature

Note: the Pleroma is the totality of divine powers, the godhead emanates pairs of lesser deities of which Sophia and Jesus are a pair.  The Demiurge creates evil out of foolishness.  An Aeon is an emanation of god.

from "The Apocryphal of John"

"And the Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought from herself and the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, - he had not approved - and without her consort, and without his consideration. And though the person of her maleness had not approved, and she had not found her agreement, and she had thought without the consent of the Spirit and the knowledge of her agreement, (yet) she brought forth. And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, and something came out of her which was imperfect and different from her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for it has another form.

"And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see it, for she had created it in ignorance. And she surrounded it with a luminous cloud, and she placed a throne in the middle of the cloud that no one might see it except the holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living. And she called his name Yaltabaoth."

On the Resurrection

[35] But in the night in which the Lord's day dawned, when the soldiers were safeguarding it two by two in every watch, there was a loud voice in heaven; [36] and they saw that the heavens were opened and that two males who had much radiance had come down from there and come near the sepulcher. [37] But that stone which had been thrust against the door, having rolled by itself, went a distance off the side; and the sepulcher opened, and both the young men entered. [38] And so those soldiers, having seen, awakened the centurion and the elders (for they too were present, safeguarding). [39] And while they were relating what they had seen, again they see three males who have come out from they sepulcher, with the two supporting the other one, and a cross following them, [40] and the head of the two reaching unto heaven, but that of the one being led out by a hand by them going beyond the heavens. [41] And they were hearing a voice from the heavens saying, 'Have you made proclamation to the fallen-asleep?' [42] And an obeisance was heard from the cross, 'Yes.' [43]

Gospel of Peter

A few parting thoughts
So, why does this matter?  Take the example of Marcion, one of the first declared to hold to heretical teaching, he couldn't explain away the contradictions scripture.  He would later revert to teaching about a dualistic god, one good and the other 'judicial' in order to explain evil in the world.  Justin, Tertullian, and and Irenaeus all wrote against Marcion's position (Justin Apology, Irenaeus, "Marcion's Two God's").  Why?  Gnosticism has a tendency to side step difficulties in scripture and in life, creates a dualism between the material and spiritual, designating the material as evil and the spiritual as good.  Seeing evil in the material world sends people down a thought path that usually ends with disdain for creation and humanity. 

• Scholarship is certainly bringing more information of the theological diversity that existed in the first couple centuries of the Christian communities existence and certainly a knowledge of these groups is essential in a clearer picture of the development of Christianity, and this is a good thing because it helps us to understand the issues then and now better.

• The effort of the church to maintain an orthodox teaching did not always 'get it right' as illustrated on how it went about dealing with heretics in the Middle Ages, so while inquisitions and burnings do not come about till quite a bit later, the quest for orthodoxy stand as a warning about the importance of freedom of conscience and the critical need for the church to struggle with orthodoxy and heresy. 

• Orthodoxy still matters because what the early leaders were trying to preserve (although imperfectly) was a certain kind of spirituality, one that did not deny the goodness of the creation, that recognized the importance of maintaining an engagement in the world in which we live, one that recognized that faith could not be simply reduced to another celestial world, one that kept faith and works together, no easy way out for a call to social justice.  In a day when we are seeing enormous consequences to the poor as a result of economic policies of western countries, environmental decline and degradation, rise of political unrest, violence, and deterioration of human rights, it is more important than ever that the faith we profess is one that is true to the world we live in, not just for the world to come.  

• A focus on individualism at the cost of community, an inner spirituality without a corporate spirituality, a denial of the physical all leads to a host of serious political, social, and theological pitfalls.  In the above select readings, one can see some of the good emphasis in Christian charity in Gnosticism which is similar in Christianity.  But to this day, within many Christian circles, some of the same ways of thinking that negate between the material and spiritual or that over emphasizes a personal spirituality abound.  It is more important than ever that we are open to an assessment of our beliefs so that we can look back to where the church of the past set her boundaries so many centuries ago not because we are trying to get some set of propositional truths "right" but because it grounded the church in a faithful expression of the kind of spirituality that was engaged in the love of God and neighbor and always pointed to the eminent Kingdom of God not as a place far away, not skirting past pain, suffering, and injustice, but as a reality that had arrived and meets humanity right where it lives. The church doesn't always get her doctrine correct, but understanding the issues the early had with Gnosticism is essential in the task of understanding theology today. 

