Revelation 7

I like how heaven is in-the-round in this vision. God’s throne in the centre. Concentric circles: 4 beasts, 24 elders.

Last chapter it morphed to an altar, covering the martyrs, who are given white robes and told to wait.

This chapter the vision morphs to the four corners of the earth as 144000 are sealed as pure from the tribes of Israel, and then it returns to the vision of the throne in the round to which is added a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language, and the heavenly host.

It reminded me of Numbers, where the Israelites walk in circles in the desert after the exodus. They also camped in concentric circles with God’s forgiveness and love, the holy of holies, the tabernacle, God’s presence in the centre. Grace moving out, through the high priests, the priests and the twelve tribes, out beyond them to all corners of the world.

The Bible has so many symmetrical narratives. After all, the Messiah/Jesus is at the centre of the meta story, a sort of arch that includes the prophets and the gospels.

And I remember being struck by Lamentations: five symmetrical chapters of pain around the surprise centrepiece “the steadfast love of the Lord never fails, it is new every morning”.

I read up a bit about the mysterious 144000 Israelites  who have God’s seal on them as pure. Many weird rabbit holes there. Some interpretations go quite well until they get to a later verse that specifies they are all virgins, a head scratcher that seems to floor both sensible and wacky interpreters alike.

My thoughts: they can’t not be there. Narrative symmetry requires closure for the chosen people. Imagine if the only reference to the Jews was the fake ones: the “synagogue of Satan” quote from the letter to Smyrna.

Maybe they are mentioned separately and first because that’s how it rolled out in the Bible story: first the Jews, then the gentiles.

The last chapter ended with the sixth seal opening, death destruction and judgement in the post-Revelation, post biblical era.

Now we are assured there is a plan for Jewish people and for gentiles to come out of the tribulation, either constantly or in a rapture event before it becomes an intense period of tribulation.

I think I recall other references in the scriptures to a mysterious special plan for the Jewish people. We don’t know the details, it’s shrouded.

Paul talks about something like that in Romans 11, eg v28 “As far as the gospel is concerned, they (Jewish people) are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs”

He goes on to say: “How unsearchable (God’s) judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out”

So I just think there’s some business to be finished. Its something we don’t fully understand, but the 12 tribes have to be there. Why virgins? Stumped!

But the big picture of this heaven-in-the-round is that no matter how bad and deserved judgement and hardship gets, God’s sacrificial love is at the centre of the universe reaching outwards to include you. All tribes, all nations. Accept it!

A week fragmented by my variable energy levels as I rapidly recover from my illness, but have moments of collapse after I push myself a bit too hard.

Emotionally, two things have got at me.

I did counselling on Monday along with Kelly but not also Daisy, yet.

In anticipation, it brought it all forward from an ever-present background, like grief, to the front of my consciousness, which made me despairing and sad.

Having done it, and made an appointment for the next session, it was satisfying. There is a process that will lead somewhere. It’s a pause in, after all, one of the four most important relationships in my life. But it’s moving forward. Time and structure to consider the nature of how it might continue, if it is to (pray it is!).

The other thing disturbing me is that time feels like it’s rapidly running out with my employer. Standards have fallen, it’s just a matter of when I leave, really. I questioned the shift cancellation rules last week, and their answers gave me no confidence that they aren’t ripping workers such as me off hundreds of dollars.

But I have anxiety because my backup plans either in support work or in other industries aren’t delivering an escape route fast enough. Kelly’s work is even more unstable than mine. We can’t make it on job search benefits alone, we’ve tried! And my anxiety about the whole thing makes it hard to just knuckle down and get on with it.

Great tribulations. I pray for the disabled people I support, it is hard to consider leaving them. I pray for family. Dispatches from New Zealand, where Rennie is holidaying are positive, may he be safe! Making moves to get Lewes on NDIS again.

Church is re-entering the scene, a good time to be reading Revelation as I plan the year ahead.

Revelation 1

Revelation! The last book, and one of the weirdest. I’m sort of excited. I’ve read it a few times personally and in groups, but this time it’s after emerging from a reasonably deep dive into the prophets. This book really draws together those threads for the time we are in now, and what will come next.

The first chapter puts the churches into a context of glorious spiritual significance. These little groups that, since the gospels, the whole of the new testament has been about.

It hasn’t been about the world as a whole as much as it’s been about these tiny communities.

The letter is to seven of them. But surely seven, the number of completion is no accident: it’s to all the church! My church!

