Chapter 7 and Epilogue - November 30 2010

The Three Musicians - by Pablo Picasso

An image of unity, harmony, diversity - would it have been for Paul a good image of being in Christ?

Take a moment of prayer:

Open our stories to any chapter, a friend will have a page there.

Look closely at our roots, compasions nourished what holds us.

As about our migration, our paths; strangers became neighbours became loved ones.

Listen to the cadence of our song; a symphony of lives soars through each note.

Watch us shelter beneath soft wings; friendship gentles our weariness.

Discover our tables set with bread and laughter; for we share what we have received.

Sift the sands of daily journey; the grains of God's kingship glimmer everywhere.

Amen

Keri Wehlander, Joy is our Banquet, Wood Lake Books, 1996

Chapter 7 – Life Together in Christ

Paul great passion seemed to be being community “in Christ” “in the Spirit” or “into one body”.  Why was community so important?  The context for Paul was urban ministry, where traditional family systems had broken down.  He used "new family” language to address his fellow believers as a way of connecting on a more intimate level.

Can you think of church communities you have known where newcomers come or came to seek a home base in a new city?  How is the church different from bowling, curling, quilting clubs?  It is not just a social club, but one with an agenda – for Paul this agenda was recognizing the “new age” and “new creation” initiated by Christ.  Paul dealt with varied, diverse converts - being "in Christ" was his response to conflicting traditions.  To be “in Chrsit” “in the Spirit” “in one body” was to be – A NEW CREATION!

Borg & Crossan talk about “share communities” – which are not the same as communes, or the Jerusalem community from Acts 4:44-5:  All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Why was the share community important to Paul?

1)      Hunger was  important to Jesus - distribution of bread.

2)      Reality of economic fragility in the urban areas – financially secure only as work was available, therefore the "family" took care of one another.

3)      2 Thess. – Deutero-Paul  - there were freeloaders taking advantage of “share community”.  In 1 Timothy – the community was already supporting widows – 3^rd Paul says to choose between the truly needy and those who had other sources of support.

Characteristics of Paul’s share community:

1)      Galatians – there arose the question of whether or not male Christian gentiles needed to be circumcised.  Paul argued it should not make a difference – Abraham believed first before his descendents were circumcized.

2)      In I Corinthians – class division should not be visible at the Lord’s Supper.

3)      Also in 1 Corinthians – there should be no hierarchy of persons based on gifts, but the highest gift should be love, which is accessible to everyone regardless of talent.

4)      In Galatians – the "flesh" was not embodiment, but finite, material obsessions.  Paul encouraged them to choose the fruit of the Spirit over material things – the Spirit transplanted into flesh by our life choices.

Paul has “transplanted the Spirit” because of his attitude towards things finite and things spiritual – Philippians “the secret of being well-fed and going hungry, of having plenty and being in need.”  In this way, Paul is like modern saints, for example, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Bonhoeffer, Aung San Suu Kyi. 

We looked at Paul's summery of his theology as found in Phil 2:6-11, from different translations.

Question for Reflection:

What is "Christian community" for you?  Is it a common practice of meditation/worship?  Is it common values? Common beliefs?  

Epilogue:

The story of Paul's death is not recorded in scripture.  The tradition tells us he died in Rome as a martyr.  We know he planned to go to Spain, but did he go there and write 2^nd and 3^rd Paul?  Or did he die in Rome?

Borg & Crossan suggest that Paul went to Jerusalem to promote Christian unity with donations to “the saints” and infuriated Christian Jews had him packed off to Rome under arrest.  Then he probably died in the martyrdom of Nero (with Peter) circa 64 CE.  Ultimately his goal was Christian unity and he died for it.

Why is unity/community so important?

Why is it that we can’t just reject those we don’t agree with?

I want to close with this story –

One weekend two brothers got together at the family cottage and had a wonderful time - fishing swimming, playing with their grandchildren, enjoying creation. Saturday night, sitting around the fireside, the brother who was an elder at his church told his brother, who never went to church, that he would drive home that night so he could be at church Sunday morning.

