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I still remember the first edition of Luke Timothy Johnson's The Writings of the New Testament forty years ago. It is still in print in its 2010 third revision. From there his commentaries on Luke-Acts, Hebrews, James, and a wide range of other publications on New Testament background, theology, religious experience, and hermeneutics have continued to flow. But now we have a two volume magnum opus on the Apostle Paul, the first volume published in May 2020.   

Constructing Paul vol 1 by Luke Timothy Johnson is readable scholarship, authoritative and persuasive, independent in its conclusions, and is a constructive account of Paul's life, social context, cultural environment, and relations with the churches with which he corresponded. Johnson does two things that make this book an important contribution. First, he uses all the canonical letters attributed to Paul in the New Testament. His defence of this approach is based on his deconstruction of the critical consensus that there are only seven "undisputed letters". Johnson insists that using the thirteen letters provides a much more rounded picture of what he calls the canonical Paul. I have always been hesitant about the confidence with which Pauline authorship of certain letters has been dismissed; I found Johnson's reasoned rebuttal persuasive in itself, and more so when the results are then set out in a way that allows for the complexities and ambiguities of Paul's personality and compound identities as Jew, Greco Roman, apostle and controversialist.

In addition to using the entire canonical corpus of Paul's letters, Johnson gives decisive weight and substance to the New Testament accounts of Paul's personal experience of Christ. Johnson is known for considering religious experience an essential body of evidence in constructing a credible account of Paul's life, the lives of the earliest Christian communities, and indeed for understanding the faith and practices of contemporary Christians. Paul's encounter with Christ, his experience of life in the Spirit, and the reconfiguration of his worldview, created for Paul a radically new understanding of God's purpose for Israel, the Gentiles and the new mission of the communities formed by faith in Christ. But that radical newness was not seen by him  as a final discontinuity, but a fulfilling of God's purposes through Messiah Jesus. While Johnson has long insisted that the religious experience of believers is relevant data in trying to understand the historical, social, cultural and ecclesial context of those early Christian communities, it is in this book that he pursues that line of investigation in constructing Paul. The result is a tour de force, readable, persuasive, and for me, convincing in its portrait of Paul.

The one time famous Methodist preacher, W E Sangster, once advised someone who was struggling with ill health, family problems and money worries, to “take time to enjoy the Sabbath moments of the soul.” Now I have to be honest, if I was crumbling under the weight of so many difficulties, I’m not sure I’d even recognise “a Sabbath moment of the soul”!

But Sangster was a wise pastor, a man who experienced fragile health himself, and wrote some of his books to supplement a very low stipend. He knew the depths of depression and the long climb upwards. So his advice is worth hearing. Ever since I read that advice in the biography written by his son, I’ve tried to do what this experienced spiritual guide advised.

Last Tuesday I stood at my study window watching five geese in line, heading for Loch Skene. For the first time ever, I noticed they took turns gliding for a few wing beats, pulled along by the others. Like a well-oiled machine, they each took a few moments respite, then resumed the hard work. They were out of sight in thirty seconds, but my inner grin lasted longer!

The Sabbath moments of the soul are those brief glimpses we all have of unexpected wonder, unlooked for surprise, being ambushed by beauty. “Consider the lilies…” “Look at the birds of the air…” “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills…” Sangster taught me to look for joy, to pay attention to what’s going on, to hold life carefully as the precious gift it is, to notice when God is nudging us awake to blessing.

Even when life turns darker, and we know the deeper valleys where the sun is hard to see behind looming horizons, God is there, and blessing is to be found. Not the answers to all that we need or want; and not easy ways out of hard places. But those small signals of hope, those touches of goodness and unlooked for moments when kindness, comfort or laughter come as gifts.

The life of faith isn’t a life immune to the hard knocks of life. We all bear the consequences of our humanity. We experience suffering and illness in ourselves and those we love, and there are bereavements and losses. We have times of mental ill-health, or difficult work or family circumstances. And then, this past year and more, we have lived with the grinding realities of a pandemic. Covid 19 has so disrupted our lives with restrictions, losses and anxieties, that it has been hard at times to keep going, stay hopeful and do much more than pass time, till life gets better.

