"No One In Need Among You." A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on March 18, 2018 (5th Sunday in Lent)

"No One In Need Among You"

Matthew 26:1-13; Deuteronomy 15:1-11

            “The poor you will always have with you.”  These words of Jesus have often been interpreted to mean that Jesus believed poverty is inevitable.  Some people see poverty as an individual issue. Some believe that poverty is a matter of individual sin or moral failure-- that people are poor because they don’t work hard enough… or have made bad choices. 

            “The poor you will always have with you.” This is one of the most influential passages on poverty in the Bible. So, we need to figure out what Jesus meant.  

            A group of us have been reading the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis’ book, Always With Us? as our Lenten study on Tuesday evenings. Liz, who is a Presbyterian minister, has devoted her career to studying poverty and what the Bible teaches about it. She is currently co-director, with Rev. William Barber, of the Poor People’s Campaign.

            In her book, Liz seeks to show that--far from giving Christian reason to ignore calls for economic justice, the gospel lesson we heard today actually makes “one of the strongest statements of the biblical mandate to end poverty.”[1] She says the passage has been twisted out of context to justify the belief that poverty as inevitable. 

            The story we heard today comes just a few paragraphs after the parable of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25, where Jesus states that when it comes to feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison, “just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” So, I think Liz is right when she suggests that this makes it unlikely that Jesus’ words in Matthew 26 should be interpreted as a lack of concern for the poor.

            “The poor you will always have with you.”  Jesus’ response to the disciples alludes to Deuteronomy 15:1-11, which is one of the most liberating passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. It recalls the Hebrew Shabbat, meaning “rest” or “day of rest,” and especially shemittah, meaning year of remission-- remission of commercial debts and remission of slaves.[2]

            “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts…. There need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today….

            “If there is among you anyone in need…do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your needy neighbor.  Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need…do not show ill will toward the needy… and give them nothing….”

            “Since there will always be some in need…I therefore command you to open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land…to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”[3]

            In other words, if God’s will were being fully obeyed, there would be no poverty. But until that time comes, there will continue to be poor people, and the law must remain in place.

            The sabbatical year, or shemittah, is mentioned several other times in the Bible. For example, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, “Every seventh year each of you must set free any Hebrews who have been sold to you and have served you six years; you must set them free from your service.” But our ancestors did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. You yourselves recently repented and did what was right in my sight by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name; but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back your slaves, whom you had set free….”  And the LORD gave Jeremiah a word of judgment and punishment to those who committed these injustices.[4]

            The Sabbath-- the rest required by God in order to worship God and to protect life and ensure material well-being is one of the earliest laws in the Bible, and it is a consistent theme.

            In that time, people could be sold into slavery or the might be forced to sell themselves into slavery to settle debts. God commanded the people of Israel to build into their social structures ways for people to have a fresh start. Under God’s rule, the society and economy get a re-set, because God is good and just and promises abundance. When God’s will is being done, it is not acceptable for people to be trapped in generational poverty or slavery.

            The Torah teaches us that it is important that everyone have a rest--everyone, including slaves, animals. Even the land must have a period of lying fallow. It teaches that piety and economic practice are all part of how we worship God. The way to worship God is to structure society around everyone’s needs. God’s intention with the laws and commandments is to eliminate poverty and inequality on earth.[5] This is about a way of living with shalom justice at the center, a model for right relationship with humanity and God.

            This is in direct contrast to the values of the Empire.  Roman lords were not interested in the well-being, prosperity, and rest of their subjects except to compel more work from them.

            Liz Theoharis suggests that when Jesus is understood to be “Lord of the Sabbath” in Matthew 12, the title emphasizes that he is on the side of the poor. He is a leader who represents the popular struggles of the poor. He values the lives and livelihoods of the other poor subjects of the Roman Empire and believes they deserve rest and justice.

            Jesus is also focused on renewing Israel’s covenant with God. In his teaching, he shows that the way to honor God is to structure society around the needs of everyone. Rest and economic justice are consistent themes in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus and his followers were looking for systemic solutions to poverty and dispossession and found them in the prophetic tradition of their faith.  

           

            Will the poor always be with us? Is it possible that poverty could be eliminated? Or is it an inevitable social problem that we need to manage through charitable action? These are important questions for our faith, and they’re moral questions for our society.

