Paul’s and Jesus’s Teaching Compared

by Rev Megan Means

(Based on Luke 13:31-35; Phil 3:17-4:1)

Lately I have been delving into Paul and I have been considering … are Paul and Jesus teaching the same?
Next to Jesus, Paul was the most important person in early Christianity. Why? Because he wrote letters that have been kept and saved. He and Jesus were first century Jews, raised in Jewish households, in the Jewish context; both were deeply concerned about the Jewish Bible and the true worship of the Jewish God of Israel.

Before Paul became a storied Christian missionary to the gentiles, church founder, and a theologian, he was recorded as an arch-enemy of the Christian church. We have a record in Acts 9 that Paul was converted into faith in Christ after a visionary experience, a revelation that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Scholars think this happened about 31-32CE. After his conversion to following Jesus, Paul played an immediate significant role in the history of Christianity, while remaining a faithful Jew. He did not think Christianity as a different religion but the correct understanding of the ancient faith of Israel. Paul did not meet up with Peter, James or John, the disciples that actually met and knew Jesus first hand, until three years into his ministry, so Paul did not learn the Gospel from them.

In our New Testament, half of the books claim to be written by Paul, although we are now down to seven books that scholars agree are undisputedly his: Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. However, realistically, only seven letters from at least thirty years ministry do not really provide a full picture of who the real Paul was or why only his letters were saved. If we are looking to understand Paul’s set of conclusions, it is mostly in Romans, and that is because Paul’s other letters were written chiefly to address specific problems that had arisen in his churches. His letters are like hearing only one side of a phone conversation. Sometimes we can piece together what the other side is talking about, and sometimes we are right, sometimes we jump to conclusions, and sometimes we may get it totally wrong.

Paul was flogged, beaten and put in prison. We tend not to focus or want to remember or accept how rugged the Roman empire was and how hard ordinary life really was. Paul’s teachings and conclusions on God’s plan regarding Jesus radically affected the beliefs of the Anointeds’ followers, later to be known as Christians.

Paul and Jesus did have in common a basic apocalyptic view of the world – the understanding that the world was mortally afflicted with evil forces opposed to God; and many Jews were convinced that God was soon to bring an end to this wicked age by sending a cosmic judge from heaven to destroy all that was evil and bring salvation for those who were his ‘faithful’. According to this view, there was to be a cataclysmic break between these ages, when God would destroy the forces of evil to bring in his Kingdom.  At that time there would be a judgment of all beings, both living and dead.  And this judgment was imminent. Therefore, Jesus and Paul wanted everyone to gain salvation immediately.

Paul moved Christianity forward theologically after Jesus’s death, into believing directly that the death and resurrection of Jesus was the way to salvation. Paul understood three main points: Jesus was a divine man whose death brought salvation; the Jewish Law was not now as important for a person’s standing before God, especially if you were a gentile; and the relationship between Jews and gentiles was that they were both equal before God. Jesus’s message was that God would forgive the sins of his errant children (Jewish) if they would simply repent and turn their lives around.

Both Jesus and Paul believed in caring for their neighbour. The Jewish religion of Jesus’s time and context had begun to promote caring for others, caring for neighbours, but this was radical teaching. The Roman and Greek civilisations did not practise this. Jesus’s ethics revolutionised moral thinking in western civilisation, and instigated an ethical ‘common sense’ approach which has come down to us today.
If the town next door had a flood or earthquake, a disaster, etc, no one went or helped or offered aid, in the original context. What we do now has grown from this challenge of two thousand years ago. Jesus helped instigate and influence the care for others that was beginning to occur in the Jewish setting and this set the way forward to bring about what we call today ‘social services’, from the original care for orphans, the poor, and widows, in the first century.

Jesus’s message, in a nutshell, to gain salvation with God was to repent, be forgiven and turn your lives around – now. Paul’s message to gain salvation was to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. God needed someone to pay with blood, and that is what Jesus did. And both Jesus and Paul believed that God had already begun to intervene in history, to overthrow the current cosmic forces of evil.

Paul wrote the letter of Philippians from prison, from an unknown location.
The letter is to the Christians, formerly pagans, in the city of Philippi (in Greece). They had been taught to worship the one true God of Israel and to expect the imminent return of his son, Jesus. Paul’s letter to them thanks them for their financial support, he shares in the joys that they were doing well, and urges them to maintain unity.
In today’s reading Paul, with tears, concedes to the knowledge that some followers are failing to fully embrace the good news of the cross of Christ. He says that some are living as enemies of the cross and are doing this openly in their midst. In other words they are only following Christ partially, and living as if Jesus’s suffering, death and resurrection had no instructional value in their lives. Paul strives to encourage them to all live in united relationships with one another and be of the same mindset as Jesus had had.
It’s also worth noting that Paul’s letters seem to be always arguing with people in the church who have different views to him! As today in some places, everyone was trying to work out the way forward from Jesus’s death and resurrection, both logically and with continuity.

