JOURNEYS OF PAUL: THE FINAL JOURNEY

For the past several weeks we have been following some of the major steps in the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. An apostle is one who is sent; surely that applied to him. Paul was a traveling man.

Paul brought the gospel to Europe and in the process, expanded the message of Christ so that it was the message to the world. Without Paul, Christians would just be a fourth branch of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, Christian. Those of you who think in business terms know that marketing is more than sales; marketing is also concerned with presenting something so that it connects with a need. Europeans weren’t looking for a Messiah (that’s a Jewish term), but they were looking for a savior. That is the genius of Paul; not only that he understood the need but that he persuaded the people back in the home office in Jerusalem to let him do what he did best.

So in the past few weeks we have seen Paul converted with a blinding light, negotiating with the leaders of the faith, set upon by mobs, harassed by hecklers, beaten, jailed, on trial, and finally shipwrecked on the way to Rome. In Rome under house arrest is where the Book of Acts leaves him, although church tradition adds a fourth missionary journey to Spain.

As Paul was preparing to head to Rome, he sent on ahead of him a letter of introduction. He had a reputation in the church as a trouble maker, and so the letter needed to be balanced and reassuring. So he took the major themes of his angry letter to the Galatians, deleted all the exasperation, and presented a sweeping testimony to the universal grace of God. He was saying: this is the God I will be proclaiming to you when I get there.

In this letter to the Romans Paul argues that we have all sinned. God has shown everybody in his or her own cultural context the basic difference between right and wrong. And everybody down through history to be beginning of time has gone astray.

We are saved through faith. Long before there was a Moses with his laws on Mt. Sinai, there was an Abraham who “believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” The law was like the Cliff Notes of spirituality. It was the outline. It was Spirituality for Dummies. So don’t try to be children of Moses and just keep the law. Try to be children of Abraham and keep the faith.

But along the way of trying to be faithful, push comes to shove. Things don’t work out the way they were planned. Bad things happen to good people. Good people mess up.

But God has made the world so that it yearns for reconciliation, and God’s Spirit within us constantly is as close as our very breath, even forming our prayers when we are at a loss for words. So “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him who are called according to his purpose….If God is for us, who is against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So instead of making sacrifices in a temple, Paul appealed to them “by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Along the way of being an apostle, Paul became a saint. I’m not saying that because the church named him as a saint. I’m not saying that because miracles were ascribed to him on some score card. The church doesn’t get to say who is a saint. God says who is a saint. The church just gets to say thank you.

Along the way of bringing this message, Paul began to embody the message. It’s no use trying to bring the message if it’s just a piece of information. Information is in the head and in the mouth. The real message of the love of God through Jesus Christ has got to be in your heart and in your blood and in your bones. It gets to the mind and the mouth later. (And by the way, if any of us have trouble getting the message to our mouth---sharing the faith and inviting others---perhaps we need to look for it first in our hearts: if it’s in our hearts, it will make its way to our lips.)

We see how Paul embodied the faith, not only by his perils, but by the tender greetings he sends to his congregations. (The eighty percent/twenty percent rule was in effect back then, too.) Twenty percent of the congregation does eighty percent of the work and the giving; eighty percent of the congregation does the other twenty percent of the work and the giving. So if Paul sends special greetings to about six people per letter, you might guess that there are about 30 in the congregation.

How Paul loved those folks! There is a lot I don’t understand about Paul, but I understand that. Because he knew and I know that somewhere along the way of balancing the ancient budget and publishing the ancient newsletter, and putting on the ancient church dinner, these folks were also transforming their lives. They were living, not to fit in to the weary structures of pagan culture, but living to be remolded in the image of Christ. That’s what made them patient. That’s what gave them strength. That’s where they found courage. So I can understand how Paul loved them so much because that’s what I see, too.

So they could turn their backs on the go along/get along incentives of Caesar. They could understand that there was a new world order emerging, not by conquering nations but by finding justice. They could believe that their enemies might be converted to friends. They could believe that, with God, all things were possible.

In the ancient world there were hundreds of Priscillas, but just one was greeted by Paul. There were thousands of Crispuses, but just one written in the Bible. There were thousands of Rufuses, but we know about just one. Just think: to have your name (your name) in the book.

The early church used to talk about a book called the Book of Life, where the names of the faithful were written. It was an imaginary book but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that our names get written there. And that is not an act of our imagination; it’s an act of God’s grace in response to our commitment.

Periodically we publish a new church directory: names, addresses, phone, e-mail. It’s very helpful. I’m glad my name is written there. But the early church imagined a directory that wasn’t written by human hands. That’s the ultimate church directory, and I really want my name written there!

Friends, we could do good deeds around the clock and that wouldn’t get our names written there. We could give all sorts of money and that wouldn’t get our names written there. But when we conform our inner life and our outer actions, the book starts to open. When we let compassion become not just a momentary feeling but a daily agenda, the ink starts to flow. When we understand that the weak and the weary, the least and the lost, are our brothers and sisters and we stand with them as family, the ink is on the page and the page is turned.

Today reminds us to get our names written there. There are lots of pages. There is plenty of room. God has an infinite supply of ink. And God’s hand never gets too tired to write. Get your name written there. Get your name written there. Follow Paul and get your name written there.