Sermon 11th July 2010
Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches - based on the passage from Ephesians 1: 11-23 and 3: 16-19.
“Heroes of the Bible – Paul”
1. Paul is the “Marmite Man” of the NT: he provokes strong – if not necessarily consistent - reaction. Unless you are not familiar with him and his writings, then the chances are that at some point or other in your Christian lives, you have read or heard or studied something that Paul has said and have been either amazed by his insight, or, as likely, appalled by his reactionary views; I suspect the small study groups in the Parish are as riven now as they ever were by strongly held views in support of and opposition to teachings of this man Paul. The Marmite Man: you either love him or you hate him.
2. This is the first in this series of sermons that I have heard and so I have been reviewing the Parish Blog to catch up on what I have missed and especially to understand whether the idea has been to talk about the person or about the selected passage. It struck me that, in some respects, Paul, presents more of a challenge than most of the subjects first because of the scope and scale of the sources from which to draw conclusions (unlike some of our heroes, we are not confined to biographical accounts of what Paul did and said, but also have the wealth of his letters to churches, communities and individuals – perhaps the same to be said of David?); and second because of the slightly unclear time period over which the material was produced. So can we assume that Paul teachings were cast in stone from Day 1 and never changed or tat as time passed and circumstances changed, so too did his understanding of God at work? That in some respects over time his practical theology did change is certain: he was, after all, thankfully human.
3. So I want to start in our passage and start at the start of our passage because that gives a chance to spend some time thinking about Paul the man; and then I want to end by going back to the passage, because that gives a chance to think about what God may have to say through this man’s words to us today.
4. “In Him we were also chosen…”. In this letter, this is the only reference to Paul’s own calling to become a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. The impression is that his readers are more on the “likers-side” of the Marmite-divide. In other letters, Paul spends what can seem an inordinate amount of time and effort, explaining how he is where he is and justifying his authority as an Apostle in the new Church: clearly it was a massive frustration for him and a matter of serious concern and suspicion among the new believers: how could this man have really changed so fully? One can understand their concern too. We know that Paul, then Saul, had been born, a Jew, in Tarsus (Turkish side of the border with Syria) and sent to be educated by the sect of the Pharisees in Jersualem. He was evidently a faithful student and we meet him first as an engaged observer, the young man who minded the coats of the executioners, watching, and “silently assenting”, as Stephen became the first martyr of the Jesus-sect .
Then “breathing murderous threats”, this “Jew of Jews”, “Pharisee of Pharisees” gets letters from the High Priest giving him authority to tour the Syrian synagogues, to root out the heretical followers of Jesus and to bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners. But then he changed; everything changed; his world was turned upside-down The story of his meeting with the risen Jesus on that road to Damascus is told 3 times in the Bible: as an account by the author of Acts, who then tells it again in Paul’s own reported words and then briefly again as Paul uses the incident to explain his role to his doubters in the churches in Galatia.
He had been “chosen” and his life took a different course – as Ananias, the nervous Damascan disciple who was sent out to help Saul, was told: this man has been set aside to take the good news to the gentiles and their kings as well as to the Jews.
5. And then? In his own terms, a “new life”, new objectives, new tasks, new journeys, new challenges, new friends – and a new name. And yet – without wanting to detract from any of this newness – or from the revolution that took a man dedicated to a narrow and sectarian view of the purposes of God to the view that Jesus was not only God’s Messiah but was Messiah for the whole world – it is a comfort to me that Paul was far from perfect, that at times perhaps, the old Saul came to the fore?
We know that he played Church politics; we know that it took time for the established Apostles to accept his change and the mission to the Gentiles and we see Paul negotiating, compromising even (over the rite of circumcision), to assist their understanding and support. But on other occasions, compromise on personal issues came hard: he found it hard to work with John Mark and the missionaries went their different ways for a time. His lifestyle was as a traveller, jealously self-supporting his ministry, travelling with companions but not a family, but not always on the move: 2 years in Antioch, over a year in Ephesus – building community, fostering faith, addressing new issues in new times.