Jesus walks among the seven churches, which are gold lampstands – sources of light – in this glorious vision. Jesus holds angels, one for each church, appearing as stars in his hand.

Jesus is glorious. John, the author “sees” this vision, but it’s a pile of superlatives that are beyond visualisation… Face shining like the sun, feet like bronze in a furnace, sword coming out of mouth, voice like rushing waters and snowy white hair. Very Ezekiel.

I always imagined Jesus quietly padding or even wafting among the churches. But when I heard Kanye West’s conception of Jesus’ walk last year, I was also taken with his concept of it being more of a stomping march. I’ll attach the song. It evokes immediacy and relentlessness and it’s a bit scary.

Regardless: Jesus is with us, angels are with us, we shine like glorious gold lampstands. We are a big deal! We matter to Jesus, intensely and moment by moment. We are the starting point and destination of this revelation.

I write this as I lie in bed at a friend’s house on a Sunday morning where I have nicked off church, having a bit of a break, lol.

But this letter, so far, is taking my focus away from my personal journey to the shared journey of my community.

It’s early in January 2023, and I’m synthesising thoughts for the new year. Everything is up for grabs really, things are afoot after a 2022 that has a lot of angst.

Stepping out, don’t know where I’m headed, but Jesus walks too.

James 4

“…Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

James 8-10

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Lots of echos of Jesus’ style of teaching in today’s chapter again. Simple ideas, but impactful.

It goes to the heart of why Christian lives, and Christian group activities are ineffective: failure to align with God.

I liked the two part process described in that quote I pulled out. Not only washing your hands of outright badness, but also purifying your mixed motives. The process of alignment with God.

That quote stuck out to me too because I initially rebelled against the command to grieve and stop laughing etc. I looked that one up and they said it was about giving due weight to repentance. Not a command to live in misery. After all James opened the letter saying to count their hardships as joy. It’s appropriately sad that our sinfulness means we miss opportunities to be a blessing to people.

It’s all part of humbling yourself before God, lamenting your selfishness.

I thought about how churches get too friendly with the world. Partly by losing their saltiness, being too keen to be popular. Pulling the spiritual punches when those are exactly the things that people can’t get anywhere else.

And also becoming like a company or a club, capable of operating essentially without god. Companies and clubs don’t need the holy spirit to work, they operate on human dynamics. Sometimes I fear that churches get so socially and financially sustainable that Gods spirit could leave and they would still roll on.

There is a warning about disputes and not judging each other that reminded me of a conversation with a woman I care for. She said she likes the things the priest said at her local church but she doesn’t go there any more because everyone is so successful and rich. The tone coming off a church can often be judgy.

The closing bit of the chapter echos Jesus’ story about the rich fool who counts their money all night, scheming about what it can buy, then dies in their sleep. Don’t boast about the future, James says.

At my stage in life what I think of as the tree change dilemma came to mind. This idea of exchanging your life for a lovelier one so often seems to leave out any community or priority of God. This desire to rush into a little heaven on earth, the fantasy of unconnectedness. It’s a tension between myself and Kelly that we have to resolve, because to survive mentally she really needs an escape plan. I don’t think it’s as simple as I’m on god’s side and she’s with the devil. Don’t I?

Any way much to mull over. Praying for family, especially Daisy. Launching into another week of care work, looking for patience and wisdom. Calming down my distress a little so I can focus energy on church stuff, and heeding all this advice.

Hebrews 5

Jesus is a great high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Sounds wonderfully ominous and pompous, as if he might be grand wizard of an exotic version of the local masonic Lodge.

How delightful then that the author explains that the good thing about priests is that they are just one of us, weak, tempted by sin, representing us before God almighty from a place of empathy, urging mercy on God’s part.

The order of Melchizedek is as much signalling Christ’s lack of credentials as his grandness. Usually priests had to be related to Aaron. Christ wasn’t, but neither was Melchizedek, who was a king who also acted in the priest role despite lacking the right bloodline. So Christ is that kind of priest, (and king).

The author of Hebrews will return to this idea in chapter 7 I believe.

But first he needs to do another grumpy tick off.

It’s a feature of Hebrews that the author seems to vacillate between extravagant articulations of God’s grace, mercy and love, and impatient bluntness about how the Hebrews aren’t good enough. The chapter ends with the author criticising them for being spiritual babies, still needing milk when they should be on solid food by now.

