The Wealth of the Light
John Shuck
First Presbyterian Church
Elizabethton, Tennessee
September 22, 2013
The Secret Revelation to John
3:12-12; 4:5, 37-38; 5:11-20;
7:1-6, 12
Do not be faint-hearted!
I am the one who dwells with you
always.
I am the Father.
I am the Mother.
I am the Son….
[The Father]
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 the eternity
who gives eternalness, the light who gives light, the life who gives life, the
blessed one who gives blessedness, the understanding which gives understanding,
the ever good one who gives good, the one who does good—not such that It
possesses but such that It gives—the mercy which gives mercy, the grace which
gives grace.
[The Mother]
In every way It perceived Its own
image, seeing it in the pure light-water which surrounds It. And Its thinking became a thing. She appeared.
She stood in Its presence in the brilliance of the light; she is the power
which is before the All. It is she who
appeared, she who is the perfect Providence-Pronoia of the All, the light, the
likeness of the light, the image of the Invisible, she who is the perfect
power, Barbelo, the perfect eternal generation of the glory.
[The Son]
Barbelo gazed intently into It,
the pure light. She turned herself
toward It. She gave birth to a spark of
blessed light, but it was not equal to her in greatness. This is the Only-begotten who appeared from
the Father, the divine Autogenes, the firstborn son of the All of the Spirit of
pure light…. He stood in Its presence,
glorying the invisible Spirit and the perfect Pronoia, from whom he had
appeared.
Secret Revelation of John 25:1-6;
26:21-33
Therefore I, the perfect
Providence-Pronoia of the All, changed into my seed. For I existed from the first, traveling on
every road. For I am the wealth of the
light. I am the remembrance of the
fullness. I traveled into the vastness
of the dark, and I persevered until I entered the midst of the prison….And I
entered the midst of their prison, which is the prison of the body.
And I said, ‘Whoever hears, arise
from lethargic sleep!’
And he wept, shedding tears;
heavy tears he wiped from himself. And
he said, ‘Who is it who calls my name and form where does this hope come to me
who am dwelling in the fetters of the prison?’
And I said, ‘I am the
Providence-Pronoia of the pure light; I am the thought of the virginal Spirit,
the one who raises you to the place of honor.
Arise and remember that you are the one who has heard, and follow your
root, which is I, the compassionate.
Fortify yourself against the angels of poverty and the demons of chaos
and all those who ensnare you, and be watchful of the lethargic sleep and the
garment of the inside of Hades.’
And I raised him up and sealed
him with the light of the water with five seals so that death would not have
power over him from this day on.
So far we have explored,
just whetted our appetites really, several documents in
A New New Testament.
They
include…
Two texts for which I
didn’t devote sermons but used in liturgy are
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul and and an ancient
Prayer of Thanksgiving. Today
we will dabble into the mysteries of
The Secret Revelation of John.
A bit of background
about this text.
It was discovered in
the 19
th century and is part of the
Berlin Codex along with the
Gospel of Mary.
It was also among the
Nag Hammadi collection
discovered in 1945.
I talked about
those collections in previous sermons.
Three different copies
with significant differences among the texts were found at Nag Hammadi.
That suggests that
A Secret Revelation of John was widely read and used in the early
centuries of Christianity.
It was written
before 180 at least.
We know that
because Irenaeus, who was later recognized as a church Father condemned
A Secret Revelation of John as
heresy.
Before these modern
discoveries we only had parts of this text, the parts quoted by those
condemning it.
Irenaeus quotes
A Secret Revelation of John 29 times.
Irenaeus had other texts on his radar as
well.
Of the lot of them, he wrote:
"an indescribable number of secret and illegitimate writings,
which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish people, who
are ignorant of the true scriptures."
Regardless of whether
or not we might agree with him, what Irenaeus shows is that early Christianity
was diverse and vibrant with many different visions at times competing with one
another, at other times complementing one another, and each adding its voice to
the chorus. Now, thanks to these modern
discoveries and thanks to scholars and interested lay people who have demanded
to know these ancient texts, these voices that have been long silenced are
again finding an audience. Thanks to A New New Testament some of these voices
are alongside familiar voices so we can get a sense of the breadth and depth of
early Christianity.
The effects of all of
this might be to enhance 21st century seekers, whether these seekers
are within Christianity, on the edges, or outside of it. Questions of what it means to be human, and
in particular, what it means to be human amidst forces that dehumanize, are
raised for us as we interact with these texts.
I want to emphasize that this is not simply an academic or an historical
exercise. As the subtitle of A New New Testament implies, this Bible
for the 21st century is an attempt to speak to us. We are
interacting with it and with each other.
What is
The Secret Revelation of John?
The
Secret Revelation of John is not to be confused with
The Revelation to John that has been in the traditional New
Testament canon.
This is the book with
the seven bowls of wrath and the mark of the beast and the four horsemen and
all of the symbols that have had quite a run in the past two millennia.
