Paul's Relational Leadership Training For The Early Church Session 1B of 5

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1 NOTE: This is an extension of Session 1A. As Session I was prepared, it became evident that Vss actually formed a common thought that needed to be grounded before going on. I believe you'll find this to be a meaty section. Enjoy the feast. Pastor Bill Kylee is a corresponding contributor. TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IHOP BIBLE STUDY # 1B 2 Timothy 1: 1 18, "I- Personal Exhortations to Timothy To Endure" with commentary. The purpose of the Second Letter to Timothy is to examine, "Paul's Relational Leadership Training For The Early Church." Today's study is the 1 st of 5 sessions According to our Study Chart 5 Sessions Paul's Relational Leadership Training For The Early Church Session 1B of 5 Join in suffering FOR THE GOSPEL By the power of God I - Personal Exhortations to Timothy To Endure Saved us God's purpose Holy Life Now revealed in X. Destroyed death Paul's claim to Brought life fame and immortality to light thru Gospel Paul suffers for this Gospel, and testifies to that of which he is convinced Vs. 8 Vs. 9 Vs. 10 Vs. 11 Vs. 12 Again, the IHOPer s found it helpful to begin our study in Section D in order to put these few verses in context. ABOUT THIS SCRIPTURE A. Vs. 8, Do a "Gut Trip Analysis (ask, "How do I experience this?") on the following: 1. The Gospel (Remember! "How do you experience this?") WS: The key that unlocks the term Gospel, is to remember that it represents Good News. The following diagram is a helpful rehearsal of our experience of the Good News.

2 We profess, confess that ALL IS GOOD and God makes no junk! The PAST is not only FORGIVEN but it is FORGOTTEN The FUTURE is OPEN! The PRESENT is RECEIVED as a Gift This diagram illustrates the Good News because we make the faith statement that All Is Good! When we live out of this model, then our PRESENT is a precious Gift to be Received, the Past is Forgotten, and the Future Open. This is Good News. This is what the Gospel is all about. Kylee: This is my favorite part of the bible because it is all about love. Whenever I get the urge to just read something from the Bible, that is what I like to read from because it is like a puzzle full of questions with answers that you have to work at to find. It makes me think and thinking is fun. I don't know, maybe that answer is too head-trippy. 2. The Power of God WS: In order to parse the statement The Power of God, it is necessary to split the phrase into its parts: Power and God. God is the Gut Trip experience of Perfect At-One-Ment; we live this dynamic as the humane and gracious life. Power is the dynamic that awakens us to this fulfillment. In this way, the Power of God is the experience of being awakened to live in At- One-Ment with everyone and with everything. Kylee: I can't really think of specific examples of how I experience the power of God. I guess I notice it most when something happens that could be filed under the "amazing coincidence" category except it is too amazingly complex to be a coincidence. I guess I could give some examples after all but now I am thinking of too many and don't know which one to pick. WS: Kylee, I d like to push your thinking at this point. One of the more common misunderstandings of God, or God s power, is that it represents something special. God s power always is experienced in the most ordinary ways, in fact in the least amazing coincidences. When we drive too fast on the Interstate, and we see the red light in our rearview mirror, we have experienced an awakening experience. When you see an

3 art student produce something that is transparent to the meaning of life, you have experienced the Power of God at work. It happens hundreds of times every day; it is ordinary. Does this help? B. Vs. 9, Do a "Gut Trip Analysis" on the following: 1. Saved us (From what and to what?) Kylee: Since we are "gut tripping", I HATE the word saved when used in a religious connotation. I like the word Grace better which is really what we are talking about here. I guess the reason it bothers me is because I have had numerous people ask me if I have been saved. Usually complete strangers! I never get the feeling that they care one way or another but that they would like to make another tally mark about the number of people they helped "bring to Jesus." (In Gut Trip Analysis, these people are right for all the wrong reasons. Living the Jesus life is wholesome and secular; God became secular in Jesus Christ! Nothing moralistic here.) Setting aside the negative connotation that I have and thinking of it more like when Superman says, "Don't worry, I will save you!"...if you need to be "saved" from something it would mean someone would have to give you assistance that you couldn't do for yourself. I am pretty independent and don't like to ask anyone for help but there have been a few occasions when someone has stepped in and helped me when it was an emergency situation and things happened so quick I didn't have time to ask for help. I guess Jesus is kind of like that. I don't want to equate Jesus with a comic book character, (Actually, I find it refreshing to think of Jesus as a comic book character; it may be more honest and real.) but really I guess that is kind of what grace is like. Oh...as for what we are saved from, I guess mainly separation from God and each other. (Separation from God is experienced as the antithesis of At-One- Ment.) WS: Kylee, you reflections are so entertaining. You resonant with Gut Trip Analysis because your reflections distance yourself from moral interpretations. Fantastic! Life is not a moral category, it always is an indicative category. We are saved from fulfilling our intended purpose. We are awakened to live the humane and gracious life. 2. If I was walking down the street and saw someone living the Holy Life what would I be seeing? Kylee: I guess I would see someone who was able to have positive relationships with those around him or her. This person would be happy I think because when you are fulfilling God's purpose and living life by fully being who you are, you are happy. WS: I m with Kylee! The Holy Life is nothing less than living the awakened life that we are at once created natural and humane. The IHOPers added the words hospitality, graciousness, and humane relationships. C. Vs. 10, Do a "Gut Trip Analysis" on the following: 1. God's purpose Kylee: Love God, Love your neighbor, Love yourself. WS: Kylee, you re pointing in the right direction. We do these things because God s purpose for us is the bring God praise. This is the traditional answer. When we pull it

