|
Home
Board Calendar Sunday Messages News Links Contact Us |
|
|
Home
Board Calendar Sunday Messages News Links Contact Us |
|
Sunday Message for September 10, 2006
Oh, That Paul!
The Accusation nailed to Jesus’
Cross was written in three languages: Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. These
three world powers converged at the beginning of Christianity. Of all
the pioneer Christians, Paul was the one who belonged to all three of these
streams of culture and history.
PAUL/SAUL
He had been born and raised a Jew, Saul of Tarsus. This
Mediterranean harbor city was a perfect example of cosmopolitan Hellenism,
a blend of the classical Greek and oriental mysticism. In addition,
Paul had been born a first-class Roman citizen.
All of this had an influence in molding Paul’s consciousness as the original
missionary “statesman,” apostle to the Gentiles, and founding father
of Christology and all its consequent doctrines and dogmas.
It’s important to understand these influences in Paul’s life. Because,
all of these came together in the Christianity that Paul pioneered. Jesus
had been the spiritual author, but Paul became the great propagator and chief
architect of Christianity’s religious systems. In fact, we know
more about Paul than we do Jesus, because a considerable part of the New Testament
consists of Paul’s letters and activities. Paul, the Apostle, was
not only the most dynamic and influential of early Christians, but much of
present-day Christianity can definitely be said to be “Pauline.”
HEBREW
It was the Hebrew tradition that added the most to
the development of young Saul. His parents kept alive in him a deep
love for the religion of the Jewish people. He had been trained in
the strict observance of the Pharisees, a society of zealous scholars who
believed that everything was fulfilled by adhering to Jewish religious
law. The Judaism of Saul gave him a strong devotion to the law of the fathers. The word
“law” occurs 118 times in his Epistles. Paul was also given
training in a practical trade – tent cloth-making – which later
served him very well in supporting himself in his missionary work. His
devotion to the religion of his forefathers was so great that at the age of
about twenty he was admitted to the rabbinical school of the Pharisees in Jerusalem
to study under the famous Gamaliel.
GREEK
Saul spoke Greek as well as Hebrew and became very
learned in the life and intellectuality of a Greek-Hellenistic city. This
can be seen in the contrast between the rural and provincial illustrations
of Jesus (sheep, seeds, rising bread) and the city life metaphors that
Paul uses (statues, theatre, the stadium, courts of justice, and the marketplace).
Paul’s language sometimes reflects Greek philosophy in words like “nature,” “conscience,” and “sufficiency,” and
he also used the esoteric vocabulary of the mystery-religions (including “the
deep things of God,” the mystery
of Christ, “that which no eye has seen nor ear heard,” a mirror
dimly, the mind of Christ, the inner man, the temple of the Holy Spirit within
you, and, as we shall see, his ultimate realization about the
mystery hidden for ages, which, to Charles Fillmore, were the greatest
words ever written).
Paul became a proponent of the teachings of Aristotle. He instituted
Christianity in the philosophical framework of his interpretation of the universe. This
was the basis of such religious dogma as the finite concepts of the “Trinity,” “heaven,” and “hell.” Only
recently has Einstein’s insight of the universe broken through Aristotelian
limits and united a dynamic new physics with the ancient wisdom of metaphysics.
ROMAN
It was the Roman influence that gave Paul his pragmatic
drive. As a Roman citizen he learned to appreciate what Rome contributed
to the world in its time: the material benefits of its roads, aqueducts,
and harbors, and the stability and control of its worldwide commonwealth
of law and order. (Paul once appealed to distant Rome for justice
even in Jerusalem.)
Paul’s Roman citizenship often got him out of trouble in his missionary
travels, and he considered it one of his prized possessions.
More important, however, it was Paul’s affinity with Rome that brought
about a fervent zeal for winning the Roman Empire for Jesus Christ and compelled
him to concentrate his missionary campaign in often dangerous centers of strong
Roman influence.
PAUL’S CONSCIOUSNESS
So, Paul’s consciousness was a blend
– Jewish, Greek, and Roman – and throughout his writing we find
a curious mixture of Old Testament thinking, mysticism, philosophy, and practical
logic. Paul was a fascinating person. He had a brilliant mind,
alert with keen reasoning power, and alive with vivid imagination. He
also possessed a great heart, full of devotion and, often, tenderness. He
had burning ambition, and overactive will, and ways that were sometimes irritating
and often exasperating. Paul was obviously chosen by God for a great
mission, but Paul tended to get ahead of the plan, and not even the Holy Spirit
could hold this missionary to the divine intent.