Paul is also standing in the tradition of Jesus, who (in the Gospel reading) longs to shield people “as a hen gathers her brood”. Paul too, in his letters, comes across “as a hen overseeing her brood”.

Jesus and Paul were passionate teachers. Was their teaching the same or different? Are they reconcilable? Jesus’s teaching was first and all it involved was to repent, to return and accept forgiveness to gain salvation with God. Then Paul developed the theology and understanding, after Jesus died, that to gain salvation one must believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus because Christianity now required an atoning sacrifice.

Both believed in apocalyptic thinking, and that a new ‘good’ kingdom of God was imminent.
It has now been two thousand years and Jesus has not returned with God’s army “to judge the living and the dead”. And many of us today probably do not subscribe to apocalyptic thinking?

Which brings me to my ultimate question of, how did Paul and others consider their development of theology to be the right way forward? As, really, it seems to indicate that what Jesus taught was not enough.

Therefore, did Jesus and Paul advocate the same religion?

Perhaps the religion of Jesus became the religion about Jesus?
And that, folks, is a brief insight into where I am at in my world of understanding Jesus and Paul through an historical lens.

As was His Custom

by Barry Pollard

(Based on Luke 4:14-21; Ps 19; 1 Cor 12:12-31)

“The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple,” said the Psalmist in today’s reading.

I would like to start today’s reflection with a shout out to the Aussies! Today is Australia Day. Politics aside, it is a day that, I think, we should all celebrate here in New Zealand. After all, many of us have a great fondness for the Big Country and its inhabitants, so much so that we frequently visit and some of us have lived and worked there and even married one of their citizens!
And, unless you didn’t know it, the Aussies’ affection for us is reciprocal and can be reflected in the fact that even now the Constitution of Australia still allows space for NZ to become an additional member state, should we choose.

Now, perhaps you are unwilling to celebrate, still harbouring some resentment about the infamous underarm bowling incident of 1981. If that is the case, it may be worthwhile starting our reflection with today’s Corinthians reading. I’ll paraphrase verses 12 and 13 to highlight what I mean:
Paul wrote, and we heard: The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptised into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

My version for Australia Day:
The world is made up of many countries, but the many countries make up one whole world. So it is with our Antipodean neighbours. Some of us are Kiwis, some are Aussies, some original inhabitants, and some immigrants. But we have all been joined into one body, Australasia, and we all share the same trans-Tasman spirit.

Apostle Paul would have us see each other as brothers and sisters, interrelated and responsible for each other, unable to function effectively alone. All of us called to contribute our talents, abilities and resources for the good of each other. And what better example from the past do we have than the ANZAC experience. Think about it and focus once again on “the bonds of love” that link us all, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, in good times and bad.

“The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple,” said the Psalmist in today’s reading.

There endeth the first lesson!

Let’s now think about today’s Gospel reading:
When I was preparing for the Combined Service at Pepe Reserve at the end of December, I was focussed on our growth during 2025. In relation to Luke’s Gospel account in Chapter 2, of the boy Jesus speaking with the teachers in the temple, I made a statement that Jesus’s family were faithful in the ordinary; keeping to tradition, ceremony and protocol. This example, I believe, is an essential element in establishing any foundation for growth. Our lesson is to not dismiss the things of our faith as ritualistic, tethering or unimportant. Partaking of them regularly helps us to refocus and refresh. An obvious example for me would be Communion. I can’t tell you the number of times I have come to church with less than 100% willingness and attention, partaken of the bread and wine and felt an uplifting spiritual and physical change!

Why do you think that happens? Why do we benefit from what we do week after week?

One commentator on this week’s reading offered this:
“There is power in ritual; there is presence in repeated action, in habits that build up. We often talk about habits as bad things, things we need to curtail or quit. But there can be good habits too, holy habits, we might call them. Certainly, attending gathered weekly worship is one of those habits to celebrate.

“We might give some attention to the why of worship this week as we understand that Jesus attended prayers in the synagogue as a habit.
Why do we gather for worship when we can worship on our own?
When we do gather, why do we pray prayers of confession?
Why do we pray prayers of intercession?
Why do we sing?
Why is there preaching and reading of Scripture?

“All these things that we have done out of habit are good things, but they should not be unthinking things. We need to remember why we do what we do.

