I’m reading Dr. Elaine Pagels’ latest book Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus (thanks for the recommendation, Kurt)!  Pagels taught at Princeton for decades and is perhaps best known for her work on early Christianity and the Gnostic Gospels.  In our Christian tradition, we have the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Though there were other Gospels that were not accepted into the Christian canon by Church leadership for all sorts of reasons.  There’s the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Truth, The Thunder: Perfect Mind (no, I am not making this up!)  Some of these texts were discovered by a local farmer in the desert at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. 

I find this stuff endlessly fascinating.  Mostly it makes me think about how diverse our Christian tradition has been from the beginning.  We can see that people were trying to understand what Jesus said and did and who Jesus was in various ways. 

For instance, Holy Week begins on Sunday with reading the Palm Sunday story as found in the Gospel of Luke this year.  Would it surprise you to know that Luke makes no mention of palms?  Instead, Luke tells the story by saying that, “As he [Jesus] rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.” (Luke 19:36)  We will still have our palms and sing our “Hosannas,” don’t worry.  Though it’s worth noting that Luke tells the story differently than Mark (for instance) who says, “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.” (Mark 11:8) 

What can we make of this? 
Perhaps it’s that Christianity has been rich and diverse from the beginning. 
We don’t all see and understand events that are happening in the same way even today. 
I find that it helps to approach our faith with humility, knowing that we can’t know everything!
Anytime we think that we know everything and have all the answers, sometimes we encounter mystery and the not easily explainable aspects of life. 
Though God is always with us, and that is such a comfort. 

Love,
Pastor Lauren 

Photo of Masada in the Judean Desert by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.

Thursday Thoughts 4/10/25