Dare to Be Wisdom: Part II
St. Paul
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
If I am to accept a challenge, something must call me out of myself. A challenge or dare is an invitation to go beyond my usual limits. This means that I must find untapped reserves within myself to meet it. How then can I attempt to be Jesus Wisdom today?
The Reality of Christ
The challenge offered to the life of faith is to allow myself to be transfigured by what I see of God giving himself to me in Christ. In so far as Christ is real to me, there is an inescapable challenge to live no longer for myself but for him (cf. 2 Cor. 5). My innate self-centeredness can give way to the wonder of God giving himself to me in Christ, as I realize that in the gift of Christ, I have received everything from God (cf. Rom. 8).
St. Paul, whose outlook this is, having lost his family, status in his Jewish community, career prospects and present and future security, in exchange for the life of a travelling preacher of Christ, found himself in prison. Far from allowing these circumstances come between him and Christ, Paul reflects that “for (Jesus’) sake I have suffered the loss of everything in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phils. 3). He finds himself in prison but knows that he is found in Christ. There lies Paul’s identity. He is in Christ.
Slave of Christ
So real is this to Paul, that when formally writing to people he had not met, he introduces himself as, “Paul, slave of Christ Jesus…” (Rom. 1). This is who he is. Similarly writing from prison, he begins, “Paul and Timothy slaves of Christ Jesus . . .” (Phils. 1). He is wholly Christ’s taking his identity from his risen Lord, not from where he is or what he does.
From this perspective Paul views the world about him-“For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4). As God gives himself totally in Christ, Paul gives himself utterly in response. This is what Christian evangelism means.
A New Creation
The coming of Christ into Paul’s life he can compare only to the wonder of the creation of light; “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts…” (2 Cor. 4). Such is the wonder reflected by this life that really he does see Christ. Life comes to him on good days and bad, reflecting, “the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4). He is transfigured, taken out of himself. Essentially, ‘glory’ means what God is like. This Paul sees in Christ and is overwhelmed.
This then is the treasure Paul has found in faith. It is a delight to be known and loved by Christ, invigorating as he is able to “walk in newness of life . . . dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6). He feels truly alive, radically reborn; “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation all this is from God” (2 Cor. 5). The wonder of the realization of God loving him in Christ fills his horizon and his being; “The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect . . .” (2 Cor. 5).
Painting: Sermon on the Mount: Carl Bloch (1834 -1890)
This is the second in the series: Dare to Be Wisdom. The first article may be found here.
The challenge offered to the life of faith is to allow myself to be transfigured by what I see of God giving himself to me in Christ. In so far as Christ is real to me, there is an inescapable challenge to live no longer for myself but for him
Fragile Vessels
Paul’s feet never leave the ground, although his faith takes him deep into the unfathomable riches of Christ. He treasures his faith and the
insight it brings him, but ”We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Cor. 4). Much of Paul’s appeal is in the practical way he relates the overarching wonder of the love of God in Christ to everyday life – the fragile vessel in which this vision of faith is carried.
So, for example, he says; “We are in difficulties on all sides, but not crushed; we see no solution to our problems, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed . . .” ( 2 Cor . 4). This is human experience in every time and culture. Paul copes while many do not.
Earlier in the same letter he spoke of a time when, “We were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself . . .” (2 Cor. 1)—which is rock bottom in anyone’s experience. He held on in faith by his fingertips, as he felt that the experience was meant, “to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1). Paul survived believing that the heart of Christian reality is that in every circumstance, not excluding death itself, God in Christ came through a grave to be there with him.
Paul knew from experience that this world can crucify. Within that situation, however, he knows himself to be with his risen Lord. Even if “I
have been crucified with Christ”—it is with Christ—“it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me . . .” (Gal. 2 ). Gradually, he becomes like what he sees in Christ. The undercurrent of Christian reality from which he faces each day is, “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2).
The Wise
Paul, through the insight of faith, sees the glory of God in the face of Christ. This is as real and as wonderful an experience as the creation
of light. Not all are so blessed. He tried to introduce to the Jews, for example, a Saviour who recently had been crucified on a rubbish tip outside Jerusalem! To pagan people he tried to show that same person, Jesus, as the key to reality since He rose from the grave!
What he offers to today’s world is that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. To those blessed to see this-“To those who
are called, both Jews and Greeks . . . ,” what we see is “Christ crucified … Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Cor. 1). It is, he believes, a secret and hidden wisdom for the mature, given through the gift of the Spirit.
“The Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God,” and Paul adds with an insight which might send a shiver down the spine, “. ..Now we have received the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God” (1 Cor. 2). The Spirit from the depths of God . . . how sound those? . . . to the depths within myself and my community! Only by such a gift and presence do I see with the insight of faith. If I am fortunate enough to be willing to accept the challenge to dare to be Jesus Wisdom today, this is where I begin in wonder.
J .B. Phillips telling of the impact translating the New Testament made on him, noted Paul saying to his people in Corinth; “Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you ” (1 Cor. 6). He came to realize the astonishing power of what he was translating, as the Gospel had the power to radically change people like that. “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” ( 1 Cor. 6 ). It may do as much for me, if I dare to be Jesus Wisdom today.
