Who is Paul
This can be listened to here
Gate Pa – Year A 13th
Sunday of Ordinary Time,
Readings:
Psalm Psalm:
13
First
Reading: Genesis
22:1-4
Second
Reading: Rom
6:12-23
Gospel:
Matt
10:40-42
What
I want to say:
I want to explore who Paul is and do a brief
intro to his letter to the Romans as a starter for the next few weeks
The Sermon
1. Introduction- Who is Paul?
next 12 Sundays we will be reading from Paul’s
letter to Romans
In light of that – thought good opportunity to
spend some time with Paul
while do hear passage from one letters most
Sundays
generally
tend to focus on Gospel reading
is
starting point understanding who is God
in light of that who we are
in light of that - what is our to do
But Paul is important in all this
so next few Sundays when I am here,
spend some time exploring what Paul has to say
so to begin with
Who is Paul?
what do we know? -> ask
·
persecuted
church
·
converted
on road to Damascus
o he has experience of resurrected Jesus
·
tentmaker
·
Pharisee
·
Jew
– come back to this – really really important
o never stops being Jew and seeing world from
Jewish perspective
o renegotiates his understanding of what that
meant
·
missionary
to Gentiles
·
church
planter
·
letter
writer -> again come back to this
·
called
himself apostle – not appointed by any church body or other apostles
o he like other apostles had been with risen Jesus
(criteria set down when Matthias elected replace Judas)
·
theologian
o not systematic theologian as we understand it
today
o not so much interested in making sure people believed
the right thing
§ good doctrine
o much more interested in how people lived with
each other
·
radical
·
mysognist?
2. Why is he important?
his letters dominate New Testament
24% NT - letters attributed to him (not
counting Hebrews)
½ books Acts about him – he is apostle book
mostly about
pretty clear that is out of proportion to
importance and influence in early church
è serious opposition to him and gospel he
preached from within early church
cf 2% Peter –
rock on which church built according to gospels
similar James –
head Jerusalem church
they not write letters?
if they did – why Pauls kept and
theirs not?
3. Paul’s letters
letters then are important just because they
dominate our scriptures
first parts of NT to be written
predate
gospels by 10 to 30 years
first thing note is that Paul did not write
them all
-
some
he did
-
some
dictated – e.g Romans
-
some
thought he said “write a letter saying this” one of his followers
-
some
not his at all – come later
o dealing with issues of established church on
how regulate ongoing ministry
-
Hebrews
not his in any way shape or form.
it is thought Paul wrote or dictated:
Romans
1 and 2 Corinthians
Galatians
Philippians
Philemon
1 Thessalonians
Debate about
Ephesians
Colossians
è did he ask someone else to write it
è was it written later
written later by “disciples in his name”
2 Thessalonians
1 and 2 Timothy
Titus
4. Letters not scripture
second thing note is that they were written as
occasional letters
not written as scripture
Paul not sit down and think
“today I am going to write carefully thought
out letter that people can read for centuries to come to help them in their life
in Christ”
nor was he mostly not setting out his
theological framework
they were letters
written
off the cuff
to particular
people
addressing particular issues in communities
that he had founded
so that they continued follow path
he had started them on
which means that to understand them we need to
know
as
much as we can
who
writing to
what the issues were
and cultural context they lived in ->
shapes what he is saying
thirdly – not put them in the post
-
taken
by someone he trusted – often person who had written it for him
-
task
would be to read it out loud to gathered community
-
then
deal with questions that letter raised
o using letter to teach and clarify
fourth thing to note
-
even
letters that Paul wrote have been edited
-
e.g
some people think 2 Corinthians is 2 letters that have been pushed together
-
passages
have been inserted
o e.g 2 Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1
o or some think 1 Corinthians 14: 34–35 – women being
silent in church stuffed middle passage about prophesy in church
§ passage makes more sense without it
§ makes no sense given know women lead house churches
Paul set up (he writes the letters to them)
5. Letter to Romans
Romans is unique
-
he
did not found this church
-
people
he does not know well
-
thought
to be last books definitely written by him
-
writing
it not to deal with issues in churches he has founded
o but to elicit their support for his proposed
missionary journey into Spain
-
carefully
crafted not off the cuff
-
carefully
lays out his theology
o important because it gives best overall
picture of how Paul understood what was happening in Christ event.
o we will spend next few weeks looking at some
of the big themes within this.
-
Begin
first observation
o often talk about this being Paul’s letter to
church in Rome
o writers like Katherine Grieb and others
o suggest that this letter not letter not
written to one church
§ but number house churches
§ some Jewish Christians
·
whom
following torah and being Jewish was important part of being Christian
§ some Gentile Christians
·
who
following Paul did not follow Torah and remained gentile
o this letter was written to help those churches
look beyond the huge and significant issues that separated them
o instead look to gospel that united them
o so that they might work together supporting
his proposed mission.
o how he does that we will explore over the next
few weeks.
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