Podcasts about Thecla

Have you ever felt intimidated by theological conversations? Today, we talked to Dr. Amy Brown Hughes about the role of dialogue in generating theology in the early church. Famous theologians like Methodius, Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine published conversations with others, including prominent women in their lives, such as Thecla, Macrina and Monica. Amy argues that theology was not an elite genre or closed discussion then – nor should it be so today! She thoughtfully engages with many issues surrounding our engagement with God and invites us to enter into theology as a hospitable conversation. We'd encourage you to listen and discover aspects of the patristic period that may surprise and challenge your preconceptions – and then come join the dialogue in the classroom from July 14-18 at Regent.BioDr. Amy Brown Hughes is an Associate Professor of Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. She earned her Ph.D. in historical theology with an emphasis in early Christianity from Wheaton College in 2013. Dr. Hughes specializes in early Christianity, focusing on Trinitarian and Christological thought, theological anthropology, and the role of women in early Christian history. She co-authored the book Christian Women in the Patristic World with Lynn H. Cohick. We're excited that Amy will be joining us at Regent from July 14-18 to teach a class on Theology as Dialogue in Early Christianity. Summer Listener SurveyPlease fill out our Listener Survey before the end of July for the opportunity to win a $100 Regent College Bookstore Gift Card.Regent College Podcast Thanks for listening. Please like, rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice and share this episode with a friend. Follow Us on Social Media Facebook Instagram Youtube Keep in Touch Regent College Summer Programs Regent College Newsletter

Thecla's Mantra from the words of Megan Watterson in the Divine Feminine Oracle guidebook: 'I call my powerback from all times and all places.  I am my own.' Listen. Let it ACTIVATE and REMIND you of who you are... In humble acceptance,  Angela

The Acts of Paul & Thecla & the Gospel of Mary by Teresa Bowen

A new MP3 sermon from Alpha and Omega Ministries is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Story Time with Uncle Jimmy: The Acts of Paul and Thecla Subtitle: The Dividing Line 2025 Speaker: Dr. James White Broadcaster: Alpha and Omega Ministries Event: Podcast Date: 3/26/2025 Length: 95 min.

As promised on today's program I read through The Acts of Paul and Thecla, commented on the Orthodox veneration of Thecla as a saint and "equal of the Apostles," and what we can learn about the context of the origination of this apocryphal mythology from the second century. By the way, here is the article I mentioned from the OCA website about Thecla.