“One reason for reflecting on practice is so that we can tell the story when we invite others to join us. Adding some depth to the practices can help us converse with those who are unfamiliar with what we do. We are working on our testimony as we examine the meaning behind the practices of our faith.

“Let our worship develop holy habits so that we, too, can gather — as is our custom.”

Today’s Gospel follows on from the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. It gives us the first insight into the Messiah’s real ministry. We are told that Jesus headed into the synagogues and town centres. Word spread, and the early reports were positive. Everyone spoke well of him. He taught something different, something new but old at the same time. He taught ancient truths in a new language, with authority. He spoke plainly, but he told the stories; he offered a simple truth but drew it in pictures that seemed familiar to everyone.

On this occasion he went into the synagogue where he had sat as a boy in Sabbath school, reciting lines and repeating answers to old questions and maybe asking questions now and again. They had gotten the news; his reputation preceded him. He was invited to teach. Called to the front, he was handed the scroll — Isaiah, the biggest one, the heaviest one. He was told to read. So he found his place and began to read. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

Never having attended a Jewish service, I don’t know how much was expected to be read, but Jesus read only two verses, rolled up the scroll, handed it to the attendant and sat down. He wasn’t finished. Rabbis taught sitting down. They stood to read out of respect for the Word, but then sat to explain and expound and apply. The people would have been anticipating the teaching when Jesus sat down. But all they got was an eleven-word sermon: “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

The Messiah’s real ministry had just been laid out for them: priorities, core values, the mission statement. Simple and laid out for all.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
    that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.”

Jesus was “the Lord’s favour”!

But what has it got to do with us?

By seeking after Jesus we have signed up for something bigger than many of us know. We have heard his Good News; we claim to be his followers. You, like me, may be afraid you’re not up to it, but the Good News involves us. It is about us loving as he loved, loving enough to make a difference in the world, not just in us but in the world. It is about us getting closer to Jesus, closer to being like Him.

So how do we get closer to being like Jesus? How do we get closer to loving as he does? We make it a habit. “He went as usual to the synagogue,” Luke tells us, as was his custom. It is just what he did. To quote an earlier phrase, it was a “holy habit”. And this is my point; maybe we can overcome our fears and reservations about following Jesus if what we do just becomes a holy habit. We don’t have to constantly stop and evaluate, to ask, “Is this, or that, for me?” We should follow. We should just do – as is our custom.

My commentator said earlier, “We might give some attention to the why of worship.” And this is vital. If our understanding of Scripture is clear, our understanding of how we are applying it in our lives is clear.

I mentioned Communion before. To provide more context, Chapter 2 of Acts describes how the believers formed a community (a holy Christian community, a church). Luke’s description in verse 42 says, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”
There was no prescription as to how this had to be done. Instead, it was left to the believers to sort out. There was no right way or wrong way. If you read on you will find that some believers went house to house sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), meaning that daily they repeatedly partook of the bread and wine.

Keri and I have been blessed to have travelled to many towns and cities. On our trips we try to attend Sunday worship if we can. Not many of the churches we have attended have been Anglican but wherever we have been we have worshipped with like-minded Christians, broken the bread according to their traditions and experienced the same restorative joy and peace that we experience here. We have never come away from a service thinking, “They didn’t do that right”!Their tradition, their custom, is as valid as ours. And the fact that it is carried out in a similar fashion, on a regular basis, is one of those elements that is foundational to their faith. It is one of those elements that allows them, like us, to grow in other areas of faith.

Parents, consider how your babies grew. Well before they were able to make conscious decisions, they adapted their behaviour to suit their environment. As the spoon of nourishment approached the infant in the high chair, the subtle signals of catchy rhymes, smiling faces, and encouraging gestures triggered the opening of the mouth to receive the offering. Well, usually!
Those regularly experienced behaviours around feeding lead to good nourishment and growth! And those regularly experienced behaviours around faith lead to God’s good nourishment and our growth.

“The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple,” said the Psalmist in today’s reading.

This verse stood out to me when I first approached the readings for today. For the record, I admit that in most things I am simple. Despite that, I have come to understand that the decrees of the Lord are trustworthy. Because I am simple, I see the decrees as all the things that Scripture shows and teaches us. Some might see them as truths.
A few months ago I spoke on the greatest commandments, which I hope you remember as “to love God with all our heart, mind and soul; and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves”. If everything we did conformed to these decrees our world would be a very different place, don’t you think?

God’s decrees are trustworthy. We can believe that they have been designed for our good, not for our harm. We can believe that they transform us. They will help us to grow.