            As long as we fall short as a society of living in full obedience to the God of love and abundance and justice, we will have the poor with us. And so, we will continue to need soup kitchens and food pantries and homeless shelters and other ways of alleviating the suffering and need of the poor.

            But, as people of faith and hope, we pray the prayer our Savior taught us, saying, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I don’t think any of us believes that there are people going hungry or sleeping in boxes on a sidewalk in heaven.  So, we need to keep asking ourselves, “What is the world like, if God’s will is being done?” And we need to live into that vision.

            Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his famous speech “A Time to Break Silence” that, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

            When we look around, when we hear the facts of poverty, it can feel overwhelming.

            The federal poverty threshold is $12,140 for individuals and $25,100 for a family of four. One in seven people in the United States live below the federal poverty threshold. That’s 13.9% of the population, or 44.7 million. According to this federal threshold, a single adult making $12,141 is not poor, though they are considered “low income.”

            Over half of all children in our nation are poor or low income. Half of all children will qualify for food stamps before they turn 20, including 9 out of 10 African-American children.

            In Michigan, one in five children and one in six women live in poverty, and 38,725 veterans live below the poverty line. One in Seven households struggle to put food on the table.[6]

            The wealthiest 1 percent of American households own 40 percent of the country’s wealth, which is more than at any time in the past fifty years. [7]

           

            Like the people following Jesus, the people who were gathered at Simon the Leper’s house in Bethany a few days before Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, we may wonder if there’s reason for hope.

            Jesus came proclaiming the “good news” that everyone is created in the image of God and has worth and dignity. He and his disciples had been demonstrating this good news through sharing meals and conversations with people who were poor and marginalized.  Jesus was a teacher…leader…prophet…and ruler of a growing revolutionary social movement of the poor that practiced and proclaimed God’s coming reign of abundance, dignity, and justice for all.[8]

            This movement was understood by the ruling elite to be in opposition to the Roman Empire and to the parts of the religious establishment that cooperated with the occupying forces. They understood Jesus’ condemnation of the practices and people that exploit and exclude the common people as a threat to the status quo, and they were plotting to get rid of him.

            This is the background for what was happening in Bethany when the unnamed woman anoints Jesus with a very expensive ointment.  The anointing is a turning point in Matthew’s Gospel. The Hebrew word for “Messiah” means “anointed one.  As kings were anointed by prophets, so this anointing is a sign that Jesus is ruler of God’s Kingdom.  The anointing also anticipates Jesus’ death and burial.

            Jesus was betrayed, unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, and crucified. But the story doesn’t end with death.  On the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead, showing that God’s powerful love is stronger than sin and death.  

            Jesus promised his disciples that he wouldn’t leave them alone, that the Holy Spirit would be with them to guide and empower them to carry on his mission.

            In Luke’s account of the early church, we hear that those who welcomed the gospel and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.  All who believed were together and had all things in common. They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.[9]

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s death and of the Poor People’s Campaign, through which Dr. King was working to unite diverse groups impacted by poverty and injustice. The campaign was carried out that spring and summer after Dr. King’s death.[10]

            Fifty years later, the work is not done. 

Can we say we believe in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in the world, if we don’t commit ourselves to bringing it to people who lack basics like safe water to drink, adequate shelter, good education, health care, and a chance to have a place at the table in our society?

As the people of God, we are called to share the good news of God’s love with all the people God loves. We’re called to help the world recognize the miracle of grace and abundance that is offered to all people in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We don’t have to do it alone. The good news is that in this broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

            In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to Christ in our daily lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”[11]

            May it be so!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

March 18, 2018

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[1] Liz Theoharis, Always With Us? What Jesus Really Said about the Poor. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017.

[2] Theoharis, Kindle edition, Location 1501 / 31%

[3] Deuteronomy 15

[4] Jeremiah 34:13-22.  See also Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 25:1-7; Nehemiah 10:32; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.

[5] Theoharis, Kindle Edition, Loc 1510 / 31%.

[6] http://files.bread.org/state-fact-sheets/Michigan.pdf?_ga=2.100469150.144643367.1521340701-1994407132.1521340701

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/06/the-richest-1-percent-now-owns-more-of-the-countrys-wealth-than-at-any-time-in-the-past-50-years/?utm_term=.d07cc579089f

[8] Theoharis, Kindle edition, Loc 3045 / 64%.