In the inaugural live stream of the class Paul the Pharisee: Faith and Politics in a Divided World, John Dominic Crossan joins me to dig into the radical historical Paul. Crosson argues for the importance of understanding Paul within the context of the historical Jesus, despite Paul's often radical and misunderstood teachings. We explore topics like Paul's controversial stance on gender and slavery, backed by textual analysis, and the influence of his letters within early Christian communities. The session also discusses the story of Thecla as an archetype of Paul's radical vision and how these narratives have been reshaped to fit different sociopolitical contexts. Questions from participants help flesh out the complexities around Paul's portrayal in the New Testament and subsequent interpretations. To access all 5 of Crossan's lectures, submit questions, and join future live streams, head here to join the class. John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Historical Jesus, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, God and Empire, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Greatest Prayer, The Last Week, and The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida. Previous Podcast Episodes with Dom & Tripp Ask JC Anything Diana Butler Bass & John Dominic Crossan: The Resurrection of Jesus Brian McLaren & John Dominic Crossan: The Message of Jesus & the Judgement of Civilization Brian Zahnd & John Dominic Crossan: God, Violence, Empire, & Salvation Why the Biblical Paul is Awesome Christian Resurrection & Human Evolution The Cross & the Crisis of Civilization The Coming Kingdom & the Risen Christ The Parables of Jesus & the Parable of God How to think about Jesus like a Historian the Last Week of Jesus' Life Jesus, Paul, & Bible Questions Saving the Biblical Christmas Stories the most important discovery for understanding Jesus The Bible, Violence, & Our Future Resurrecting Easter on the First Christmas   From Jesus' Parables to Parables of God  Render Unto Caesar on God & Empire Join Dom Crossan at ...Theology Beer Camp | St. Paul, MN | October 16-18, 2025 3 Days of Craft Nerdiness with 50+ Theologians & God-Pods and 600 new friends. A Five-Week Online Lenten Class w/ John Dominic Crossan Join us for a transformative 5-week Lenten journey on "Paul the Pharisee: Faith and Politics in a Divided World."This course examines the Apostle Paul as a Pharisee deeply engaged with the turbulent political and religious landscape of his time. Through the lens of his letters and historical context, we will explore Paul's understanding of Jesus' Life-Vision, his interpretation of the Execution-and-Resurrection, and their implications for nonviolence and faithful resistance against empire. Each week, we will delve into a specific aspect of Paul's theology and legacy, reflecting on its relevance for our own age of autocracy and political turmoil. . For details and to sign-up for any donation, including 0, head over here. _____________________ Hang with 40+ Scholars & Podcasts and 600 people at Theology Beer Camp 2025 (Oct. 16-18) in St. Paul, MN. This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 80,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 45 classes at www.TheologyClass.com Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating yet problematic world of hagiography through the lens of The Acts of Paul and Thecla. Who was Thecla, and why has her story captivated Christian imagination for centuries? We'll explore the origins of her legend, the glaring historical and theological errors in the text, and how her tale became a cornerstone of ascetic devotion in the Eastern Church. From miraculous self-baptism to 72 years in a cave, Thecla's story is equal parts inspiring and misleading. Join us as we examine why truth matters in both faith and practice and discuss the dangers of treating religious storytelling as historical fact. Title: Thecla, the Saint Who Never Existed Date: AD 47 - ? Place: Iconium, Antioch, Seleucia Key Figures and Events: Thecla, Paul. Contact: churchhistoryandtheology@proton.me Want to Support the Show? If you'd like to help cover hosting costs, development, and general support of the show, you can do so here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/churchhistory License: Church History and Theology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For full license details, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Under this license, you are free to download, copy, share, remix, and translate episodes. You must credit Church History and Theology, link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. These materials may not be used for commercial purposes.

Er zijn te weinig huizen en bijbouwen kan niet zomaar. Het stroomnet piept en kraakt. Er is te veel stikstof en zelfs een rioolaansluiting is niet langer vanzelfsprekend. Overal loopt Nederland tegen de grenzen op van wat kan. Het is dan ook niet gek om te denken dat Nederland vastzit. Dat we niet meer vooruitkomen en maar wat doormodderen en mopperen. Zonder echt iets te bereiken. Maar klopt dat sombere beeld? Zijn we niet vooral bezig om onszelf allerlei crises aan te praten?  Dat onderzoeken FD-journalisten Bert van Dijk en Pieter Couwenbergh in de nieuwe podcastserie van het FD. Ze praten met Marcel Levi, Henri Bontenbal, Thecla Bodewes, Margriet Sitskoorn en Robert-Jan Smits over de vraag of Nederland is vastgelopen en hoe het weer verder moet.   In deze aflevering is Thecla Bodewes te gast. Zij is eigenaar van vier scheepswerven en boegbeeld van de sector water, een belangrijke bedrijventak voor Nederland met ondernemingen als Boskalis en Van Oord. Met haar bespreken Van Dijk en Couwenbergh waarom bedrijven weg dreigen te gaan uit Nederland en wat de overheid daar volgens haar aan kan doen.  ---------------------------------------------- Redactie en montage: Bert van Dijk, Pieter Couwenbergh, Jildou Beiboer en Anna de Haas Eindredactie: Anna Dijkman Muziek: Visionair Ordinair ----------------------------------------------See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

