Foreword

The Seduction of Serpent

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any other beast in the field…” ~ Gen. 8:1

What thoughts are born in innocence?

As the first of your sex, you would be viewed as malleable.

But, you were formed in the crucible of the Almighty,

Imparted with divine spirit, framed by Adam’s rib.

Naked in all respects with no memories to be your guide,

What was the temptation that brought pain and suffering?

Is knowledge the cross you bear?

Choice does not exist without history.

You stood with resolute fragility,

Confronted by the stark reality of truth.

Your nakedness was your armor,

As you reached for what was thought unreachable.

Words are unknown like those written by a solitary finger

In the dust. Like Judas your choice would be a betrayal.

But, without your choosing would the plan have been completed?

God knows…now, so do you.

Michael John Turner

November 30, 2005

Introduction

Moses was emblazoned by

Words touched upon the stone.

Yet the knowledge I seek

Was written by a solitary finger

In dust.

I would believe in God

The Father Almighty

But, unlike groping Thomas

A finger

Does not appease the mind.

The son crucified and buried

Without the certainty of death,

Even when nailed down

Words are elusive, often mumbled

Like so many children’s rhymes.

Part I

PROLOGUE TO FAITH

“Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.”

~Job 37:23

Walking where the gulls give voice

To a speechless day,

Solitary feet touch millenniums of sand;

Casting eyes to the horizon

I too would be a beloved son.

The chalice is drained of Olympian vine

Nor have I sipped the wedding wine.

Marked by inner-city streets, where there are no sacred trees,

Temples with tables turned are no longer holy…

How do we return to the Garden?

The omni-flaming sword keeps us out

Of the circle, that would draw us in.

There were giants in the earth…Son of God?

God, as a suffering child

I seek…

Part II

BY FAITH

“The practical faith of all men belies the preacher’s consolation.”

~H.D. Thoreau

In silence between shallow breaths, I hear

The muted grating of wood

Against the ancient streets, newly paved by Rome.

Jingling from my waist, thirty silver pieces,

Tarnished! ! !

Echoing, bumping --- a cross drawing

Not his life, but mine to a close.

Fingering my flaxen girdle,

Like beads …

Touching within the twine a serenity

As if

My lips finally taste the wine.

Part III

THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB

“Judge not that ye be not judged.”

~Matthew 7:1

Betrayer, you asked what is truth

Long before it stood before Pilate.

Ever standing in the midst

Always on the outside of the circle.

Who is to say…

The right or wrong of it

That was decided long before your birth,

Before the flame ever consumed your heart,

You too were crying in the wilderness.

As keeper of the books,

Some say, juggling the figures

Would you have proceeded

Knowing the ink was indelible?

A gamble? The dice were tossed long

Before the cross.

In search of your oneness

You lost the twelve…

Part IV

THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

As a child leafing through

J.J. Newberry’s ninety eight cent

Version of the word, I wondered:

Is this version less than the leather bound

Five dollar deluxe?

The words still echo,

“No one shall know the father

Save by his son.”

I still don’t know my father…

So, I become a Pilate before Christ.

Sitting amongst perfumed, blued souls

As traditional hymns shiver my spine.

Rendering unto Caesar

With little thought of Christ.

I am of the font, like them

Drowned into life. Again being passed down

A carpeted aisle of red.

When the ritual is in lower case

The harrowing of hell is

Of little consequence.

We bathe, refreshed by the sanctity

Purged by the luminescence of the gaze:

A prismatic spectrum.

Alienated from the truth of truths.

The somber doxology is piped,

Seeking in chords to touch

The unperceivable love

That is within and without the water.

The font: dripping unceasing

At once polluted and purified by blood.

Living although drowned.

Part V

“I am, that I am.”

~Exodus 3:14

Water spilled from that judicious bowl,

But, blood proclaimed the answer:

What is truth?

To die only to live?

Raised up a Nazarene,

Standing closer to a Greek,

A shadow amongst the shadows,

Proclaiming the inconceivable.

Rome can shed no light

For there is no darkness

Except that which lies within.

Illuminated by the blackness,

Fulfilled by the emptiness

I am part of the grotto…

Seeing shadows, but I am a shadow of myself,

Lost in the light.

CONCLUSION

How Long , Oh Lord

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding joy.”

Star light, star bright

First star, I see…

Hung with utmost care-

Hand blown in Germany, I think.

Now, that same star

Hangs in the perpetual evergreen of memory.

“And lo-

A star appeared in the east

Proclaiming that the spirit

Had become flesh-

And in accordance with the law

On the eighth day

The child was circumcised.”

I find no guilt in this man…

And with the washing of hands

One soul had been purged.

But, how many spirit starved eyes

Staring transfixed in horror

Watched as feet stumbled toward extinction?

How many hearts wrung out in anguish,

How many souls were to be saved…

Star light, Star bright

First star, I see…

Hung with utmost care…

The light shone clear

That all men would be renewed-

Yet in the final triumph

A thief turned to you…

Even before it had begun, it was finished.

Countless stars have traversed the heavens-

Millions that once shined

Are illuminated only through the ever fresh memory

That will dim and fade in the abyss.

“Christ, is that the cross I am yet to bear

That God died in DACHAU?

I am like you, suspended, motionless

Nailed by an eternity of love…”

-Michael J. Turner

After Thoughts

The genesis for the Gospel According to Judas can be traced back to multiple influences. The primary influence naturally is the Bible. Specifically, the verse from Exodus, when Moses asks God, “Who shall I say sent me?” The Lord replies, “ Say I am that I am has sent you.” From that initial reading to present day, I have considered these words to be the most powerful in the Old Testament. Within the phrase I am that I am lies Descartes’, I think, therefore, I am. Moreover, it is not from my perspective a leap to extract the formula, E=MC2. Just as energy can neither be created or destroyed, so too, the spirit can neither be created nor destroyed.

This concept harkens back to the Greeks, especially Aristotle and Sophocles, who argued that just as the circle is a perfect geometric form, God is the perfect spiritual form. Hence, God cannot be defined. To do so would be an attempt to confine by definition that which is indefinable. This notion of finite intellect trying to define the expansive intellect is the under current of Blake’s Urizon. Blake therefore becomes the second influence for the Gospel According to Judas.

The third intellectual source is a synthesis1. of the novels, The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfeld as well as I, Judas by Taylor Caldwell and the writings of Detrich Bonnhoeffer, who was the Lutheran Priest executed by the Nazi’s for his participation in the plot to kill Adolph Hitler. The referenced novels are views challenging traditional Christian dogma. Bonnhoeffer challenges those traditions in the real world by creating a rationale to commit the murder of one individual to save the lives of what would result in millions.

The Gospel According to Judas is a creative journey to explore not only the failure of the church to raise a collective voice against the Holocaust, but also, one’s relationship with God. It is a journey of words and paint. It is a journey that has resulted in the creation of my own formula for life…Enlightenment equals Meditation times Creativity times Curiosity or E=MC2.

E=MC2

The synthesis besides the aforementioned sources needs to include four other sources, The Gnostic Gospels, The Forbidden Books and The Lost Books of Eden. The authors names escape me at present. Moreover, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis should be considered as a starting point for my religious curiosity.