Analogue 53

Analogue 53 

Life-Giving Water

Those who go down into the waters of baptism are not immersed into death, but brought forth into the great Restoration, which the Anointed One himself inaugurated by bringing those whom he called into its fulfillment through his Name. For it is in this way that he completes the right-relationship between all things.

Those who say that they will die and then be raised are confused. If while still alive they do not first enter the resurrection, they will receive nothing when they die. It is in this way, then, that we must understand the greatness of immersion, for those who receive it, live.

SYNOPSIS

• An understanding of the power of baptism into the Living Waters as the water of life and not of death. 
• An invitation to enter into and drink from these waters. 
• Like all water, these have power to bring about or revive life. Think about how a desert is revived and revitalized by water in arid lands. 
• This Living Water has the power to bring about the process of resurrection along the vertical axis and growth into that domain (vs biological or psycho-social growth along the horizontal axis). 
• Like John the Baptizer did for him, Yeshua plays the role of the initiator who plunges us into living water.  
• This initiation begins the Great Restoration of all things which is the central meaning of his Name (Yeshua —  Yah Saves/Restores). His name reveals his purpose for his purpose, mission and goal is embedded in the Name. 
• Restoration brings about the balance of right-relationships between all things which has become distorted in the Web of Being. 
• The theology that baptism that focuses on death (or that saves the soul from death) is an incorrect perception. The opposite of this perception is the truth.   
• Resurrection (anastasis) is not a one time but recurring process beginning in the here and now which becomes the “practice of resurrection.” 
• Immersion in water initiates the process. The continuous drinking of and bathing in that same water keeps us alive and moving toward completion. 
• As an illustration, think about what it would be like to stop drinking natural water or using it to bathe in. 
• This the first of the “sacramental alchemies.” 

Video link to You Tube recording

COMMENTARY

Immersion and Resurrection

Baptism is the first of the great sacramental mysteries described in the Gospel of Philip. Rather than being merely an institutional rite of the Church, it would be far better to think of it as a kind of spiritual alchemy catalyzing the process of restoration to fullness of being. Through baptism, we are introduced to one of the deepest secrets concerning human transformation. Philip’s teaching is a great reversal distinguished from the way western theological traditions have seen and understood Yeshua’s work. For this Gospel, restoration begins with immersion into living water (found in both traditions, East and West), but Philip sees this primarily as an immersion not into death (the focus in the West) but into life (the focus in the East). In Jewish Temple ritual, this was also the first of the elements offered to its pilgrims. 

A common way of understanding baptism in western theology is that it plunges one into the death of Jesus as a dying process. This doctrine was taught by the Apostle Paul, signifying an immersion into the agonizing death of Yeshua by crucifixion. From this Gospel’s viewpoint, however, this is not the entire focus and Yeshua’s name is the clue. Baptism signals not an immersion into death, but initiation into life—divine Life. The name Yeshua means, the one who restores (to life), and this is precisely how this analogue perceives it. The work of the Messiah is to put all things in right relationship to Life, reviving every living thing into a greater fullness. 

Oriental and Western Traditions

Typical teaching concerning the resurrection is similar. First one must die and then, following death, be raised. The Philippian point of view is in direct contradiction to teachings in the western tradition. Philip sees that the followers of Yeshua must enter the process of resurrection long before they die physically. This apparently reflectsYeshua’s own point of view, and is key to the formation of life on the other side of physical death. 

Following his own immersion experience, Yeshua practiced a baptism into life, not death. From this point of view, perhaps we are already dead, and what we need now is to be raised from a death-like state back life—we need the waters of life. In addition, life beyond this world depends on resurrection here and now. Immersion into the waters that give life begins that process while alive biologically. Standing up out of those waters in the present, puts you in alignment with vertical realities. Water typically flows horizontally, but baptism into living water allowing us to stand up along the vertical axis of being from which these living waters flow down, falling upon us and welling up within us. 

The name Yeshua means, the one who restores (to life), … The work of the Messiah is to put all things in right relationship to Life, restoring all living things to their greater fullness. 