fWotD Episode 2635: Thekla (daughter of Theophilos) Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 22 July 2024 is Thekla (daughter of Theophilos).Thekla (Greek: Θέκλα; early 820s or 830s – after 870), Latinized as Thecla, was a princess of the Amorian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. The daughter and eldest child of Byzantine emperor Theophilos and empress Theodora, she was proclaimed augusta in the late 830s. After Theophilos's death in 842 and her mother becoming regent for Thekla's younger brother Michael III, Thekla was associated with the regime as co-empress alongside Theodora and Michael.Thekla was deposed by Michael III, possibly alongside her mother, in 856 and consigned to a convent in Constantinople. Some time later, she allegedly returned to imperial affairs and became the mistress of Michael III's friend and co-emperor Basil I. After Basil murdered Michael in 867 and took power as the sole emperor, Thekla was neglected as his mistress and she took another lover, John Neatokometes. Once Basil found out about the affair, Thekla fell out of favor, was beaten and had her property confiscated.Thekla was born on an uncertain date, as calculating her date of birth depends on the year her parents married, estimated to be either c. 820/821, or 830. Thus she was born in either the early 820s or the early 830s. The historian Warren Treadgold gives her a birth date of c. 831, and the historian Juan Signes Codoñer of spring 822. She is presented by contemporary sources as the eldest child of Byzantine emperor Theophilos and empress Theodora; but, some historians, such as John Bagnell Bury and Ernest Walter Brooks, have argued that her sister Maria was the eldest on the basis that she is the only one of the daughters to have been engaged, and generally the eldest married first. She was named after Theophilos's mother, Thekla. Thekla had six siblings: the four sisters Anna, Anastasia, Pulcheria, and Maria, whom Theophilos took great pride in, and the two brothers Constantine and Michael. Constantine, who shortly after birth had been proclaimed co-emperor by their father, drowned in a palace cistern as an infant.In the 830s, the eldest sisters Thekla, Anna, and Anastasia were all proclaimed augustae, an honorific title sometimes granted to women of the imperial family. This event was commemorated through the issue of an unusual set of coins that depicted Theophilos, Theodora, and Thekla on one side and Anna and Anastasia on the other. Although Theophilos was a staunch iconoclast, and thus opposed the veneration of icons, Thekla was taught to venerate them in secret by her mother and Theophilos's step-mother Euphrosyne. Theophilos built a palace for Thekla and her sisters at ta Karianou. Shortly before his death, Theophilos worked to betroth Thekla to Louis II, the heir to the Carolingian Empire, to unite the two empires against the threat they faced from continued Arab invasions. Such a match would also have been advantageous for Louis II's father Lothair I, who was engaged in a civil war against his brothers. Because of Lothair's defeat at the Battle of Fontenoy in 841 and Theophilos's death in 842, the marriage never happened.After Theophilos's death on 20 January 842, Empress Theodora became regent for Thekla's young brother, the three-year-old Michael III. In practical terms, Theodora ruled in her own right and is often recognized as an empress regnant by modern scholars, although the eunuch Theoktistos held much power. Coins issued in the first year of Theodora's reign depict Theodora alone on the obverse and Michael III together with Thekla on the reverse. The only one of the three given a title is Theodora (as Theodora despoina, "the Lady Theodora"). Thekla was associated with imperial power as co-empress alongside Theodora and Michael; this reality is indicated by her depiction in coins, where she is shown as larger than Michael. An imperial seal, also from Theodora's early reign, titles not only Michael but also Theodora and Thekla as "Emperors of the Romans". This may suggest that Theodora viewed her daughter, just as she did her son, as a potential future heir. The numismatist Philip Grierson comments that dated documents from the time of the coins' minting prove that she was "formally associated with Theodora and Michael in the government of the Empire." However, the historian George Ostrogorsky states that Thekla does not appear to have been interested in government affairs. Thekla fell heavily ill in 843, and is said to have been cured later by visiting the Theotokos monastery in Constantinople; for curing Thekla, Theodora issued a chrysobull to the monastery.On 15 March 856, Theodora's reign officially ended with Michael III being proclaimed sole emperor. In 857 or 858 Theodora was expelled from the imperial palace and confined to a convent in Gastria, in Constantinople; the monastery had been converted from a house by her maternal grandmother, Theoktiste, likely