4 through Gut Trip Analysis, we praise God when we fulfill out intended purpose of living the humane and gracious life working for justice and mercy. 2. How does Christ Jesus reveal God's purpose? Kylee: Jesus is all about loving God, loving neighbors, and loving yourself by making good choices. I think you will say something about goodness. To me goodness and love are the same. WS: Jesus demonstrates dieing to the barriers preventing him from living the authentic humane-ness which is a way of embracing the Christ-like life. Christ is not Jesus last name, rather it is a term that describes the experience of authenticity. Christ always is an awakening event! Like everything else in our Christian faith, it is best understood as a secular event. It is the like the red light in the rearview mirror. Also, it can experienced when we are held accountable (judgment). 3. What is the "death" Christ destroys? Kylee: Separation = Death. In education we see a lot of things that say Ignorance = Death. I think that is true also to a point. WS: Kylee is on to something here. The death that our awakening event destroys is as common as the experience of separation; this can be the anti-thesis of At-One-Ment; it is a healing. Ignorance is another form of death that is overcome through the Christ event of an Ah-Ha teaching moment. 4. What is the light and immortality to which Christ gives birth? Kylee: Light makes things visible. immortality means that it will live forever. Last time I said something about eternal life when we were talking on this subject and I was told I was thinking too chronologically. I don't know the correct answer I guess. WS: Sorry about that Kylee. I m afraid I was making a special point. The Bible Teacher at Kansas Wesleyan University makes the point that living forever is a chronological experience, while eternal life is the life that is lived with God. To live with God is to fulfill our intended purpose because only God is eternal. We enter our eternal experience when we live the awakened life. The terms eternal life and immortality mean the same thing. Does this help? 5. What is the part that the "Gospel" plays? Kylee: Through the message of Jesus these things are revealed (light) and made visible forever (immortality). WS: Again, the word Gospel represents our experience of the Good News. The BIG LESSON for today is that the Good News always is experienced in two ways. First it judges our wish dreams and illusions about what the abundant life really is. It is not something to which we can escape, and it doesn t change our circumstances or situations. If we have one leg and dream of having two that is an illusion that represents hopelessness. On the other hand, the Good News is that we can experience the transformation of ourselves from living with wish dreams to living in the only reality we ll ever have. One leggedness means we can choose to be the best one-legged dancer ever, or we can choose to be a one-legged grouch. Life victimizes us, but we have the

5 choice of living as victims or as victors. This is the Jesus Christ story. This is the Easter experience. My life is transformed. D. As indicated above, this is the place where the IHOPers began their study of this section. NOTE: Vss , plus Vs. 8, We began by asking, What is so offensive about Paul? 1. Why is Paul suffering for this Gospel, and what is his offense? Why have people abandoned him, put him in jail, and making him suffer? For what purpose? WS: To begin our conversation I used the story from the movie, Auntie Mame, She inherited immense wealth during the gold rush in Colorado and moved into Denver society as a diamond in the rough. One famous line in the film is when Mame comes down the central staircase in her Denver mansion to observe the elite of society not having much fun. She announces in her raucous-barroom voice, Life is a banquet, and you suckers are starving to death. The IHOPers then discussed the question, Why is what Aunty Mame says offensive? The conversation was quite lively around the point that Mame s comment was a judgment on society relationship to life, and this can be understood as the Good News. In the same way, Paul s message was a judgment on society. The Jews assumed that obedience to The Law was sufficient to be living life abundantly. Jesus demonstration was that it was necessary to die to The Law in order to live in freedom. Paul practiced this same notion. Kylee: New ideas are dangerous. When people get a new idea, they become less predictable and when others follow them, they become unpredictable. They might change the whole world and make it different. This is too scary if you are comfortable with the way things are. The only solution is to separate the different person by putting them in jail or killing them...or...change their mind which is not always possible... or worse, you could change your mind. The first two options are easier. WS: Well, Kylee, you are on to something here. The struggle all of us face is to give a name to the unpredictable that changes obedience to freedom. 2. Why is Paul so confident in what he is doing that he can invite Timothy to suffer with him? The corrollary question is, Of what is Aunty Mame so assured that she can say a word of judgment as well as offer the hope of freedom to others? WS: Paul and Aunty Mame have embraced fulfilling their intended purpose, and they know the deep sense of satisfaction that comes from such fulfillment. At this point, the IHOPers reviewed how a Cow is a cow, or a Tree is a tree because it embraces its Is-Ness. Humans struggle with this because it is Mother Nature who makes us human and natural with all of our human propensities and our natural inclinations for self-preservation. However, God gives us a soul by which we transform our natural inclinations so that the result is living the humane and gracious life working for justice and mercy. Kylee: If you know you are right then it doesn't much matter what other people think if you are self confident.

