Comfortable beliefs or a shipwrecked faith?

This summer I went on holiday with the Apostle Paul. Well, sort of.

I went to the Mediterranean island of Malta where Paul in AD59, under arrest, was shipwrecked on his way to a trial before Caesar in Rome. The traumatic voyage is recorded in dramatic detail by Luke in Acts 28. 

It was the first time that I have ever been to a part of the world where any of the Bible ‘actually happened’.  Alongside this, I read Tom Wright’s brilliant biography of Paul. The combination had a big impact on me.

Hardline

Paul remains a controversial figure. My brother described him as ‘the Marmite Apostle’ in a previous G+T post and he he may not feature in many people’s fantasy dinner party guest list.

We may admire him, but we suspect that he was probably a bit hardline, argumentative and quite hard work. As Tom Wright’s says of the shipwreck narrative in Acts:

‘I think Luke intended this to be a positive portrait of Paul. That is not how it strikes me. He comes across as bossy.’

Also, Paul’s letters are not often used as a basis for social action. Despite writing incredible passages about love in 1 Corinthians 13 or Romans 12 and insisting on the priority of helping the poor (Galatians 2:10) these elements are often sidelined in common perception.

Action story

But this is why the book of Acts is so vital. It’s an action story of how the radical message about a crucified and resurrected carpenter/rabbi spread throughout the ancient world. Right under the nose of the mighty Roman Empire a revolution took place. 

Jesus’ unschooled Galilean followers, transformed by the Pentecostal spirit, made unlikely allies as the church grew. And the most unlikely of all was the fiercely zealous Pharisee Saul, a well-connected, educated urbanite, who had busily persecuted and killed Christians. Saul would became Paul, arguably the most successful ‘public intellectual’ of all time.

As Tom Wright explains, in comparison to other ancient intellectuals, Paul wrote comparatively little. His combined works in translation take up less than 80 pages, shorter than almost any one of Plato’s dialogues or Aristotle’s treatises. Yet no ancient writer’s written works have been so studied and so influential. As Wright puts it:

‘It is as though eight or ten small paintings by an obscure artist were to become more sought after, more studied and copied, more highly valued than all the Rembrandts and Titians and the Monets and Van Goghs in the world.’

Activist

But the book of Acts shows that we should never disconnect Paul’s ‘academic’ theology from his missionary activism. We should read Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians knowing it was at Ephesus where his challenge to the socio-economic status quo caused a major riot.

Time and again, Acts shows Paul experiencing opposition, violence and imprisonment to share what believed about Jesus. His letters are ‘texts’ that need to be read in the ‘context’ of his life. As Wright says:

‘What he said about Jesus, and about God, the world, and what it meant to be genuinely human, was creative and compelling – and controversial – in his day and ever after. Nothing would ever be quite the same again.’

Remote
Early last Sunday morning, I walked for two hours around Malta’s coastline to St Paul’s Islands. It was both beautiful and blustery. The strong winds helped me appreciate the driving storm that Paul’s ship was destroyed by.

The St Paul’s Islands are relatively remote with nothing but a lone statue to commemorate the apostle. The stark location stands in contrast to Malta’s ostentatiously gilded churches and reminded me of the danger and risks Paul faced. No one knows for sure, but its probable that Paul was on his way to execution in Rome. Wright says:

‘His life’s work has been to bear witness, openly and unhindered, to the kingdom of God and the lordship of Jesus…loving this One God with his heart, his mind, and his strength. And, finally, with his life.’

Challenging commitment

Paul’s utter commitment to Christ challenges me.  His brilliant mind did not stay safely in religious discussions and theological seminars. He took risks, stood up for what he believed, argued his case and took blows and persecutions. And this fusion of intellect and activism helped transform the ancient world.

As I stood in on that coast, I imagined Paul clinging to the wreckage of his ship in tempestuous seas and my favourite of his words (also written from prison) came alive in a fresh way:

‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.’ (Philippians 3: 10)

This is the desire that took Paul to Malta. This is the ‘knowledge’ that Jesus calls us to. Our theology needs to be lived.  Beliefs only become faith when they put into action.

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Buy Paul: a Biography by Tom Wright (SPCK)