[9] Acts 2:42-47; See also Acts 4:32

[10] For more information, please see: https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/

[11] “A Brief Statement of Faith” of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1990.

 

A Big-Picture Look at Paul's Letters to the Corinthians

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND CORINTHIANS STUDY:  “Reconciling Paul” by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty

I was asked to speak to the Presbyterian Women of the Presbytery of Detroit, to do the annual introduction of the Presbyterian Women Horizons Bible Study for the upcoming year.   What we didn’t know when we scheduled this:  the book wouldn’t be published by the time I would be giving the presentation.  So I found out what I could about the author and her perspectives and focus and did some general research on Second Corinthians.  What follows is my notes for the presentation in 2014.

INTRODUCTION

            When I was asked if I’d do an introduction to the new PW study on Second Corinthians, we didn’t know that the study wouldn’t be available until afterward the meeting date.  So—full disclosure—I haven’t seen the book.  I’ll just do some background for you on Second Corinthians and how we might go about interpreting it.  It’ll be a big-picture approach, and I’ll highlight a few things.

            As I started looking at what kind of resources I had on Second Corinthians, I was reminded of some conversations I’ve had recently with one of our newer members, who’s been excited to hear a different approach to biblical interpretation than what he’s been used to.

            If you check out commentaries and other biblical resources, you’ll see some very significant differences in some of what's been written during the past thirty years or so and much of what was   written before then.  For one thing, almost all the biblical and theological scholars we read earlier were European or European-American white males. 

            That was changing when I went to Princeton seminary back in the late 1980’s.  In my Introduction to Theology Class, we were required to read Latin-American, African-American, and Asian liberation theologians, as well as feminist and womanist theologians, and we were challenged to read the Bible through the eyes of third-world and marginalized peoples, and not only through the eyes of those who are more privileged. 

            In studying the Bible, it's important to understand the literary genre of the particular biblical text and the historical and cultural context.

            So that’s how I approached what I would do today, since I couldn’t read the new Bible study.  I found out what I could about the author, Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, who is chair of the Department of Theology at Bellarmine University, associate professor of theology, and co-director of the university’s program in peace studies. The advance information tells us that “her passions in life and her research interests include social gospel theology, Christianity and social justice, wealth inequalities, poverty issues, and theologies from the margins.”  So that gives us some idea of her hermeneutical approach to Second Corinthians. 

           

            An important part of faithful Bible study is learning to ask good questions of the text.  So…let’s begin:     

 FIRST, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CITY OF CORINTH?

The City of Corinth was an important and relatively wealthy city in the first century.

            Corinth had a strategic location on the shoulder of an isthmus that stands between the Corinthian Gulf and the Saronic Gulf.   To avoid shipping all around the coast of southern Greece, which was a long and dangerous trip, goods were carried overland from one gulf to the other, across the Isthmus of Corinth.  All overland trade had to pass through the city and the surrounding land it controlled. 

In 146 BCE, Corinth had been sacked and destroyed after a battle with the Romans. 

Julius Caesar re-founded the city as a Roman colony in 44 BCE.  It seems that veterans of the Roman army and an overflow of Roman freedmen settled there.  The city’s success in commerce and arts, such as bronzes and pottery, attracted other immigrants. 

In the first century, Corinth enjoyed great status, as the capital of the Roman province of Achaia.  At the time of the founding of the church in Corinth, it was a bustling, important city with people from many lands and ethnic groups, and a long Greek history, now with an overlay of a Roman upper-class.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CHURCH AT CORINTH?

  

            Early in the year 50 CE, some 20 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and perhaps seventeen years after his own call to become an apostle, Paul arrived in Corinth and preached the gospel, and a community of believers developed.  Paul stayed in Corinth for about a year and a half, nurturing the church.[1]   In the late summer of 51, Paul crossed the Aegean to Ephesus, where his mission prospered.  (1 Cor 16:9)  

            The congregation at Corinth was a cross-section of the socio-economic and religious makeup of the city—and probably much of the Greco-Roman world.  A few wealthy people were on top of the social pyramid   and enjoyed some financial and social stability.  Most were poor.  There was no middle class as we know it. 

