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In the Footsteps of St Paul
 This is a series of addresses preached at Evening Prayer during August and September 2005.
Congregations at Evening Prayer tend to drop to their lowest point in August, and with clergy taking their holidays at the same time, the temptation is to discontinue this service. Rosie and Paul, our Readers, decided that it was a good idea to challenge this approach - and came up with the idea of actively encouraging people to attend a service they wouldn't often go to, and to offer a planned series in the hope of sustaining interest.
And so this series, following in the steps of St. Paul, was born. Paul is not the best-loved of Christianity's saints - though perhaps he suffers most from neglect and ignorance. In the event record numbers turned out for a holiday month evening service, and we continued the series for the first three weeks of September as the lectionary continued to offer us episodes from St. Paul's life.
So, read on below... The addresses given by Rosie and Paul are all to be found here. Another - preached by the Vicar - never reached a more final written form than his notes; apologies for this omission.
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Paul: Preacher and healer
Sunday 7th August 2005
Rosie Junemann, Reader
Acts 14. 8-20
For the next four weeks, at Evening Prayer, Paul and I will be talking about the life and teaching of St Paul, based on the New Testament readings from Acts. We’ve both enjoyed preparing for this and our preparation has included reading some new books about St Paul. Our title for the series of addresses is borrowed from a book by Edward Stourton, the broadcaster. His book, In the Footsteps of St Paul, was based on a Radio 4 series.
In 1986 Edward Stourton was sent by the BBC to Haiti, to cover the revolution that ended the long reign of the Duvalier family. The people who had been repressed for so long turned against the Tontons Macoutes the secret police set up by Papa Doc Duvalier in the 1950s. He takes up the story himself:
A couple of mornings after I arrived in Haiti one of the camera crews I was working with turned a corner in Port-au-Prince and stumbled on a Tonton being stoned. .. we crowded round the edit machine to watch the footage being played back….. What struck me was the sheer energy and endurance needed to kill the man; he kept trying to get up, again and again, despite the stones raining down on him… To kill someone by stoning you really have to hate them with a passion.
Passion and hatred drive the mob that kills St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in the grisly stoning recounted by St Luke in the Acts of the Apostles……. He was dragged out of the city by the mob and was conscious enough to say his prayers while the crowd chucked rocks at him……
The first time we meet Paul in Acts he is watching this scene, and he was evidently rather more than a casual bystander: ‘the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul’, writes St Luke, using the future Apostle’s pre-conversion name, and ‘Saul approved of their killing him’.
Paul was stoned
In this evening’s reading from Acts 14, we hear that Paul himself was stoned in the city of Lystra, in Galatia. Luke writes: “Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.” And so Paul, the persecutor, became Paul, the persecuted.
A tough cookie
The more you read about St Paul, the more you realise what a tough cookie he must have been! His is a life full of action and drama. We know relatively little about his early life. It is thought that he was born in about 5AD into a devout Jewish family who lived in the city of Tarsus, in the Roman province of Cilicia – part of what we now call Turkey. He was named Saul and was probably given the second Roman name of Paul at birth, in keeping with the fashion of the time. As a young man he studied in Jerusalem under the famous rabbi Gamaliel and became a Pharisee, practising strict observance of the Jewish law.
The disciples fear Paul
After the death of Stephen, the young Saul, who believed that the new Christian sect was flouting Jewish law, persecuted them relentlessly. Saul, we are told, ravaged the church by entering house after house and dragged off both men and women to commit them to prison. Such was their fear of him that, even three years after his conversion, when he went back to Jerusalem, the disciples were still afraid of him.
The Road to Damascus
But Paul’s whole life and being were transformed by his experience on the road to Damascus, when in a blinding flash of light he came face to face with the risen Christ, and was called to serve him.
Paul’s First Missionary Journey
The events of this evening’s reading from Acts 14 took place in Lystra during Paul’s first missionary journey. In about 46AD, Paul and Barnabas set out from Antioch in Syria and sailed first to Cyprus, where they preached in Salamis and Paphos, and then on to the mainland of Asia Minor, to the regions of Pamphilia, Pisidia and Galatia – now part of Turkey. Travelling on foot, remember, they moved from city to city, preaching and healing, winning the hearts of many people, and establishing small church communities. The story we have heard this evening about the events in Lystra is typical of their experiences on this journey. Many people in the crowds they addressed turned to faith in Christ. But the Jewish leaders were angered by their activities and jealous of their success. In town after town they turned the crowds against them and made trouble for them. But on their return journey through the same towns, Paul and Barnabas were able to encourage the new believers and appoint leaders for each of the young churches.
