Shining Like the Sun (Gospel of Thomas)

Today I am going to cover two sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, sayings 32 and 33. There are actually three sayings in these two verses. One about being built on a mountaintop, one about shouting from a housetop, and one about shining from a tabletop. I am grouping them together because they have the same theme and in the canonical gospels they are found together. And they are all about how the nondual Reality of the Kingdom of God shines forth for all to see. Here are the sayings: 

Jesus said, "A city being built on a high mountain and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden." Jesus said, "Preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lampstand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its light."

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Transcript

It has been several weeks since I posted my last episode. About two months. People reached out to me and asked if everything was all right. The truth is I had some health issues that prompted me to pause my recordings. I still do, and I will find out more after a medical consultation next month. But I expect everything to be nothing serious. 

I could have recorded some episodes in recent weeks, but I was enjoying the silence. It felt like silence said more than words. Anyway, I am back doing the Gospel of Thomas here today, although I may not record episodes as frequently as before. Throughout these past weeks I have continued to write my blog. So if you are not already subscribed, you might want to go to Substack and sign up. 

Today I am going to cover two sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, sayings 32 and 33. There are actually three sayings in these two verses. One about being built on a mountaintop, one about shouting from a housetop, and one about shining from a tabletop. I am grouping them together because they have the same theme and in the canonical gospels they are found together. And they are all about shining forth. Here they are: 

Jesus said, "A city being built on a high mountain and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden." Jesus said, "Preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lampstand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its light."

These are familiar words to those who know the New Testament gospels. Here is the canonical version. 

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” And here is the other part: “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.”

You can see that Thomas’ version of these sayings is not much different than the version in the Gospel of Matthew. The verses are about the Kingdom of God shining forth for all to see. When talking about a city set on a hill, Jesus may have been thinking about the city of Sepphoris, which was only four miles from Nazareth and set on a hill. This city is not mentioned in the Bible, but it was an important city. It was the Roman provincial capital of Galilee. Jesus would have been familiar with it. 

Jesus may have been thinking about that city, or he may have been thinking of Jerusalem. During the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in ancient Jerusalem, four massive, golden menorahs were lit in the Court of Women in the Temple. These enormous candelabras 75 feet high illuminated the city and could be seen from afar off. According to the Gospel of John it was during this feast that Jesus stood in the temple and said, “I am the Light of the World.”

Whichever city Jesus had in mind, he was saying that the Kingdom of God is so obvious that everyone can see it. It is like a city set on a hill or a light shining in the darkness. Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God is in plain sight for all to see. This nondual Reality is not some esoteric knowledge. It is not a secret. It is shining for all to see.

Thomas Merton talks about this. It seems appropriate that I illustrate the words of one Thomas with the words of another - Thomas, the apostle, with the words of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Merton talks about his experience of nondual awareness in his autobiographical book, The Seven Storey Mountain. He writes:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… (He is speaking of his life as a monk at the Abbey of Gethsemane here.) This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy that I almost laughed out loud.... If only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

Merton saw all the people around him in Louisville, Kentucky, shining like the sun. For all to see. But few see. His words remind me of the gospel scene of the transfiguration of Jesus on a mountaintop in Galilee, witnessed by three of his disciples. He picked these three because only these three out of the twelve – and maybe out of the 70 or the thousands who heard him preach - were ready to see. That scene says that Jesus shone like the sun. 

This is the nature of Spiritual Reality, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God. It shines like the sun. It cannot be more obvious, like a city on a hill or a message shouted from the rooftops or a lamp on a lampstand in a dark house. It is so obvious that it makes no sense that everyone does not see this.

When I first experienced this same reality that Thomas Merton knew, I wondered how I could have lived so many years and missed it. I did not understand why more people did not see it. I wondered why I had not heard more people talking about this. Then I realized that people had been talking about this, but I had not heard. 

Like Jesus says here, they heard and saw and proclaimed it from the rooftops. But people dismissed what they said. These seers were labeled quacks, kooks, mystics, or heretics. Their message was ignored by most people. Religious people settled for secondhand revelation mediated through clergy and sacraments, scriptures and traditions, dogma and doctrines.

But the Kingdom is not for the few. It is not for a spiritual elite. It is for everyone. It shines through everything. It shines through nature. The hymn says, “It shines in all that’s fair.” “In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere.” Although those lyrics are too limited. It shines through everything. “All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.” It shines in the faces of everyone we meet. We are this light. That is why Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World” and “You are the light of the world.” 

We could not hide this shining light of the Kingdom if we wanted to. And our words do not add anything to the wordless proclamation. That is why I did not feel bad about not recording episodes of this podcast and YouTube videos for eight or nine weeks. My words add nothing to the proclamation that is all around us. Yet I must talk about it, just as Jesus says. But sometimes I think that talking about it obscures it. It causes people to think that it can be conveyed in words when it cannot.

In any case, at least for today I am using words to point to that which is everywhere and always, inside and outside of us. The Kingdom of God.