The canonization of the New Testament, which is the declaration that the 27 books contained in it are authoritative, genuine holy scripture, was a centuries long process. It's a fascinating history. The New Testament as we know it, was born in the centuries after Jesus' death as the result of a massive struggle within the church over how and what Christians would believe. What is truth and what is heresy. In those early days there were many ideas about the nature of Jesus, and the nature of god. This is the ground that gave birth to Unitarian thinking - that the nature of the divine is a unity, a single entity, and therefore the nature of Jesus is human. Many other ideas existed too. Leaders of various churches argued over what was the truth. The stakes were high. Those whose doctrines emerged victorious garnered a great deal of power. Those whose doctrines were declared heretical lost everything, even their very lives at times. Thus, the group that decided which texts would be heretical was the one which had the most vested interest in such a project: the most powerful leaders of the various churches whose authority was being challenged. In addition to this there was a political reality: the need for a scapegoat to counter the pressure against Christians by the Roman authorities. Remember that Christianity did not become the official state religion until the 5th century. This prompted many Christians to criticize other Christian sects with the general theme "they are the bad Christians, but we are the good ones, so you should punish them instead." Thus, pro-Roman elements, and the absence of anti-Roman features, were a precondition for the canonic texts of any church with a chance of success in the Roman Empire. This and, given the tense relations between Rome and the Jews, antisemitic features would also win Roman favor and release Christians from Roman hostility toward Jews, a factor we encounter in the Gospel of John.

The struggle continued for centuries, but it is generally agreed that Irenaeus, the 2nd century Bishop of Lyons, gave us one of the first definitive lists of the books of the New Testament in his work, Against All Heresies and a Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching. In these he quotes exactly almost every book of the New Testament, numerous times, demonstrating that the orthodox canon, though not established officially, was by this time generally accepted in practice. Augustine all but codified this method, declaring without qualification that one is to "prefer those that are received by all Catholic Churches to those which some of them do not receive." He effectively forced his opinion on the Church by commanding three synods on canonicity: the Synod of Hippo in 393, the Synod of Carthage in 397, and another in Carthage in 419 A.D. Each of these reiterated the same Church law: "nothing shall be read in church under the name of the divine scriptures" except the Old Testament and the 27 canonical books of the New Testament. Thus there are four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Who's Thomas? A canonization is a codification of what the church believes about itself. That John was canonized and Thomas was not tells us something important about the self-understanding of Christianity. Since Unitarian Universalism has Christian roots, the story of John and Thomas also tells us something about ourselves.

In December of 1945 an Egyptian farmer went out to the cliffs that skirt the Nile near the town of Nag Hammadi. As he and his brother searched for a naturally occurring form of fertilizer to spread on their fields, they came across an earthenware jar of obviously ancient origin. When they broke open the jar they discovered inside a cache of 13 leather bound codices -- papyrus books -- containing more than 50 individual tracts of various origin. This Nag Hammadi library, as it is called, has proved to be revolutionary for the study of the New Testament. Among the treatises found in it was the one we know as the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus. Thomas is a gospel without a narrative framework. Unlike the other gospels it does not tell a story, but simply lists sayings of Jesus. It is, however, related to the other gospels. About one third of the sayings in Thomas can also be found in the Gospels of Luke, Mark and Matthew. About one third of the sayings in Thomas can be found in the Gospel of John. Scholars have long speculated that Matthew and Luke made use of a collection of sayings in creating their gospels; a hypothetical collection that has come to be known as Q. Scholars have also determined that Thomas is not derived from Q but is an independent sayings Gospel, part of which may be as old as Q. Thus Thomas is quite an early Gospel, most likely put together before the Gospel of John, which is most commonly thought to have been written between 90 and 100 of the Common Era. Thomas was around when all of this canonization was taking place. What is it in Thomas that was not acceptable? The answer would partly lie in the remaining third of its sayings, sayings not found in any of the other Gospels.

Thomas, like all of the other gospels, is asking two questions: Who is Jesus and What is the good news about him? The Gospel of Mark seems to say we don't know who Jesus is and we don't understand who he is, but we must wait and remain alert for when he comes again. The Gospel of Matthew seems to say that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish law as contained in the Torah. Here's how to live. The Gospel of Luke seems to say that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Humans need to have faith and repent, because Jesus is a healer and transformation is possible. The Gospel of John seems to say that Jesus is a prophet. He is the Messiah; he is one with God. And he is here to save us. The kingdom of God in John is an ongoing and present spiritual reality to be accessed now.

In the Gospel of Thomas, as in the Gospel of John, the kingdom of God is the quality of awareness of who we are in relation to God. In the Gospel of Thomas it is written: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, look the father's imperial rule is in the sky, then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, it is in the sea, then the fish will precede you. Rather, the father's imperial rule is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty." (#3) "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will kill you." (#70)

