I blame Andrew.
It’s 17th August, 2012 and I am on the beach at Swanage enjoying our family holiday. Away from the parish. Relaxed.
Then my mobile bleeps. A message from Argentina no less, from Andrew. “Where is your Friday blog?’ Clearly being on holiday was for him no excuse!
Ever since, every Friday I write this blog. Wherever I may be, whatever I may doing, however I may be feeling. If it’s a Friday, I write my blog, press SEND – and out it goes. An invaluable service for those like Stephen who as an airline pilot was never quite sure what day of the week it was. My blog arrives – and hey, it’s a Friday.
Over the years I have composed it on a bus taking surfers to Surfers Paradise, on the top deck of an A380 at 38000 feet over the Indian ocean, travelling on several trains of course, alongside the pool, quite a few cafes and more than a few hotels. Wherever.
And however. On all kinds of computers, strange keyboards, various iPads, even on my android phone (using my thumbs). Each week two sides of A4 in Century Schoolbook. And there’s always the challenge of finding an accessible WIFI.
Sometimes there is a time constraint – a train to catch, a funeral to conduct, an appointment to keep. And a very tight time frame.
In all kinds of environments and often with innumerable distractions. (I sound like the apostle Paul!) Breakfast tables surrounded by raucous grandchildren crunching their cereals has to be the most daunting challenge. I defy anyone to maintain their direction of thought in such a setting.
And today has to be a particular challenge! It is our family Christmas, all 19 of us in our house. For with so many of us being vicars, we postpone our celebrations to today 29th December, my birthday. (I hope to send the annual photo next Friday)
So I am writing this with my study requisitioned by members of our family. Granddaughter Joy is wrapping some presents alongside me. For you need to know that I’m writing this blog in fits and starts, those precious moments when I can access a keyboard, any keyboard will do.
I’ve been rereading Tom Wright’s excellent biography of the apostle Paul. Here he recreates the apostle’s experiences and journeys while giving the background to his various letters. Fascinating as he links the writing of each epistle with its setting, where the apostle happens to be. Sometimes in goal.
This is especially so for his second letter to the Corinthians, written 55 or 56 AD, just one year after his first letter to this dysfunctional church.
But this second epistle is very different, in tone and in content. It’s jerky, sometimes an unexpected change of direction with (what appear to be) random interruptions. “(The) letter we call 2 Corinthians seems itself to have been dragged out of Paul in bits and pieces.” (page 305).
It’s over there, Zoe
The apostle does not have the same flow of thought as his first letter, which steadily makes its way to his seminal teaching on Jesus’ resurrection victory.
Part of the reason is that something terrible has happened to Paul. We are not told what this was. The troubled apostle confides: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.” (2 Corinthians 1:8).
Such was the trauma that he recalls: “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.” (v9)
So he begins his letter, possibly while in prison in Ephesus about 180 miles from Corinth. Clearly he is still very worried about his relationship with the church he had founded and he is determined to visit them in person.
And as he journeys overland towards them, so he writes to his fellow disciples in Corinth in fits and starts, a few lines here, some more at his next stop. He keeps picking up where he left off. Just like me, now.
The apostle is clearly anxious, dreading even meeting up with the members of the Corinthian church. “We have a sense in these clipped, tortured remarks that we are privy to a man’s inner feelings in a way paralleled in few ancient texts.” (page 306)
Eight-year-old Jack proudly walks in. A Chelsea supporter, he is wearing an Everton top especially for me!
But then in chapter 7, Paul reaches Macedonia, not far to go now. “The fights in the church and the fears in our hearts kept us on pins and needles.” (v5, the Message) Then Titus arrives with wonderful news.
“We were glad just to see him, but the true reassurance came in what he told us about you: how much you cared, how much you grieved, how concerned you were for me. I went from worry to tranquillity in no time!” (v7)
So the tone of the apostle’s writing abruptly changes. He is overjoyed and longs to meet up with his friends, “over the top with his celebration.”
Wright’s book strikes me as a hugely important exercise in understanding the apostle Paul, in understanding scripture. We need to place these writings in their context, to understand how they were written, not from the tranquillity of the university library but while on the move in a few snatched moments in a busy location. Often worried, usually stressed, occasionally lonely.
And often dictated at speed to some patient secretary (known in the trade as an amanuensis). This may well explain some changes in style and vocabulary.
As Wright himself explains: “Perhaps, indeed, that is what "holy scripture" really is — not a calm, serene list of truths to be learned or commands to be obeyed, but a jagged book that forces you to grow up in your thinking as you grapple with it.”(page 142)
May you grapple with God’s word this coming year.
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