Leadership for a Community Under Challenge

Reading from a Distance – to Understand and Follow Paul writes to Timothy in c. 67 after 2 yrs house-arrest in Rome, travel to Spain and back to Aegean area. After Rome’s fire in 64, Nero’s slaughter of Christians in Rome, made it illegal to be a Christian in the Roman empire. Paul urges them to stay engaged by Faith-Gospel but to pray for emperor and for quiet life with honor. Christians vulnerable to accusation and execution. We read from our modern post-Christendom, individualism, freedom, more ignored than physically endangered. Our tradition often reads this text as a check-list of laws for church elders. Challenges in crossing centuries: Givens of Greco-Roman society (1) Patriarchy in law (2) Honor- shame culture based in evaluation of others, (3) Patronage, (4) Polytheism. Christian faith was threatened on all these fronts. People breathed this given reality as they organized life.

Why to Timothy and Titus, who’ve work with Paul 15+ yrs in difficult situations. Don’t they know? Why should overseers be married? Paul earlier (1 Cor 7) urged staying unmarried, like himself. Why so much about accusation, conflict, honor and so little about spiritual gifts as earlier. Why must pagans speak well of the overseer? Who is the “accuser” (diabolos, devil, human)? To understand the language, it helps to understand what’s at stake, what Paul is trying to do. Paul knows Timothy and Titus know the spiritual gifts needed for leadership (Rm 12, 1Cor 12...). He focuses on particular needs for leadership in the troubled churches in Ephesus and Crete.

Men & Women Learning to Pray

Praying for a Quiet, Active Life Under a Threatening Empire. Reading scripture challenges our imagination and empathy. Or does it? Is Paul writing to his co-worker Timothy and instructing him by stating the ideal arrangements of the church? Nero began persecution of Christians in Rome after fire. No systematic official persecution. But being a Christian was illegal and anyone could bring accusation. Permission to kill. Hard vulnerability. What does a community do? Still pray for the emperor? Withdraw from public life? How can we fulfill our principal mission? How can we live by the Gospel in a world of honor and shame. There was also the vivid danger of a Heresy that focused on myths and speculation instead of Faith. Semi-Gnostic withdrawal: We are those who know our Divine inner reality. The physical is corrupt. Avoid marriage and giving birth to more flesh. Women, young widows were especially attracted. Men, fairly simple. Pray for emperor and quiet life. But stay quiet: Don’t show anger, dispute.

Divine Imagination

A Community Without Barriers

Galatians 3:21-29

All People made One as the Outcome of God’s Story

God has given us scriptures that are remarkable and challenging to understand. He engages our minds to understand and discern. We receive the whole OT. The Gospels tell Jesus’ story in four different ways. The letters are real letters written on a particular day to a distinct situation, set of problems. No systematic theological treatises or law books. There is built-in flexibility, diversity, and interpretation.

In Gal 3 Paul looks broadly over the whole story in the context of deep disputes about the OT law and the Gentiles. God’s ancient promises come to fruition in Jesus’ faithfulness as Messiah and our faith/trust in him. He is one person who is both Israel and every human, but also God so that every person can become part of him.

All the deep, ancient barriers are broken down. Humans are given a new reality by God, united not by virtue but by what God has done in Jesus. Jesus actively breaks down religious, ethnic, class, socioeconomic, gender, relational barriers, back to creation. All of these barriers were set both in custom and in Roman law, city laws, and Mosaic law.