If we acknowledge and trust in what God is saying to us, in Scripture and through prayer, we are showing how we are growing in wisdom. If God’s plans for us are good, and we follow them, our lives will be good. The Lord is trustworthy, and following all that he offers makes even us simple folk a little wiser!

Father of all,
Your Son brought good news to the despairing,
freedom to the oppressed
and joy to the sad.
Fill us with your Spirit,
that we may grow more like him
and glorify your name.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Precious Water

by Liz Young

(Based on Luke 1:39-55; Hebrews 10:5-10)

The Hebrews reading reminded the Jews that God did not welcome animal sacrifices, but had allowed Jesus, his son, to make the ultimate sacrifice for us.  The Gospel gave us Mary’s Song of Praise to God, accepting that she has been chosen to nurture the Son of God, who will stand and feed his flock in the majesty of the Name of the Lord his God, and the poor and humble may live secure now, because of Jesus.

The word peace echoes in our hearts today, as we think of the people of Ukraine, standing up to the might of Russia, the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong threatened by mainland China, and the ordinary people in Sudan and other countries in Africa threatened by renegades; and the never ending battle for power in Syria.

This month our book group read a book on ‘Humankindness’, the theme being that ordinary groups of thirty to a hundred people tend to be kind to each other: we look after each other, both everyday, and in times of natural disaster: even if the media prefers to broadcast stories of how unkind we can be to each other. So one New Year’s resolution I recommend is – give up listening to the news! Just take a local newspaper, like our Local Advertiser.
The other New Year’s resolution is to keep an eye out for lonely neighbours, or those burdened with the care of looking after a partner with dementia.
Does Tairua need a second ‘Garden Estate’, where people live in safe surroundings, with an easy walk to the shops, and neighbours who keep an eye out for each other? Does Nina at Matapaia (our local rest home) need help in achieving her dream of having a dementia unit? And, do we need to point out to the Regional Health Authority that it is inappropriate for them to fill the beds at Matapaia with out-of-towners when we’ve unmet need here?
No room in our inn for our mentally frail elderly …

I’ve been inundated this week with phone call requests from charities. At least they’ve got the message that I will not respond if they phone at dinner time. I’m fortunate that because I have a good pension from the national health system, I can often respond; but I prefer to support those charities that have clients with high expenses and a small donor base, such as Muscular Dystrophy. All charities in New Zealand have had a lower income this year, as most of us put charities in our disposable income bracket, rather than a necessary expense. Do we need to turn that around, somehow?

This Advent at St Francis we’ve been lighting candles for Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, and Christian World Service are requesting our help in providing water for those who need it. So I thought I’d lighten the mood of this sermon by relating two of our family’s water experiences: In the eighties, we had two tanks storing water collected from the roof. A total of two thousand gallons of water. I’d worked out that our local annual rainfall is 53 inches per year, and with careful household use this would last us at least three weeks of drought, so we should be okay But one January we were almost out of water. John was at sea, so he couldn’t stop me, and I ordered a fill-up from the local fire brigade … and it rained the next day.
I find it amusing that our local Council now make it obligatory to put in water tanks with new builds, having told us when we built that we didn’t need to have tanks (when they first connected up the mains water supply).
As some of you know, John and I, in 2007, returned to New Zealand from Europe, via the Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands. The longest ocean crossing was from Galapagos to the Marquesas, three thousand nautical miles. We had two hundred litres of drinking water in our tanks. We kept clean by swimming daily, and we allowed ourselves three litres of drinking water per day, each – cooking veges in one third sea water and two thirds fresh.
We were so pleased to be able to wash our hair when we got to the Marquesas.

Another book club book we read this year was on how Israel manages its water. Did you know that our drip feed hoses were invented in Israel, and that Israel gives Jordan water, generated at their desalination plant?  I am glad that our Pat Lee has encouraged us to fund-raise for water tanks in Fiji.
On our first trip back from Panama to NZ we stopped at Penrhyn, the northernmost island of the Cooks, near the equator; and they allowed us to restock our water tanks from their huge store of rain water, collected from the roof of their very large A-frame church. We had to wait for our first ice cream in a month, though, to get to the next island south.

Anyway … have a happy Festive Season conserving water!

Thanks be to God.