PBS Frontline "From Jesus to Christ" on the Gnostics

Sermon "Abundant Life"

click on this link to access sermon "Abundant Life"

Two essential portions of the Gospel of John link this sermon together, the first Jesus is identified as the "Good Shepherd" that leads us to God, emphasizing that he and the Father are one, Jesus likewise states that those that keep his commandments will also be one with the Father.  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" and "on that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you" ( John 10:1-10 and John 14:15-21).  Being "in God" is the abundant life that Jesus brings us to in a mystical union, a future and present hope, and a 'holy communion.'  This is rooted in a concrete command that we follow Jesus in the path of discipleship to love as we have been loved.  Comforted with the promise that we cannot do this in our own strength, we are promised the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who empowers the church for her mission.

MLK an antidote for Gnosticism

"Gnosticism"is a word that all Christians should understand if just at a basic level.

While so much more needs to be said than can be said in this limited space, a basic description of gnosticism is in order. Gnosticism is a heresy that, in the epistles and in the early Christian communities, was cited as a dangerous misunderstanding incompatible with orthodox Christian thought and practice.  Ancient gnosticism was varied and in modern times forms of gnosticism continue to permeate Christian thought.  Ancient gnosticism comes from the Greek word "gnosis" for knowledge, and held that salvation of the soul was based on possessing this intuitive "knowledge"and rendered those with this "knowledge" as superior beings. 

In its ancient form dichotomies were also created between soul and body, flesh and spirit, good and evil.  At its core, modern forms of gnosticism likewise stem from a tendency among some Christian interpretations of scripture to see the natural created world or material substances as being essentially evil.  For example, everything from wine, or tobacco, to art, music, drama, and film, have all been seen as being part of the "world", and therefore essentially evil.  A second tendency is to create a false dichotomy between the spiritual and the material placing greater value on the "spiritual".  The spiritual or other-worldly is good and the material is evil.  Sometimes this is expressed in words like the song "this world is not my home."  We can become so caught up in the future hope of an afterlife, that we dismiss the gospel's implications for the social realities in which we live, or put another way, the hope of the resurrection for us today and in for our society is denied.  While the result varies for different Christian denominations the result is always the same.  This is partly the reason that in some corners of Christianity social problems such as racism, poverty, crime, economic inequality, the lack of concern for environmental and social justice are neglected in the preaching or practice of congregations. 

Rev. Martin Luther King reminded the Christian community by both his words and actions to stay grounded in a faith that is not gnostic but rather a faith that engages its belief in the action of love towards our fellow humanity.  The following excerpt illustrations MLK's keen understanding of a very orthodox, non-gnostic approach to Christianity…

"Let me rush on to mention my other disappointment.  I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership.  Of course, there are some notable exceptions.  I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue.  I commend you, Rev Stallings, for your Christian stance on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non-segreated basis.  I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Springhill College several years ago."

"But despite these notable exceptions I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church.  I do not say that as one of the negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church.  I say it as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured by its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen."

"I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago that we would have the support of the white church.  I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies.  Instead, some have been outright opponents, rising to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many other have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of the stained-glass windows"...

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.  In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular."  ("A Testament of Hope" Letter from a Birmingham Jail 299)

"A Strange distinction between body and soul" to quote MLK is an example of how a modern form of gnosticism can easily begin to seep into our thinking and our actions.  When Jesus tells his disciples, "if you love me, you will keep my commandments" Jesus is inviting us into a kind of Christian thinking that links together a real concrete love of neighbor with that of love of God.  One cannot exist without the other.  Where it does, the Gospel teaching should stand as a dire warning that we are beginning to tread down a path quite unknown to Jesus.

The Trouble with Kids Today: A Baptismal Sermon by Kim Fabricius

A sermon by Kim Fabricius

  
Text: Luke 18:15-30



The following is a sermon published by Kim Fabricius, pastor at a reformed church in Swansea in the South of Wales.  This sermon touched my heart and I re-post it by permission of the author so that it might be a blessing to others.  One note; this sermon was preached quite some time ago, and the use of the word 'queer' is not meant in a derogatory sense given the particular cultural usage and context.  It is set in a context of the acceptance for all LGBT+ in the church of Jesus Christ.  May this sermon bless you as it did me. 