The Christian community in Corinth contained slaves and freed-persons as well as free people, and perhaps some Roman citizens. 

Most of the Corinthian believers were Gentiles.  Paul describes the Gentile Corinthians as having been devoted to idols (12:2).  They wrote to Paul about food offered to idols (8:1) because they had earlier been free to take part in the religious festivities that were part of Corinth’s more than two dozen temples, altars, and shrines. 

There were probably some Jews as well.

We learn from First Corinthians that some of the Corinthians would act boastful and haughty over what they considered to be their superior wisdom or spirituality.  They could sometimes be condescending, or inconsiderate and thoughtless.

HIGHLIGHT:  THE ISSUE OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN THE CHURCH

I really appreciate Dale Martin’s description of the differences in social status as context to what was going on in the ancient church.[2]   For instance, ancient dinner parties were generally conducted in ways that emphasized differences in social status.  Those of higher status could expect to be given better seats, closer to the head of the table.  Different kinds of food and a different quality of wine would be served to different groups of people:  the “friends” of the host, those more his “equals,” might be served better dishes and wine… the “clients” of the host might be served something else, and those further down the social pyramid would get food ad drink of still worse quality.  None of this would have been considered strange to most people of a Greek or Roman city.  It was just how things were done.[3]

            From what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, the Lord’s Supper was not the sharing of a sip of wine and a tiny morsel of bread the way we celebrate communion, but rather it was a full meal.  In the midst of the meal, at some point, the  “words of institution”[4] from Jesus would be quoted and some prayers would be offered, followed by the distribution and sharing of bread and wine.  But that ritual was surrounded with a full meal that may have been something of a potluck, or may have been largely provided by the wealthier Christians.   

            So Paul had complained in First Corinthians that different groups were eating and drinking their own private dinners:  “Each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.”  (1 Cor 11:21)   

            Most laborers in an ancient city, whether they were slaves or other manual and skilled laborers, would have owed their full days to their employers.  Most of the time, they couldn’t have attended a church meeting until the sun went down unless it happened to fall on a holiday.  So Paul is describing a situation in which the wealthier Christians, who enjoyed more leisure and freedom, were arriving early at the church meeting, probably bringing food and drink for themselves and their households and friends.  The poorer people, unless they were members of the household of a richer church member, were arriving late at the meetings, after others had begun to eat.  So one of Paul’s solutions to this was to tell those who were able to arrive early to “wait for” the rest.  (1 Cor 11:33)

            Paul’s main objection to the way Corinthians are observing the Lord’s Supper is that they were doing so divided by class and privilege.  The “haves” are ignoring or despising the “have-nots.”  So, according to Martin, when Paul says that they must “discern the body” before they eat and drink, he isn’t referring primarily to the host of the body of Jesus in the bread.  Rather, he is referring to the entire church as the “body of Christ,” as he names it elsewhere in First Corinthians (6:15-20, 12:12-31).  Paul says that those who have been slighting and humiliating the poor by showing no concern for their desire to eat and drink have thereby been despising the body of Christ himself. 

            Now, we can be pretty sure that the “haves” wouldn’t have seen things this way at all.  They were just maintaining the cultural traditions.  Those of higher status enjoyed the privileges that came with that, as it had always been.  The poor shouldn’t expect to be treated equally.  So Paul is turning the status expectations of the Greek city upside-down.  He insists that poor people need to be treated with special honor and regard, precisely because God “chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are.”  (1 Cor. 1:28) 

            Paul follows a similar strategy in dealing with the problem of eating food sacrificed to idols.  Meat was a precious commodity in an ancient city, and most people couldn’t afford to buy it in the market.  The main time they would eat meat would be at a sacrificial festival provided either by the city or more often by a wealthy individual who paid for the festival and its expenses out of his own pocket, in return for the honor he and his family would gain.  The sacrifices would be made, some of the materials would be burned for the god—that’s “god” with a small “g”.  Some would be given to the priests or other cult officials, and then the rest would be distributed to the people for their own feasting with their families and friends.   But participation in these sacrificial festivals was what Jews and early Christians considered idolatry. 

            What’s at stake here is that the poor Christians of Corinth would have had to attend a sacrificial festival in order to eat meat, and it would have been meat that had been sacrificed to a deity. 