Letter to the Galatians - the earliest surviving letter
Paul’s letter to the Galatians, probably the earliest of his surviving letters, depicts the difficulties encountered by these young churches once he was no longer with them. Jewish Christians visiting the area had passed on false teaching. Firstly, they challenged Paul’s authority as a preacher. They said that Paul was not a proper apostle and was not accredited by the apostles in Jerusalem. But Paul responds that he is an apostle by virtue of his own encounter with the risen Christ. “I did not receive the gospel from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Secondly, they said that the Galatian Christians should be circumcised and obey the Old Testament Law. Paul refutes this by arguing from the Old Testament itself. The Old Testament Law was given only ‘until Christ came’. The era of the Law was now finished. Christ gives freedom from the Law to those who have faith in him. Thirdly, the false teachers claimed that without the Old Testament Law, the new Christians would have no guide for their conduct. “Not so”, responds Paul. Once they have accepted Christ as Lord, they will be led by the Holy Spirit. Their attitudes and behaviour will be changed from within.
What matters is faith, working through love.
In addition to the book by Edward Stourton which I mentioned earlier, Paul and I have also been reading a book by Bishop Tom Wright called, What St Paul Really Said. Tom Wright points out that two themes are central to St Paul’s teaching and preaching. These are Proclamation and Justification .
St Paul’s calling is as a missionary to the Gentiles. His gospel – his Proclamation - is the announcement that Jesus is Lord – Lord of all. For Paul this meant that every aspect of existence and life must be seen in the light of the sovereignty of the crucified and risen Christ. If Jesus is Lord of all the world, then money, sex and power cannot be. Jesus shows us that there is a different way of being human, a way characterized by self-giving love, by justice, by honesty, and by the breaking down of the traditional barriers that reinforce the divisions which keep people at odds with each other.
Justification is about being brought into a right relationship with God. Paul argues that Christians are justified – seen as righteous in the eyes of God – not by obeying the old Jewish Law, but by faith in Christ. St Paul writes
“What matters is faith, working through love.”
During the next three Sundays we shall see how the twin themes of Proclamation and Justification – which are central in Paul’s message to the people of Galatia – are emphasised and expanded in his preaching and teaching on his Second Missionary Journey.
The powerful message conveyed by this great man of faith spread rapidly throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
And the same powerful message reaches and influences us today, through the life and the writings of St Paul.
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Paul the Conformist
Sunday 14th August 2005
Paul Heatherington, Reader
Acts 16. 1-15
Tonight we heard something of Paul’s Second Missionary journey undertaken between 51-54. The story in tonight’s reading has Paul at Derbe and Lystra.
I am going to explain what justification means. I am also going to mention Lydia. First I am going to deal with circumcision.
Timothy is mentioned for the first time. He and his mother, Eunice, were early Christian converts. Timothy's father, a Greek and Eunice had undergone an inter-faith marriage. Eunice, a Jewess, believed in Jesus. Paul knew all three, Lois, Eunice, and Timothy. We know that as in the 2nd letter to Timothy Paul tells us:
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. (II Timothy 1:5)
Let me explain the context. In the time of Augustus (who ruled 27 BC to AD 14) it is estimated that there were 60 million people in the Roman Empire. Roughly 1/5th or 1/6th of these are thought to have been slaves. In Italy, there were about six million people, 1/3rd of them slaves. In Paul’s time, there were about 6-7 million Jews in the Roman Empire. The Jewish population worldwide may have been as much as 10% of the population of the Empire. At least 60% lived outside Israel. For example, Alexandria, in Egypt had a Jewish population of about ¼ million and had the world’s largest synagogue.
Bear in mind that at the time we are speaking about, the Temple at Jerusalem was still standing. Paul was a Pharisee and therefore knew the Law. All Jewish males were required to be circumcised, to appear before God at the Temple three times a year, to keep the Sabbath, to observe all of the special days and to observe strict dietary laws. These are just a few of the 613 commandments that make up the Law. You couldn't pick and choose the Law. It was to be accepted as a whole. And circumcision was the outward sign of the acceptance of the Law.
On a Web search I discovered a present day group, “Jews Against Circumcision” who say they are a group of educated and enlightened Jews who realise that the ‘barbaric, primitive, torturous, and mutilating practice’ of circumcision has no place in modern Judaism. They say that Jews are some of the smartest people in the world:
We are 1/3rd of 1% of the population, yet we hold 33% of Nobel prizes. We are smart enough to understand that mutilating a little boy’s penis is not an acceptable practice in modern times.
In Paul's day. faithful Jews did not debate circumcision. But Gentile Christians did. The Jerusalem Council had decided that circumcision was not necessary for salvation (Acts 15:10-11, 19). In the Letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote
Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. ] (Gal. 5:2,3)
Circumcision is a painful process for a man. There were no Irvine Macnairs or Steve Dowsons to anesthetise. The son of a Jewish mother is regarded as a Jew. Timothy was therefore a Jew. So why did Paul have Timothy circumcised? It seems to contradict Paul’s thinking in Galatians 2:3-5 where he refused to let Titus be circumcised. The key as to why Paul acted as he did is to be found in 1 Cor 9:19-23
19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. ]
In the Letters to the Romans and Galatians, Paul considered that circumcision was wrong. That is, it was wrong when Jews thought that they became righteous if they were circumcised. Paul spoke against that commonly held belief.