“The trouble with kids today…” “When I was their age…” “Remember the days when…” 



Get the picture? Old people talking about young people.

And ever has it been so between one generation and the next. Old folk look back and see the time of their own youth if not as a golden age, then certainly as a better age than the world of today’s little creeps. We tend to view time from the then to the now as one of decline and fall. And young people, in turn, look at grown-ups and see people out of touch, who don’t understand them, who don’t understand anything. One word sums it up: we’re “boring”, and, if you’re parents, you’re “embarrassing” too. “The young think the old are fools, and the old know the young are fools” – that’s one George Chapman, writing four hundred years ago! Plus ça change, plus la même chose.*  “Whatever,” teenagers would add!



Me, I think this is a healthy state of affairs – at least for the young. Kids who don’t go through a period of viewing their elders with – well, the range is from condescending hilarity to lofty contempt – kids who don’t go through a stage of alienation and – yes, rebellion – they’re missing out on an essential part of the human experience. Indeed a younger generation that doesn’t set itself against their elders bodes ill for the time when they will become the older generation. For does not every generation of young people have something to be angry about and rebellious against? Has not every generation of parents left their children a world in a worse state than the one that was bequeathed to them by their parents? Do we not therefore warrant the accusation that we have screwed things up, and today, given the ominous state of the ecology, screwed things up big-time? The rebellion of the young, I’m suggesting, is, at heart, of moral significance, with its idealism, energy, and can-do optimism, in contrast to the quite immoral cynicism and complacency that, alas, inevitably seems to set in with thinning hair and sagging bottoms.



Which is why I am a worried man. No, not because my hair is thinning and my bottom has long since sagged and dropped – though that is true! No, I am worried by what I take to be a distinct lack of rebelliousness in today’s young people. Instead of repudiating and bucking the system, the system has sucked them in. They’ve become its biggest fans. The in-your-face self-expressiveness of young people, always an essential element of their identity – it strikes me as so conventional, conformist even, it smacks of the manufactured and manipulated. By whom? By us older people, of course! By the marketers, advertisers, and commercial providers. Young people have become, fundamentally, economic units, consumers, defined, indeed defining themselves, by their spending power.


(Are you aware, by the way, just how recent a phenomenon youth culture is? It only started after the Second World War, and only began really to kick in during the late-fifties and sixties. Pocket money and ever-increasing amounts of it – that is, available capital, purchasing power – and the rise of a distinct youth culture: they go hand in hand.)

Does the irony escape you? We lament that children today grow up too fast when in fact the whole project is being funded by adults! Check out the magazines kids read: they’re adolescent versions of the glossy world of fame, fashion, and ersatz beauty that obsesses and drives the twenty-to-fifty-somethings. And so the advertising industry quite rightly treats the purchasing public as such as children. For the flipside of children growing up too quickly is adults not growing up at all – we have become infantilised. That’s what money and ennui will do to you. But savvy kids should know better.



Which leads me to point out the interesting juxtaposition of passages in today’s New Testament reading. On the one hand, there is the story of Jesus blessing the children who come to him; on the other hand, there is the story of the rich man who walks away from Jesus. The juxtaposition is hardly arbitrary, and it’s one of contrast and critique.

Jesus is talking about how a person enters the kingdom, or reign, of God. Not how to get to “heaven”, but how to become part of the world God wants it to be, a world of peace, justice, and love, the world Jesus came to announce and inaugurate. How? Answer: by receiving it like a child. But what particular childlike quality does Jesus have in mind? Not, I can tell you, innocence or humility. We’re talking real kids here, not Teletubbies! There was nothing sentimental about Jesus’ view of children; Jesus was no Victorian romanticist. Indeed if the text suggests anything about children it is their weakness and helplessness – they have to be brought to Jesus. No money, no possessions, no position, no power – these are the things that make them role models for the kingdom. Interesting that. We’re always banging on about children needing adult role models, whereas our Lord thinks just the reverse: it’s adults who need children as role models.

