Really-Paul, Probably-not-Paul, and not-Paul: The Differences

We met for the first time this past Sunday to talk about our summer book, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. There is so much scholarship on the Bible--who wrote it, and when, and for whom--they take just a sliver of work on the apostle and tease out some important theological strands in how the Epistles have been used by the Church, and how they came to be in the earliest communities.
Roughly, the letters attributed to Paul divide up into three categories: letters conclusively understood to be authentically written by him, letters on which consensus is less strong (but that Borg and Crossam believe not to be authentic), and letters which are pretty certainly not written by Paul. How do they know? They look at the manuscripts available, examine the writing style and language (Paul has a pretty distinctive style, and was well-educated), the historical context implicit in each text, and are able to puzzle out what is and isn't genuine.
If all of these letters have been part of our tradition in some form or another for 2000 years, what does it really matter whether Paul himself really wrote them? was a literary convention in the Jewish world at that time to write something and attribute it to someone else--it wasn't viewed as deceptive in the same way we assume today. What's at stake in the matter is that there are some pretty startling similarities in the letters that Paul did write, as well as some pretty clear commonalities in those that he didn't. (the ones that we aren't entirely sure about are kind of a middle ground). And those later "pseudo Paul" texts in some instances say nearly the opposite as the authentic Paul. They are still important, and they're still Scripture, but when we interpret them we look at them differently. It doesn't mean that there's no value to the non-Paul texts, but that we look at the whole picture of the Epistles. If Paul appears to say one thing in a letter we know he wrote, and then the opposite thing in a letter he didn't, we'll apply our knowledge to trying to follow the instruction of the genuine Paul.
So what's the difference between really-Paul, probably-not-Paul, and not-Paul? A lot! Borg and Crossan talk about how the real Paul was, as the title says, a "radical visionary." The first few chapters (which is as far as we've gotten) talk about social issues like slavery and gender (bottom line: equality and freedom), but later we'll learn about grace, life in community, and what it really means to "preach Christ Crucified" and take Jesus seriously as our Lord. I have a hunch it's going to turn out pretty different from being a good Roman citizen, as some of the writings attributed to Paul seem to imply. Since the book does get a little technical in parts, we'll spend some time reviewing each chapter as we meet for our group. Please don't hesitate to join in at any time--it won't be hard to catch up, and I still have 3 copies of the book left!
Blessings,
Sara+

A Poem

I'm still on vacation--look forward to being with you on Sunday! Here's a poem from Mary Oliver I read recently.

In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this worl

dyou must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

"In Blackwater Woods" by Mary Oliver, from American Primitive. © Back Bay Books, 1983.

Summer Goings-On

I leave this afternoon for California to visit my husband's family, but I did want to check in with you to draw your attention to the VERY many things that are going on this summer at Christ Church! First, we heard from Bill Fowler on Sunday about our work for B Safe, the Bishops' Summer Fun Enrichment program. B Safe is a great program, and we had a lot of fun last year. We'll be visiting St Augustine and St Martin's in Boston, as we did then, so hopefully we'll see some familiar faces. On Wednesday and Thursday nights we meet to make lunch, on Thursday we go into the city for serving lunch and "Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR) time. Friday, we'll go to Houghton's Pond with the kids (and their counselors-we just get to have fun, we don't have to organize anything). We did receive some deanery grant funds for our work and will also get donations from local grocery stores, but if you'd like to make a donation for lunches or for the bus (an expense of over 400.00), please make your check out to Christ Church with B Safe in the memo line.