In the reading tonight we heard that Timothy’s father was a Greek. Paul had Timothy circumcised, not because of any reason to do with the Law but so that Timothy could witness to the Jews. This was simply a question of conformity; of not giving offence (cf. 1 Cor. 9:19-23). The Jews would not have accepted Timothy unless he had been circumcised. (It begs the question how they would tell. We won’t go there.)
Now let me explain justification. Paul’s language is bit like that in a criminal court of law. Those who are found not guilty, God declare as righteous. They are saved. They are the true people of God.
Under God’s promise to the Jews in the Old Testament, everyone is to be judged on the last day. The true people of God will be saved. Those who worship false gods will be shown to be wrong. Jews thought they were saved by “works of the law.” What they had to do was to observe the Law: the Sabbath, food-laws, circumcision. This is what Paul refers to as being justified under the Law.
Now Paul asserts this. Instead of justification happening at the end of time, for Christians this has already happened. Everyone who believes in the gospel of Jesus, that is the proclamation of His Lordship following his death and resurrection, is already a member of the true family of Abraham and their sins are forgiven. Justification is therefore not about the future. It is not how you tell how someone has potential to enter the people of God. It is not how you will be acquitted on the last day. It is how you can tell who is in now. In the language of a court, God has already pronounced everyone who believes in the gospel of Jesus acquitted. This is justification apart from works of the Law. This is justification by faith.
Paul taught that circumcising men and keeping the Mosaic Law was not the doctrine of Christians. The doctrine of Christians, in a nutshell, is Love God and worship Him alone and love your neighbour as yourself. So in Acts 16:5
So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.
I promised a word on Lydia. So follow me. In Acts 16:14 we learn about Lydia, a worshipper of God. Thyatira was noted for its “purple” – its beautifully dyed cloth. Lydia, who lived in Philippi, sold dyes or dyed goods from as far away as Thyatira.
Martin reckons that the Dorcas window may be Lydia and the Lydia window Dorcas. Dorcas was not featured in tonight’s reading. Dorcas is the woman who Peter raised from the dead. Peter arrived to a house full of people. Some were crying. Some were telling stories because they wanted to remember. Almost everyone had something to show or tell about what Dorcas had done for them. The women brought out the clothes that Dorcas had made. I think that this is what this window shows. It is perhaps confusing that the clothes being held up happen to be purple.
Now this window shows Lydia. She was a prosperous businesswoman. When Paul preached in Philippi, Lydia believed the gospel. The reading said that Lydia was a worshipper of God. That means she was a proselyte to Judaism. That is, unlike Timothy and Eunice, his Mum, who were Jews by birth, Lydia was a convert to Judaism. Women did not have to undergo the painful procedure Paul required of Timothy. Paul baptised Lydia and her household. Lydia was the first Christian convert in Europe. Lydia insisted on Paul and his helpers coming and staying in her house. Lydia is an example of an early Christian who was a hard-working businesswoman in a leadership position.
Next week we are off to Athens, where we will see what Paul does when he finds a shrine to an unknown God.
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Paul - The Smooth Talker
Sunday 21st August 2005
Rosie Junemann, Reader
Acts 17.15-34
What kind of a world did St Paul live in?
Surely it wasn’t the kind of world we live in today – a world of terrorist attacks, political oppression, religious rivalry, cultural antipathy – a world of extreme wealth and poverty, of hunger and disease? Surely life was easier for those first Christians, gathering and worshipping in each other’s houses, in small, peaceful communities?
Not a bit of it!
In Paul’s day, the Mediterranean world was dominated by the Roman Empire. Roman power was based on fear and subjection. Theirs was an empire built on slave labour – for the benefit of Rome. The Roman army was stationed in all the main cities in the eastern Mediterranean. The Romans imposed massive taxes on the people they ruled, especially in Palestine. There was often friction between the occupying forces and the local civic authorities.
In Paul’s day, life for many was short and painful. People often went hungry and there was no effective health care. Many people lived in fear of unseen powers – of spiritual evil. Sorcery was widely practised. People worshipped a variety of gods. In Greek cities they worshipped Zeus, Ares, Artemis and Aphrodite. In the Roman colonies their gods were Jupiter, Mars, Diana and Venus. The Jews practised their faith in synagogues in every major city and town. There were many other lesser cults and mystery religions. Greece was the home of philosophy and in every place arguments would be heard between Cynics, Stoics and Epicureans. “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom” wrote Paul.
In Paul’s day, people travelled around freely. The Romans had built good roads, and banished pirates from the Mediterranean, so sea travel was relatively safe. Despite the Roman occupation, the main language used throughout the area was Greek. But people of all nationalities and faiths lived cheek by jowl in the Greek cities. It was a multi-cultural and fiercely cosmopolitan society.
Into this seething melting-pot, Paul brought Christianity.
