Monday 25 January 2016

Psalm: Psalm 139

Background

The main point Paul (the writer of the letter to the Galatians)is making in this bit of personal history arises from the unusualnature of his apostleship. Paul never encountered Jesus during hisministry, unlike Peter (Cephas) and James whom he mentions inverses 18 and 19. And so questions arose about the authority bywhich he preached and taught about Jesus - when compared with thosewho had actually known him.

Paul wants to show that his own gospel proclamation derives fromJesus, rather than some human source to whom his hearers mightappeal 'over his head' for a more accurate version.

This might all look rather pushy of Paul. But the nature of hisencounter with the risen Jesus means that it's in fact just theopposite.

There's uncertainty about just where exactly Paul means by'Arabia'. But the New Testament scholar N T Wright has suggestedthat, like Elijah before him, Paul travelled to Horeb, the mountainof God, at Sinai - like Elijah before him.

Elijah was a humiliated prophet. His zeal for the Lord againstthe prophets of Baal was thwarted by Ahab and Jezebel and he ranaway to Mount Horeb, apparently to resign his prophetic commission.There, he was sent off in a wholly new direction by a 'still, smallvoice' (1 Kings 18-19).

Paul, the zealous persecutor of Christians, thought he was doingthe will of God. But he had his whole sense of religious meaningand purpose dismantled in encounter with the risen Christ. LikePeter before him, his calling and ministry begin in failure and awrong turn - and a new beginning.

Any 'authority' Paul claims is based not on his personalcredentials or abilities, but in a shattering encounter with Christwhich dismantled all his certainties about himself and about God'snature. What Paul made of this experience, as he absorbed it inArabia, shaped a new life and a new calling centred on the sheergratuity of God's mercy and grace - shown first to him by the onehe encountered on the Damascus road.

To Ponder

• What part have failure or wrong turns played in your owndiscipleship?

• How do you react to failure and weakness in others?