And this interpretation – that it’s children’s pennilessness and powerlessness that make them role models for the kingdom – this interpretation is confirmed by the following story of the rich man. For here is the proverbial man who has everything – and observe that he is a good man too, he keeps the commandments, he is a pillar of the community, a member of the Rotary Club or the Round Table – yet so possessed is he by his possessions that he is quite unable to enter the kingdom of God, which demands dis-possession – demands weakness, not strength, demands helplessness, not control.



But as I have suggested, today’s kids would seem to have more in common with the rich man than the child. Just look at the possessions – from designer clothes, to mobile phones, to personal computers. And odd though it may at first sound, they’ve got the power to go with them – and it comes by via the tacit permission of their parents. Just think of the manifesto of the famous Spice Girls – Girl Power – and think of their target audience, the target audience, for that matter, of all girl and boy bands: ten-to-twelve-year-olds. And think of how parents, in oblivious obeisance to the market economy, and to keep the domestic peace, collude in turning their children into shoppers. 

I know, I’m beginning to sound like the old man I began with: “The trouble with kids today …” I don’t mean to. Rather I’m simply trying to sketch out the reality of youth culture today, which strikes me as virtually the same as the virtual reality of adult culture today. Consumerism is the common theme: the commodification of everything that moves, the itching and scratching of restless, insatiable desire, the celebration of ever-expanding choice, choice, and more choice. Isn’t this our common reality? It is little Matthew’s reality too.



HOWEVER: whenever we baptise a child in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, baptise him/her into Christ, we initiate him/her into a different reality, an alternative reality, a counter-cultural reality we call the church. At least that’s the theory. Because you and I both know that, in practice, on the whole, Christians are as mesmerised as non-Christians by the idol of consumerism. 



NEVERTHELESS: here you are, and here a few of us come, week by week, to see and hear the church “fess up”: to laugh at the pretensions of consumer capitalism’s ridiculous little gods, to expose the lies the world lives by, to tell it like it is to each other in love, even when it hurts, and to practice the quaint and lost arts of forgiveness and peacemaking when violence and vengeance make all the running with the good guys and bad guys alike. And there is no bouncer at the door. All are welcome here without distinction – saints and sinners, losers and winners, the poor and the wealthy, the ugly and the beautiful, the queer and the supposedly normal. Because here the good news of God’s foolish, prodigal, disarming love is proclaimed, as we try to keep alive the rumour of an altogether different God from the one you will find anywhere else, the God who passes judgement on wealth and power, valorises the vulnerable, and calls us into a community of belonging, need, and care. 

And so today we not only baptise little Matthew, we also hold him up as the very embodiment of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we want to enter the kingdom of God, we will get in line behind him.

Reposted from Faith and Theology

Faith and Theology

* an epigram by Jean Baptiste Karr meaning "the more things change, the more things stay the same"

Reprinted by permission of Myers and Fabricius
Article by Kim Fabricius
Faith and Theology linkOther articles by Benjamin Myers and Kim Fabricius can be found at the "Faith and Theology" blog at the link above. 

Check out other articles, book recommendation, books, and musings of two humble but great theologians at the link "Faith and Theology" 

Some Thoughts on Fellowship and Outreach

By Rick Wilkinson

Unity as Fellowship

The most powerful, and most essential, expression of our faith to the public is our unity, and our solidarity.  It is of course a unity in Christ.  Outreach is an invitation to participate in this unity, to begin and build human relationships.  It is the kind of relationships God created us for and designed us to have.  It is what scripture means by “created in his image.”

In the course of every day life, everything is expressed and accomplished through relationships: God’s love for us, our love for God, our love for each other, the strengthening of our faith, spiritual growth, identity, purpose, and completeness.  We recognize an inescapable need for each other even while we realize all the difficulties and challenges this will bring.

Relationships begin with familiarity and moves toward intimacy through change driven by the Holy Spirit as we endeavor to follow Christ.  We all want growth and growth by definition means change.  Relationships change as they strengthen and deepen.

Relationships building require efforts.  We should continually be mindful of where there is harmony and where there is discord and work to understand this dynamic through the collective thought and study of God’s word.  Also, we should not mistaken relationships for polite, well-mannered, friendly company.  Loneliness and despair can abound in such a pleasant atmosphere.

