WWPD ---What Would Paul Do?

The catch-phrase WWJD (what would Jesus do... in this instance of my life) is a portable and painless way to challenge yourself to consider options before you; of how to respond, or how to take initiative in some matter. The effect is to make you more mindful and deliberate; purposeful in your daily and longer scale living, speaking, thinking and aspiring. After all, the key message of Love your God; Love your neighbor as yourself and the example of Turn the Other Cheek are good ways to reflect back on ourselves.

But reading and discussing 1 and 2 Corinthians the past few weeks, it occurred to me today that all the firm but caring advice that Paul writes to the fledgling congregation(s) at the city of Corinth could also be a useful check on one's own personal and congregational life. His key message comes up in various ways again and again: it stems from his experience of being a high level religious functionary who was thrown off his donkey and blinded on the road to Damascus. He dwells on righteousness and reconciling oneself to conform with the Lord's will; realigning oneself to be true and in tune with The One. Paul also has detailed observations and correctives on matters of interpersonal relationships, order of service, manner of praying and so on. So taken as a summary, WWPD is a quick way to reflect on the workings of one's own congregations and of one's personal path.

FCC Men’s Bible Study –September 18, 2012

1 Q. What to focus one’s direction and intention upon. Master message is “Love God and seek after Him with all your heart; love your neighbor as yourself,” but there are so many other things highlighted in NT as important messages and guidelines, too.

A. The foundation for all other thinking and feeling and action is Fear God in the sense of awe and glory and belonging. Based on that heartfelt grasp then the rest falls into place.

2 Q. Perhaps the weekly gathering and wrestling (literal meaning of ‘Israel’ is L god + Isra wrestling) with the Bible lines *is* the destination we strive for; in other words, we have already “arrived” at the place where we are aiming for.

A. The relationship to the collective Body of Christ, his hands and feet in the world is a living and ongoing one, rather than something to enter into and check off as “git ‘er done.” So you never actually arrive at a complete and full understanding of God’s Will. Instead you keep your ears and eyes open, actively seeking and reflecting and acting. On one hand you seek answers and guidance. On the other hand you make some conclusions and decisions (a working, “draft” comprehension of the whole matter of relating and growing the connection to God and his children). This cycle of looking for answers, but then having some (temporary) answers is exactly what the Tuesday bible study circle allows: asking and answering, then coming back the next week to do the wrestling again. As such, this perpetual state of seeking and (temporary) knowing *is* the living and pulsing condition that is optimal; it *is* what a person who actively cultivates a relationship does.

3 Q. Facing God with a “fearful” heart (awe, joy, glory) is the core that all else follows from: Love, relationship, drawing near, mercy, and so on. So how can we understand God’s enduring love for his children, but also his OT vengeful impassioned fear that He causes in us?

A. This open-ended, ambivalent condition *is* the basis for a living God that cannot be defined or stuffed into a simple box of our own minds. At the same time we unconditionally love him but we hesitate from anxiety about his power. We know him but we can never encompass him. He is here now personally in and of us, but also he is every place and every time. None of this fits into mortal logic and words, but it is God and is alive and in motion, never to be pinned down or confined with tidy labeling. This God is not tamed, but instead is wild.

4 Q. How are intention, words and deeds connected in someone who is tuned into God’s will?

A. We fulfill the intention/awareness by trusting in the authority granted by God to do his work. Faith without works is an incomplete expression of one’s live relationship with God. We consummate the interaction by deeds. However “clanging like a gong” for going through the motions of a good deed, but without one’s heart in it fails, too. Serving others by giving one’s time, talent, money and so on must also include presence of heart and mind, too. Empty words and empty deeds are just that; absent of value.

5 Q. What is the difference between a beginner and a person long practiced in wrestling with the Word of God? After all, both hear the same text and neither can expect to comprehend the meaning in total.

A. Much like the person deeply invested in a hobby or a person who has traveled the path the most often, so too the person who returns again and again to the Word of God. She or he has a wider base of experience and examples to incorporate. The big picture is ever more complete in a finer and finer gradation, and the boundaries are ever wider. The result is the wise person now has such a broad canvas and so many subtle color shadings that the picture is increasingly detailed and vivid. What once were shadowy outlines now are well defined. What once seemed frozen in time now can be seen processually as something that began modestly and grew and grew, but which will once day be discarded and of little absolute or eternal value. In summary, the mind of experience can see the many parts and how they work across time to form the whole. Neither the beginner nor the old-timer can take their worldly accumulations or their intellectual gains with them when they die. But to strive to know God better and better still is worth the effort, because the person of experience produces a better vision to guide personal and group decisions and ongoing governance.

6 Q. We live in a pagan [possibly god-fearing, possibly god-denying, possibly god-agnostic] world and share the minority status of persecution from public acknowledgement and respect in a small way that the early Christians did; not to the point of being fodder for the lions and amusement for the worldly power-holders, but yes in the sense of losing the best seat at the table and being dismissed to the periphery of the feast of life. How to respond to this challenge of our time?

A. This is an open question but includes responses such as the Emerging Church movement of the past 20-30 years: getting back to basics, simplifying the clutter and prerequisites in order to satisfy the more important message and functions of worshiping together. Clues might come from other persecuted groups in this society: African-Americans/civil rights, Suffragettes (women’s rights), Religious communities (Mormons, Shakers/Quakers), Gay rights people, ADA-disabled people and so on. Now it is Christians who need to “come out of the closest” and publicly declare with pride and self-worth who they are.

why revisit the Bible; why seek truths in sermon?

Weekly men's bible study prompted this question:

The message is so simple (Love God; Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself). But no matter how many times we 'study' the Bible, it seems that we never figure it out, as we might expect of other books, whether novels or non-fiction. So perhaps "study" is the wrong way to consider the repeated Bible Study experiences. And perhaps the form of binding into book form and chapter organization misleads us to consider what is found there to resemble other books that we have known. Instead the revisiting of the stories, teachings, examples, parables and so forth is more akin to a living relationship: what you bring to it across the life course will alter the relationship and what you are capable of seeings/knowing and what is hidden from plain sight. In sum, getting to know the Bible and the path is lays to God is like that old image of The Vine: as long as you are attached in this relationship you will live/thrive. But when cut off then you whither and die.

Caution when opening a Bible:


For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the reflections and thoughts of the heart. (Heb 4:12 LEB).

[taken from preface, http://lexhamenglishbible.com/preface/ ]

...the reader should remember that any Bible translation, to be useful to the person using it, must actually be read. We encourage every user of the LEB, whether reading it alongside the original languages text or not, to remember that once we understand the meaning of a biblical text we are responsible to apply it first in our own lives, and then to share it with those around us.