Paul was an organizer, a builder of institutions, and a rule-maker. He
translated the simple spiritual teachings of Jesus into a complex, worldly,
religious institution. He far surpassed the original disciples in spreading
Christianity to the “ends of the earth.” He often used his
personal magnetism and strong persuasive powers to expedite problems into narrow
solutions. It left a dichotomy. Much of the emphasis on sin and
the dark side of religion was introduced into the teachings of Jesus by Paul.
Jesus revealed to mankind a positive, liberating way of life. He pointed
us inward and gave us encouraging promises and examples of what we can become. Paul
often fell short of this with admonitions about what not to do and the insistence
on restrictive outward observances. (Notice sometime how some religionists
in trying to enforce the negatives of theology almost always support their
positions with quotes from Paul rather than Jesus.)
CHRIST
Primarily, we need to reinterpret Paul according to
Jesus. And in doing so, we need to establish our perspective within
the context of the growing influence of the living Christ within Paul. We
need to look at Paul’s own growth: the development of spiritual consciousness
and spiritual discernment, his discovery of life’s great secret of
spiritual Oneness, and God as a loving universal Father, and his final
realization of the indwelling Christ – in everyone.
Some of the spiritual conversion in Paul’s life happened in a flash,
but much was an evolving, maturing transformation throughout the rest of his
life.
Paul was very human, just like us! He lived a real life, and his experiences
were genuine. He made mistakes (once referring to himself as the foremost of sinners). Paul was a
complex man and he experienced deep human emotions. He was often in opposition
to people – and quick to criticize – yet his letters were sometimes
masterpieces of love. As we shall see, Paul had soul-searching low points
and frequently suffered hardship, persecution, turmoil, and anxiety. And
as he grew, he was sometimes in conflict with his own former self. Yet
he was unsinkable and emerged ultimately the dominating figure in every situation,
a giant of strength and courage.
PAUL’S LIFE
Paul first appeared in the Bible as Saul the persecutor. The
drama had all begun with Jesus, whom Paul never saw. His amazing
part of the Christian story started with his involvement in the death of
a member of the small cult of Jesus’ followers, Stephen.
When Saul saw Stephen die, and heard the haunting words, (Acts 7:60)
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them,” something began to work in his heart.
We next see him at the head of a column of Temple soldiers pursuing those followers
of Jesus who had fled to Damascus. It was on the road to Damascus that
he was literally knocked off his horse by a blinding, life-changing vision. Saul
had started that trip a proud young man, with all the pomp and circumstance
of a conquering hero leading a small army. He ended the trip by being
led into Damascus by the hand like a blind beggar.
Everything Saul had ever possessed up to that time was suddenly wiped away. All
the bridges to his past were burned. To his fellow Jews, he was a turncoat. His
relationship with his family was completely severed. And even by the
followers of Jesus, he was suspected as a spy.
Yet this drastic reversal became the great event in his life, because as a
result he became an apostle to Jesus Christ. And soon, in Damascus, another
very significant thing happened that also worked in the heart of Paul for the
rest of his life. A man named Ananias, at first very reluctantly, was
inspired to help Saul. And Saul, blind, helpless, and utterly desolate,
felt a hand on his shoulder and heard the words: (Acts 9:17) “Brother Saul.” And Saul knew the
love of Christ!
With the help of his friends in Christ, Saul soon escaped from Damascus, over
the city wall in a garbage basket. He retreated to the wilderness, and
there is then a three-year gap in his life. Undoubtedly, it included
introspection, prayer, and meditation, which allowed the original conversion
experience to gather strength and stability.
Then he again appeared in Jerusalem, set to go. But he was a maverick,
and he soon learned that the disciples in Jerusalem had no place in their plans
for him.
PAUL’S MISSIONARY WORK
He went back home to Tarsus, not to his parents, but
into complete seclusion. After a time, Barnabas, one of the few Jerusalem
followers of Jesus who had been impressed by Saul, sought him out and invited
him to join in a missionary journey.
This was the first of the missionary journeys that led Paul (his name was changed
early in the first journey) thousands of miles into unknown lands in which
he established Christian converts all the way to Rome and brought Christianity
to Europe (they were first called “Christians”
in Antioch – at that time a sarcastic term for this strange cult of “little
Christs”).