A Theological Understanding of Fellowship

Being practiced at verbally articulating ones beliefs to another communicates a genuine seriousness and importance about ones faith.  Yet how can we expect anyone to take our theology seriously when we don't appear to take it seriously enough to bother understanding it or to be knowledgeable of it ourselves?  By being practiced I don’t mean to imply being accomplished.  We do improve over time but we will continually be bothered by dissatisfaction with our current level of understanding.  Fortunately this is a source of humility as well as an opportunity to appreciate God’s grace. 

Scripture tells us that God intends his word to be the very fabric of our lives.  But we have a nature that reduces it down to an incidental part of our lives.  We should be mindful of this and find it troubling, even disturbing.  Our Christianity should express a struggle with it as well as a sympathizing with others for having the very same nature. 

Support and encouragement as well as discernment from each other are vital to our pursuit of God’s truth for direction in our lives.  Ones effort in study is not just for the benefit of oneself but a contribution to the collective unity.  Understanding theology is a struggle.  Being a Christian is a struggle.  But then, outreach is to us as struggling, humans a looking for fellowship with other humans who share this common struggle. 

Witnessing as Intercourse

We are ambassadors for the gospel not marketing agents for the church.  Outreach is not a solicitation for more offering givers and church supports.  It is more of a search and rescue effort.  Yet, even that description is inadequate.  It is when we offer our hand in friendship to the lonesome soul.  This is a mutual friendship realizing as much a want for relationship with them as they for us. 

Though we are the privileged partners in this relationship in that ours is the treasure, which is, the kingdom of heaven, it is not an opportunity for condescension.  We are not spiritual therapists busied with fixing spiritual deficiencies of those “weaker” or less advantaged than ourselves.  As a wise author once wrote: “For each must find for oneself that pearl of great price.”

So, I ask, then, what does intercourse void of agenda look like?  This is a good starting point for a discussion.  It is my observation that a great weakness of contemporary Christianity is our tendency to avoid this kind of intimacy and these kinds of questions.  When it is attempted it too often is unproductive at best, or worse, counterproductive.  Perhaps, this area is what should merit our best efforts and focus in unraveling the task of Christian fellowship and outreach.

Karl Barth's 1962 Visit to the United States: "The goal of human life is not death, but resurrection"

Time magazine April 20, 1962

1962...

The year was 1962, Jackie Robinson would be the first African American elected to the hall of fame, the United States was testing nuclear weapons at the Nevada test site, President John F Kennedy, began a blockade of Cuba, the Beatles released their record "Please, Please Me", in the Stanley Cup the Toronto Maple Leafs would beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4 games to 2, the first US satellite will reach the moon, and the US steel industry would be forced to reduce prices. It was also the year that theologian Karl Barth would make the cover of Time magazine with his first visit to the United States.  

Time would write about Barth "In the 20th century, no man has been a stronger witness to the continuing significance of Christ's death and Christ's return than the world's ranking Protestant theologian, Swiss-born Karl Barth (rhymes with heart).  Barth knows that the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection are not coherent, but he refuses to make the mystery more palatable to human reason by suggesting–as did the great 19th century Theologian D.F. Strauss in his Life of Jesus, that the story of the crucifixion is a "myth."  Instead, Barth argues that the subject of this unique event is God, not man; and only God can know the full truth of his own history.  Man's only road to understanding of this divine history is through faith–faith in the reality and truth of what the Evangelists so incoherently described." p 59

Barth's trip would include a stop in Chicago where he took in an Edward Albee play and a visit to the coffeehouse-nightclub called "Second City".  He received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the University of Chicago and would give five lectures on evangelical theology, which he would then repeat at Princeton Theological Seminary later in his trip.  He would also make a stop to the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield.  

In tribute to Karl Barth's theology, I have included a few excerpts from the Time magazine article, which I found was much like opening a time capsule, and did a fair job introducing Barthian theology to the reading American public of 1962.  

