One of my old sermons-----an oldie butr a goodie
Nov 4, 2014 9:29:54 GMT -5
friendofsophia likes this
Post by Soulgazer on Nov 4, 2014 9:29:54 GMT -5
This Sunday, one of my brothers asked me to establish the extremes between "light" Gnosis and "Dark" gnosis and how it applies to our individual walks. To digress a little, it is popular in our little church to "establish the extremes, for therin must lay the truth".This is a little more difficult than normal, for when taking of "Gnosis" we cannot think in a linear fashion; indeed even a three dimensional model must soon fall apart, however as this is what a mere human is limited to, I will attempt to find those extremes.
In a linear model, we have "light" on one side, and "dark" on the other; however, sometimes light is false light, or our own light, and like Sophia before Her fall, we may end up chasing our own light. We might worship for a time Yaldoboath and all his chaotic creations of beauty and destruction, or the "dark side", wherein the natural beauty of the world of forms may beguile. A person becoming disillusioned may become trapped in the twilight between lightness and darkness; it is not uncommon to reject all perception of goodness in reality altogether; or worse, to "become one" with nature, the "god of this world", loving the smooth fur and tongue, and embracing the bloodied tooth and fang. As the Gospel of Philip put's it:"68. One exists either in this world or in the resurrection or in the transitionalº regions. May it not occur that I be found in (the latter)! (In) this world there is good and evil. Its goods are not good and its evils are not evil.¹ Yet there is evil after this world, which is truly evil: that which is called the transition—it is death. While we are in this world it is appropriate for us to be born in the resurrection, so that if we are divested of the flesh we shall find ourselves in the repose (and²) not wander in the transition. For many go astray on the way. Thus it is good to come forth from the world before humankind is caused to transgress."
To exist in the resurection means to exist in a spiritual state, trancending the flesh; to have taken up the position of observer over ones self...to watch ones own self as it reacts to the physical chemicals emitted by body and brain; "neither loving the flesh nor fearing it", looking at the person within instead of the outward form, seeing not race, deformity or sex, social nor economic standing, and in so viewing self, also seeing others in the same way.
To "exist in death" is identify with the physical self; to seek a later material salvation from death that will never come. "I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."(1 Cor 15:50)Jesus in "Secret James", put's it more sternly: " For it is the spirit that raises the soul, but the body that kills it; that is, it is it (the soul) which kills itself. Verily, I say unto you, he will not forgive the soul the sin by any means, nor the flesh the guilt; for none of those who have worn the flesh will be saved. For do you think that many have found the kingdom of heaven? Blessed is he who has seen himself as a fourth one in heaven!"
It is not a warning of future judgment, for the Father judges no one (cf Gospel of John) but a statement of that which is already transpiring in the individual; It is up to us to identify the narrow path and avoid the broad path of self destruction, or as Thomas enjoins us, to see the unseeable: "(113) His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"<Jesus said,> "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."
It truly is all around; the helping hand, the comforting shoulder, the healing fingers, the sure and certain knowledge that we are here but for a short time. Our job is to help each other along the journey. One may either participate in the Kingdom, or stand outside in the darkness. (Mtt 21:31-46) Amen.
In a linear model, we have "light" on one side, and "dark" on the other; however, sometimes light is false light, or our own light, and like Sophia before Her fall, we may end up chasing our own light. We might worship for a time Yaldoboath and all his chaotic creations of beauty and destruction, or the "dark side", wherein the natural beauty of the world of forms may beguile. A person becoming disillusioned may become trapped in the twilight between lightness and darkness; it is not uncommon to reject all perception of goodness in reality altogether; or worse, to "become one" with nature, the "god of this world", loving the smooth fur and tongue, and embracing the bloodied tooth and fang. As the Gospel of Philip put's it:"68. One exists either in this world or in the resurrection or in the transitionalº regions. May it not occur that I be found in (the latter)! (In) this world there is good and evil. Its goods are not good and its evils are not evil.¹ Yet there is evil after this world, which is truly evil: that which is called the transition—it is death. While we are in this world it is appropriate for us to be born in the resurrection, so that if we are divested of the flesh we shall find ourselves in the repose (and²) not wander in the transition. For many go astray on the way. Thus it is good to come forth from the world before humankind is caused to transgress."
To exist in the resurection means to exist in a spiritual state, trancending the flesh; to have taken up the position of observer over ones self...to watch ones own self as it reacts to the physical chemicals emitted by body and brain; "neither loving the flesh nor fearing it", looking at the person within instead of the outward form, seeing not race, deformity or sex, social nor economic standing, and in so viewing self, also seeing others in the same way.
To "exist in death" is identify with the physical self; to seek a later material salvation from death that will never come. "I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."(1 Cor 15:50)Jesus in "Secret James", put's it more sternly: " For it is the spirit that raises the soul, but the body that kills it; that is, it is it (the soul) which kills itself. Verily, I say unto you, he will not forgive the soul the sin by any means, nor the flesh the guilt; for none of those who have worn the flesh will be saved. For do you think that many have found the kingdom of heaven? Blessed is he who has seen himself as a fourth one in heaven!"
It is not a warning of future judgment, for the Father judges no one (cf Gospel of John) but a statement of that which is already transpiring in the individual; It is up to us to identify the narrow path and avoid the broad path of self destruction, or as Thomas enjoins us, to see the unseeable: "(113) His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"<Jesus said,> "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."
It truly is all around; the helping hand, the comforting shoulder, the healing fingers, the sure and certain knowledge that we are here but for a short time. Our job is to help each other along the journey. One may either participate in the Kingdom, or stand outside in the darkness. (Mtt 21:31-46) Amen.
