City United Reformed Church
CHRISTMAS FOR ADULT CHRISTIANS
Session 6
In this session we will move away from the Gospels for a moment and think about the “Christmas” story in Paul. Remember that if Mark was the first of the four gospels, the writings of Paul came even earlier. Paul, like Mark, seems to no nothing about any miraculous birth story. His only reference to the birth of Jesus serves to emphasize his ordinary humanity (that’s what ‘born of a woman’ means as a proverbial statement in his way of speaking) in a passage that speaks of our rebirth, from slaves to “elemental spirits” (Nationalism? Consumerism? Racism? etc) to sons and daughters of God:
Galatians 4.4 ….When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. 6 And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. 9 Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?
You can compare this passage with Ephesians 2.11-14. As here Paul says we are no longer slaves but children of God, in Ephesians he says we are no longer strangers but members of God’s household. The experience of Christ changes us.
Although Paul knows neither the birth story nor the empty tomb story, a central theme in Paul’s writings is re-birth and resurrection, which later writers will write about in terms of the birth story and the empty tomb. Read through the following passages and think about how each one relates to this theme of re-birth.
1 Corinthians 15.8 Paul’s conversion is described as an experience of the resurrection (see also Galatians 1.15).
Philippians 3.3 Paul’s autobiographical story of his own (first!) birth
1 Corinthians 1.26 Our own (humble) birth
Romans 6.4-5 Baptism as dying and being re-born
Colossians 2.12 Baptism as death and resurrection
We don’t expect you to come to this course as an expert on Paul, or even to have read any of his letters through. We don’t expect you to plunge into the writings of Paul in depth. Maybe you have heard of the story of his conversion on the road to Damascus, though, or you have heard 1 Corinthians 13.1-13 read at weddings. Simply from the passages cited here, can you discern a repeated “figure in the carpet”, an on-going concern for Paul?
Pause for Thought
How does the Chrisdtmas story relate to the story of conversion? Does Paul have a Christmas Story? What is it? WHOSE is it? Yours? Christ’s? Both?
Again, feel free to write from your own experience, from the heart, or share with us the insights you have from your reading of Paul (or all the above). But keep it as brief as possible! Thanks!