Hearing what was hard to hear

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. (Paul in Colossians 2)

"Paul was just a bigoted jerk!"  Hmmm...no, I don't think so.

Sure, Paul did talk a lot about behaviors and actions and thinking - do better than just living laissez faire, live up to what you've already been given, when you're around people who are also believers be sure to build them up 'cause they're in the same boat you are, don't throw away what God has already given you and don't ignore the good things he's trying to give you, etc.

That's what much of early "church up-bringing" was about for me. Well, actually it was a lot more negative than that - it was mainly rules of what to avoid doing and kind of, sort of Pharisaical in how extra rules were given so you'd avoid any appearance of sin 'cause you don't want to look bad or be accused of doing something wrong by anyone, especially other church people.  That was the main focus.

But Paul didn't do that, reading all his stuff through with fresh eyes - he always started with the good news and how much God loves us, has already saved us, given us so many good things, etc - AND THEN he would talk about how, in view of all God has done, this is how you capitalize on it and grow in it.  His point isn't, "Don't screw this up and lose it all" - that wasn't an option or an idea he put forth - we did that.

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I'm often taken by surprise when I run into the regular "once saved, always saved" or similar discussions that come up between tribes of believers. I get it - I grew up CofC and was constantly debating with Baptists how you could 100% lose your salvation and would quote random, out-of-context, proof-texts to show how you could.  

I don't believe this kind of discussion is helpful at all. I know from my tribe's POV, "we" were trying to convince the Baptists they were bound for Hell because of their position.  What we ended up doing was removing any chance that most of our own tribe would have any confidence of their security or place with God.  Most Baptists I knew didn't care either way and wondered what we were so uptight about.

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I wonder sometimes if Paul could be dragged forward in time and made to comment on the state of believers or churches or "Christianity" at any place in history - especially our own - what would he say? I think we can look back over the past 2000 years and see what many people have interpreted him and the other apostles as saying through how "it" has all developed.  And there has been quite a bit of variety.

Not gonna plow through the history of churches - plenty of books have been written about all that, many backing one slice of life or POV over others, and vice versa.  You can proof text from history and from scripture and come up with just about any justification you want to make for any position or thing you want to put forth as "truth".

It can be overwhelming, especially if you're trying to be "inclusive" and make everyone happy and/or make some kind of accommodation for each collection or movement that has sprung up over the last two millennia. 

I remember reading the Bible scholarship works of Bart Ehrman (among many others) and his journey to figure all this out; eventually turning to being an agnostic with atheist leadings - trying to balance everything is hard and can lead to giving up on everything when you realize your preconceived endings don't have backing.

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One thing that struck me at the end of Luke's writing of Acts is that scene where Paul is saying goodbye to his believing friends in a city and he told them...

"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:28-30)

Paul was being pretty straightforward that it wouldn't be long until people take the good things from God and make it about themselves and what they think or want or have been led to believe - they won't spare the flock, the actual people, but instead will draw people away to follow themselves. 

And that happened and happens anew with each generation. People see something good and find a way to become a prophet for profit, usually with the very best of intentions, at least at the start.

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For me, the overall prevailing message from Paul - you know, that one apostle God picked out to send the message to all the non-Jewish people - is that you and I have access to God through what he has done through Jesus.  Forgiveness of all sin, permanently - which makes way for salvation but is not salvation by itself.

"Salvation" is the receiving of God into your life - the gift of his presence through his Spirit.  Since sin isn't counted against us anymore, the Spirit never has to leave. Salvation is a word that has taken on a different meaning that was used early in the first few days or years of the church. 

Now it's a kind of ticket to heaven, then it was a way of life that never has to end - a reorientation away from the crappy ways we come up with to negotiate through life and the towards (aka repentance) God and a new way of being/seeing.

And THAT'S where Paul would come in with the list of things to stop doing or to avoid - because people were going about their business as usual, being screwed over and screwing over other people, and expecting that they'd be growing in this new way of living, etc.