Know that Paul’s epistles were not written by him as Holy Scripture,
but as letters to friends. They are chronicles of his personal experiences,
of the advice he gave others and of his own growth.
Much of the drama of these memorable writings is from the undercurrent of the
feud he had with the Jerusalem disciples. They had quickly developed the notion
of orthodoxy and church authority; and, instead of following Jesus’ instructions
to take the message into all the world, had settled into a holding operation
awaiting Jesus’ return and the end of the world. As they waited,
they strayed into the temporal concerns typical of most religious arguments
and quarrels.
A major issue centered around whether Gentiles had to become Jews before they
could be Christians. Paul wanted to convert everybody. The disciples
in Jerusalem did not consider Paul “legitimate,” because he had
never known Jesus personally.
Therefore, they discredited and undercut him at every step. His theology
was no good, he was a troublemaker and – their accusation to the Romans – a
peace-breaker.
APOSTLE OF THE “RISEN CHRIST”
Paul countered with the position that he was an apostle
of the “risen Christ,” and that his authority was the Christ
Spirit. It took Paul quite a little growth to realize himself exactly
what this meant. But Paul eventually gained the spiritual awareness
that could perceive Jesus’ message as entirely spiritual. He
realized that the spiritual experience he himself had on the road to Damascus
was a classic example of how Christ returns – spiritually – as
a living presence within us.
Paul eventually awakened to the spiritual reality (Jesus’ kingdom of
Spirit) behind and beyond Aristotle’s outer-based perception of the world. He
gradually came to appreciate that the “fruits of Spirit” are gained
from within and not from without ourselves.
As with the Jerusalem disciples, much of Paul’s missionary campaign was
also based on an interim ethic of outer behavior. But he outgrew the
judgmental morality for which he is often remembered and became foremost a
mystic, a spiritual-minded man of prayer.
He was the first follower of Christ to say that the truly authentic experience
of religion (to “worship in Spirit and Truth”) is a direct, intimate
communion with God’s abiding Spirit, a mystical union with the Christ
of God in us. Paul’s original dependence on law as control was
gradually transmuted into a metaphysical trust in the creative activity that
can come forth from the Spirit of God in man.
Paul summed up his spiritual insight and gave his highest vision in his Epistle
to the Colossians (the mystery hidden for ages) (Colossians
1:27) “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” With it was the realization that Jesus
came as the great Way-Shower so that we may be like him – by following
Him on the inward path of spiritual unfoldment – to be (2 Corinthians
3:18) “transformed into the same image from one degree
of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
WHAT’S THIS TO US?
This talk has been about Paul. My next three, based
on his life, will be about us. He has left his mark on each of us. Almost
every human in the Western world has been influenced by Paul’s understanding
of Jesus Christ. Few other men have set up such conflicts of love
and dissension. But it was love and not the rigid, narrow doctrines
and gloomy theology of Paul that became the great force in his own life. Probably
because of Ananias in Damascus, he wrote in a letter to the Romans: (Romans
8:28) “in all things God works for good for those
who love Him.” He showed us, in spite of all human
shortcomings, what Spirit can do to a person. He is a believable,
exciting, touching example of a spiritual transformation in a human being. The
really exciting thing about Paul’s dramatic life is that it can happen
to us.
There is an element of mystery surrounding the latter days of Paul’s
life. He may have been acquitted in his trial at Rome and had a fourth
journey that took him as far as Britain, later to be executed in Nero’s
persecution.
But he had learned that, in Christ, death is swallowed up in victory. By
perceiving (Romans 16:25) “the mystery that was kept secret for long ages” he had come to know Christ intimately, as
an eternal, indwelling presence – our own eternal Self.
Of greatest value to us, probably, is that Paul often practiced what he preached. Once,
he admonished the Philippians: (Philippians 2:5)
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ
Jesus.” Paul had literally achieved a high
degree of Christ consciousness. He had truly lived out his counsel to
the Colossians to: (Colossians 3:10) “have clothed yourselves with the new self, which
is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”
What a man! What a life! In his acquired mystical
attitude about life, Paul wrote to those in Rome:
(Romans 8:38-39) “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And friends, when you understand what Paul meant by that, you will know, as
he did, what life is all about.
a
REFERENCE: Great Dramas of the Bible William Earle Cameron
SCRIPTURE: Colossians 1:27; Acts 7:60;
Acts 9:17; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:28; Romans 16:25;
Philippians 2:5;
Colossians 3:10; Romans 8:38-39
| Top of page |
Last updated September 10, 2006