during the reign of Theophilos. Thekla and the other sisters were either expelled and placed in the same convent at the same time, or had already been there for some time. Whether they were ordained as nuns is uncertain: they may have actually been ordained, or it may only have been intended. In one version of the narrative, they were confined to the palace at ta Karianou in November 858, possibly in a semi-monastical setting. Another version claims they were immediately placed in the Monastery of Gastria. The most common narrative states that Theodora was confined to the monastery with Pulcheria, while Thekla, and her other sisters Anna and Anastasia, were first kept at the palace at ta Karianou, but shortly thereafter moved to the Monastery of Gastria and shorn as nuns. Theodora may have been released from the convent around 863. According to the tradition of Symeon Logothete, a 10th-century Byzantine historian, Thekla was also released and used by Michael III to attempt to make a political deal. He states that in around 865, Michael had married his long-time lover Eudokia Ingerina to his friend and co-emperor Basil I, in order to mask the continued relationship of Michael and Eudokia. Some historians, such as Cyril Mango, believe that Michael did so after impregnating Eudokia, to ensure that the child would be born legitimate. However, Symeon's neutrality is disputed, and other contemporary sources do not speak of this conspiracy, leading several prominent Byzantists, such as Ostrogorsky and Nicholas Adontz to dismiss this narrative.According to Symeon, Michael also offered Thekla to Basil as a mistress, perhaps to keep his attention away from Eudokia, a plan which Thekla had allegedly consented to. Thus Thekla, who Treadgold states was 35 at the time, became Basil's mistress in early 866, according to Symeon's narrative. The historian William Greenwalt speculates on the reasons that drove Thekla to agree to this relationship: resentment for having been unmarried for so long, Basil's imposing physical stature, or political gain. After Basil murdered Michael III in 867 and seized power for himself, Symeon further writes that Thekla then became neglected and took another lover, John Neatokometes, sometime after 870. When Basil found out about the affair, he had John beaten and consigned to a monastery. Thekla was also beaten and her considerable riches were confiscated. Mango, who supports the theory of the alleged affairs, commented that Basil would already have had good reason to dislike Neatokometes, as the man had attempted to warn Michael of his impending murder, but believes the best explanation for Basil's response is that "Thekla had previously occupied some place in his life", as a mistress. The De Ceremoniis, a 10th-century Byzantine book on courtly protocol and history, states that she was buried in the Monastery of Gastria, where she had been confined earlier, in a sarcophagus with her mother and her sisters Anastasia and Pulcheria.Codoñer, Juan Signes (2016) [2014]. The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829–842: Court and Frontier in Byzantium during the Last Phase of Iconoclasm. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7546-6489-5.Garland, Lynda (1999). Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527–1204. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-14688-7.Greenwalt, William S. (2002). "Thecla". In Commire, Anne (ed.). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 15: Sul–Vica. Waterford: Yorkin Publications. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3.Grierson, Philip (1973). Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, 3: Leo III to Nicephorus III, 717–1081. Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. ISBN 978-0-88402-045-5.Herrin, Judith (2002) [2001]. Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-529-X.Herrin, Judith (2013). Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium. Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15321-6.Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (ODB). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (1998–2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.Mango, Cyril (1973). "Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty". Zbornika Radova Vizantoloskog Instituta. 14–15. ISSN 0584-9888.Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-813-51198-6.Ringrose, Kathryn M. (2008). "Women and Power at the Byzantine Court". In Walthall, Anne (ed.). Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520254435.Treadgold, Warren (1975). "The Problem of the Marriage of the Emperor Theophilus". Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 16: 325–341. ISSN 2159-3159.Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2630-6.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Monday, 22 July 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Thekla (daughter of Theophilos) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Ayanda.