He adopted a tried and tested means in new place – starting by speaking to the Jews in the synagogue and then moving out to the non-Jews, in houses, by rivers, in the streets. We understand he did not attract by reason of his physique, nor even by the force of the rhetoric: some of his hearers were even critical of the force of his argument. I always have time for young Eutychus (in Acts 20) who fell asleep in his sermon (shame he was on the window ledge!).
And his method: not sure we know enough but possibly encapsulated in his explanation to the Corinthians that he was “all things to all men, that by every possible means I might win some to God”. If he was speaking to Jews, then he could relate; if to Gentiles then he could relate too. Some of the charges over inconsistency seem to be met by this method: I will be what I need to be if win a person over to Christ.
So what did he teach, what did he say? We will return to our passage in a moment for another reason but the early verses contain the core of what excited Paul: “to hope in Christ…included in Christ ….the gospel of salvation…the seal of the Holy Spirit ...our inheritance”. For Paul the resurrection of Jesus, the one he met on that road was the critical moment in all time; faith in that resurrected Christ brings salvation (“justification by faith”), whatever your background, you are “in Christ”; and you know it because the living God is with you, in you, by the Holy Spirit, so you can hope, look forward, in confidence.
And last in this quick-whizz through the life of Paul, I must mention his writing, his letters. Again too much to cover in a moment, but if you know those of Paul’s letters included in the NT, just think of the variety of circumstances in which they are written, think of the differences in tone and content and then lastly think of the poetry:
“If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels but have no love, I become no more than a blaring brass or crashing cymbal…”;
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness”
“The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own”
6. So that is the man: really very human but very effective for God. If he were here now what would he want us to know? I think that is where we return to our passage – written perhaps to several churches but including the church at Ephesus, who he new well. For them he prayed, out of his own experience of his pilgrimage with God: and he prayed:
that they would know God better
that they would know the hope that God gives
that Christ would dwell in their hearts through their faith
that they would understand better the boundlessness of His love
that they would know the dynamic power of God in their lives
That was the experience of God that Paul had and the experience he wanted for others – then and now.
Marmite Man: I am sure there will be times when Paul will annoy you again. But now let us gives thanks for his witness, his faithfulness and his prayer.
“Heroes of the Bible – Paul”
1. Paul is the “Marmite Man” of the NT: he provokes strong – if not necessarily consistent - reaction. Unless you are not familiar with him and his writings, then the chances are that at some point or other in your Christian lives, you have read or heard or studied something that Paul has said and have been either amazed by his insight, or, as likely, appalled by his reactionary views; I suspect the small study groups in the Parish are as riven now as they ever were by strongly held views in support of and opposition to teachings of this man Paul. The Marmite Man: you either love him or you hate him.
2. This is the first in this series of sermons that I have heard and so I have been reviewing the Parish Blog to catch up on what I have missed and especially to understand whether the idea has been to talk about the person or about the selected passage. It struck me that, in some respects, Paul, presents more of a challenge than most of the subjects first because of the scope and scale of the sources from which to draw conclusions (unlike some of our heroes, we are not confined to biographical accounts of what Paul did and said, but also have the wealth of his letters to churches, communities and individuals – perhaps the same to be said of David?); and second because of the slightly unclear time period over which the material was produced. So can we assume that Paul teachings were cast in stone from Day 1 and never changed or tat as time passed and circumstances changed, so too did his understanding of God at work? That in some respects over time his practical theology did change is certain: he was, after all, thankfully human.
3. So I want to start in our passage and start at the start of our passage because that gives a chance to spend some time thinking about Paul the man; and then I want to end by going back to the passage, because that gives a chance to think about what God may have to say through this man’s words to us today.
4. “In Him we were also chosen…”. In this letter, this is the only reference to Paul’s own calling to become a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. The impression is that his readers are more on the “likers-side” of the Marmite-divide. In other letters, Paul spends what can seem an inordinate amount of time and effort, explaining how he is where he is and justifying his authority as an Apostle in the new Church: clearly it was a massive frustration for him and a matter of serious concern and suspicion among the new believers: how could this man have really changed so fully? One can understand their concern too. We know that Paul, then Saul, had been born, a Jew, in Tarsus (Turkish side of the border with Syria) and sent to be educated by the sect of the Pharisees in Jersualem. He was evidently a faithful student and we meet him first as an engaged observer, the young man who minded the coats of the executioners, watching, and “silently assenting”, as Stephen became the first martyr of the Jesus-sect .