            Even meat sold in a marketplace could have come from some kind of sacrificial practice.  The officials or cultic priests who were given portions of the sacrificed animals had the choice of making a bit of money by selling their portions to a butcher, who would re-sell it to people.  So—if you weren’t rich enough to buy an animal and have it butchered—you could scarcely avoid eating meat that had been part of a sacrificial ritual.  If you were poor and you wanted to avoid eating meat that had been part of ritual sacrifice, you wouldn’t be able to eat meat at all. 

            So that’s some of the context from First Corinthians that can help us to understand Second Corinthians. 

Ethnic and cultural diversity.  Economic inequality.  Difficult personalities. Conflict.  Does this sound familiar?

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE DOCUMENT ITSELF AND WHEN IT WAS WRITTEN?

            In what we know as First and Second Corinthians, we find the most detailed record we have of the apostle Paul’s enduring relationship with a particular church.  They give us a window into the life of one of the early church and Paul’s continuing affectionate and sometimes troubled relationship with its members. They show us that the early decades of the Christian church weren’t an ideal time of perfection and harmony, but a time of conflict among followers of Jesus, as they struggled to discern what it meant to follow Jesus and his way.[5]

            By the time Paul wrote First Corinthians from Ephesus, he had known the believers there for more than three years.    He had written them an earlier letter, presumably now lost, about how to maintain holiness, and they had written him, asking about several issues.   At that point, the Corinthians still value his opinion, and he is still their father in the faith. 

            After that, some new teachers had come to Corinth, and these outside agitators  had threatened Paul’s leadership and teaching.

            Second Corinthians offers a real-life window on a strained relationship between a church leader and the people whom he loves.   Paul's relationship with the Corinthian congregation has deteriorated.  As Carolyn Osiek wrote in her introduction to 2 Corinthians in The New Interpreter’s Bible:  “the honeymoon is definitely over, and all the problems of a long-term relationship are evident.  The Corinthians have even said of Paul—and it has gotten back to him—that his letters are strong, but his appearance is unimpressive, and his speech is definitely a loser.”  (10:10)

            In various part of 2^nd Corinthians, Paul is writing in order to mend a broken relationship with the church and to urge them, even though they are currently hosting teachers who disparage Paul, to remain loyal to Christ, to Paul, to the gospel Paul preached, and to the promise they have made to provide for the church in Jerusalem.         

NOT ONE SINGLE LETTER

            After Paul had left Corinth and was living and working in Ephesus (see 1 Corinthians 16:8), he exchanged a series of letters with the church at Corinth.   Most scholars agree that Second Corinthians is not one single letter, but a combination of several letters and letter fragments.  The community in Corinth preserved these letters, and later edited and combined them into the one text we know as 2^nd Corinthians.

           

 There isn’t a consensus among scholars about the original parts, but the most common divisions are:

Chapters 1-7, 8-9, and 10-13—but not in that sequence.   [See hand-out]

            One of the most jarring transitions is from 6:13 to 6:14, while 7:2 picks up exactly where 6:13 leaves off.  And 7:5 seems to follow immediately from 2:13.

            Chapters 8 and 9 look like one or two “fund-raising” letters to encourage the Corinthian Christians to be generous in supporting collection for the Jerusalem Christians. 

            The tone of chapters 10-13 is very different from what went just before.  It sounds very defensive.   

            In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, Paul is advising the Corinthians to avoid immoral persons in the church—those who are sexually immoral or greedy, or idolaters, revilers, drunkards or robbers, and not to eat with them.   The only section of Second Corinthians that some scholars question was really written by Paul seems to be related to that section of First Corinthians chapter 5, and it’s the passage that’s advising the Corinthians “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers” in the section that seems to be pasted in awkwardly.  

            If you have your Bibles opened up to 2 Corinthians, let’s take a look at chapter 6.  Paul is exhorting the community to open their hearts to be converted.  In verses 12-13, Paul writes, “There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours.  In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.”

            If you read on, verses 14 and following, you bump up against what looks like a seam, where it looks like there’s been a cut-and-paste, as we hear:  “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers…”  

            But if you jump over to 7:2, it seems to follow from 6:13:  “Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one…”    [Do you see it?]

            Chapters 10-13 must have been written immediately after the painful visit.