Days of Noah II - Cities Under Siege | Pastor RJ Ciaramitaro, Pastor Larry Loewen and Thecla Moore by Windsor Christian Fellowship

In this week's episode, recorded after Star Wars Day and before Drake's "The Heart Part 6" dropped, we discuss the three-day, five-track verbal war between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, the first season of the "Sandman" spinoff series "Dead Boy Detectives", the third and final season of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" and the second season of "Star Wars: Tales" ('Tales of the Empire'), in addition to celebrating the 25th anniversary of "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace". Matthew Bailey on Social Media, my Fiverr gigs (MUSIC, MUSIC VIDEO & SHORT FILM REVIEWS) and where you can hear the BBB Radio podcast - https://linktr.ee/beersbeatsandbailey Ricardo Medina on Social Media https://facebook.com/ricardo.medina.7169 Music by Coma-Media (pixabay.com) Thanks for listening! RIP Susana 'Thecla' John

New episode up with Natalie Perkins talking to us about finding wisdom for everyday life from books like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, The Acts of Paul and Thecla ... and more - ENJOY! ❤️

In this conversation, Dr. Sandra Glahn, Dr. George Kalantzis, and Christine Calareso Bleecker discuss the stories of women in the Bible and extra-biblical content. They explore the lives of Anna in the temple and Elizabeth, as well as the concept of virginity in Christianity. They also delve into the stories of young women martyrs and the virtue and courage they displayed. The conversation highlights the power of God in the lives of these women from all walks of life and age groups as well as the lessons we can learn from their stories.Key Takeaways:The stories of women in the Bible and extra-biblical content provide inspiration and lessons for Christians today.The concept of virginity in Christianity is not solely about physical purity but also about consecration and devotion to God.The stories of young women martyrs demonstrate incredible courage and faith in the face of persecution.The power of God is evident in the lives of these women, empowering them to stand against societal norms and proclaim their faith.Visual Museum of Women in ChristianityThe purpose of this collaborative project is to create a curated, permanent visual exhibit of women in the history, ministry, and piety of early, Byzantine, and medieval Christianity that will be available online for researchers, educators, and interested laypersons. The goal of this multi-year project is to make the visual record of women in ministry and leadership available free of charge and unencumbered by permission requirements, and to include short teaching elements to guide the audience through the constitutive and pivotal role of women throughout Christian history. Together with the visual story, the accompanying narrative will make it possible for patrons to learn about women throughout history and across the globe and their unique contributions to the life and faith of the church… A history that remains mostly untold. Follow the Visual Museum on Social Media:Instagram: visualmuseum.galleryFacebook: visualmuseum.galleryTwitter: visual_museumTikTok: visualmuseum.galleryYouTube: @VisualMuseum Episode Sponsor: The Alabaster Jar is brought to you by The Center for Women in Leadership, a newly formed 501©3 nonprofit organization whose purpose is to equip women in a context that is biblically rooted, theologically robust, and ethnically diverse to thrive as leaders in the academy and the Church. Follow them on Instagram @leadershipwithoutapology . Learn more about The Center for Women in Leadership at: https://www.leadershipwithoutapology.org/ .

In this conversation, Dr. George Kalantzis and Dr. Amy Brown Hughes join Dr. Lynn Cohick to discuss the figure of Thecla and the concept of virginity in early Christianity. They explore the significance of Thecla's story and its impact on the development of Christianity as well as the theological and social implications of virginity, including the redefinition of power dynamics and the assertion of agency. They also discuss the eschatological dimension of virginity, its connection to resurrection, and how individuals can live into the virtue of virginity in their own lives.Key Takeaways: The physicality and materiality of Christian worship were central to the ancient Christian faith, emphasizing the importance of the body and the belief in resurrection.Virginity in early Christianity wasn't primarily understood from a sexual standpoint but rather a position of power and bodily agency.To pursue virginity as a virtue was a deeply political act that was revolutionary for women during the time of the early church.Visual Museum of Women in ChristianityThe purpose of this collaborative project is to create a curated, permanent visual exhibit of women in the history, ministry, and piety of early, Byzantine, and medieval Christianity that will be available online for researchers, educators, and interested laypersons.The goal of this multi-year project is to make the visual record of women in ministry and leadership available free of charge and unencumbered by permission requirements, and to include short teaching elements to guide the audience through the constitutive and pivotal role of women throughout Christian history. Together with the visual story, the accompanying narrative will make it possible for patrons to learn about women throughout history and across the globe and their unique contributions to the life and faith of the church…A history that remains mostly untold.Follow the Visual Museum on Social Media:Instagram: visualmuseum.galleryFacebook: visualmuseum.galleryTwitter: visual_museumTikTok: visualmuseum.galleryYouTube: @VisualMuseumEpisode Sponsor: The Alabaster Jar is brought to you by The Center for Women in Leadership, a newly formed 501©3 nonprofit organization whose purpose is to equip women in a context that is biblically rooted, theologically robust, and ethnically diverse to thrive as leaders in the academy and the Church. Follow them on Instagram @leadershipwithoutapology. Learn more about The Center for Women in Leadership at: https://www.leadershipwithoutapology.org/.