It is not an easy read.
The
Secret Revelation of John is not an easy read either.
I
needed some guidance following the logic of the text and trying to keep the
names straight.
It is helpful,
necessary really, to have a guide.
I
recommend Karen King’s
The Secret Revelation of John.
Also, even
though I haven’t read it, I have heard another helpful guide is by Stevan
Davies,
The Secret Book of John.
The Secret Revelation of John is a mythological creation
story. It tells us who we are, how we
came to be the way we are, and how we are becoming who we will become.
The story begins with
the Apostle John, the brother of James.
John and James are the sons of Zebedee in the four gospels. According to the tradition they along with
Peter accompanied Jesus to the mountain where he was transfigured before
them. John is an inner circle apostle. There is a whole tradition of “John”
theology that includes the Gospel of John
and the letters of John, Revelation of John in the traditional
New Testament and this Secret Book of
John. That doesn’t mean the guy
John actually wrote any of this or experienced any of this, but he, like many
figures of importance is used to gain authority for other authors. In ancient times, tradition, not innovation
is important. If you are writing a
text, you want to make sure it connects with what has gone before you. One way to do that is to have one of the
apostles as either a character or the author.
This counts for documents both within and without the traditional New
Testament.
John goes up to the
temple and he is confronted by a Pharisee named Arimanios. Arimanios asks him where his teacher
is. John tells him that he has “returned
to place from which he came.” Arimanios
tells John that his teacher deceived him and filled him lies.
John is grieved. He begins to doubt who the Savior was and
who his father was. He realizes there
are things he doesn’t know. As he
thinking and grieving,
“the heavens opened, and the whole creation below the heaven was
illuminated with light below heaven. And
the whole world quaked.” 3:1-3
A figure appears to
John and changes shape, from a child to an old man to other various forms and all is filled with
light. The voice said,
“John, why are you doubting and fearful? For you are not a stranger to this
likeness. Do not be faint-hearted! I am the one who dwells with you always. I am the Father. I am the Mother. I am the Son.” 3:9-12
There is an early
version of the Trinity. Then Christ says
to John,
“Lift up your face to me and listen.
Receive the things that I will tell you today so that you yourself will
them to your fellow spirits who are from the immovable generation of the
perfect Human.” 3:17-18
Christ proceeds to tell
John of the nature of the Father or Spirit with quite poetic language. Father/Spirit is one that cannot be named,
not God “for It surpasses divinity.”
When “It perceived Its
own image in the light-water that surrounds It, Its thinking became a thing.” She, the Mother appeared. The Mother is called Pronoia or
Providence. She is also known as
Barbelo. She is the image of the
invisible. She is the primal
Thought. She is the primal Human. She is
“the triple begotten one, the
androgynous eternal generation which does not grow old…”
The whole thrust of
this language is beyond the beyond.
Then Barbelo, the Mother, the Providence-Pronoia “gazes intently into
It, the pure light.” In so doing, she
gives birth
“to a spark of blessed light... the divine Autogenes, the firstborn
son of All of the Spirit of pure light.”
7:1-6
This is the Son or Christ. This Christ creates everything. Will and Thought and Life, Grace, Understanding, Perception, and Prudence. These
are beings, and there are many of them.
They have genealogies and male/female pairs. One of
the creations is the “true perfect Human, the primal revelation, Adam.” This is not the garden of Eden, Adam. That
comes later. The perfect Human, Adam, is
“up there” as part of this whole divine thing.
There is much much
more. I am condensing this down. One of the Eternal Generations, as part of
this Christ creation, who is important for our story, is Wisdom-Sophia. This
is where the story gets interesting.
Wisdom-Sophia wants to express herself.
So she “thought a thought.” She didn’t think her thought without
consulting first with Father/Spirit or in consultation with her male
partner. Her thought gives birth so to
speak to this being. This being is imperfect, ugly in fact. She casts him away outside of the view of
the immortals. She gives him a throne
and names him Yaldabaoth. He is the
Chief Ruler.
Here is the bottom
line. Yaldabaoth is the god of Genesis
in the Old Testament. He creates all
kinds of beings and eventually the world.
He says “I am a jealous God
without me there is nothing.” This
is of course not true. He is a basically
a low-level bureaucrat. He is the guy
who has his own little office that he thinks is his kingdom and he is paranoid
and he bosses people around. He thinks
he is important. You might know someone
like that. That is how The Secret Revelation of John portrays
the god of Genesis.
If you are finding this
disturbing or offensive, we need to step back and look at the time in which The Secret Revelation of John is being
written. This is
a couple of centuries before the Nicene Creed and Constantine and the narrowing
down of Christian theology. There are
lively debates around Jesus and how he will be shaped in relation to the Jewish
heritage. These and other authors and
perhaps even you have wondered if the god of the Old Testament is all there is
to God. You can imagine reading these
stories of the god of Genesis doing rather small-minded, arbitrary, punitive, and
violent things. These early Christians say
God has to be better than that. So they
take these stories of Genesis and elaborate and re-interpret them. They aren’t alone in doing that. The literature of the time is filled with
rewrites and filling in the holes in the plot of Genesis and so forth.
