A Realistic Scenario
Norman McLean told St Andrew’s Church that he would give the Reflection on 14 January 2024. Sadly, this was not to be, as Norman died on 1 December. Beverley Smith was asked to take his place for the service and provided the following:
Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild
Look upon a little child
Pity my simplicity
Suffer me to come to thee
Many of us remember these verses from our childhood.
Jesus – Meek and Mild. Was he really? The third century AD were times a 21st century Christian cannot be expected to fully comprehend; indeed it would be hard for anyone to appreciate the realities of the 16th or any century with only present day perspectives to work on.
Our Bible reading from the Gospel of Thomas throws some light on this Jesus who said: People think, perhaps, that I have come to throw peace upon the world. They don’t know that I have come to throw disagreement upon the world, and fire, and sword, and struggle. For there will be five in one house. Three will oppose two. Two will oppose three. The father will oppose his son and the son oppose his father. And they will stand up and they will be alone.
Ironically, the vast majority of Christians seem to think of Jesus primarily as one who came to throw peace upon the world and to bring loving harmony to families. Evidently Jesus disagreed with that assessment. People whose notion focusses on his status as ‘Prince of Peace’ seem to be relying exclusively on a phrase found in Isaiah 9:7 but found nowhere in the New Testament.
The final statement “And they will stand up and they will be alone”.
Exploring the History of Christianity with a single, authorized set of beliefs – however – and these actually vary from church to church – coupled with the conviction that Christian belief alone offers access to God.
Today, we will begin by studying what we know about Constantine – the Pagan Emperor of Rome who became a Christian after miraculously experiencing Christ’s sign in the heavens. He saw the sign of the cross, along with the words ‘in this sign you shall conquer’. He then followed an amnesty for Christians and became their imperial patron. But, although there were in Rome groups of all sizes of Christians, he chose to recognize the best-organised and largest group, which he called the “lawful and most holy catholic church.”
Since the time of Constantine, Christianity has defined itself essentially through what it believes. In its early years, communities seem to have grown up around different teachers who interpreted Jesus’ message and sayings in different ways. Even after the particular books and writings that would eventually be called the canon became primary, what they meant was still up for grabs. Different communities believed different things.
Constantine’s recognition carried with it enormous benefits. In 315, he ordered that anyone who had confiscated property from the catholic church of the Christians in any city, or even other places during the persecutions of the previous decades, must return it immediately to ‘those same churches’ and offer compensation for any damages. Even Churches in Africa received letters exempting the clergy from financial obligations, but he did know that African churches were divided into rival factions and somehow tried to identify those he called the ‘ministers of the lawful and most holy catholic religion’.
The years that followed saw new churches being built, including, tradition says, a magnificent Church of St. Peter on the Vatican hill in Rome. Constantine also delegated to certain bishops, the distribution of grain and other necessities to support people in need, so that they might fulfil Jesus’s admonitions to care for the sick and needy.
Christianity grew out of Jewish traditions and was shaped by Roman cultural and political structures for several centuries. An example: the head of the Roman Catholic Church takes one of his titles from the old Roman office of Pontifex maximus- the chief High Priest.
To strengthen his own alliance with church leaders and to unify fractious Christian groups into one harmonious structure, Constantine charged bishops from churches throughout the empire to meet at his expense at Nicaea, an inland city, near a large lake. The plan was to work out a standard formulation of Christian faith. From that meeting and its aftermath, during the tumultuous decades that followed, emerged the Nicene Creed that would effectively call the canon – the list of 27 writings which would become the New Testament. Together these would help establish what Irenaeus a Greek bishop had envisioned – a worldwide communion of ‘orthodox Christians joined into one ‘catholic and apostolic’ church.
Iznik’s ancient name was Nicea! For those of us who have visited Turkey, Iznik is a district in the Bursa province.
After 300 years and as many squabbles, the Nicene Creed, approved by the bishops and endorsed by Constantine, would become the official doctrine that all Christians henceforth must accept. The news reached Alexandria and woe betide those who disagreed!
Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, who was promoting the Nicene Creed and wrote a letter calling the Churches to cleanse the church and reject the New Testament books as ‘springs of salvation’ and he called upon the Christians during the Lenten season to ‘cleanse the church from every defilement’ and to reject ‘the apocryphal books,’ which are filled with myths, empty and polluted, books that could incite conflict and lead people astray.
It is likely that one or more of the monks who heard his letter read at their monastery near the town of Nag Hammadi decided to defy Athanasius’s order and removed more than fifty books from the monastery library, hid them in a jar to preserve them, and buried them near the cliff where Muhammad Ali would find them sixteen hundred years later when he and his brothers were searching for fertiliser.
The coincidence in 1945; on the one hand, the first lethal explosions of a nuclear bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and, on the other hand, the discovery in a small desert cave near Nag Hammadi, in upper Egypt, of a lost gospel, now known as the Gospel of Thomas. It is as if, at the very moment when humanity was brought face to face with its most extreme capacities for horror, evil, and destruction, so also, in Jesus’ astonishing vision of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Thomas, humanity was shown what it could still achieve if only it woke up and realized the splendour of its divine secret identity.
The Gospel of Thomas was the most exciting find at Nag Hammadi, and taken on board like newly discovered pieces of a complex puzzle. Next to what we have long known from tradition, we find that these remarkable texts, after becoming known, were capable of transforming what we know as Christianity. Sadly, rarely shared in congregations.
Norman in his outline for this service wrote LORD in upper case and lord in lower case. I pondered on these words and asked for advice from Sr. Cynthia Kearney. She replied ‘why use LORD when we pray and when we sing? It implies ruling over and makes a separation. It does not mean Master and Servant. Today’s relationship with God is one of love which implies equality, mutuality. We were guided by the text in Galatians 3. ‘For in Jesus, you are all children of God. There is no longer Jew or Greek. There is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Jesus. Why has humanity disregarded this text?
Jesus the LORD? No.
Jesus the Itinerant, mystic, healer and teacher – YES.
Jesus the mystic – YES – study two women, Hildegarde of Bingen and Julian of Norwich along with St. Teresa of Avila who said: Jesus has no body now on Earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours.
Jesus the servant – YES.
Why don’t we adjust our faith to our times?
On the positive side – many medical people from the West have given their time in serving.
King Charles III – is quoted as saying “I SERVE”
In conclusion, I quote Nigel Leaves who advocates that “Individual churches be open, welcoming, honest, self-critiquing, dogma-free, values-based, spiritually engaging communities.” And a plea for religions to reinstate the apophatic tradition that affirms the mystery, transcendence, and unknowability of God.
We are all Earth’s children,
And though we live and pray
And celebrate in different ways,
We are linked by a common dream
Beverley Smith