In today’s reading from Acts, Paul arrives in the great city of Athens – at that time one of three great university cities along with Tarsus and Alexandria. He is still on his second missionary journey and he has already visited Philippi and Thessalonica in mainland Greece. On his first missionary journey Paul had travelled with Barnabas. On this second trip he set out with Silas and they were joined by Timothy at Lystra (as we heard last week) and by Luke at Troas. After their visit to Philippi, Luke stayed on to look after the new Christians there – the first Christian church in Europe. Silas and Timothy stayed on in Thessalonica, where there had been many converts. So Paul travelled on to Athens alone.
In Athens, Paul follows his usual practice of preaching and debate with the Jews in their synagogues, and with anyone he came into contact with in the market place. The Greek philosophers liked nothing better than new ideas, so they invited Paul to a public place near the ancient law court to address them.
Here we see Paul as a powerful and gifted speaker. When speaking to the Jews, Paul preaches from the Old Testament, using the text to illustrate and proclaim Jesus as the fulfillment of its hopes and promises. But speaking to his Athenian audience, Paul draws on their cultural and religious experience and even quotes from classical Greek poetry. But his message remains the same:
The God who made the world and everything in it ….. will have the world judged in righteousness” by the risen Christ.
His twin themes remain ‘proclamation’ and ‘justification’.
A little later, Paul’s letters to the young churches in Greece conveyed the same powerful message, combined with a keen awareness of the pressures of the pagan society around them.
To the Christians in Philippi he proclaims:
At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
and to the Christians in Corinth:
We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord ….. for it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Over and over again Paul asserts that we are justified by faith. To the church in Philippi:
For Christ’s sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
Paul understands that it is hard to remain a faithful Christian in a society in which there are many diversions and pressures. The Philippians are urged to ‘beware the dogs, the evil workers’ and ‘those who are enemies to the cross of Christ’.
When he encourages people to keep on striving for Christian perfection, Paul uses images drawn from the everyday life and experience of the Greek citizens. He urges the Philippian Christians to hold fast to their faith, to ‘stand firm in the Lord, using the image of ‘pressing on towards the goal’ – an image drawn from the Greek custom of competitive athletic events or ‘games’. The same image is used when he writes to the Corinthian Christians:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one.
But above all, Paul’s personal faith and commitment shine through in all his writing. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written from prison, when he was a self-styled ‘prisoner for Christ Jesus’ - an ‘ambassador in chains’. It’s all the more wonderful, therefore, that he should rejoice, not only in the faith of these new Christians and in their love for one another, but also in his own situation. Paul rejoices that his imprisonment has helped to spread the gospel to the imperial guards and has helped to strengthen the faith and the work of his fellow-Christians. He rejoices that his imprisonment has revived the concern of the Philippian Christians for him, that they share his distress. He rejoices in his own sufferings. But above all he rejoices in the Lord. This is the joy of faith, that ‘living is Christ and dying is gain’. All Paul desires is to be with Christ in death and to serve him in life.
This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Next week we will hear how Paul is reunited with Timothy and Silas in Corinth, as he continues his travels on the Greek mainland. We’ll meet some more new Christians. And we’ll learn more about Paul and the world he lived in.
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Paul the self-supporting minister (a tent maker) in Corinth
Sunday 28th August 2005
Paul Heatherington, Reader
Acts 18. 1-16
My name is Aquila. I come originally from Pontus on the southern coast of the Black Sea. I once lived in Rome with Priscilla, my wife. Rome used to have a large Jewish community. Following some disturbances between Jews and followers of Jesus Christus, the Emperor Claudius banished all of us Jews from Rome. That was nineteen years after Jesus Christus died and rose again. For Priscilla and me, our world fell apart. Overnight we were refugees. Priscilla and I could have stayed somewhere in Italy, but it seemed a good idea to get away entirely. I am a leather worker and I am able to make a number of things including tents and sails. When I heard there may be work in Corinth, Priscilla and I left Rome and went there.
Greece is divided into two parts. The southern part of Greece is almost an island. The north and south of Greece is separated by a four-mile wide strip of land. All trade between Athens and Sparta – in fact all trade between east and west – passes through here. It is a major crossroads of the Roman Empire. It is the Bridge of Greece. And that’s where the City of Corinth is. The Romans captured and destroyed the old city, but Julius Caesar rebuilt it about 100 years ago. Corinth is the capital city of the Roman Province of Achaia.
Corinth is a prosperous metropolitan commercial centre. Its wealth comes mostly from shipping and commerce as its two ports are connected by an overland ship-road. To avoid a long and dangerous sea route, the cargo from large ships is carried overland. Smaller ships are actually hauled from one port to the other on rollers. You see, Cape Malea is at the southern tip of Greece. It is frightening to round Cape Malea by sea. Especially in winter, it’s liable to severe storms. Mariners say, “Let him who sails round Malea forget his home” and “Let him who sails round Malea first make his Will.”
Corinth has a mix of people. There are Greeks, Jews, Phoenicians, and people from the east as well as many of Romans, including some veteran soldiers. Although Corinth is now a Roman city, Corinthians continue to worship the Greek gods.