Our second major project is the summer lunch program. This has been in the works since way back in March, when we had an interest meeting with members of several Waltham congregations and many Christ Churchers. We will be volunteering at the McDonald spray part to serve bagged lunches Monday through Friday from June 29th to August 28th. Each weekday 3 volunteers are needed from 11:15 am to 12:45 pm which includes set up, handing out meals from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, and clean up. First Parish UU and First Lutheran are our major partners in the project, but we're hoping that some of the other Waltham churches will also pitch in. The program is in partnership with Project Bread (who funds it), the Boys and Girls Club of Waltham (who are the major coordinators of this lunch site and several others in the city), and the Waltham schools, who prepare the lunch. The great thing about this project is that our work makes possible an additional open site, so anyone under 18 who is in need of a meal can get lunch, no questions asked, no signing up (several other of the free lunch sites require pre-registration). Many children receive free or subsidized lunches during the year, so it is really important to be able to offer it over the summer. We need to get ourselves organized SOON (the program starts in a little over 2 weeks), so Mike Balulescu is marshaling the first part of our scheduling. Yesterday a group of us including Becky Phillips Dezalia met at First Parish, so she can also answer any questions you might have. To try to simplify organizing many lunches and many volunteers, we've put together a simple form you can download at the outreach page on the Christ Church site. If you were at the March meeting, Mike will be in touch with you shortly.

Also coming up is our summer book group! With the votes counted, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan's book took the lead. I will order ten copies of the book, which you can pick up from Marcia Luce this Sunday. Unfortunately it's not in paperback yet, so the cost for the book is 19.50, cash or check made out to Sara Irwin (if you need a "scholarship" Marcia can just give you the book and we arrange something). For our first meeting on June 21, read Part One, "Paul: Appealing or Appalling?"

In July, Saturday, July 18 Christ Church will be participating in Waltham History Month. At 9:00, Historic Morning Prayer according to the 1792 BCP; tours of stained glass windows follow. Let me know if you'd like to help host and prepare.

I look forward to all the great things we will do together this summer.
Peace,
Sara+

More about Pentecost

With the celebration of Pentecost on Sunday, we enter into the Season of Pentecost, too. Pentecost lasts all the way from the feast day itself to the first Sunday of Advent. It lasts half the year! In the Church year, Pentecost is "ordinary" time-"ordinary" in the sense of counted (as in ordinal numbers-the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, and so on), but also ordinary in that it's not a particular feast that we are observing. During Easter season, we focus on the event of the Resurrection for a whole 50 days. During Christmas, we celebrate Christmas for the week or two until the feast of the Epiphany. Unlike those holidays, though, we don't spend the whole 25 weeks of Pentecost celebrating one thing.
Well, maybe we do. Let me explain a little.

In a sense, we are continually observing the coming of the Holy Spirit which Pentecost represents--maybe in the second sense of the word "observe. " We are commemorating it, but we are also seeing it--seeing how the Spirit has acted in the past, and connecting that action to the present. During Pentecost, we read the Bible sequentially, and so get a feel for the narrative--the story of our faith--in a different way. This summer in June and July, we'll hear from the Books of Samuel in the Old Testament, Ephesians in the New Testament, and for the whole season, we'll be reading the Gospel of Mark. From Sunday to Sunday, we'll hear how the plot twists and turns--how Samuel anointed David to be king, how David slew the Philistine Goliath and danced in front of the ark...

I was reflecting with you last week about how the coming of the Spirit is the sign that the work of the church and the revelation of God continue into the future. The Christian life is not about wishing we could go back to those 33 years or so that Jesus actually walked the earth. The Christian life is about finding and celebrating the Spirit here, now--the Spirit who is still speaking, and speaks to us today, revealing God's desires for us and for our life together.

This Sunday, we're meeting to talk about how the last year has been with St Peter's worshipping here. It was a one year trial relationship, and our conversation will form the basis for the vestry's decision of whether to continue for another year. I hope you'll bring your concerns and ideas for the next year for new ways we might be able to minister together. A group of vestry members and others have been meeting with leaders from St Peter's periodically through the year-if you are interested in being part of that conversation for 2009/2010, please let me know--we need many ears to hear how the Spirit speaks to us and leads us in ministry. I think there is a lot of untapped potential for collaboration between our congregations, but it's hard work; we are united in our Anglicanism, but we don't see each other as often as we might wish. The apostle Thomas told Jesus, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?' We might not feel like we know the way, either. We have been looking for the way this past year, and we've had some good experiences together like Christingle and the parish clean up day, but we are still listening for how we can be in community with each other in meaningful ways. I hope you'll join me Sunday as the conversation continues and we listen for the Holy Spirit--listening all the way to Advent in this season of Pentecost.

Blessings,
Sara+