2K Paul -- FPC sermon excerpt
Need an excuse to throw a party?
Harry Potter’s birthday was July 31, and fans celebrated with wizard-themed parties involving costumes and games. National Friendship Day was August 3 — that’s an often overlooked holiday, established by Congress in 1935. In her book Domestic Bliss, Rita Konig suggests that you throw a party for the first day of autumn on September 22.
But what about right now, in the middle of the dog days of summer?
How about the Jubilee of Saint Paul?
Woo-hoo! Par-tay!
Q: Do you know why Paul told Timothy to take just a little wine for the sake of his stomach?
A: Because it was Paul’s bottle.
2008 is the year of Paul’s Jubilee, a celebration of his birth 2000 years ago. Travel agencies are helping tourists reach the places where Paul preached the Gospel and established the first Christian communities: Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, and Rome. Vatican archeologists are excited about the possibility that they have found the sarcophagus of Paul under the main altar of St. Paul’s Basilica. Paul was killed in Rome in the middle of the first century, probably by losing his head, and this church was built three centuries later on the site of his burial.
Now, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a special jubilee year, inviting modern Christians to imitate Paul’s missionary energy and spirit of sacrifice. The pope wants the year to be ecumenical, since Paul himself was committed to the unity and harmony of all Christians. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free,” wrote Paul to the Galatians, “for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28).
Paul was not a party animal, but he knew how to gather people together.
So it’s good to remember this 2000-year-old man — call him “2K Paul” — although we don’t have to rush out and buy apostle-themed costumes. I’m not recommending a toga party. But a celebration is certainly in order, because Paul rocked the religious world like no one else on the first-century evangelistic scene. Second only to Jesus Christ himself, Paul shaped the Christian faith that we practice today.
Harry Potter’s birthday was July 31, and fans celebrated with wizard-themed parties involving costumes and games. National Friendship Day was August 3 — that’s an often overlooked holiday, established by Congress in 1935. In her book Domestic Bliss, Rita Konig suggests that you throw a party for the first day of autumn on September 22.
But what about right now, in the middle of the dog days of summer?
How about the Jubilee of Saint Paul?
Woo-hoo! Par-tay!
Q: Do you know why Paul told Timothy to take just a little wine for the sake of his stomach?
A: Because it was Paul’s bottle.
2008 is the year of Paul’s Jubilee, a celebration of his birth 2000 years ago. Travel agencies are helping tourists reach the places where Paul preached the Gospel and established the first Christian communities: Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, and Rome. Vatican archeologists are excited about the possibility that they have found the sarcophagus of Paul under the main altar of St. Paul’s Basilica. Paul was killed in Rome in the middle of the first century, probably by losing his head, and this church was built three centuries later on the site of his burial.
Now, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a special jubilee year, inviting modern Christians to imitate Paul’s missionary energy and spirit of sacrifice. The pope wants the year to be ecumenical, since Paul himself was committed to the unity and harmony of all Christians. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free,” wrote Paul to the Galatians, “for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28).
Paul was not a party animal, but he knew how to gather people together.
So it’s good to remember this 2000-year-old man — call him “2K Paul” — although we don’t have to rush out and buy apostle-themed costumes. I’m not recommending a toga party. But a celebration is certainly in order, because Paul rocked the religious world like no one else on the first-century evangelistic scene. Second only to Jesus Christ himself, Paul shaped the Christian faith that we practice today.
posted by Henry Brinton | 9:19 AM
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