6 WS: Kylee, again you are on to something, but the struggle continues to name the reason for their self-confidence. 3. In Vs. 12B, How can Paul be so certain? Of what is he convinced? How can Aunty Mame be so confident? Kylee: It seems Paul has put his trust in God and feels confident that he will be safe and everything is working together for a greater purpose. So his being incovenienced by being put in jail cannot stop his message. WS: Kylee is on to something in her statement that Paul and Aunty Mame put his trust in God. The question for Kylee is, If I was walking down the street and I saw you putting your trust in God, what would I be seeing? The Gut Trip Answer is that I would see you living life as a banquet. One of the IHOPers noted that John Wesley would understand this situation. And of course that is true, as would Luther, or any of the other of the giant personalities that came to similar conclusions. The same can be said for us too. The issue is to surrender everything, and this is the experience of glorification. Justification is the experience of awakening to the judgment of the Good News: life is a banquet and we are starving ourselves. Sanctification is the decision to embrace the Awakened Life and to learn and apply its lessons. Glorification is the decision to use all of my gifts and graces in service to this lesson, as well as all of my (excuse the phrase) asshole-ness. At this point it is possible to say that we have surrendered EVERYTHING and given it in service (in the Greek sense) to that which makes life meaningful, or in the Jewish sense, to that which is already filled with God. Remember, either way this is understood means the same thing. At this point it is necessary to parse the phrase, in service to that which makes life meaningful. Observe the following two images. One represents the Greek dualistic image that we learn to escape the Anti-thesis of At-One-Ment in order to find ourselves in synch, in congruence, with the MEANING OF LIFE. In the Jewish understanding living the Holy Life is living in the presence and breath of an inescapable God.

7 Greek Experience Jewish Experience Meaning MEANING G -O - D MEANINGLESSNESS Experience Christians escape Meaninglessness thru Baptism. We go into the waters and die to the things of this world, and rise up new born in synch with Meaning. Remember that these two diagrams represent the same thing. They are not two different realities. They represent one reality, but two perspectives. Jesus represents the Jewish perspective, and when Paul took Jesus perspective into a Greek/Roman world, he had to transliterate the Jewish experience into the dualism of the Greek Experience. WS: It is crucial to remember that living in synch, or in congruence, with our intended creation is experienced both as judgment and as grace. Judgment is the first experience because when we are not fulfilling our intended creation of living the humane and gracious life working for justice and mercy, then we experience the wrath of God. I reminded the IHOPers that My wife is the wrath of God, because when I m living a garbage life, Beverly is the one who loves me so much she is willing to tell me, Bill, when you act this way, you are no fun. Take out the garbage!. You see, Beverly is telling me the truth about my life, and while it is tough love, I experience it as judgment. Grace is the other aspect of living in congruence with our intended purpose. The experience of grace is that we are never let off the hook of being our intended purpose. It is what we are. Yes, we can go to sleep about our purpose, and we can deny it, but the reality is that we are our spiritual nature. Living the grace-full life is to live the humane existence. I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED Traditional Gospel Song I know not why God's wonderous grace to me God has made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for his own. Refrain: But, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that God is able To keep that which I've committed unto God against that day.

8 I know not how this saving faith to me God did impart, Nor how believing in God's Word wrought peace within my heart. I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing us of sin, Revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in him. I know not what of good or ill may be reserved for me, Or weary ways of golden days, before God's face I see. This song is reprinted by permission of the ICA Songbook publisher. Some words have been changed to reflect gender equality.