This makes it pretty perfect teaching for average churches today. How great it is to be in a place of solace, where you can lay all your burdens on Christ, confident of love and acceptance. But also a place of accountability, a community where there are expectations that you will challenge yourself to be a better person.

It’s a pretty helpful guide to being a support worker for disabled people, which is where I am at again after my comms job flamed out yet again.

You are there to give them dignity. To support, to lessen the impacts of their disability so that they get more equality of life choices, more life enjoyment. It’s a privileged role without the encumbrance of being medical. Not much of telling them that they should do this or should do that. Grace, empathy, acceptance.

And yet, particularly in the area of mental health, you are there to help them overcome challenges, stretch themselves, build those capacities, learn and reach goals that medical people have set for them.

So as a support worker I’m always walking the line of living in their area of chosen obedience. Not because they fear judgement, but because they are confident they are loved and accepted. They have a safe relationship where they can look at themselves and decide how they want to be a better person. Ideally, anyway. I’m a born enabler. The challenge/encouragement bit is what I find hardest.

“Let me be as Christ to you”. How deeply can I hold that in mind as I go about my support work.

Titus 3

It’s good to say things out loud. I had a happy day setting up a computer at church Easter Monday. It didn’t feel like an opportunity lost, because Kelly was working anyway.

We ended the day happily with a rare whole family cinema visit seeing a hilariously bonkers film: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

And having spilled my guts about doing too much at church, I had a good perspective on goals and objectives, a push for volunteers. I’m sitting there in church looking at new faces I haven’t met… draw them in, give them opportunities to help. My goal is to have nothing specific to do on a Sunday morning occasionally. Trust the community! It’s win-win.

The last chapter of Titus emphasises practical Christianity; kindness. Paul remembers the time everyone was hated and hated each other. He rejoices in a life lived in the confidence of eternal life, and the joy of productively increasing the world’s goodness and kindness.

It’s a simple vision. It’s one that’s run through all these letters, a very unassuming unflashy Christian life.

There’s scholars who argue that Timothy and Titus weren’t written by Paul, but it makes no difference. If I have doubts about Titus it’s whether it adds anything at all. The ideas are so familiar after 12 letters from Paul. For what it’s worth, I doubt some other hand years after Paul’s death would have written “do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there” and similar personal notes in Timothy.

Admittedly though, Paul seems a little perfunctory in this letter, it’s a bit as if he’s squeezing the content of the other letters into a telegram where he was paying by the word. In a few of the longer ones he refers to being caught up into heaven and having extraordinary revelations, and he articulates amazing theological ideas with the authority to match. It’s still solid stuff here, but less mind blowing.

It’s revealed to me a pretty important vision-correction though, so it’s done the trick!

BTW, I saw an interesting note in Wikipedia about Titus, that the “racist” quote in chapter one is a famous logical conundrum, the Epimenides paradox… “One of their philosophers said that all Cretans are liars… This is a true statement”. Well it can’t be 100% true or false, both possibilities cancel each other out. So Paul was being playful, it seems. Just when I was accusing the letter of lacking personality!

Titus 2

I’m in such a dry spot. Maybe it’s the “beach mission syndrome”.

Beach mission happens annually in the summer, it’s a Christian ministry whose name is self explanatory. I went for some years when I was younger.

The syndrome was that I noticed that every year I went it got harder, because I knew more and more what to do. If you’re the only person who knows how to set up the water things for the temporary kitchen, then you do it. Etc etc. You end up doing a disproportionate amount of the work.

I’m a bit that way at church. I do the online streaming, often play music, organise the music, count the money, help Kelly with decorating for special events, do parish council, the warden duties, go to homegroup, write minutes, help run the deadly warriors youth group. I’ve been going to scarred tree online gathering weekly, and monthly face to face one. I fix things, think about strategy, try to understand charity law, set up banking and I’m trying to get onto renovating the kids room.

When not at church I blog, I write songs. And watch a lot of TV. Now I also work 4 days a week.

I suppose it’s normal, humans can do a lot, we have amazing capacity. But I think I’m spreading myself a bit thin, I keep wanting to take some screws off but I can’t let go.

And it’s undermining my energy for ordinary Christian living. All this structured assistance is limiting the amount of ad hoc interaction I can have. Which, as Paul reminds me every time I dip in, is what it is all about. On some level it is loving to make sure the internet works in the church offices, but it may not feel that way to people you have no relationship with because you are too busy.

And as for my creator, it’s just God, God God God, Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus… So much repetition, it starts to be meaningless after a while. Even Easter, which we’ve just had, was a bit yadda yadda.