His brother asked:  WHY? Can’t you worship God in creation? I feel closer to God here at the lake than I do in a church with a stuffy preacher telling me what to do!

At that his brother took the tongs from the fire, where the coals were glowing red together, and lifted one coal out of the fire, and put it off to one side, by itself.  Within a minute the red glow of the fire had left the coal, making it grey and cold.

And that was all he said.

Thanks for being part of our study - in person or online!  Hope you will join us again - we will likely do another study for Lent!  Elizabeth

Chapters 5 & 6 November 22 2010

In these chapters, Borg and Crossan explore some of Paul's teachings around subjects fundamental to our understanding of Christian faith and shed a new light on some of our misperceptions about what Paul really said.

We begin with a prayer by Keri Wehlander that reminds us of the eternity and universality of God's care - no matter how great or small we may be.

O God, we are tangled in our schedules, surrounded by demands,

caught up in the spectacular, the superb, the superior.

One day we discover we never have enough; we never accomplish enough;

we never are enough.

O God, in the midst of this chaos, may the still, small voice tug at us

until we stop - listen - consider.

And turning around in our tracks, see ourselves and this world again,

through your eyes, Amen.

Joy is our Banquet, UCPH, 1996.

Chapter 5 – Christ crucified

Christ Crucified was Paul's first-century equivalent to a bumper sticker message - along with Christ is Lord and In Christ, his short-hand summary of the gospel.  And yet that emphasis on the cross has led many in the church to over-emphasize the death of Christ as ransom for our sins.  Borg and Crossan invite us to re-interpret “substitutionary atonement” (Christ died as a payment for our collective sin to appease God) for “participatory atonement” (in following Christ we die and rise with him.)  Substitutionary atonement is a relatively new theology in Christianity - only 1000 years old, and based on the writings of Anselm. 

For example, God did not demand Jesus’ death – Jesus died because he would not bend to Rome or the corrupt religious authorities.  According to God's wisdom, in foolishness there is wisdom, in failure, victory.  Jesus' is God's contradiction of human wisdom – we participate in his life/death/resurrection in order to have new life or God's kingdom on earth.  A true sacrifice is not an ransom payment, but a gift – what we give up for God.

Jesus’ gave his life “for God” and “for us – but in that he became our model or example of life lived faithfully with God.  The resurrection is God’s stamp of approval.

Borg and Crossan focus exclusively on First Paul – Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians.  The disputed and pastoral letters contain few references, and those in passing as dealing with more pragmatic matters.  In Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  Colossians 1:20 “and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace thorugh the blood of his cross.”  1 Timothy 2:5 “Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.”

We watched Marcus Borg speaking about "Salvation” on a DVD resource from Tim Scorer's Experiencing the Heart of Christianity, Wood Lake Books, 2005, which led us into discussion of: 

Chapter 6 – Justification by grace through faith

The phrase represents an important question for the Protestant Reformation, and many other kinds of reformation.  When people of faith become too enmeshed in tradition and ritual, how do we sort through our priorities and return simply to questions of faith?  Borg and Crossan remind us that we need to see Paul as a 1^st century Jew, not a 16th century Lutheran! They also suggest that the ultimate goal for Paul was UNITY:  between Greek(Gentile) and Jew; between Jew and Christian; between Christian Jew and Christian Gentile.

The preponderance of Paul's writings suggest that his goal was universal understanding on the basis of the gospel.  The gospel could not be limited to ethnic heritage or language or ritual or diet.  Only faith was accessible to everyone.  So he asked these questions:  1) What does justice/righteousness mean?  2) Is God revealed in Torah or in Jesus?  3)Is there still "law", and how is it related to grace?

I especially appreciated their quote about working out one's salvation with “fear and trembling”: We can only conclude that the reason we should fear and tremble about our salvation is not because God will punish us if we fail, but because the world will punish us if we succeed.

To explore these images of atonement, justification and grace, we looked at a number of our traditional hymns and creeds: 

How great thou art

Just as I am

Come let us sing of a wonderful love

I need thee every hour 

Sometimes the most "conservative" hymns are found in our seasonal necessities:

Lent/Easter: 

When I survey the wondrous cross

There is a green hill far away

Jesus Christ is risen today

Advent/Christmas

Come thou long expected Jesus

Hark!  The Herald Angels sing

Once in royal David’s City

The first nowell 

We also looked at the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the United Church of Canada's New Creed (1968).