The kingdom of God has existed since the beginning of time. The phrase in Genesis "let there be light" is the image of the divine energy that brought everything into being. The Gospel of Thomas reads: 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." (#77) Jesus then, is a manifestation of the divine light that came into being at the beginning of time. The image of God is an image of light. It's the internal radiance that shines through all beings, even rocks, even us. Jesus said, "Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the fathers light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light." (#83) Humans can gain access to this light when we look for it. We have it within us because we are created in the divine image. The divine light in us allows us to understand our connection with one another. We all have this divine light, thus we are all deeply connected, thus somehow we are all one, a unity. Jesus said, "If they say to you, where have you come from? say to them, we have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established itself, and appeared in their image. If they say to you, is it you? Say, we are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father. If they ask you, what is the evidence of your father in you? say to them, it is motion and rest." (#50) The good news about Jesus is that Jesus teaches that the divine light is manifest in all beings and Jesus tells us that we can gain access to it by believing that it is there, by looking for it within ourselves. Jesus said, "one who seeks will find, and for one who knocks it will be opened." (#94) Jesus said, "Seek and you will find. In the past, however, I did not tell you things about which you asked me then. Now I am willing to tell them, but you are not seeking them." (#92) The Gospel of Thomas has often been thought of as a Gnostic Gospel because of the idea of secret knowledge being revealed. Jesus said, "I disclose my mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." (#62) Gnosticism was a religious movement that infiltrated both Judaism and Christianity in the first and second centuries of the Common Era. It had a certain philosophy, which I can't really go into now, but which the Gospel of Thomas does not fully display. The Gospel would be better described as rooted in the Jewish wisdom tradition, such as found in the Psalms and the Proverbs. It is a wisdom gospel made up of the teachings of a sage. It does however, show some beginning signs of a Gnostic movement within Christianity.

As that may be, how does it contrast with the Gospel of John? John was written later than Thomas. It was written for a community that had already separated from its Jewish roots and needed a clear understanding of itself and who Jesus was. In John, Jesus is described in many ways: as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, as the son of God, as the son of Adam, as the anointed, as the source of life, as the bread of life, as the good Shepherd, as the resurrection, as the authentic vine. In John Jesus is also the light of the world.

And how do you find the light? John answers, only through Jesus. "There appeared a man sent from God named John. (This is John the Baptist.) He came to testify - testify to the light - so everyone would believe through him. He was not the light; he came only to attest to the light. Genuine light - the kind that provides light for everyone - was coming into the world. Although it was in the world, and the world came about through its agency, the world did not recognize it. It came to its own place, but its own people were not receptive to it. But to all who did embrace it, to those who believed in it, it gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:6-12) Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. My followers won't ever have to walk in the dark; no, they'll have the real light." (John 8:12) "This is how God loved the world: God gave up his only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not be lost but have real life. After all, God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world but to rescue the world through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned. Those who don't believe in him are already condemned: they haven't believed in God's only son. This is the verdict on them: light came into the world but people loved darkness instead of light." (John 3:16-19)

Do you see the difference here? In John Jesus is the light, God is the light, but there's nothing about light within humanity. In John Jesus saves us; he saves us because God loves us that much and we need saving. Salvation comes through belief in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the light. It's exclusive in that Jesus is the way, the only way; it's not exclusive in that anyone can believe in Jesus. Jesus is there for everyone who wants him to be there.

Thomas presents a very different view of Jesus, God and humanity. Jesus is there for everyone but he is not necessarily the only way. For we carry the light within us; the light connects us; we access it by getting in touch with that which is good within ourselves, or that which is God within ourselves; through the light we know the kingdom of God. This is a very experiential way of looking at it. It is an optimistic, inspiring call to the best inside us. It's a mystical view of divine transcendence and immanence. God is actually within us and not just "out there;" Jesus actually becomes us. Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and hidden things will be revealed to him." (#108)

The two gospels take the teaching of Jesus as a manifestation of divine light and draw very different conclusions from it. That John was canonized and Thomas was not had huge implications for Christianity. And for Unitarian Universalism. By canonizing John, God became primarily transcendent, beyond humanity. God only comes to humanity through his son Jesus. Humans have no agency to save themselves; it all comes through God. It's a good thing that God is a loving God - we'd be sunk otherwise. This philosophy put Christianity on a path of looking to God rather than within the human heart. Our job is to believe; God does the rest. There's not a lot of room here for doubt or questioning, or beliefs in other ways. In a religiously pluralistic world, the idea that the beliefs of one religious system, be it Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist, the beliefs of one religious system are an exclusive path to a better world, both here and now and after death, is an idea that has increased the levels of intolerance, war and destruction in the world. I have a personal, strong distrust of any religion, any philosophy, any ideology that claims exclusive truth. Because the next step often seems to be either to impose that truth on others, or treat non-believers as second class citizens. Either way it begins to oppress.

If Thomas had been canonized, I wonder if Unitarian Universalism would still be within the Christian fold. Might God have been understood to be a unity rather than a trinity; an immanent being as well as a transcendent one? Might humans have had more leeway to determine their own beliefs, to question? That freedom and the openness to question are part of our heritage and they remain important to us today. Well, this is idle speculation.

I find that I respond to Thomas much more than to John. I have a need to believe n the potential of humanity; I need to believe that we carry within us the light of goodness, a light that we can help each other to access. I believe that we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. In other words, what is in us reflects what is in the larger world; in other words, that which is sacred is inside us as well as all around us. It is the quality of the being within as well as without that provides the interconnected framework of life. And I need to question these beliefs. To look deeply at them and continue to seek and grow. I need to bring my mind and my heart to my faith.

What about you? What do you believe and think about that connecting force or energy that some call God/Goddess? What do you believe and think about the potential of human nature? What's inside us? What relationship does it have to what is outside us? What about those who believe and think differently?

The Christian tradition contains both John and Thomas. John may have been canonized, but Thomas exists. Thomas offers a lot to consider about the nature of human beings, the nature of God in the Christian sense, the relationship between the divine and the human, and the effects of all of it upon human behavior. Important questions for all of us. May it be so.

Closing words by John Murray