However I don’t think it’s a case of losing my religion, I really don’t. Maybe I just need a holiday?

This passage isn’t helping. On one reading, Paul wants everyone in Titus’ church to be boring. Self control, mildness, moderation, seriousness. He goes through every group in the church and urges them to be the same.

Older women, younger women, older men, younger men, slaves. Don’t upset society’s unequal relationships, be humble in them, reinvent them with love and joy of god’s grace. You can have alcohol, but not enough that it gets interesting. Always be sensible.

Boring!

My reactions are not correct of course. People with no self control are not “interesting” they are toxic. They suck the energy out of communities. What I’m calling boring is where wonder happens, the flow of respect and trust that allows the collaborative energy of humans to amplify and transform the world. God knows this about us. I’m just in a weird mood.

I’m making tentative efforts to do less, it helps no one if I burn myself out doing all this stuff that other volunteers would get fulfillment from doing. I love being hands-on, that’s part of my problem. I’m not good at getting stuff done through others. I have literally almost no language for telling people what to do. I fudge and stammer when it’s needed. I can hear myself doing it at work. But I can see it’s crucial that I change.

Trust the community. I called my song about 2 Kings “the secret of letting go”. God ordained this community. Self control extends to not making yourself a martyr. God’s got this, let go.

Actually maybe the passage is helping, just a bit.

Jesus lived one human life, and was criticized for taking it too easy a fair bit of the time. He had to trust his community because he knew he was leaving. That’s maybe the message of mortality. (While he was there though, he did pull his hair out about them).

1 Timothy 5

This chapter has the stuff I hoped would be in the letters to Timothy. A more intimate look into St Paul’s mind because it’s leader to leader, not to the whole church.

I think Paul’s practical leadership tips come from an understanding that, on a human level, churches can’t work. We pray “Father may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” knowing that we are by definition a group of people not up to that task. We are like a bunch of alchemists forever praying to make gold from lead. We’re calling on the magic of god’s spirit of course, and it had better be real, because it’s the only way it’s going to happen.

Paul will no doubt return to that key ingredient, but doesn’t mention the Spirit here. He packs this chapter with practical group psychology. It’s all about organising around Timothy’s weaknesses and everyone else’s. Some of it reads a bit strangely today, but it’s all very culturally specific so it’s not fair to read it too wokely.

They run a welfare safety net for older widows. It’s a scheme that displays the deep scriptural theology of the soul, of human value, in striking contrast to their harsh patriarchal Greek society. But Paul is aware that any welfare system is rife for exploitation, so there’s also a lot of knowing detail about that

Then there’s the delicate issue of Timothy, an unattached young man, being pastor to unattached young women. I’ve been in churches where they give up on men having to control their hormones around women, and have single sex small teaching groups. but I prefer Paul’s advice to Timothy to think of the young women his age as people, as sisters, and take responsibility for self control of his sexual chemistry. It’s not impossible!

And again it’s a reflection of that deeper theology of humanity that Paul expressed as “in Christ there is no male or female”. It is probably quite counter-cultural in Ephesus, which was a bit of a dating town because of the Diana/Artimesis temple and festivals… (Think Cancun or Ibiza, or Tinder as a town).

I liked the tricky dance Paul told Timothy to do, of deference to elders, because he is unusually young, but also occasionally needing to call them out, because he is a leader. Love among flawed people is complex, there aren’t neat prescriptions.

I was also struck by Paul advising Timothy to drink a bit of wine for his chronic stomach issues. The church environment can lead to expectations that faithful servants should absorb health issues because we serve a higher power… I’ve seen it. But Paul is thinking about Timothy holistically. I can’t comment on the medical worth of his advice, but I admire his heart.

I had a train of thought about church membership and charity as I read it. Salvos, who I have so much time for, run with the charity idea, but you don’t have to connect with Christianity to get it, or to work for them in their centres. They partner with government, so they can be part of community relief, surrendering the right to preach while they do it. That isn’t the model here. Though maybe it is closer than it seems, in context, because surely some people would have engaged with the church primarily because of the widow welfare program, for example. It would have been a draw card.

That dynamic reminded me of unchurched families who want a church wedding or funeral, and the different responses clergy have about requiring some degree of interaction with Christianity.

It also raises the difficult issue of judgement and Judgement, that is, the human judgement required to practically navigate challenging church situations, which needs to be kept distinct from God’s Judgement, the outpouring of his wrath against human sin and evil, but sometimes gets terribly muddled.

