Sermon "The Appeal of Paul"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, March 22, 1998
II Cor.5:16-21; II Timothy 4:6-8
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The Appeal of Paul
Some clever person has contrived a fantasy of a search committee of a church looking for a pastor, and receiving this letter:
"I understand that your church is vacant. I should like to submit my application. I am generally considered to be a good preacher. I have been a leader in most of the places I have served. I have also found time to do some writing on the side. I am over fifty years of age, and while my health is not the best, I still manage to get enough work done to please my congregation. As for a reference, I am somewhat handicapped. I have never served in any place more than three years, and the churches where I have preached have generally been pretty small, even though they were located in rather large cities. Some places I had to leave because my ministry caused riots and disturbances. When I stayed, I did not get along too well with other religious leaders in town which may influence the kind of references these places will send you. I have also been threatened several times and been physically attacked. Three or four times I have gone to jail for witnessing to my convictions. Still, I feel sure I can bring vitality to your church. If you can use me, I should be pleased to be considered."
The committee was dismayed that anyone would think that their church could use a man that was a trouble-making, absent-minded, ex-jailbird. "What was his name?" They asked. "Well," said the chairman of the committee, "the letter is simply signed, 'Paul'."
Saint Paul, we might add, which says quite a bit about what sainthood entails. I have just returned from an educational tour with several from our church tracing the missionary journeys of Paul to Greece and parts of Turkey. There can be no impression without expression and that's what I would like to do this morning- to articulate an impression of Paul, who in many ways was one of the first pilgrims in that he left home and traveled afar because of religious conviction.
In anticipation of this morning, I asked some in our group about their impressions and here is what I heard. One person commented: It's amazing what an individual was able to initiate. Don't underestimate the potential impact of a minority. You can make a difference! The significant Christian influence in Greece today and the entire Christian church, is because one person took action. Another commented: It's not the details of his travels that's important, not where he slept, or how many times he was in prison or how long he stayed at each place. But his message. More about that later.
People asked what was the most meaningful place to me. It was the time we spent just outside Phillippi by the river Krenides at the site of Lydia's baptism. This was where the first Christian baptism on European soil took place. At this spot we reflected on our baptism and that the church spread in Europe through the generosity of a successful businesswoman. Lydia was a merchant dealing in purple cloth. She was a gentile who, like Cornelius, believed in God and followed the moral teachings of scripture. She went further. Lydia responded to the gospel message of Paul and offered her home as a base for the Christian church.
We have heard readings this morning introducing us to Paul's conversion and message. His is the most famous conversion story in history. It is a conversion from hatred and hardness to healing and helping. This is not so much a sudden conversion but a sudden surrender to the pull of God, to make fresh decisions based on new information and experiences in religious faith and life. A bright, experienced man, was able to consider what God was doing new in his time. Education is also a process of unlearning. Or as someone put it, education is what you have left after you have forgotten what you have learned. It's never too late to be what you hope to be.
Paul was born a Jew and trained to be a Pharisee, a learned and strict observer of religious law. The New Testament records how he actively tried to suppress the early Christian movement through persecution until he was converted to Christianity by a visionary encounter with the living Christ while on the road to Damascus. Thirteen New Testament letters have been attributed to Paul, many of which show him adjusting Jewish ideas and traditions to new circumstances and measuring Old Testament laws by their relevance to Jesus Christ. Paul spent 10 years on 3 lengthy missionary journeys. During this time he wrote letters to churches he had previously founded and could not visit in person. Some of these letters have been preserved in the New Testament.
Paul was especially concerned that he protect his understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus from alteration toward Jewish practices or toward Hellenistic religious and philosophical ideas. He instructed the Christian communities he founded in ethical behavior by addressing their failings and offering advice.
What was his message? His message was the grace of God through faith in Christ. Romans 5:1 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our lord Jesus Christ," his was a message of reconciliation and he invited the church to be involved in an outreach of reconciliation. As Paul said, ''God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." (II Corinthians 5:19)
A message of reconciliation. His was also a message of representation. Paul became the first church growth specialist. "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." (II Corinthians 5:2a) We are residents in this place but this is not where our home is. We are citizens of another place. As a reconciled people we are recruited as ambassadors. What does an ambassador do? An ambassador represents his country in a foreign land. And an ambassador helps residents and visitors negotiate the foreign terrain while maintaining their citizenship back home.
The texts of Paul's letters reveal that he is aware of the importance of language. Paul structured his presentation and used words, phrases, images and ideas familiar to the congregation he was addressing. In Galatians, for example, he used the cynics' approach by erasing the polarity of opposites to present the universality of the gospel of Christ. These polarities include that in Christ there is no male/female, master/slave and Jew/gentile.
The Greeks were fearful of offending any god by failing to give him attention; so they felt they could cover any omissions by the label "unknown god" to a shrine. In Paul's speech at Mars Hill, next to the Acropolis in Athens, (of which Pauline Scribner climbed and I have the pictures to prove it) he quoted popular philosophers and spoke with calculated words on making the unknown God known through the Christ. The mission church pays attention to culture, learns its language and understands its traditions in order to be relevant.
The story of the early church is our story. However, we do not have to drop anchor there. We are connected to it but do not have to be attached to it. We can look ahead as we look at the past.
So what difference does it make? As a reconciled person you can be the answer to another person's prayer! Lydia was that for Paul. He needed a place for the church to gather and be organized and she convinced his to use her home.
We needed to provide an ongoing dentist for the mission in Honduras. I recently received a call from a person in Arizona who heard about the project and pledged the full dental salary support for two years. He was the answer to our prayer. What prayer will you be the answer to? When you look for that it brightens your day. As a reconciled people, we can be an ambassador at home, at work, and at leisure - the salt of the earth.
The book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest, still preaching about Jesus. Clement of Rome and Eusebius of Caesarea report that Paul was eventually acquitted and traveled to Spain but was arrested again and martyred in Rome under Nero. Paul kept the faith to the end, may this be our goal when all is said and done.
For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Amen. (II Timothy 4:6-8)