On the top of a hill above the narrow isthmus of Corinth there is the Temple of Venus or Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The cult of Venus, once popular in the old city, has been revived in the new city. The Temple of Venus has more than 1000 prostitutes. At night they come down to the streets to ply their trade. They let their hair hang down and don’t cover their heads. The temple is popular with sailors and brings a great deal of money to the city.
Corinth is a boom town of money, sex and power… of drunkenness, immorality and vice. Corinthians are looked on as a debauched, drunken people. The Greeks have a proverb, “It is not every man who can afford a journey to Corinth.”
When Paul came to Corinth, he came to me and I got to know him well. Paul and I get on famously. He is from Tarsus in Cilicia. They have goats in Cilicia with a special kind of fleece. Cilicium is a particular kind of cloth used for tents and curtains made from these goats.
Paul is a skilled leather worker and tent maker, just like me. He is also a Rabbi, learned in Jewish law. Rabbis can’t just be scholars as they are not allowed to take money from preaching and teaching. Rabbis must know what it’s like to be working men and must support themselves.
Priscilla and I had become followers of the Way when we heard about the teachings of Jesus Christus in Rome…that is before the riots there between Jews and followers of Jesus Christus.
We followers of Jesus Christus meet together in the house of Titus Justus. This is next door to the synagogue. There are about forty of us.
Paul says it is important for there to be just one family in Jesus Christus and that we are all equally open to be changed by the Spirit for any service or ministry in the Church. It doesn’t matter who we are; in Jesus Christus, we are all one. There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female. Paul doesn’t want Jewish followers of Christus and Gentile followers of Christus. Our backgrounds are to be ignored.
And Paul insists that Gentiles ought not to be circumcised. Paul also prefers others to baptise converts, rather than himself. You see, followers of the Way ought to think of themselves as followers of Jesus Christus; and not Paul’s followers or Peter’s followers.
Every Saturday, Paul goes to the synagogue to persuade the Jews. He is very enthusiastic and persistent. Paul doesn’t bring the good news about Jesus because he has to. He truly wants people to be saved. Wherever he goes, trouble follows him. He has a knack of getting up some people’s noses, especially stuffy haughty Jews who think they know it all. Know it all! There is no one, but no one, who can argue like Paul. Paul has had mixed results, but when people understand the good news he brings, it always causes a reaction. His message is rejected sometimes. He has been kicked out by his own people, but he never stops preaching the gospel. Paul finds it quite a struggle to get the churches he has founded to live up to his vision. That’s why he writes so often to the churches. He has written to the churches in Thessalonica as well as to Rome.
Speaking about failing to live up to Paul’s vision, you women surprise me – praying in Church with your heads uncovered! Paul says that when a woman prays, she ought to cover her head. It’s a question of decency really, though of course, Paul was telling us how to live here in Corinth. You see, in Corinth, women of the night go about with bare heads.
Oh, I must tell you this. While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews took Paul to court. Things were gloomy. If Gallio the proconsul agreed with the Jews, there would have been no freedom to proclaim the gospel. They said “This man is persuading the people to worship God against the law.” You could see that Paul was like a bow string, drawn tight ready to let loose an arrow. But Gallio took the wind out of his sails. Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said, “If you Jews were complaining about a crime, I would listen to you. But this only involves questions about your words and names and your own religious law. Settle this yourselves. I will not judge such things.” And he threw the case out against Paul. Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and actually beat him in front of the court.
In the end, the case had the opposite effect to what the Jews wanted. The gospel could not be accused of being an unauthorised religion. A precedent was set in an imperial court. Afterwards, Paul continued to stay in Corinth, preaching and teaching.
But Paul reacted against the Jews. He shook out his clothes and shouted at them “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility.” What he was saying was this, “You’re rejecting the message of Jesus Christus, and you’ll be answerable to God for that on the day of judgement.”
Once when Paul was thinking about giving up in Corinth we prayed and the Lord spoke with Paul. What the Lord told Paul may give you courage to live and preach the Gospel, so I’ll share it with you. This is what the Lord told him, “Paul, Don’t be afraid. Keep on speaking. I am with you. No one is going to attack or harm you. I have many people in this city”
Paul proclaims King Jesus, the crucified one. Paul wants to talk about this more than anything else. For Paul the good news is the story of Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen. Jesus Christus, King Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel. Jesus is King, not just of Israel but of the whole world. God will judge the world on the day of judgement at the end of time but because sin has been dealt with by Jesus Christus through the cross, followers of Jesus Christus who have faith in him are full members of the family promised by God to Abraham.
Through the grace of God many people were brought to faith in Jesus Christus in Corinth. Even the synagogue ruler Crispus believed and was baptised. Paul stayed in Corinth for eighteen months. You wouldn’t know this from Luke’s account. He fits all this time into seventeen verses!
I must go now. One last word… Paul confessed to us in a letter, “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.” If there’s one thing I have learned from Paul it’s this. Paul just proclaims the Gospel and leaves it to God to protect him and to make the seeds he plants grow.
Brothers and sisters, proclaim the Gospel always. Trust the results to God.