On his writing style, lack of traction, and theology:

"In a way, this lack of a following is a tribute to the originality and individuality of Barth's accomplishments.  His kind of God-thinking has been commonly called "neo-orthodoxy" and "theology of crisis"–label's Barth rejects, since they scarcely define it at all.  Essentially, Barth is a Christological theologian, whose uniquely modern thought centers around ancient realities; faith, the Bible, the church.  He has a philosopher's knowledge of philosophy, but unlike such contemporaries as Tillich or Bultmann, Barth is wary of restating the dogmas of the church in non-traditional language.  His thought is complex, but he nonetheless writes of doctrine in prose that is not far removed from that of the pulpit.  Above all, he writes of the mysterious history of Christ, Knowledge of God is knowledge of God through Christ.  Faith is faith in Christ; the church is the Church of Christ; the Bible is the witness of Christ.  Theologian Hans Frei of Yale calls him "a Christ-intoxiated man."" p60

On his Parish Ministry

"Faced with the problem of how to give meaningful sermons, Barth as a minister discovered that liberal theology of the universities held out no real message to the people.  He also found that expression of Christian belief, in the mind of his rich parishioners was perfectly compatible with economic exploitation.  Shocked by the low wages paid to Safenwil's textiles workers, Barth became an active socialist and earned the nickname the "Red Pastor" for his role in organizing unions, and for such deadpan japes as passing out free frankfurters to rich and poor alike on Christmas morning at the church." p60

On Epistle to the Romans

Published in 1918 and rewritten completely for the second edition in 1921, Barth's Epistles to the Romans, as Karl Adam a Roman Catholic put it, "fell like a bombshell on the playground of the theologians."  Barth attacked the liberal assumption that the Bible expressed man's religious experience of God; instead he said, it contained God's Word to man.  This God–the God of revelation –is a being "wholly other" than man, a God who shouts the divine No to all of man's efforts to reach him through inner emotion or reason…the only bridge to God is the one that God provides–the bridge of faith that can come too man only after he has recognized the futility of his own efforts to meet his Creator." p61

On the rise of the Third Reich

"…after Adolph Hitler established the Third Reich, Barth spoke out in anger against Naziism when it attempted to create new "German Christian" churches in which National Socialist political theories were given the same sanctity as theological dogma.  "This was a nationalist heresy," he assays, "a confusion between God and the spirit of the German nation."  He launched a new magazine to attack the 'heresy' and in 1934 wrote nearly all of the Barmen Declaration–an anti-Nazi protest that claimed the autonomy of the church from all temporal power.  The declaration was signed by 200 leaders of German's Lutheran, Reformed, and Evangelical Unionist Churches." p61

On Infallibility of Scripture

"Barth accepts and welcomes scholarly criticism of the Bible, even when it shows the Scriptures to be full of errors and inconsistencies.  He does not consider the Bible infallible, and he deplores orthodox Protestants who make it into "a paper pope."  Nevertheless, the Bible testifies to God's Word, which is revealed to man through human speech.  The words that the biblical writers use may not always be the appropriate ones, but they must be accepted as words elected by God.  There can be, in Barth's view, no question of "disproving" the authority of the Scriptures, for the church today must take the "risk" of accepting the witness of the early Christians who established the canon of the Scriptures, and the Reformation fathers who revised it.  God still speaks within the Bible; in the light of faith, the church and her theologians must listen and undertake the ever-unfinished task of finding out what He is saying." p62

On Temperance: (Barth quote)

"One may be a nonsmoker, abstainer and vegetarian, yet be called Adolph Hitler"

On Music

"If I ever go to heaven, I would first inquire about Mozart, and only then about Augustine, Thomas, Luther, Calvin and Schleiermacher. " 

On Prayer

"If we do not pray, we fail to realize that we are in the presence of God.  God opens this road to us; he commands us to pray.  Thus it is not possible to say, "I shall pray"or "I shall not pray" as if it were an act according to our own good pleasure"  

On Resurrection

"Resurrection means not the continuation of life, but life's completion.  "We shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15 )which does not mean that a quite different life begins, but that this "corruptible must put on incorruption." Then it will be manifest that "death is swallowed up in victory." That which is sown in dishonor and weakness will rise again in glory and power.  the Christian hope does not lead us away from this life.  It is the conquest of death, not a flight into the Beyond."

On Universal Salvation

In his Institutes, Calvin argued that God has already determined both those who will be saved at the Last Judgment and those who will suffer the eternal pangs of Hell.  Barth says that this belief does not pay sufficient heed to the fact that Christ's death was intended for all men;  Man's ultimate fate is shrouded in mystery, but Barth believers that Christ, the loving Judge could indeed reconcile all the world to the Father.  "I do not preach universal salvation," Barth insists, "What I say is that I cannot exclude the possibility that God would save all men at the Judgment."  