            Most of chapters 1-7 may belong together, in spite of various theories that divide them, and are probably later at least than chapters 10-13. 

            When the letters and fragments are arranged in chronological sequence, they portray Paul’s relations to the Corinthians and show the range of good times to not so good. 

            There’s a lot we don’t know.  We don’t know if chapters 1-7 in 2^nd Corinthians were a single letter, but we do know that their tone and content are very different from chapters 10-13.  There’s none of the combativeness, no anger.  Rather, as Marcus Borg points out, “we find some of the most radiant and luminous language in all of Paul’s letters.”[6]

            They are about the collection that Paul is taking up for the Christ-community in Jerusalem.  As in chapters 1-7, the tone is completely different from that in 10-13. 

CHAPTERS 10-13

            There is no scholarly consensus about the sequence of the letters that were combined in 2^nd Corinthians, but many scholars think that chapters 10-13 are earlier than the rest.   In these chapters, Paul defends himself against teachers who have come to Corinth and tried to undermine him and his message.  Some of the Corinthian Christians had been persuaded by them and became critics of Paul.

           

CHAPTERS 8-9

            Chapters 8-9 seem to be yet another letter or possibly two letters.  They could have been written anytime in the sequence of letters combined in 2 Corinthians.  Their subject matter is the “collection for the saints” that Paul referred to at the end of 1 Corinthians, Paul was raising money from his largely Gentile communities for the impoverished Christian Jewish community in Jerusalem, both as a sign of solidarity and to meet their need for help. 

CHAPTERS 1-7

            The first seven chapters of 2 Corinthians may have been written last.  Though they do reflect a situation of conflict, it seems to be in the past and more or less resolved. 

CONCLUSION

            The introductory flyer for “Reconciling Paul” observes that we’re living in a world that is experiencing a great deal of change.   Encounters with peoples representing a variety of perspectives and cultures—all are aspects of our daily lives.  To quote Dr. Hinson-Hasty: “We can’t avoid seeing the divisions forged between nature and neighbor and also between neighbor and neighbor along lines of race, class, gender, and nation.  These divisions impact representation in decision-making bodies, support exploitation of the earth, exacerbate the unequal distribution of wealth, and limit access for many to the natural resources we all need to survive and flourish.”

            So… this Bible study on Second Corinthians--  Reconciling Paul-- is meant to guide us to learn about the young church at Corinth and their struggles, about Second Corinthians and that church’s struggles, as well as Paul’s theology and ideas and his struggles to live and minister faithfully and authentically.   The hope is that we will gain insights that relate to our context, in our time.

            An essential task for us in the church today is to figure out how to be the church in our time and place, in this time of great change.  Like Paul, we need to wrestle with and question our faith as we try to live as authentically as possible.  

            The concepts of shared partnership, power in weakness, healing, reconciliation, love, and a new apostolate all figure prominently in the author’s reading of Paul.  Dr. Hinson-Hasty says she hopes that participants engaged in the study will find their own voices among the larger community of interpreters, discerning together the meaning of these ancient passages for the world in which we live today.

            I’m looking forward to reading the 2014-15 Horizons Bible Study.  It is sure to challenge us all to read Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians afresh in light of the current issues and events.

           

SOME RESOURCES ON FIRST AND SECOND CORINTHIANS:

Marcus J. Borg, Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written.  Harper-One Publishers, 2012

John Fitzgerald, Introduction to Second Corinthians, in The Harper-Collins Study Bible.  Harper Collins, 2006.

Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, Reconciling Paul: A Contemporary Study of 2 Corinthians.  Horizons Bible Study, 2014-2015. 

Dale B. Martin, New Testament History and Literature.   Yale University Press, 2012.

Carolyn Osiek,  Introduction to Second Corinthians, in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible.  Abingdon Press, 2003.

Mary Hinkle Shore, Second Corinthians.  Enter the Bible website from Luther Seminary.  https://www.enterthebible.org/

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[1] Acts 18:11

[2] Dale B. Martin, New Testament History and Literature (Yale University Press, 2012), p. 224.

[3] Dale B. Martin, New Testament History and Literature (Yale University Press, 2012), p. 224.

[4] 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

[5] Marcus J. Borg,  Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written.  Harper-One Publishers, 2012,   p. 102.

[6] Borg, p. 101.