The Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity
Intent: The Universality of Revelation
"Angel of the Revelation" by William Blake.
Today’s readings truly show how universal the Gnostic approach to Christianity is. The collect calls upon the Universal Divine Light and its presence wherever true revelation is found in all the cultures and faiths of the world. Reminding us that perhaps, even as Gnostics, we spend too much time on the differences between religions and between ourselves and not enough time on what we have in common. The desire for the presence of the Divine Light in our lives. This quest for the Light matters more than any exterior form of religion or tradition which might separate the different spiritualities of our world.
The lesson readings from the words of the Prophet Mani, whom as a Gnostic himself, attempted to create a form of universal spirituality scores this point home for us. In a paragraph which praises the teachings of Seth, Zarathustra, the Buddha and Jesus, Mani reminds us that it is the primitive revelation found in all of them which should matter to Gnostics: “For all earlier religions were true so long as pure leaders were in them.” Leaders and teachers filled with and communicating the Divine Light to others.
The Gospel reading is taken from St. John and Jesus as the Christ tells us in the chosen passage that the Divine Father has many different types of sheep and many different mansions to store them in: “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring; and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”
This openness and tolerance to other faiths has ever been a hallmark of the Gnostic Church and it is what the world needs in its current state in which religious intolerance is rampant and growing.
Let us therefore as One United Gnostic Community and Universal Gnostic Church, pray as the Sacramentary of the French Gnostic Church suggests: “Almighty and Eternal God who revealed His Glory to all Nations, may You keep, Lord, the works of Your mercy so that Your Universal Temple here on Earth, a reflection of the one in Heaven, may be preserved with a firm and indestructible Faith in the confession of Your Holy Name. Through Christ Our Master and Lord. Amen.”
The lesson readings from the words of the Prophet Mani, whom as a Gnostic himself, attempted to create a form of universal spirituality scores this point home for us. In a paragraph which praises the teachings of Seth, Zarathustra, the Buddha and Jesus, Mani reminds us that it is the primitive revelation found in all of them which should matter to Gnostics: “For all earlier religions were true so long as pure leaders were in them.” Leaders and teachers filled with and communicating the Divine Light to others.
The Gospel reading is taken from St. John and Jesus as the Christ tells us in the chosen passage that the Divine Father has many different types of sheep and many different mansions to store them in: “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring; and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”
This openness and tolerance to other faiths has ever been a hallmark of the Gnostic Church and it is what the world needs in its current state in which religious intolerance is rampant and growing.
Let us therefore as One United Gnostic Community and Universal Gnostic Church, pray as the Sacramentary of the French Gnostic Church suggests: “Almighty and Eternal God who revealed His Glory to all Nations, may You keep, Lord, the works of Your mercy so that Your Universal Temple here on Earth, a reflection of the one in Heaven, may be preserved with a firm and indestructible Faith in the confession of Your Holy Name. Through Christ Our Master and Lord. Amen.”