While I don't believe we need to "purge” our hymn books of the traditional favourites, I prefer interpreting their message and balancing them with more diverse interpretations, allowing people to come to their own relationship with God.

For our closing we read the following prayer by Keri Wehlander (see above for reference):

Consider the dance of clouds, the smell of autumn leaves,

 the gurgle and slap of waves on the shore

May we be still and know God again.

Consider the harmony of crickets, the strength of an outstretched wing,

the velver touch of a purring cat.

May we be still and know God again.

Consider the deep laughter of friends, the embrace of a loved one,

the fragrance of a treausred memory.

May we be still and know God again.

Consider the comfort of a sweater, the arona of baking bread,

 the rhythms and melody of a favourite song.

May we be still and know God again.

consider the common, present moment and name it holy, as God does.

May the God of mustard seeds and sparrows

gently bless us and grant us peaceful spirits, Amen.

Chapters 3&4 - November 15 2010

Our opening prayer is taken from Keri Whelander’s Joy is our Banquet, UCPH, 1996.

The Spirit seeks us:  calling each name with compassion.  “Fear not,” she sings, scattering seeds of promise on every timid heart’s soil.  The Spirit leads us forth:  teaching us new geographies, and uncommon mercies.  Each step weaves grace and justice into the fabric of our actions.  The Spirit befriends us:  Strengthening tender hopes and weary dreams.  “Courage,” she murmurs, unbinding fear’s knot and breathing us into resurrection.  Amen

Chapter Three of our study book is called:  The life of a long-distance apostle.  Borg and Crossan offer some insights into how they understand the background and context of Paul’s ministry and how it shaped his vision.

They describe the community of Tarsus, where Paul was supposed to have been raised, in terms of 3 important qualities:

VISTA – Tarsus was at the crossroads between Asia and Europe, and was influenced by Eastern and Western philosophies, cultures and politics.

LABOUR – It was a community that was known for its hard work, ambition, and creativity in solving problems.

EDUCATION – Both Jewish and Greek educational institutions were established in Tarsus and Paul would have been exposed to the highest level of learning from both.

Question for Reflection:  What kind of community culture affected the shape of your life today?

One interesting fact about Tarsus, which may also have affected Paul’s life, is a high incidence of malaria – it boasted the kind of warm, humid climate and poor drainage that mosquitoes thrive on!  Borg and Crossan suggest that Paul’s references to physical infirmity in Galatians 4:13-15 might have been symptoms of malaria, also 2 Corinthians 12:6-10.  Check different translations of those passages and see if they provide any better understanding!  Other theories include epilepsy, blindness, bipolar disorder, etc..

Chapter 4 is called Jesus Christ is Lord:

Borg and Crossan suggest that Paul deliberately contrasted the “lordship” of Christ, crucified and risen, with the arrogant “lordship” of Caesar, who also coincidentally considered himself to be the Son of God.  Both claimed to bring peace.

Caesar’s peace was brought about by believing that Caesar was God, or Son of God, defending his honour and expanding his frontiers in war, and through victory, bringing about the “peace” of political suppression.

In contrast, Jesus’ peace is modeled after God as householder, the “father” of a household who ensures that each member of the household has the nourishment, resources and love that they need to flourish.  Faith in Jesus’ God would lead to a commitment to non-violence (their explanation for Romans 13:1-7), and justice, which would lead to peace by participation, not suppression.

By playing up the stark contrast between Jesus and Caesar as “Lord”, Paul revealed himself to be the truly radical revolutionary.

Question for Reflection:

How do we as Christians today stand in contrast to the values and “empire” of society around us?  How do we live in a society when our gospel challenges many of its values?

Closing Prayer: (also from Joy is our Banquet)

O God, where hearts are fearful and limited; grant freedom and daring.

Where anxiety is infectious and widening; grant peace and reassurance.