Some suggest that the nuance between Paul and Phillip is minor, or that while the emphasis is different, the final result is the same for in both cases there is death and resurrection. Each is true. However in western theology, the greater emphasis is put upon the aspect of dying which ends up becoming its central motif, which minimizes the processes of transformation and the movement toward wholeness of being. Western tradition often fails to find its way to the realization of life or the fullness of resurrection, insisting that death is primary. These are typically detailed in teachings concerning original sin and the weight of guilt and shame because of the disobedience of our ancient ancestors which we bear. 

The outcomes between these two theological positions are very different. Also the practices that developed around them are divergent from one another (constant confession of sins in contrast to continual gratitude for the joys of transformational experience). In this analogue we are exposed to the seeds of these two early theological versions at the roots of the Occidental and Oriental traditions respectively. Such a contrast provides a cautionary tale, giving us insight about what needs to be our spiritual focus in the world today. The Gospel of Philip is clearly pointing a new way forward, offering an alternative to the shame based theologies of western tradition 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. How do you compare Philip’s teaching on baptism to what you may have typically heard or normally practiced?
2. Look up the name Joshua or Yeshua online and see what you can find about it’s etymological roots. How do these relate to this analogue? Journal your findings. 
3. Baptism as immersion was not practiced at the laver of cleansing in the Temple, but there is a relationship between that rite and the practice that John the Baptist used at the river Jordan. How do you understand that relationship?
4. Read chapter 6 of Paul’s letter to the Romans. How does he understand the practice of baptism? Describe the key differences with this analogue.
5. What do you think it means to experience resurrection before death?  What is key to that experience?

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. It is clear that in the actual and metaphoric geography of the Middle East, water becomes a central concern for peoples of the desert. It is a precious commodity. It is also sacred because it is life-giving and the basis for all life. Often found at an oasis where life can exit and flourish, water might be extremely scarce elsewhere. Those who know where water can be found traverse a desert landscape filled with death in order to reach it and survive. These geographical features are metaphorically significant in the Abrahamic faiths, giving meaning to the rite of baptism in a very direct way. Around the baptismal rite there are also other important meanings having to do with washing and cleansing as well as refreshment while dying from thirst. The symbol of water, therefore, is used as a great sacred teaching around the world. Rites using water exist in native traditions, in Hindu and Buddhist ritual and ceremony, and very particularly in Taoism which celebrates the significance of water and its flow as the central symbol of its description of the Tao or way of life (See for example the text of the Tao Te Ching). In the esoteric poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi, the waters of life are often described as a river or a mighty ocean of love and mercy to which one must return. 
2. In this text, the contrast between the teachings of the Apostle Paul and the vision of the Gospel of Philip is apparent. Sometimes the contrast is subtle. At other times it is more overt. In either case, there is a significant divergence between them, becoming more and more apparent throughout history. Cultures separate, theological traditions take hold, and the chasms widen. Later it is difficult to see this divergence as anything other than a rejection of the received tradition, which must, therefore, be condemned as heresy. This is what happened in the early centuries when the first Jewish followers of Yeshua were ostracized from the Christian community and condemned as heretics. It is easier then to dismiss their original viewpoints as of no consequence. Throughout this text, however, we are reminded that the reverse may be the truth—it is we in the West who have strayed from the original teachings. These early communities remained true to these great insights held by the original communities. We can, however, reclaim and honor them today. These insights concerning the fundamental rite of baptism and resurrection is one powerful example preserved in the text of this Gospel. If you have not done so already, you might look for and keep track of these contrasts and attempt to find a new balance between what appears to be opposite positions in theological understanding. 

Notes ON the Translation

• The various English terms used to describe the waters of baptism are expressed by the simple Greek word baptizo—immersion in the original. 
• The phrase “the right-relationships between all things” translates the standard “fulfills all righteousness.” The original Coptic uses the Greek term dikaiosune, which at root means right-relationship.
• The word “raised” can also be translated as “resurrected.”
• The phrase “enter the resurrection” translates “receives the resurrection.”