Proper 5 / Pentecost 3 / Ordinary Time 10
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin....
-- Galatians 1:11
Paul was making the astounding claim that he had talked with Jesus after the crucifixion and in a place far removed from Jerusalem or Galilee. He was claiming that the message that he was delivering was not an interpretation but was a message told directly to him by the risen Christ, whom he admitted he had never met before the crucifixion.
This was a bold claim for the truth of the resurrection that seemed to violate the boundaries of what is possible. All of the theories that people have used to explain the resurrection within the limits of our earthly life fall apart if this claim is true. Here was a person who everyone agreed had died now speaking a new message to a person who had never met him while he was alive. It is a clear and unambiguous claim that life is not terminated by death.
This was also the basis upon which Paul claimed to be an apostle or one sent by Jesus. This claim led Paul to a radically new interpretation of what had happened in his own life. Paul was quite clear that God had set him apart even before he was born. Here is the intersection of eternity with time. God's purpose is neither determined, nor frustrated, by our behavior. Paul admitted that he was a persecutor of the church. He did this out of a zealous commitment to the faith of God's own people. But when God was ready to implement what God had already determined beforehand, the grace of God transformed his life. It began on the Damascus Road but apparently also required a trip to Arabia. It is not clear what happened in Arabia but only after that trip was Paul willing to talk with any of the original apostles. In this case, he talked to Peter and to James, Jesus' brother, another latecomer as a follower of Christ.
The faith that Paul proclaimed was not one among many philosophies of life but a truth that was shaped in eternity and entered time in a manner that transformed the direction of Christianity. What other truths of God are hidden in eternity awaiting God's timing for their revelation?
-- Galatians 1:11
Paul was making the astounding claim that he had talked with Jesus after the crucifixion and in a place far removed from Jerusalem or Galilee. He was claiming that the message that he was delivering was not an interpretation but was a message told directly to him by the risen Christ, whom he admitted he had never met before the crucifixion.
This was a bold claim for the truth of the resurrection that seemed to violate the boundaries of what is possible. All of the theories that people have used to explain the resurrection within the limits of our earthly life fall apart if this claim is true. Here was a person who everyone agreed had died now speaking a new message to a person who had never met him while he was alive. It is a clear and unambiguous claim that life is not terminated by death.
This was also the basis upon which Paul claimed to be an apostle or one sent by Jesus. This claim led Paul to a radically new interpretation of what had happened in his own life. Paul was quite clear that God had set him apart even before he was born. Here is the intersection of eternity with time. God's purpose is neither determined, nor frustrated, by our behavior. Paul admitted that he was a persecutor of the church. He did this out of a zealous commitment to the faith of God's own people. But when God was ready to implement what God had already determined beforehand, the grace of God transformed his life. It began on the Damascus Road but apparently also required a trip to Arabia. It is not clear what happened in Arabia but only after that trip was Paul willing to talk with any of the original apostles. In this case, he talked to Peter and to James, Jesus' brother, another latecomer as a follower of Christ.
The faith that Paul proclaimed was not one among many philosophies of life but a truth that was shaped in eternity and entered time in a manner that transformed the direction of Christianity. What other truths of God are hidden in eternity awaiting God's timing for their revelation?
