Sunday, July 23, 2006
Thomas 9
9. Jesus said, "Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure."
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This resonates with a teaching we heard today by Thich Nhat Hanh. Within us we have the seeds of anger, of jealousy, of other afflictions, as well as the seeds of happiness, mindfulness and other positive qualities. Which seeds blossom and come to the surface depend on which seeds we water, or in terms more consistent with this saying of Jesus, which seeds we put in fertile soil. Moreover, other people can water those seeds in us. If someone cuts us off in traffic, they are watering the seed of anger in us. Through mindfulness we can begin to recognize this when it occurs and not reinforce the anger by watering it ourselves. Nanh suggest we treat anger, or other afflictions, like a crying baby for whom we are the mommy. Using calming meditation we can calm the crying baby with love and kindness. With analytic meditation we can look deeply to see why the baby is crying, and apply a remedy. Note that we are not repressing emotions using this technique. We don't hold our hand over the baby's mouth to stop it from crying.
I think this is a great technique. We can apply the spirit of love to our own psyche to try to improve ourselves. There is no need for counter-productive self-recrimination and guilt. (Although lack of guilt doesn't mean we have no desire to change.)
This quote is taken from the Q source, or sayings of Jesus, though I think the version in the synoptic gospels is a bit more cogent.
I think the slight reduction in cogency reflects the time distance from Q.
Wrong. No loss of cogency. Taken from Q.
It's not clear that Thomas came after Q. According to one website, http://thenazareneway.com/top_ten_discoveries.htm, about one third of the material in both Thomas and Q is common, but it's not clear which came first, and in fact, many scholars believe both arose independently from the same oral tradition.
I don't know what the Q source thing is, but this verse seems very similar to another in the accepted gospels: similar enough to have been taken from the same...source... In the context of te gospels, it is usually taken to be a "be fruitful and multiply" instruction, isn't it?
from where did it come.
It is a commonly accepted theory that Matthew and Luke were written from two sources: Mark, and a second lost source usually denoted by Q. I don't think Thomas was based on the written source Q, but that both Q and Thomas drew from the same oral tradition.
I never thought that this verse meant "go forth and multiply." I always thought it meant that the message of the gospels only comes to fruition in some individuals, represented by the fertile soil.
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