October 5, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n Doug Johnson Hatlem & Tim Schmucker<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Today the Preaching Team begins a seven-Sunday series on Paul.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: The Apostle Paul.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Yes, that\u2019s how many of us learned his name in Sunday School.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: Well, other than Jesus, no Biblical figure is larger in our faith story than Paul.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Paul has shaped post-Jesus Christianity – our understanding of Jesus and of Christian faith – like no other. Paul looms large, real large.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: And new interpretations and disputes over Paul have been critical at key times in Church history, the early church, after Constantine, the high middle ages, the Reformation, in the debate between liberal theology and Karl Barth, and especially in the large shadow of WW2.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Many of us learned in childhood from our parents and in Sunday school much of Paul\u2019s basic theology. While recognising the risk of being overly simplistic, perhaps we could summarize the main points as follows:<\/p>\n 1.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>We are all sinners and are in need of redemption and grace. Or as Paul wrote in Romans 3, a verse I was taught before I knew what being a sinner meant: \u201cFor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.\u201d We are sinners.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: Sin?!, That\u2019s a dirty word in a church like ours!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: [continuing by completely ignoring]<\/p>\n 2.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>We need forgiveness, offered by God through the death of Christ. Romans 5:8 (as I memorized it in the KJV): \u201cFor while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d We need forgiveness.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: That\u2019s the first verse I can remember memorizing too. In the King James Version.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: [continuing]<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>To receive this forgiveness, we must accept Jesus Christ and believe in him. Romans again: \u201c[we] are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood,\u201d and \u201cnow that we have been justified by Christ\u2019s blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath of God.\u201d Paul juxtaposed the Jews search for salvation through the Law with salvation in Christ. Christ\u2019s blood, rather than good works, Paul insisted, is what imparts salvation. We are saved by Christ\u2019s atoning death on the cross.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: It\u2019s all about mercy, grace, and love man.\u00a0 You know, not like those Jews and Catholics who are all about the works, law, and judgment of the OLD Testament.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: [continuing]<\/p>\n 4.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Plus, we know the Apostle Paul as a social conservative. Women were to keep silent in the church and veil their head (my Amish Mennonite mom called it \u201cthe covering\u201d). Paul taught submission: Christians to governing authorities, and wives to husbands. Plus he didn\u2019t condemn slavery, inequity, or injustice.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: Social conservative?\u00a0 Tim do you know that the most popular Marxist, Freudian, atheist, European philosophers are now reading and admiring the apostle Paul.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Umm \u2026 we are not going to go there.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: No, no, no.\u00a0 That would be too much.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: But we did find a different reading at work when we went away to University.\u00a0 A new perspective on Paul.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: Yeah, but this isn\u2019t university. Maybe we ought to just continue to think of ourselves as followers of the Jesus of the Gospels and basically to ignore the writings of Paul.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: I don\u2019t think we can get away with that now. Perhaps we\u2019ve misunderstood Paul. Perhaps our understanding of Paul has been shaped, even warped, due to Western Protestant influences and perspectives. Perhaps a new reading and understanding of \u201cthe Apostle Paul\u201d is sorely needed.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: Yes, there are too many interesting questions.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Such as?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: Did Jews ever actually think they could earn salvation by good works?\u00a0 Is Paul\u2019s understanding of justification and salvation really what Protestants have claimed it to be?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: Whoa, careful there Doug!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: [continuing by completely ignoring, going way too fast] Has Judaism been superseded by the Church in such a way that Jews are no longer a part of God\u2019s covenant?\u00a0 If not, then what is new about the New Testament?\u00a0 Are Paul\u2019s writings directed primarily to individuals or rather to church communities? Maybe to both?\u00a0 Maybe not? Does any of this have political implications? In the U.S., in contemporary Palestine, here in \u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tim: [INTERUPTING] Doug, wait a minute, wait a minute, what does all this have to do with Mennonites and Anabaptists, remember we are part of the Radical <\/em>Reformation?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Doug: [slowing down significantly] Sermons and Sunday School will be exploring some of these questions and others over the course of the next two months.\u00a0 On the preaching team we\u2019ve been reading various scholars during of our last several meetings.\u00a0 We\u2019ve consistently warned ourselves that we\u2019ll be delivering sermons and not lectures.\u00a0 Our aim is for you to find as we have the new perspective on Paul to be intriguing and delightful and jarring and as productive of hope and faith as a new found love.\u00a0 Or perhaps an old love completely rediscovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cOld Paul, New Paul\u201d — Introduction to the Preaching Series on Paul October 5, 2008 Doug Johnson Hatlem & Tim Schmucker \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Tim: Today the Preaching Team begins a seven-Sunday series on Paul. \u00a0 Doug: The Apostle Paul. \u00a0 Tim: Yes, that\u2019s how many of us learned his name in Sunday School. \u00a0 Doug: Well, other than Jesus, no Biblical figure is larger in our faith story than Paul. \u00a0 Tim: Paul has shaped post-Jesus Christianity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}