Paul was trying to get them to see they were essentially getting showered off and then jumping back into the mud and not doing anything to help themselves.  And he knew that it wouldn't be long before some quick thinkers would turn the whole thing into an enterprise for themselves, distorting everything.

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Paul's solution to most of that stuff that was happening and that he knew was gonna happen with people going off the rails and doing their own "church thing" - his solution was to help people lean more into Jesus and what God was doing to and for us through him.  Think about what he said again...

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

His goal wasn't that they'd "church harder" or things like that - it was to get them encouraged to know and remember the good things they all shared in Jesus - the full riches of complete understanding - the mystery of God in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge - in other words, it's all about what God has done and is doing through Jesus, period.

And he follows up with, "I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments" of which there are plenty.

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There's a great old movie called "The Life of Brian" by Monty Python.  In it, a guy named Brian is confused for Jesus and is trying desperately to get away from people who want to follow him and/or worship him.  

In spite of his attempts to get them to listen to him, they all hear him through their own preconceived ideas of what they want him to be saying, much to his frustration and eventual crucifixion because he can't get people to stop yammering and making him into something he never asked for. It's a great commentary on religion in general and Christianity in particular.  

I remember "getting into trouble" for showing a blue-grass version of Jesus - a kind of musical called "The Cotton-Patch Gospel". It was a brilliantly done recreation of Jesus set in the south in the days before desegregation.  People were deeply offended and I had to apologize publicly to that class for having offended them.

And right after the apology, I showed clips from The Life of Brian and NO ONE saw the irony. It still makes me smile to this day.  But I digress. 

The main point is that Brian, the Jesus figure, was hounded and overrun by people who wanted him to be God or God's voice, but only a puppet version - they wanted to provide the voice and the teaching and the focus and for him to do what they wanted - kind of like what people wanted with the actual Jesus.

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When it comes to matters of faith, religion, church, etc - people hear what they want to hear and go where they want to go.  It's just the way it is.  Some will emphasize the importance of "being at church", others will emphasize certain ministries, or giving money, or a certain worship style, or who to vote for or who NOT to vote for, and so on.

It usually always comes back to creating a group or community that someone gets to lead and then the rest of its history is the story of them figuring out what they want to do or struggling with each other over who gets to pick and chose what the group will do.  The group becomes an idol, the control of the group becomes very important, and God's voice suddenly becomes the servant of whoever is in control. I could probably say that better or differently, but that's the gist of it.

Paul (and some of the other writers) saw it differently.  God's Spirit is to be the leader.  God's people are just that, God's people - not a pastor's people or a denomination's people or, well, you get the idea.  But that's hard to hear when all you've heard before is almost the opposite of that.

I'll admit, it's weird.  It feels weird.  There's no "back up plan", there's just God and whatever he provides.  There's not the comforting weighted blanket of a larger social community.

I'm learning to be okay with that even though I have those days of "Who will come to my funeral if I don't have a church?" or "What will happen if I go through a hard time and don't have people to fall back on?" or "Who will take care of my family if I'm gone?" and other extremely emotion-driven situations.

And then I realize those are emotion-laden thoughts that were put there on purpose by well meaning people who need me to feel that gravity, that fear so that I and others "don't leave".

And I'm reminded of what Paul said about savage wolves coming in among the flock and even rising up from the sheep around me.

And I can chill out and relax because we know the tactics of the devil and how he will twist and distort just about anything to get us not to trust and depend on God.

So now I fight hard to hear what Paul and others were saying and to hear them without the well meaning filters others want all of us to use.

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A goal of mine was/is to write for 100 days (excluding weekends) straight and I'm 75/100 through as of today.  Don't know what will be happening after that or how things might shift, but the journey will continue.  Just updating for those who wonder what's next for me.  Lots of good things on the table are being considered.  Grateful for your prayers and encouragement.

Grace and peace.