On Barth

"In person, Barth looks like a Hollywood type-cast of a German professor, right down to his scholar's stoop and his thick, dark-rimmed glasses planted far down on his nose.  His conservative suits are usually rumpled and flecked with tobacco from the pipe that seldom is out of his mouth.  Barth is a Calvinist but not a gloomy one; at home he speaks kindly to large dogs and small children (in guttural Swiss-German), displays a mellow, Dutch-uncle patience with puzzled students.  In conversation Barth is full of wisecracks–some pleasantly pixy, some theologian-arch.  once, asked by a stranger on the trolley car if he knew the great Karl Barth, he replied: 'Know him, I shave him very morning!"  p64

"The mysteries of God's Word are hard ones–but they cannot be made more palatable to nonbelievers or to the lukewarm faithful by hiding them in the language formed by man's own wishful thinking.  God speaks; man must listen."  And Barth summons Goethe to warn the church:  

Long, long ago the Truth was found,

A company of men it bound. 

Grasp firmly then–that ancient Truth!      Time 1962

For more ministry information visit my web site at the link below

click on this link to visit my web site

The Frequency of the Holy Eucharist

    

If the congregation or denomination that you are a part of does not currently practice either a daily or weekly celebration of The Holy Eucharist in Holy Communion, it may be time to begin to consider why this practice should be adopted.  There are compelling historical, exegetical, theological, and spiritual reasons to do this, and I have summarized a few:

In this article the term The Holy Eucharist refers to the Sacrament; Holy Communion is the reception of the Sacrament, the Service of the Lord's Day, Mass, or Liturgy of the Eucharist- is the Service in which the Sacrament is celebrated, the Lord's Table is reference to both the Sacrament and the reception. 

1.  Holy Communion is a means of grace.

The “means of grace” are the conduit by which God has chosen to communicate divine grace to humanity.  The means of grace are given through the Gospel (the Good News) in Word and Sacrament.  The Holy Spirit works through the means of grace in both Baptism and in the Eucharist (Acts 2:38).  This is the way the message of salvation; forgiveness of sins, faith, and eternal life is born by the Spirit in the lives of those who gather to hear the word proclaimed at worship.  This is also the reason for a close link between Word and Sacrament.  At the service of the Lord’s Day, or Mass, people hear the word proclaimed, receive spiritual encouragement and instruction, the Holy Spirit regenerates faith, and after the word is proclaimed, the Sacraments are given as a seal and pledge.  Holy Communion should not be divorced from the service of the word rather the two should be kept together.   Jesus is present in both the sermon and in the breaking of the bread and through the Holy Spirit offers us grace and calls us to discipleship and obedience.  It is in the mysteries of the sacraments that we are united in Christ to God, and with each other as one body in Christ.  This is a holy mystery, and one that we need to reminded of frequently at the Lord's Table.  

2. Holy Communion is also our grateful response of joy to God's grace.

There are three accounts of Jesus’ instituting Holy Communion recorded by the three gospels (Matt 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, and Luke 22:15-20).  Perhaps the earliest written account comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:23-25).  This ritual was established by Jesus as a sign of the New Covenant established in Jesus’s death and resurrection.  Each passage links the New Covenant with Jesus crucifixion and resurrection.  Jesus was celebrating the Passover with his disciples, a ritual which commemorated God's deliverance of his people from the slavery of Egypt to the liberating freedom in God.  Jesus transformed the Passover meal into a remembrance of his death and resurrection as the Passover lamb that frees us from the slavery to sin.  Christian worship is a celebration of the inauguration of this New Covenant.  This is the culmination of God’s actions in our world in Jesus Christ and we are invited to be participants in the table-fellowship of the New Covenant.  This is the place where we meet the risen Christ and are given the opportunity to respond in grateful joy to this gift.  The word Eucharist comes from the Greek word, which means, “to give thanks”.   Celebrating the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an opportunity to respond to the proclamation of the word with a joyful and grateful prayer of thanksgiving each time the word is proclaimed and heard.  It is from this place of gratitude that our life of discipleship and obedience emerges, grows, and is sustained.  