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Paul in Ephesus
Sunday 4th September 2005
Rosie Junemann, Reader
Acts 19. 1-20
After St Paul’s stay in Corinth, he returned to his base in Antioch via Ephesus and Caesarea. Priscilla and Aquila (who we heard about last week) stayed behind in Ephesus. It’s often hard to tell from Luke’s writing in the Acts of the Apostles how long Paul stayed in each place. In this case, he merely tells us that Paul stayed in Antioch ‘for a while’. He then set out on what was to become his third missionary journey, returning initially to Galatia and Phrygia in Asia Minor.
At this point Luke introduces us to another character in the story of the early church. His name was Apollos. Apollos was a Jew who had been born in Alexandria. He was a convert to Christianity and we are told that he preached the gospel with great excitement. He was a good speaker and knew the Old Testament scriptures well. What he taught about Jesus was right but he hadn’t yet heard about baptism in the name of Jesus. He baptised people in the name of John the Baptist. Priscilla and Aquila met up with Apollos and taught him about the faith and the right way of doing things. Apollos travelled on into Greece, supporting the new Christians there and using the scriptures to argue with the Jews.
When Paul arrived in Ephesus he met those people who had been baptized in the name of John the Baptist. He baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit.
Ephesus was the capital, and the greatest commercial city, of the Roman province of Asia, on the west coast of what is now Asiatic Turkey. It had a population of about a third of a million. At its centre was a magnificent road, lined with columns, which ran through the city to the harbour. In the main part of the city were a theatre, baths, a library and paved streets. It was a prominent centre of pagan religion. In it was to be found the great temple of Artemis (Diana) which was renowned as one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was also a centre of the ‘emperor cult’ and had three official temples. There was also a large colony of Jews in the city.
This time Luke makes it clear that Paul stayed in Ephesus for more than two years. His ministry there was one of teaching and healing. Many who had previously practised sorcery were converted to Christianity. As Luke tells us ‘The Lord’s message spread and became even more powerful’.
In fact, so powerful was Paul’s teaching about ‘the Lord’s Way’, that he eventually caused a riot! The conversion of many people to Christianity was seen as a threat by those who worshipped Artemis, and especially to those who made money out of models of the goddess! Amidst a great deal of anger and confusion, a town official eventually calmed the crowd and advised those who had started the trouble to take their case to the courts.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve begun to identify some significant trends in Paul’s ministry and some recurring themes in his teaching. Wherever Paul goes, he talks to the Jews in their synagogues, trying to explain to them that Jesus is the Messiah, the fulfilment of the Jewish scriptures. In this evening’s reading from Acts, we are told that for three months Paul went to the Jewish meeting place in Ephesus and talked bravely with the people about God’s kingdom. He tried to win them over. Luke tells us that Apollos, too, used the scriptures to argue with the Jews in the Greek cities. It’s important to remember that for Paul, the new Christian faith is deeply embedded in Judaism. The gospel he proclaimed was the announcement that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead; that he thereby proved to be Israel’s Messiah; that he was thereby installed as Lord of the world. Every loyal Jew believed that the God of Israel, the creator of the world, would one day establish his kingdom over all the world. Now, Paul argues, that day has come!
Many of the concepts, much of the language, of Paul’s teaching are drawn from the Jewish scriptures. We have already looked at ‘justification’ in this respect. This evening I want to look more closely at ‘grace’, a term which features in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The concept of ‘grace’ derives from the Old Testament, from the Hebrew word ‘hen’, which is usually translated as either ‘grace’ or ‘favour’ and sometimes as ‘faithfulness’ or ‘loving kindness’. Another Hebrew word is also used for ‘loving kindness’ – ‘hesed’ – but ‘hen’ has a different meaning. ‘Hesed’ can be used of both God and man and it implies the observation of a covenant or agreement. ‘Hen’ is the action of a superior being – either human or divine – to an inferior. It is about undeserved favour. The theologian John Ziesler explains: “Grace is God’s unmotivated goodness. It is unmotivated not because God has no reason for being generous, but because the reason lies within his own nature and not in the merit or attractiveness of the recipient. Grace that is deserved is not grace but reward.” In Jewish scripture, God chose Israel to be his people not because of their righteousness but by his free choice. It was because God loved them.
In the New Testament, the Hebrew word ‘hen’ is translated into Greek as ‘charis’, meaning ‘love’ or ‘grace’. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul writes:
“God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ………………. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Paul’s gospel is all about grace that is more than mere enrichment. It gives life to the dead. It is God’s free, undeserved gift. Therefore, he says, we are no longer foreigners or strangers but fellow citizens with God’s holy people and part of God’s household. All of God’s chosen people can be built up spiritually into a dwelling place for God, of which Christ himself is the cornerstone.
Our response, Paul writes to the Ephesians, must be ‘to lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called”. Paul tells us clearly what kind of people we should become: Humble, gentle, patient and loving, truthful, honest, tender-hearted and forgiving. The Christian life is as different from the pagan life as light is from darkness. Whatever our role in life – wife or husband, child or father, slave or master – there’s a right way and a wrong way to behave. Because the Christian will ‘try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord’.