Paul has a good bit about being alert to people’s good and bad deeds over time, even though they might not always be immediately apparent. But I’m pretty sure his purpose is to practically determine who to trust and how far to trust them in a community setting; not who is in or out, who is going to heaven or not!

I’ll return to all that another day I think. For now, is just interesting to see very familiar practical issues being handled in pragmatic ways. Everything isn’t spiritualised by Paul, he’s about making it work so that the spirit is as unconstrained as possible by the predictable foibles of human nature.

Back at work this week, back into the same old problems. The interest from the headhunter for the comms job I was hoping for has gone quiet, so I need to look again at other possibilities. I have clarity: once more into the breach I go!

Reading Timothy is making me take my responsibility to my local church more seriously.

1 Timothy 3

Quality, not quantity.

This chapter is about the qualifications for overseers and deacons. AKA pastors and assistant pastors.

Paul’s letters are all about churches. This chapter draws you into the quality of churches that make them unique.

It’s almost impossible not to admire big churches, successful, buzzy, happy churches. I get excited when new people come to ours. I’m proud of the tone. There’s nothing wrong with that. However that positivity is not unique, it can come off any organisation.

Here the pastor and deacons are described far more by their qualities than their skills.

Skillwise, the pastor should be able to teach. Not necessarily brilliantly, it seems, just able to. That’s about it. Deacons don’t even need that. They are to be sincere, dependable, mild and reputable. Boring is good, gentle is better. These aren’t skills, they are personal qualities.

It crescendos with Paul describing the church as the household of the living God. Also, and this really struck me, “the pillar and foundation of the truth”. God is, and so is the church visibly in this world.

A pillar: solid, structural, passive, like truth. It’s a wonderful, rare and comforting thing to be. These images guide our attitude: the living God’s household, the pillar of truth.

God is not looking for a PR department. He doesn’t need people to spin him to make him popular or palatable. God is truth, and the church is where people find and explore truth. And that is unique.

All of Paul’s letters are about that vision. Sinners, liars, egomaniacs, shameless opportunists and assorted difficult personalities are thrown together as fellow stumblers upon the truth to implement this vision. Those who are most deeply transformed by it are valuable as leaders.

And all humans, somewhere within them, want truth. The church has it, stewardship of this precious gift from God, tucked away in its community of somewhat broken people.

The chapter finishes with Paul pithily reciting the truth in an early hymn. He refers to it as the “mystery from which true godliness springs”. But to me the mystery is how concrete it is, how specific is god’s best answer to all that human longing for meaning: Christ.

The hymn flicks between Christ’s Godly cosmic qualities and the ordinary specificity of his one human life.  And wrapped up also in that mystery is the beauty of the humble old church.

As for me, the bible reading at the moment feels like learning. I’m preachin’ it! Storing away goodies for later, not a one-to-one connection with my daily experience.

I’ll confess I’m excited by the job possibility as a temporary Comms manager, which is amazing because a week ago I would have found the thought almost overwhelmingly stressful. Funny how stepping back for this little iso break brings clarity. Even if I don’t get this position, the experience means I’ll proceed with greater enthusiasm.

It makes an interesting contrast learning about the importance of church, at the same time as planning to have less time for it by re-entering the 9-5 grind. But it feels right, and it’s a good way to test my motives, to be reminded of this now.

Ephesians 4

So now Paul returns to the thought he started in v1 chapter 3. You can really tell these letters were dictated. A whole parenthetical chapter, inserted mid sentence, which surely ranks among the most profound and jubilant songs of praise to God’s love we have… Oh Paul!

Now it’s how to live, since we have grace.

And here, in the sanctuary, with Paul before God, sharing his visions with you, it makes such sense! In the cut and thrust of life, it’s so hard.

Be completely humble and gentle. Yes! Think about what unifies you: one love, one grace from the one God, Yes! Don’t have the darkened minds, futile thinking, greedy insensitive lives of those out there, be mature selfless honest team builders, no one left behind. Yes …church as a safe place, a thriving supportive community! Be kind, compassionate not brawling and bitter. Of course! Yes yes yes!

Until it’s time to actually do it. The autism sufferer was throwing poo at me yesterday. It’s something they do. He was having fun. The advice is”stay neutral”. If you go on about how disgusting it is, it makes things worse. Very hard to stay gentle. “In your anger” do not sin, Paul says. I may have achieved that standard. But I didn’t even want to be angry.