Where impossibilities close every door and window; grant imagination and resistence.

Where distrust reshapes every understanding; grant healing and transformation.

Where spirits are daunted and dimmed; grant soaring wings and strengthened dreams,

Amen.

Chapters 1-2 - November 8, 2010

In these chapters, Borg and Crossan help us to discover the story behind Paul’s epistles.  Keri Wehlander has leads us in a prayer about being faithful witnesses and storytellers (Joy is our banquet, UCPH, 1996)

Take a moment to focus on her words of prayer:

O God,

We are witnesses and storytellers; we are part of the unfolding tale of faith.  Precious words and sacred memories are carried by every one of us.  If we go and tell what we have seen and heard, each one becomes like a chapter, a verse, a paragraph.  When we risk spinning these yarn, when we listen and speak, when we carefully gather the fragments us… We discover there is good news all over again!

Reviewing Chapter 1

Why is Paul important to us?

-          Earliest written Christian scripture preserved in “original” form

Paul wrote between 45-60 AD, the earliest gospel, Mark, took shape a decade later, though it was drawn from oral tradition and earlier accounts.

-          Paul brought the good news to non-Jews, who became the next generation of those who followed Jesus.  Paul did not understand this mission to be outside the Jewish teachings, or that he was beginning a new religion.

-          Paul is responsible for the formation of some of our fundamental Christian beliefs, such as justification by faith, and the power of the resurrection.

-          Paul became the vision-keeper, around whom a dispersed community could gather, who drew the line between true and false teachings.

-          Paul was the inspiration of both Augustine, one of the foremost fathers of the Roman tradition & Martin Luther, of the Protestant Reformation.

Borg and Crossan share their perceptions of Paul in their Protestant and Catholic education.  It is clear that Paul’s writings were more central in Borg’s Lutheran background, and it was Paul as a martyr of the church alongside Peter which had the greatest impact in Crossan’s memory.

Crossan and Borg’s 3 foundational statements:

1.       There is more than one Paul;

2.      Paul was shaped by his historical context;

3.      Paul was a “Jewish Christ mystic.”

1.“Taming of Paul” – in order to survive as a faith community, watering down the radical message of the gospel to make it palatable within the Roman Empire. Even the book of Acts teaches us more about the spread of the gospel than the person and theology of Paul, more radical than the early church wanted to be perceived.

2.Paul’s historical context, as found in the epistles, are presented as four concentric circles.  At their core, Paul was writing to a specific community in a specific situation.  More generally, he was writing to them as followers of Jesus.  That movement was contained within the realities of 1^st century Judaism, and those realities were shaped by the social and political context of the Roman Empire.

3.Paul was a Jewish Christ mystic – impressions of the word “mystic”may lead us to think of those who separate themselves from society, but Paul was very much involved in the world around him.  He was deeply moved and changed by a vision of the risen Christ, which led to action, and to life-transforming choices.

READ 1 Corinthians 15:3-11

Reviewing Chapter 2

Letters and epistles are significant to us if we can figure out the story behind the letter, which broke into the isolation of these small communities – it was generally support (or challenge!) from beyond.

On Slavery:

First Paul is indirect but challenging in Philemon – not commanding but appealing to Philemon that Christian love must be “in the flesh and in the Lord.” 

Onesimus should be “slave no longer”.

Second Paul is more direct:  READ Col 3:22-4:1 or Ephesians 6:5-9, defining a “Christian” relationship between slave and master.

Third Paul, in Titus 2:9-10, is commanding, doesn’t even address the slaves, but speaks of them in the third person, it also neglects a Christian master’s responsibility to slaves.

Question for Reflection:

Borg and Crossan suggest that it was, in part, Paul’s identity as a “Jewish Christ mystic” which gave him the courage and vision to challenge the hierarchy of his time (later it was watered down in other letters attributed to him.)  What kind of spiritual support or practice do you need to challenge the dominant culture around you?