Recovery from the pandemic will take a long time, and will mean large scale investments of energy, money, skills, new knowledge and commitment to the common good. But at the individual level, as we live through these next months, take time to enjoy the Sabbath moments of the soul. Live in the moment God gives you. And perhaps like the five geese, we will enable each other to take a rest and be carried for a while. Look for joy, pay attention to what’s going on, hold life carefully as the precious gift it is, notice when God is nudging you awake to blessing.

Who knows what church will look like in another year, and where we will have reached on our shared journey? But in our travelling together, be sure of this. God is with us. And in the thick mixture of our lives, if we look daringly and trustfully, there are clues to God’s presence. Often those clues will come in the unexpected moment, as for example, when five geese fly past, heading home. Let us learn together to live gratefully, and enjoy the Sabbath moments of the soul.

Every couple of months I meet with a group of friends online to talk about a book we have chosen to read and discuss together. Forget the book! It’s the meeting, the seeing of faces, the interactions of laughter and shared concerns, the small talk and the deep talk that matter most. We are a group of friends who have stayed in conversation for much of our lives since we came into ministry. We are either retired, or pushing in that direction.

But the important thing is that we have stayed together in our friendship, and accompanied each other through the varied experiences of our lives. We all have connections with the Scottish Baptist College. We are collegiate. That gave us our group name, The Eejits. We are now pretty scattered, one in Nova Scotia, one in Alabama, and the rest of us from different parts of Scotland. But we are there for each other, and there are deep ties of affection, commitment and shared life experiences going back decades.

I mention this because we’ve just had a Zoom meeting, with the usual laughter, banter, serious discussion, and asking after each other. Contrast that with the experience of many folk in our communities, maybe including some of ourselves. On Wednesday loneliness made headline news. The most recent report about how the Covid crisis has affected people in Scotland identifies loneliness as a widespread experience. Indeed one reporter described the results as pointing to “an epidemic of social loneliness”

 Around 27 percent of our young people report that feelings of isolation, loneliness and lack of social contact, are having an effect on their mental health and emotional wellbeing. Amongst those over 55 years, 71 per cent have struggled with lock down and the prolonged restrictions on social mixing with friends, family and the wider community. It isn’t hard to imagine the sadness and emotional struggles of folk who need to see familiar faces, hear friendly voices, and be in supportive company where they know they matter.

Whatever else the church is, it is a place where loneliness is acknowledged and friendship is offered, to everyone. Christian community is about welcome, belonging, sharing, understanding, listening, laughing, reassuring, encouraging, valuing, and caring. We are called to embody and practice all of these, but the energy source and motivation is, and must be, the love of God.

When Paul wrote, “Hope doesn’t disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us”, (Rom. 5.5), he was telling the church where it could find the resources to be the loving Body of the compassionate Christ. “We love because God first loved us”; our love for others is the overflow of God’s love, channelled through our words, actions and relationships to others. Those early Christians, and just as much, you and I, “Once we were no people, but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy but now we have received mercy.” (I Peter 2.10) And so, having freely received, we are called to open our hearts and freely give.  

It’s hard to know how and when this pandemic will be over. But however that comes about, here is a cry of the heart from all around us. In a lonely society, we Christians can be conduits of friendship, a community where love and compassion flow freely. We are God’s people, a community of the Gospel, a place of welcome, a safe place in a world that feels unsafe and uncertain. I can think of few more important acts of mission and Good News sharing, than us becoming a befriending community reaching out with the welcome of God to people brave enough to admit they are lonely,

Joy. That’s the word to think about over the Easter weekend and into whatever the summer brings. Don’t take my word for it. Joy. It’s the gospel truth. Go and see for yourself. Luke’s Gospel starts and ends with it.

