Four Gospels

Four Gospels Course Paper

Rev. Hal Coffen

In the synoptic gospels and the Gnostic gospel of Thomas the Pharisees and John’s disciples question the fact that Jesus’ disciples are not fasting. He replies with a question: “How can the friends of the bridegroom fast when he is with them for but a short time, there will be time for fasting when he is gone.” This point leads us on a brief journey into tradition and resistance to change.

On the surface this appears to be the observation of a teacher who is all too aware of his mortality. I feel that it is another point where Christ draws our attention to his deity. Jewish tradition, as outlined in the poetic and prophetic books of the Jewish bible, describe God as the bridegroom to the Jewish people.

In accepting this mantle, he not only declares Himself to those who “have ears to hear” He also creates a new corporate entity. Just as He is the perfect melding of God/man, by becoming the Bridegroom he opens a door for us to join with him. Much as a man and a woman leave their parents to create a new entity, so must we join with Christ to create a new entity. This is not the corporate “body of the church” that the temporal powers would have us believe, but rather individually as we follow our path to God.

The warnings that follow are too frequently glossed over. To superficially add the teachings of the Bridegroom to the old covenant is to rend the new and leave it incomplete. Further even if this repair didn’t shrink and further damage the old, it would just draw attention to its difference and mask the substance of its message.

The wine skin analogies are perhaps the most telling and discouraging. If we try to force this new relationship with God into the old patterns they will burst, leaving the relationship to spill away and be ultimately lost. If as Thomas warns in his gospel we accept the new relationship but fill it with the details of the old it will spoil the new dispensation as well as the old, and leave us further behind then when we started this journey. Perhaps the most disturbing portion of this parable is in the writing of Luke. The warning that: who, having tasted the old will not prefer it to the new. If it is hard to change old physical and mental habits, how much harder will it be to change our spiritual habits? How much easier is it to follow the old ways especially given the laws to guide our way? The priests and shamen are there at the ready to correct our errors, to guide us along the way they have discerned and perhaps most telling interpret for us the meaning of the Bridegroom’s teachings.

The true path, for those of us who follow the Christ, is the one he presented. It is through him, not some hierarchy of a temporal church. Just as we should not place priests between us and our temporal spouses, (even if they seem to think they have that right today) how can it be wise to place them between our self and our Holy Bridegroom.

What then is our role as pastors? Beyond finding our own way along this difficult path, we must stand as signpost for our fellow travelers. As they explore the way to spirituality and peace we must support them in their path, not matter how different from our own. While we discover our own way we may share our discoveries with fellow travelers. But we must let our example be our guide, we must teach by that example, and the good our chosen path will present it self. How much easier it would be to present a “proven” dogma, to present that old familiar wine to searchers, rather then to lead them to the path of their own. If we our true to our own spirituality, our light will lead them to a path less prone to the human errors we call sin.

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