Because of Paul’s teaching in Ephesus “the Lord’s message spread and became even more powerful”. We can only imagine the impact that Paul himself must have had on those who encountered him on his journeys. But we can still hear his voice in the letters that he wrote and experience the power of that message. As with Paul we pray that ‘we might have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God” – the God who lavishes on us the riches of his grace and the good pleasure of his will.
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Summing it up...
Sunday 18th September 2005
Paul Heatherington, Reader
Acts 26. 1, 9-25
Outline
I am going to outline St Paul’s life and remind you of some of the things we have talked about over the previous six weeks. I shall mention the New Perspective on Paul. I shall also, of course, deal with Paul’s audience with Agrippa which we heard about in the reading. I shall also explain that Jesus can transform our lives.
Saul
Saul was born in Tarsus in what is now southern Turkey. He and his parents were Roman citizens. Traditionally Saul is thought to have been a small man, with a bald head and a beard.
Stephen
Stephen was the first Christian martyr. He was stoned to death. In the first talk of this series, Rosie told us of the book In the Footsteps of St Paul in which Edward Stourton wrote of a modern example of a stoning, which he had personally witnessed.
What struck me was the sheer energy and endurance needed to kill the man; he kept trying to get up, again and again, despite the stones raining down on him… To kill someone by stoning you really have to hate them with a passion.
There were bystanders to the stoning to death of Stephen. And among them was Saul, who looked after the clothes of Stephen’s executioners.
The road to Damascus
Saul studied Jewish law in Jerusalem under the renowned rabbi Gamaliel. Saul was a Pharisee. The Pharisees viewed the followers of Jesus as heretics. Saul persecuted Christians. Persecutions in Jerusalem meant that the followers of Jesus scattered, but wherever they went they preached the Word. Saul set out to bring Christians from Damascus to Jerusalem. On the way there, the most famous conversion in the history of Christianity took place. At midday, light shone down suddenly from heaven. Saul heard Jesus’ voice. Jesus told him to go into Damascus, where he would be told what to do. He became blind and did not eat or drink for three days. In Damascus, the Lord sent Ananias to him, to baptise him, fill him with the Holy Spirit and restore his sight. After his conversion, Saul is known as Paul.
Paul became a great traveller. As he tried to convert people to the new faith, Paul coped with the difficulties of travelling in those days, as well as hostility and threats. He was whipped, imprisoned, stoned and shipwrecked. And he faced problems from Christians too. Perhaps not surprisingly, the disciples in Jerusalem did not trust him; they knew he had persecuted Christians.
Circumspection about circumcision
The first Christians were all Jews. Some believed that converts to Christianity should first become Jews and be circumcised. Others felt that those not born Jewish could never qualify as Christian. The argument was that the Jews were the chosen people of God who had been given the law, so to join the family and stay in it, you had to become a Jew. The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch, who in turn called Paul to Antioch. There Christianity was opened to any who would convert, without regard to the Jewish question.
Missionary Journeys
Paul made three great missionary journeys before being arrested in Jerusalem and taken to Rome. The Acts of the Apostles give details of the journeys, as well as the last journey to Rome as a prisoner.
An audience with King Agrippa
Leading up to the reading we heard tonight, the disciples had tried to persuade Paul not to go up to Jerusalem, but Paul said that he was ready not only to be bound, but also to die for Jesus. In Jerusalem, some Jews wanted to kill Paul, accusing him of bringing Gentiles into the Temple. Roman guards saved him by taking him into custody. When Paul said that he was sent by Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, the Jews created such a scene, that the captain wanted to scourge him. Paul avoided that. Roman citizens could not be scourged, crucified or even imprisoned without a trial. The next day the captain led Paul before the Sanhedrin, where Paul told him that he was a Pharisee and believed in the resurrection of the dead. A row erupted. The Pharisees believed in eternal life and resurrection for those who kept the law. The Sadducees denied it. The Romans had to rescue Paul… again. The chief captain then sent Paul to Caesarea to Felix the governor. After five days, the elders and the chief priest arrived in Caesarea and accused Paul of profaning the temple. Even though the charges were not proved, Paul was left in custody. Two years later Felix was replaced by Festus. He asked Paul's accusers to come to Caesarea again. They couldn't prove their complaints against Paul. Paul, a Roman citizen, appealed to Caesar. While he was waiting to go to Rome, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea, so Festus brought Paul before them, as we heard tonight. The Romans had appointed Agrippa as king of only a small part of Palestine, including Galilee.
(When Jesus was a baby, Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt for safety. Herod the Great was the king who had ordered the slaughter of all boys under the age of two years. After Herod’s death, the Romans had divided his kingdom between his sons. Agrippa was Herod the Great’s great-grandson.)