The angels told the shepherds and anyone else who later read Luke’s Gospel, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all the people.” Thirty three years later after the trauma of the crucifixion, and the shock of an empty tomb, the disciples were confronted by the risen Jesus. “Look”, said Jesus and showed them his hands and feet, unmistakably nail-marked, the wounds of crucified love. “And they disbelieved for joy.” The joy of good news, the birth of a baby who is God with us, and meeting the risen Jesus who is God with us!

Joy for the Christian is more than happiness, that inner effervescence that bubbles up in laughter, good feelings and celebration. Oh, it is all these, but it has a deeper source and more enduring impact. Christ is risen! Death is overcome! Love has won! Because of Jesus’ resurrection life erupts in hope, and light radiates from the darkest of human experiences.

This past year we haven’t done a lot of rejoicing. It has been difficult enough just to get through each day, week, month, with much of what brings joy into our lives either closed down, restricted or unable to be shared with others. Christian joy is not some superficial denial of how hard life can sometimes be. But for us as Christians the resurrection is the anchor truth of faith, hope, love and peace.

The joy of the resurrection comes to us when we look with as much honesty as we can on life in all its brokenness. The cross helps us to do that. Our Saviour bore in his own body, heart, mind and soul the full weight of sin, evil and a broken creation: hate, violence, lies, betrayal, cruelty, all the dark forces that together inflict suffering on human lives and insinuate themselves into human cultures, societies and systems.

The world did its worst, and God acted for the best. The resurrection is God’s victory over all that breaks human hearts, destroys our hopes, wastes every joy, and dares defy the Eternal Love whose response is the sacrifice of God’s own Son. No wonder Easter is about joy!

The last two verses of Luke’s Gospel show that the great joy of the Saviour’s birth where the story began, had come full circle in the mighty purposes of God. The bleak sorrow of the Saviour’s death where it looked like the story ended, was eclipsed by the rising of the sun, and the rising of the Son. “Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ( Luke: 24.52)      

Such joy has a permanence happiness can never have. Such joy depends not on our life circumstances, but on the pivotal circumstance of that historic moment when the tomb became redundant, and Jesus burst the powers of death by being raised in the power of the God of life, love, hope and peace. Jesus is risen!

Of course we still have the everyday struggles of trying to make our lives work. We still go through situations of bereavement and grief, illness and weakness, anxiety and depression. But Jesus is risen!

This past year’s losses and sorrows, the tedium and the loneliness, the restricted freedoms and uncertain future, are not going to disappear. We remain in the grip of a pandemic and the world still seems unsafe, uncertain and often either afraid or defiant. But. Remember Luke’s bracketed occasions of joy. This is still a world in which Christ was born in joy, and God made himself known; a world where Christ died for the sins of the whole world; and a world in which resurrection has happened, to the rejoicing of heaven and joy to the world.

Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ has risen! Hallelujah.

Joy is to know in mind and heart that we are held in the eternal love of God in Christ.

Joy is to know our sin forgiven, and our hearts reconciled and at peace with God.

Joy is when our life is given purpose, direction and meaning in worship and service to the God who calls us in Christ.

Joy is trusting the guidance and gifting of the Holy Spirit, and the grace sufficient.

Joy is to pray as God’s children, to the one we call Father, in the name of our Saviour, in the power of the Spirit.

Joy is the environment of heaven, and we are citizens of heaven on earth.

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.”

1 Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fulness over me:
underneath me, all around me,
is the current of his love,
leading onward, leading homeward,
to my glorious rest above.

2 Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread his love from shore to shore:
how he loves us, ever loves us,
changes never, nevermore,
watches over all his loved ones,
whom he died to call his own,
ever for them interceding
at his heavenly Father's throne.

3 Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Love of every love the best:
vast the ocean of his blessing,
sweet the haven of his rest!
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
very heaven of heavens to me,
and it lifts me up to glory,
evermore his face to see.

Here is a particularly powerful version of this hymn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLTu1xv2-Us

God of grace, when life was in crisis and too much was being asked of him, you said into the heart and mind of your servant Paul, “my grace is sufficient.”