Back to our story. Wisdom-Sophia realizes that she has created a
monster and repents. The immortals come up with a plan. They say to Wisdom-Sophia, “The Human exists
and the Child of the Human.” Yaldabaoth
and his minions overhear this but they don’t know where it comes from. They look at the pattern of the image in the
water and say,
“Let us create a human
in the image of God and with the likeness.”
They create the human
being but the being cannot move. They
cannot awaken it. So the Father/Spirit
uses this opportunity. He sends Christ to
tell Yaldabaoth to breathe into the being.
He does and the human becomes alive.
But the spirit he blew into the human is the power of his Mother. In doing this, the Mother-power is extracted
out of Yaldabaoth and now the human is superior to Yaldabaoth and his
minions.
Yaldabaoth and his minions are upset that the
human is superior to them so they imprison him in flesh. But the light is in him. Yaldabaoth tries various tricks to contain
the human and extract the light so he puts the human to sleep, but all this
does is create Eve and enlighten the human.
The plot is too complex to recite here.
The point is that every action by
Yaldabaoth to contain, control, even violently kill through the flood, is
countered by the Divine Power.
The bottom line is that
everyone has the divine light within them.
The powers, Yaldaobaoth and his minions are always at work trying to make
human beings forget who they are. They
do this through gold and silver, through lust, and every kind of temptation. As human beings succumb to the temptations
they become duller. “Their hearts
closed,” says the text.
Enter Christ, the
wealth of light. Providence-Pronoia
enters this world and wakes us up from sleep.
The Pure Light calls us to
“Arise and remember that you are the one who has heard, and follow your
root, which is I, the compassionate.” 26:28-29
Thus the human struggle
and the hope. John after receiving this
revelation relates these things to his fellow disciples and to all of us who
will listen.
One could say this is
crazy metaphysical speculation. OK, but
then again, what theology isn’t? Some is
your kind of crazy, some is my kind of crazy and some isn’t. I invite you to withhold a judgment on that
and ask what is a possible takeaway from A
Secret Revelation of John as well as some of these other texts?
Here is one thing I
take away immediately. The Secret
Revelation of John is a critique of the powers of this world. This was written in a time in which the
Roman Empire was God. It said it was
God. Its Imperial theology was
everywhere. Remember, from the
perspective of The Secret Revelation of John, Yaldabaoth is the creator of all
those Roman gods, too. This book is a
critique of all gods and all powers in the known world. All are puny bureaucrats in light of the
Divine Light that glows in each human being.
It is a critique of Rome’s arrogance and all earthly powers.
The struggle the humans
have in A Secret Revelation of John
is to discern among all the voices, whose voice is the voice of the light. It is deceptive, because the powers use
half-truths and use divine images but distort them. What is the voice of compassion, of true
light, of goodness? What is the right
thing to do, the correct attitude to have, the just way to be in the world?
How do we evaluate the
voices who tell us they have the answers?
It is almost parody because it is so obvious, but a quote from the
Project for A New American Century is in order.
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Bill Kristol are all part of
this.
Here is their statement:
The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership
requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral
principle.
Is that the voice of
Father, Mother, Son, the Light or is it the voice of Yaldabaoth? There is a purity of raw arrogance in that statement from "The Project for A New American Century." But that statement is one of many arrogant and false voices. Messages from advertising, economic theory,
political theory, all come at us. They tell us who we are and what we need to
do.
Who are we? Are we defined by a certain kind of militant
patriotism, by a political party, by consumption? Is the goal of education to get a job, to be
a cog in the marketplace? Who are you
and what will you do? According to A Secret Revelation of John, the task is
to develop discernment so that we can follow the root, the core of who we are…that
is compassion. To
become a Human Being, not a cog in some power’s machine.
In A Secret Revelation of John there is no violence on behalf of the
Divine realm, the one above Yaldabaoth. All violence comes from Yaldabaoth and his minions.
There is no myth of redemptive violence for A Secret Gospel of John. Salvation comes not from dominating
others or from revenge, but from knowing who we are and by nurturing the light
within.
This is far more than
metaphysical speculation. A Secret
Revelation of John provides a second-century mythical framework for ethical
action.
When you hear that you
that you are weak or powerless or idealistic or wrong or a heretic or bad or a cog or hopelessly violent, you
can join the voice of this hopeful text and
“Arise, and remember that you are the one who has heard…”
Amen.
I know the reality of stigma. I choose to rise above it. I will choose to hold my head high. I will choose to talk about his life and his death as I need to
do as I feel it is safe for me to do. I will choose to remember him with
pride. I will remember him with laughter and with tears. I will honor my son.