Then “breathing murderous threats”, this “Jew of Jews”, “Pharisee of Pharisees” gets letters from the High Priest giving him authority to tour the Syrian synagogues, to root out the heretical followers of Jesus and to bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners. But then he changed; everything changed; his world was turned upside-down The story of his meeting with the risen Jesus on that road to Damascus is told 3 times in the Bible: as an account by the author of Acts, who then tells it again in Paul’s own reported words and then briefly again as Paul uses the incident to explain his role to his doubters in the churches in Galatia.
He had been “chosen” and his life took a different course – as Ananias, the nervous Damascan disciple who was sent out to help Saul, was told: this man has been set aside to take the good news to the gentiles and their kings as well as to the Jews.
5. And then? In his own terms, a “new life”, new objectives, new tasks, new journeys, new challenges, new friends – and a new name. And yet – without wanting to detract from any of this newness – or from the revolution that took a man dedicated to a narrow and sectarian view of the purposes of God to the view that Jesus was not only God’s Messiah but was Messiah for the whole world – it is a comfort to me that Paul was far from perfect, that at times perhaps, the old Saul came to the fore?
We know that he played Church politics; we know that it took time for the established Apostles to accept his change and the mission to the Gentiles and we see Paul negotiating, compromising even (over the rite of circumcision), to assist their understanding and support. But on other occasions, compromise on personal issues came hard: he found it hard to work with John Mark and the missionaries went their different ways for a time. His lifestyle was as a traveller, jealously self-supporting his ministry, travelling with companions but not a family, but not always on the move: 2 years in Antioch, over a year in Ephesus – building community, fostering faith, addressing new issues in new times.
He adopted a tried and tested means in new place – starting by speaking to the Jews in the synagogue and then moving out to the non-Jews, in houses, by rivers, in the streets. We understand he did not attract by reason of his physique, nor even by the force of the rhetoric: some of his hearers were even critical of the force of his argument. I always have time for young Eutychus (in Acts 20) who fell asleep in his sermon (shame he was on the window ledge!).
And his method: not sure we know enough but possibly encapsulated in his explanation to the Corinthians that he was “all things to all men, that by every possible means I might win some to God”. If he was speaking to Jews, then he could relate; if to Gentiles then he could relate too. Some of the charges over inconsistency seem to be met by this method: I will be what I need to be if win a person over to Christ.
So what did he teach, what did he say? We will return to our passage in a moment for another reason but the early verses contain the core of what excited Paul: “to hope in Christ…included in Christ ….the gospel of salvation…the seal of the Holy Spirit ...our inheritance”. For Paul the resurrection of Jesus, the one he met on that road was the critical moment in all time; faith in that resurrected Christ brings salvation (“justification by faith”), whatever your background, you are “in Christ”; and you know it because the living God is with you, in you, by the Holy Spirit, so you can hope, look forward, in confidence.
And last in this quick-whizz through the life of Paul, I must mention his writing, his letters. Again too much to cover in a moment, but if you know those of Paul’s letters included in the NT, just think of the variety of circumstances in which they are written, think of the differences in tone and content and then lastly think of the poetry:
“If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels but have no love, I become no more than a blaring brass or crashing cymbal…”;
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness”
“The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own”
6. So that is the man: really very human but very effective for God. If he were here now what would he want us to know? I think that is where we return to our passage – written perhaps to several churches but including the church at Ephesus, who he new well. For them he prayed, out of his own experience of his pilgrimage with God: and he prayed:
that they would know God better
that they would know the hope that God gives
that Christ would dwell in their hearts through their faith
that they would understand better the boundlessness of His love
that they would know the dynamic power of God in their lives
That was the experience of God that Paul had and the experience he wanted for others – then and now.
Marmite Man: I am sure there will be times when Paul will annoy you again. But now let us gives thanks for his witness, his faithfulness and his prayer.
posted by Parish Administrator at 1:19 pm
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