So we pray for ourselves, in the difficulties and disappointments we have to go through, may we be given strength for each day, the resilience that comes from your Spirit, and the grace that is sufficient.

God of peace, when your servant Paul was imprisoned, isolated and struggling to find meaning in his work, he discovered and bore testimony to a peace that passes all understanding standing guard over heart and mind.

So we pray for ourselves as during this past year we too have felt imprisoned, isolated, and struggling. As each day we experience anxiety, and feel the frustrations of restriction, and are desperate for life to come back to something more satisfying and less stressed, may our hearts and minds be fortified by your peace that passes all understanding.

God of hope, writing to the Christians in Rome near the end of his life, your servant Paul prayed, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy in believing as you trust in Him.”

So we pray that we too will experience a resurgence of hope in our imagination, a return of joy to our hearts, and a new trust and hopefulness about this life we are living.

God of grace, peace and hope, bless us now with your presence throughout this day, and into whatever future lies before us.    Amen

Pastoral Letter written to the folk at Montrose Baptist Church, Scotland. 

………………….

What do you write at the start of an email, or letter? If you’re being formal then probably Dear James, then if feeling casual there’s Hello, and most often in emails I receive, Hi Jim! It wouldn’t occur to me to start one of these Pastoral letters with “Hi!” So I write the courteous, “Dear Friends”, intended to be friendly but respectful; what my mother might have called knowing my place!

Likewise, the best letter writer in the New Testament didn’t begin any of his letters with “Hi Galatians” or “Hey Romans.” Instead he invariably used a word that connected immediately with those who would read his first words. It went something like this: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1.7)

Early in any letter or conversation Paul wanted to find ground where every Christian can stand: Grace. In the middle of the long arguments of his letter to the Romans he wrote:

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.(Romans 5.1-2)

There it is again, peace and grace close together. But that word grace is such a multi-purpose blessing word for Christians. From the same word root comes gift and joy. So when we speak of the grace of God we are talking about something deep and central to our experience of God in Christ. God’s gift is the joy of salvation, the outpouring and overflowing of God’s love in our hearts. What elsewhere Paul calls the “unsearchable riches of Christ”

“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8.9)

I mention all this because this past year hasn’t felt rich, or joyous, or peaceful. Most of the time it has felt impoverished, sad and anxious. It’s the year the plug was pulled from most of what energises and renews us. Which is why it might help us to hear again the prayer blessing of Paul, as if it is being said to us. And indeed, through the power of the Holy Spirit taking God’s word and applying it to our hearts, that’s exactly what happens.

So listen carefully to God’s blessing spoken now, into your life, wherever you are and however you are: “Grace to you, and peace from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When life has lost its colour against the background greyness of every day being the same, grace to you, and peace.

When you are sorrowing and struggling to move forward because of loss and bereavement, grace to you, and peace.

When you are anxious for yourself, worried for those you love, troubled by problems beyond your solving, grace to you, and peace.

When concerned about the demands of working from home, or working as a key worker, or about whether or not you will have a job at the end of all this, grace to you, and peace.

When it’s difficult to pray, and hard to look forward with hope; when each day is a struggle to be motivated and get things done, grace to you and peace.

When you grieve the losses of this past year – contact with family, the company of friends, going to the places you enjoy and meeting the people who tell you who you are and what your life’s about, in all that deficit of not having other people in your life, grace to you and peace.

Grace is the touch of God energising us, and telling us we are loved; peace is the presence of God enfolding and upholding us. Grace is the inpouring of God’s love to a broken world and into broken hearts; peace is most clearly seen in the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ embracing, forgiving and reconciling rebel hearts.

Whatever lessons we are learning through this pandemic, like Paul we come back to the beating heart of the Gospel. “By grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God”. From that grace we know the peace of God which passes all understanding and keeps our minds and hearts in the knowledge and love of God. Whatever else happens in our lives, this stays the same; grace to you, and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.