The Inner Landscape

by Pat Lee

(Based on Luke 3:1-6)

“There’s a particular person in my life I sometimes just don’t want to be with. Sometimes I don’t like what I see in this person. Other times I am disappointed or angry with this person. Sometimes I don’t listen to this person. Sometimes we argue. A lot has happened between us. Judgements have been made, criticisms have exchanged, and wounds have been inflicted. I often don’t understand this person or our relationship. Some days I love this person, other days not so much.
Our relationship is often rough. Sometimes I feel I have descended with this person into a deep valley and make less of myself than I really am. Other times I climb a high mountain and make more of myself than I really am.
You know what I’m talking about, right? I suspect you know those feelings I described. I think we all have someone like that in our lives. But it might not be who you think it is.
In my case, the person I’m talking about is me. I’m talking about the relationship I have with myself. And I am talking about the relationship you might have with yourself.”
(Michael K Marsh)

When I read this, I felt that Marsh knew, when he wrote those words back in 2021, that I, and many others who have read them since, were feeling similar things about ourselves.

What does this have to do with John the Baptist and Advent in 2024?
Advent is the time for preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, isn’t it? Well, Marsh has a better way of explaining it than I have, so I’m going back to him. Not all of what he says will apply to each or any of us, but much of it might. He asks a lot of questions and gives us plenty to think about.

So he says, “I think that’s what John the Baptist is getting at in today’s gospel when he says, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.’”

He could be talking about the relationship we have with ourselves. He’s talking about the landscape of our lives. He’s asking us to risk confronting ourselves.

What if that confrontation with ourselves is what it means to ‘prepare the way of our Lord’? And what if it’s less about whether we’re wrong, bad, or sinful and more about our healing and wholeness?

The valleys, mountains and hills, the crooked paths, and rough ways of which John speaks can be descriptive of our interior landscape. They are conditions and states of being within us. They are ways we relate to ourselves and one another. So, for the next few moments I want us to consider the landscape of our lives.

Think about the low places in your life. What gets you there and what keeps you there? Maybe it’s the judgements and criticisms you make of yourself. Maybe it’s self-doubt, second guessing, lack of confidence or self-esteem.  In what ways do you diminish or put down yourself? Sometimes we live in the valley of grief and loss. Guilt, shame, embarrassment often take us to the valley. It might be regrets, disappointment, fear, failures. When have you betrayed or alienated yourself? When have you settled or given up? When have you lived less than you knew yourself truly to be?

Think about the time and ways you’ve got too big for your boots. Think about the ways in which you try to control or coerce your life, or another’s life. When have you been selfish, judgmental of others, or intellectually rigid? In what ways are you motivated by power, wealth or lack of it, success, reputation, the need for approval or to be right? When we live in excess of anything we’re on top of our mountain. When have you thought yourself better than or superior to others? When our ego is inflated and we’re full of ourselves we’re climbing a mountain.

I’m asking about those things that are out of kilter, out of sync. In what ways are your words and actions not aligned with the values you claim to hold? In what ways is your life twisted or deformed? When we are dishonest with ourselves or others, we’re on a crooked path. Is there integrity in your life, your words and actions? Every time you and I give another reason to doubt trustworthiness of our words or actions, we are living crooked. What’s the shape of your life these days? Is it shaping up the way you want it and, if not, what’s crooked?

Think about the ways your life is uneven, out of balance, or lacking harmony. What’s missing? What’s causing you to stumble and trip? What parts of your life are lacking order? What relationships need some care or repair? What beliefs, patterns, or habits are making your life bumpy? Are you sometimes more tolerant and gentle with others than yourself? Who are you roughest on and why?

Those landscapes are not just individual. They are also in churches; in New Zealand, and the world. Look at the topography of Covid, racism, immigration, economic inequality, and the political issues that divide us and you’ll see valleys, mountains and hills, crooked paths, and rough ways. In what ways are those also a part of your life’s landscape?

That landscape is a mirror that confronts us with ourselves.  Not a final judgment or conclusion – it’s a diagnosis. It’s naming the places in our lives and world where it hurts. Where does it hurt today? Healing starts where it hurts. Before there can be treatment there has to be a diagnosis. And sometimes the most difficult and scariest part of healing is going to the doctor to find out what is wrong.
But I want you to know, whatever the terrain of your life and world might be today, wherever it hurts: “every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.” That’s the good news John brings from the wilderness.
It’s the hope that you and I will one day live on level ground and walk a smooth, straight path together. That’s what I want, don’t you? That’s what I want for you, or church … our nation, the world, and myself. Hope is a call asking something of us – a repentance, a change.

Imagine what your life would look like if you lived on level ground and walked a smooth straight path. That’s what John is offering each one of us. To “see the salvation of God” begins with looking at the landscape of our lives.

What do you see when you look at the landscape of your life today?”

Let us pray: Testing God, refine us with the fire of your love and justice. Make whatever is crooked or broken within us into a straight path that leads to you. May we be as your fertile valleys and plains, producing a harvest of grace within the wilderness of our world. Amen.