Festus quite simply did not know what to do with Paul. How could he send Paul to Rome without a charge of a criminal offence. “Aha! Agrippa knows the Jewish faith!” thought Festus, and he referred the case to Agrippa. This gave Paul, the Tarsus tent-maker the opportunity to proclaim Christ in a royal court. Paul was not on trial here. Paul told Agrippa of his upbringing, his anger against Christians, his conversion on the road to Damascus and his preaching of the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles. Paul’s address to Agrippa is not about someone who lived and died, but of Jesus who is present and alive for evermore. Paul was so persuasive that it was clear to King Agrippa that Paul had done nothing wrong and he told Festus that he could have been set free, had Paul not appealed to Caesar.
For a time, we shall leave the court of King Agrippa.
The “New Perspective”
The publication of a book by E.P. Sanders in 1977 led to a revolution in the way that St Paul’s writings have been interpreted. Bishop Tom has played a leading part in this New Perspective. Some critics of the New Perspective fear that justification by faith may be lost or watered down. Paul absolutely insists that we cannot earn salvation. It is freely given. Let me remind you what this means. God will judge the world on the day of judgement at the end of time but because sin has been dealt with by Jesus through the cross, followers of Jesus who believe in him are full members of the family promised by God to Abraham. That’s justification by faith.
Jesus gave to us the summary of what is important in terms of loving God and loving one’s neighbour (Mark 12.28-31). This is known as the Great Commandment. It shows what true faithfulness to God looks like.
The New Perspective on Paul confirms that God has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves that is that we are saved – in other words, we are promised eternal life – through the grace of God, without our doing anything. This is not in opposition to loving God and loving one’s neighbour. God accepts us wholly by his grace and this real faith makes a difference to how we live our lives.
Let me try and unpack this a little further. Jesus said “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul writes:
I want you to desire the best gifts. So I will show you a much better way… Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don’t know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us. For now there are faith, hope, and love. But of these three, the greatest is love.
St James advises,
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one¬self from being polluted by the world.
Paul says that it doesn’t matter who we are, there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female. In Jesus, we are all equally open to be changed by the Spirit for any service or ministry in the Church. We are all one in Jesus. It is crucial to appreciate that Paul is a disciple of Jesus. Paul is not delivering a different message.
Bishop Tom writes about Paul:
…if Paul had simply trotted out, parrot-fashion, every line of Jesus’ teaching – if he had repeated the parables, if he had tried to do again what Jesus did in announcing and inaugurating the kingdom – he would not have been endorsing Jesus, as an appropriate and loyal follower should. He would have been denying him. Someone who copies exactly what a would-be Messiah does is himself trying to be a Messiah, which means denying the earlier claim.
Jesus spoke of repentance and the coming of the kingdom and Paul spoke of justification by faith. In summary, we don’t earn salvation by doing good. But we do have a role. We are saved through faith and scripture teaches us that in the manner we live our lives we have a part to play in how our salvation is worked out.
Back to the court of King Agrippa
The reading we listened to tonight is the most comprehensive account of what the risen Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus. Proclaiming Jesus as Lord is central to Paul’s message. For Paul the good news is Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen, the promised Messiah of Israel, King Jesus. King, not just of Israel but of the whole world.
Being transformed by Jesus
Now a word on being transformed by Jesus… The book of Jeremiah asks “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” This phrase is now taken to mean that people things cannot change their instinctive nature. Perhaps people may not be able to change themselves, but Paul’s life shows that what we may be unable to do ourselves, Jesus can do. Saul’s makeover from a convinced fanatical opponent into Paul, a single-minded messenger of Christianity cannot be logically explained. The alteration of Saul of Tarsus the Persecutor, into Paul the Apostle, was a miracle. I suggest there is no other possible explanation.
Paul is beheaded.
I need to tell you the end of the story of Paul. Paul’s life was concluded when he was brought by ship to Rome. There, about thirty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, in the mid 60’s, Paul was beheaded.
A new beginning
Paul’s death was not the end. In many ways it was a new beginning. No one could have predicted the effect of Paul's work. The New Testament has fourteen letters written by Paul to Christian congregations and individuals (though there is scholarly debate about the authorship of some of them). Peter was “entrusted with the Gospel for the circumcised” (Gal 2.7) and Paul too was passionate about that, but Paul was also instrumental in taking the gospel to the uncircumcised. Through Paul’s life and example, Christianity went from strength to strength and became the faith in Italy the country where Paul met his end and also throughout the world.
Conclusion
Ian (who heralded the series by a talk on the last Sunday in July), Martin, Rosie and I do hope that you have enjoyed travelling in the footsteps of St Paul, the troublemaker. I say, “troublemaker” because wherever Paul went there was always trouble. Over and over Paul’s presence was accompanied by riots. And even now he continues to do so! I’m looking forward to Bishop Tom’s new book on Paul due in the next month, which will doubtless add to the “discussions” surrounding the New Perspective.
I now close with this saying: “Every society honours its live conformists, and its dead troublemakers.”
I trust that we have given you some insight into Paul and his teachings and honoured Paul, the dead troublemaker, who still encourages us as we live our lives today.
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