3.  Holy Communion is essential to our spiritual growth.

Holy Communion is a mystery and there are both seen and unseen aspects to the meal at the Lord's Table.  A Sacrament is a concrete, visible sign of a spiritual reality and a means of grace.  When we participate in Holy Communion we are living the reality of being in union with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.  Believing congregants are part of the Communion Sanctorum, the “Communion of Saints”, united not only with the Christ but with one another and those that have died.  This gives our lives a on new spiritual dimension.  How can we hold on to our feelings of hatred, racism, classism, our dislike towards others, when we are at the same time receiving the love, grace and acceptance of God?  How can we remain divided when we proclaim the unity of the body of Christ?  The work of the Spirit in the Word continues in the mystery of Holy Communion where we meet the risen Christ.  Holy Communion then becomes both a proclamation, a witness, and an aid to our spiritual growth.  The presence of Christ in the fellowship of the meal and the presence of other believers serves as a living witness to what we proclaim in our Christian worship.  One of the reasons that the confession of sin is essential as a part of Christian worship is that our movement from being called to worship, acknowledging our failure, hearing God's Word for us and responding in humility, all function in worship to bring us to a place of receiving God's grace with open palms.     

4.  It was the practice of the early Christian communities to have Holy Communion weekly if not daily.

Acts 2:42 and Acts 20:7 both attest to the importance and the frequency that early Christian communities placed on the celebration of the Eucharist in Holy Communion.  Justin Martyr in his first Apology provides one of the earliest descriptions of Christian worship practice.  Writing to the Roman emperor Titus (138-168 CE) Justin records that “on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place…when the prayer is ended, bread and wine, and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings.”(First Apology)  The Didache, an even earlier document witnesses to the breaking of bread taking place on the “Lord’s Day.”  Through the early Middle Ages the practice continued of weekly communion although not entirely consistent.  It was not until the Middle Ages that the practice began to drop off considerably.  We have to consider not only that the early Christians placed this priority on the Eucharist, but further why they must have done so?  The early Christian congregations were communities that suffered alienation and persecution and were threatened by doctrinal schisms.  Aside from the command of Jesus and the theological implications, the fact that they valued the Eucharist may have given them both a sense of preserving their beliefs as well as a solidarity and spiritual fellowship together.  It must have had a strong part in sustaining them in their most difficult times.  

click here to read Justin's Apology

5.  Influential Christian leaders in the last five hundred years, including the Reformers recognized the importance of weekly celebration of Holy Communion.

John Calvin stated the following regarding the weekly celebration of the Eucharist:

"What we have so far said of the Sacrament abundantly shows that…it was ordained to be frequently used among all Christians in order that they might frequently return in memory to Christ’s Passion, by such remembrance to sustain and strengthen their faith, and urge themselves to sing thanksgiving to God and to proclaim his goodness…. The Lord’s Table should have been spread at least once a week for the assembly of Christians, and the promises declared in it should feed us spiritually…. All, like hungry men, should flock to such a bounteous repast." (Institutes of the Christian Religion John T. McNeill ed Ford Lewis Battles trans Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960 [1559]) IV.xvii.44, 46

Martin Luther in Germany likewise recommended the frequent practice of Holy Communion (Letter to Lazarus Spengler 1528), and the practice was also encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church in Pope Pius IX, Leo XIII and officially embraced by the Church with Pius X. (Catholic Encyclopedia “Frequent Communion”)

6.  Weekly Holy Communion makes the practice meaningful.

One argument often used for not celebrating the Lord's Table weekly is that frequent communion will somehow lessen its meaning, make it less special.  However, the same thing could be said for any element in Christian worship including the sermon, hymns, music, or even the worship service itself.  Why not offer worship services or a sermon only once a month to keep it special?  The sermon we say must be essential, for it offers encouragement, but that is the point, so does Holy Communion.  Furthermore, the danger that people will not take the Lord's Table seriously extends to every aspect of Christian worship.  The reality is that the meaning of The Lord's Table itself can become lessened whether it is done weekly; monthly, quarterly, or yearly.  Why not re-engage the Sacraments in a more meaningful way, to explore its deep and rich meaning, so that the Lord's Table will be appreciated and better understood.  Everything that happens in the Service of the Lord's Day, our union with God, forgiveness or sins, the gospel, the presence of Christ, the work of the Spirit, are embodied at the Lord's Table.  Once we begin to delve into the rich meaning and mystery of the Sacrament can we begin to connect with how these practices inform our faith, life and belief.