As for the darkened greedy minds of the gentiles, insensitively pursuing meaningless gratification… Why do they seem so glamorous? How is it they make me feel like a loser? If their minds are so dark, how do they seem so on top and effective?

They used to talk about the Apple computer guy Steve Jobs’ “reality distortion field”. His knack for bypassing your brain, for making you think your life won’t be complete until you have an iPad.

Paul is like the realty distortion field in reverse. These verses are a reality field of undistortion. Oh so familiar words that are a true and real glimpse of building heaven on earth:

“live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

“attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

“no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching”

“put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires …put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

And so on.

The way he frames the faith here, his lens, has been the frame and the lens of my identity as a Christian since I can remember.

Still got plenty of Paul letters to go. I’ve noticed it’s often the same ideas. They are tailored to different audiences and needs, they have their own exotic theological insights. Here I think might be the first time Paul has talked about mature and infant Christians. BUT always they return to the vision of these churches. Safe, empowered, gracious, loving, god-like communities and people.

Don’t think… “Oh, just that again”. Think “another chance to be motivated to be a bit more like that”.

I pray that I might learn by repetition, affirm it over and over to myself like a mantra. So the truth undistortion field persists more and more between readings, deeper into the hardness and messiness of the road.

Christmas 2021 in three days. Nothing much organised. At least I have a bit of time today and Friday to think. And then to think about next year. Feeling quite calm and positive right now, strangely enough.

Galations 6

Argh, so dense and hard to understand. This is supposed to be the cheerio chapter, but Paul keeps it intense until the last word. My chapter-per-day timetable for Bible reading doesn’t fit these letters at all. You have such a sense of waste, so many ideas and themes slotted together like Tetris.

At the start, he’s telling them to be kind, really.

Kindness is mercurial. I can make Kelly a cup of tea, help her find her phone (for the tenth time in a day) and offer to drive her to work in a way that is truly kind, or with the smallest of inflections, it can be undermining attacking and mean. Same actions. But without kindness, I can imply she’s lazy not making her own tea, frustratingly vague for losing her phone, and a loser for not learning to drive.

Or I can be generous towards her. It’s the stuff of trust, of love of course, and true kindness unleashes a wonderful energy. Creates a safe place. Why is it so hard?

Paul set up the acts-of-flesh / fruit-of-spirit contrast in the last chapter. Personal vices: sex, idolatry, selfishness and self indulgence, the opposite of the virtues. The acts are ours, our natural nature. The fruit is God, changing us. That’s central to his whole legalism point, and the foundation of kindness. Also why it’s hard… It’s not our nature.

So what become of those in our churches who fall off that high wire of grace? We hit ’em with the awesome power of gentle restoration! What is the pecking order, who’s on top of the pile? No one. “Everyone who thinks they are something is deceived” IE: we are all nothing! Human nature is quite the leveller.

And Paul has a cute final word for those in the legalist faction “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” All pictures of kindness.

As I said, it’s a dense chapter. There’s pertinent advice for older people… Don’t become weary of doing good. To fall back into selfish fleshly ways from a place of grace is to mock God. And it does have consequences, you reap what you sow.

He speaks briefly outside the church context and talks about doing good for all people, but particularly those in church. I hope in one of the letters he goes a bit more deeply into this division.

In the dying moments, and in his own hand, Paul packs in another smart metaphorical theme, an elaboration of the flesh vs spirit idea.

The circumscision are cuts on the old creation, the body. The important thing is the new creation of the transforming Spirit. Paul says he has the marks of Jesus already, referring perhaps to his suffering for Jesus, which no doubt left some scars, likening them to the marks of slavery, common in the ancient world. If you are Jesus’, no one else can own you with another brand in your flesh.

And so finally he wishes grace to them. The common greeting is stuffed full of meaning, after 6 chapters of celebrating the beautiful salvation by Christ from the messes we make of our lives and this world.

I’ve taken very long to write this, the diary aspect of this blog is way out, and I’m missing time time spent reflecting on things. St. Paul is maddening. Its often just the gospel, but as he demonstrates, there’s no just about the gospel, it’s rich, the meaning of life the universe and everything.

Anxious today. Maybe it’s an end of year thing. Time running out for the things you intended to do. Rennie finishes HSC tomorrow. Lots of frustrations – the bank cancelled my card! Didn’t tell me, just found out when my groceries wouldn’t be paid for. It was that sort of day.

Praying for Rennie, for a colleague whose wife died, for next year, to survive Christmas.