Our Closing Prayer is also taken from Keri Wehlander’s resource:

O God, keeper of stories and weaver of dreams, set our voices free.  Grant us the courage we need to be tellers of truth and speakers of the sacred.  Unstop our ears, that we might recognize the wisdom of the witnesses in our midst.  Empower us with your love, that we might spin new yarns with confidence and grace, Amen.

The First Paul - November 1 2010

Welcome to Rideau Park's 2010 Book Study!


This season we are using The First Paul, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, Harper Collins Pulbishers, 2009.  You are welcome to follow along with the reading schedule and comment on this blog spot to be part of the discussion, if you wish!  Our meetings are being held the five Monday evenings in November at Rideau Park United, 2203 Alta Vista Dr.  Call 613-733-3156 for more information.


The outline of readings is as follows:

November 1 – Introduction, etc.

            November 8 – Chapters 1-2

            November 15 – Chapters 3-4

            November 22 – Chapters 5-6

            November 29 – Chapters 7 and Epilogue

Our Session on November 1 will be an overview of some of the assumptions we bring to the study: 

About ourselves as learners: that we respect many different perspectives, keep confidences shared within the group, and understand that everyone learns and reads the faith story in their own unique way, at their own pace.

About biblical studies:  that the Bible we read is a compilation of many different writers, shaped by faith communities, translators, pastoral situations and the work of the Holy Spirit in both author and reader.

New Testament studies in particular may involve various kinds of study - understanding the ancient world, in particular the Roman Empire; Jewish culture and theology at the time of Paul; technical nuances of ancient texts written in greek, then translated into latin, then many other languages; thorough self-examination of our own subjectivity in reading the text.

A while ago, the United Church of Canada created an advertising poster for its wondercafe website, which featured a picture of a bible with lots of little sticky notes poking out from the pages - the pink were noted "agree"; the green "disagree.  That's the way you may feel about Paul's epistles!  Read the following and make a mental note of whether you agree or disagree:

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.

Agree OR Disagree?

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,^* about those who have died,^* so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.^{* 15}For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.^{* 16}For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Agree OR Disagree?

Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour. ²⁴Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

Agree OR Disagree?

What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; ³¹but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law.

³²Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling-stone, ³³as it is written,

‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him^* will not be put to shame.’

Agree OR Disagree?

Paul has always been a controversial figure in any community - Christian, Jewish, Roman.

Just read 2 Peter 3:15b-16! 

So also our beloved Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters.  There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.

Your perspective on Paul may depend on whether your background is Catholic or Protestant, because Paul's writings played a big part in the Reformation.  It may depend on whether you are traditional or feminist, because his epistles don't fit your understanding of power and hierarchy.  It may depend on whether you are evangelical or mainline, and how you see the purpose of the church.  It may depend on whether you read the Bible from a liberal or fundamentalist understanding, and whether every word must or might be "true".

In our opening discussion, we will read a quote from Bart Ehrmann's Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene, Oxford Univeristy Press, 2006, which Ehrmann calls Paul's "afterlife" or legacy:

Whether or not Paul himself came back to life after his death, it is clear that his writings and teachings lived on.  As we have seen so many times, this does not mean that his actual teachings were cherished and remembered.  Far more often, his teachings were remembered in ways that bore little resemblance to what he rally taught.  Maybe that’s true of every great religious teacher.  In any event, it is surely the explanation for how Paul could appear in so many guises after his life.  Some of his followers remembered him as supporting the teachings of the Jewish scriptures (for example, those hwo preserved his letter to the Romans.)  Others saw him as an outspoken opponent of the Scriptures.  Some remembered him as thinking that the resurrection was to be a future, physical transformation of the bodies of believers (those who preserved 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians.)  Others saw him as an advocate of a spiritual resurrection that had already happened in Christ (the pseudonymous author of Ephesians.)  Some remembered him as a supporter of women and their important role in the Christian church (the author of Acts.)  Others saw him as an outspoken opponent of women’s participation in church, requiring women to remain silent and urging them to be saved by having babies (author of 1 Timothy.) … Paul, in short, seems to be, if not all things to all people, at least starkly different things to different people – much as Simon Peter was, and much as Jesus before him.  Maybe this is a mark of Christian greatness.

Hope you enjoy learning along with us!