Wednesday, August 3, 2011

There is this story in the book of Acts (19:1-10) where Paul is passing through Ephesus and he stumbles upon some disciples (appropriately numbering 12). I hope that there is more dialogue than what is being recorded, because Paul in his typical anti-foreplay kind of way just jumps right into the conversation and relationship with all sorts of rudeness and presumptuousness. Having met these disciples, he asks them if when they were became believers if they received the Holy Spirit. They said no. And Paul, all concerned inquires into what they were baptized and they said the baptism of John--which is one of repentance. So, Paul remedies the situation and rebaptizes them.

It's these kinds of stories that frustrate me with Paul. I admit that my issues with Paul really stem from the way that the church has used Paul's writings over the centuries as a way of drawing lines and I wonder if Paul had known how his words would be used if he would have chosen different ones. Maybe, he would have been even less yielding. Who knows. But I tend to lean away from Paul when he is up because of this. Not completely fair. I realize.

Besides pointing to the fact that Paul re-baptized someone (the methodist in me cringed), this episode points us to an awareness that the Gospel as we know it and as we practice it is not the only legitimate form. The disciples that Paul met that day were clearly living like followers of Jesus; they had gotten the message and believed. They had a less complete (though not wrong) understanding of one element of The Way. After the resurrection and ascension, the apostles went out and told the story of Jesus and just like the Gospels, they had different understandings of what happened and interpreted the events differently. Sometimes big differences, sometimes very small.

But in this episode, Paul wants to correct and make these other disciples more like the way that he understands. I don't blame him; we all do that. We correct seen fallacies.

However, I like to think that the Gospel is bigger than we than we make it out to be. It is bigger than one understanding.  And so the struggle is how to be open to more than one way of understanding; how not to come across as judgmental or condescending. How do we try to make others not in our image?

1 comment:

  1. While I have great respect for Paul and find him to be a source of great strength in my own life, I respect your insight. The gospel IS "bigger that we make it out to be." But faith seeks understanding and while we go about believing we must leave ourselves open to encounters with the Holy and Other. You know, Paul was just such an encounter for the folks you mention. They were open to him; your question I think is, was Paul open to them? Thanks for sharing, Tara.

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