Samen met zijn vrouw Thecla is Benno Graas wereldreiziger en avonturier. Wanneer het in 2020 weer begint te kriebelen verhuren ze hun huis en zegt Benno zijn baan op. Hun doel? Via de Balkan, langs de zijderoute naar Mongolië rijden op de motor, hun geliefde Royal Enfield die Benno kent als zijn broekzak. Maar alles liep anders. Het resultaat van deze bijzondere reis is nu te lezen in het boek 'Dwaalgasten van de Amoer' en Benno geeft vele lezingen over zijn reizen. Eerder reisde het stel al door Zuid-Amerika en Afrika waar ook boeken over verschenen. Aanstaande vrijdag, 26 januari, is er om 19.45 uur een openbare lezing bij motorclub Mozamo aan de Wezelstraat 17 in Koog aan de Zaan. In de Orkaan podcast is Benno te gast bij Edwin Kleiss, ze reizen even terug naar het bos waar het koppel drie maanden verbleef toen Covid uitbrak en de grenzen sloten. Daar werden ze langzaam één met het bos. 'Opeens stonden we oog in oog met een wolf. Ook andere dieren kwamen langzamerhand steeds dichterbij.'

The lion! A symbol of sovereignty, regality, solar power, and bravery, associated with kings of all kinds. These are the primary associations we call up, when asked to contemplate the lion in all his golden glory, but upon a closer look, the lion holds more than meets the eye. At the beginning of a new calendar year, there is as much potential for hope as there is exhaustion. We can connect with the symbol of the lion as a reminder of our innate courage, fortitude, and sovereignty. Join us as we explore the big cat's connection to kings and goddesses, to the Strength card in the tarot and the Leo constellation, green and red lions in alchemy, the lion's appearance in the myths of heroes like Hercules as well as the famous feminine apostle Thecla, to deepen our understanding of what this creature conjures in our imaginations. May we all step into our own brave, leonine selves as we being a new year. LinksEnroll in Mariana's new course, Tarot and ShadowSubscribe to Cristina's new SubstackShare Your Dream Symbol With Us!Advertise With Us!Special thanks to this episode's ad parter: The Jung Archademy

Psalm 23:6. | Thecla of Iconium/Ember Day September 2023 meditations are written by Jodi Belcher and recorded by Nia McKenney.   Forward Day by Day is published and produced by Forward Movement. Explore our other podcasts, books, and blogs at forwardmovement.org

Our Bible Bonus Tracks series wraps up with the lesser known "Acts of Paul and Thecla" - an apocryphal religious romance of the Apostle Paul's influence on a young virgin named Thecla. New Testament scholar, Anna Rebecca Solevag, walks us through this obscure, but endlessly fascinating, early Christian text.To listen to all the other QuoirCast podcasts, head over to quoir.comTo purchase Kevin Sweeney's book, click here!

In this episode, we discuss our first impressions of the apocrypha–both the texts that come from the Greek Old Testament that some Christians hold as canon Scripture (such as Sirach, Judith, or 1 Maccabees) and the early Christian texts that did not get canonized in the New Testament (such as several strange Infancy Gospels, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla). These texts serve as a reminder that the history of the Christian tradition has always been varied and contested and never as simple as our youth pastors made it out to be. There's so much more to explore, but we hope this introduction encourages you to go and learn more. The YouTube video Anna mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idqPwX1XQOg  All the Apocrypha we read can either be found in an online Bible that includes the Greek Old Testament apocrypha or by searching Google for the non-canonical Christian text. We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop  Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you're looking for more resources, that's a great place to start!

Eruch Jessawalla - Jan 4, 1996

Saint Paul's letters show women playing leading roles in the earliest Christian communities. Yet, by the fourth century, women's ministry was very limited. Why?In the Roman Empire, women's roles were limited by the expectation that their speech was domestic. If it was inappropriate for women to speak in public, they could not be priests or bishops. However, this lecture will reveal how some Christian women subverted these conventions to become preachers and teachers.A lecture by Morwenna Ludlow recorded on 5 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-christianityGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Generosity // Effective Habits | Pastors RJ & Scott & Thecla

Welcome to Full Moon in Leo and a time of playfulness and heart-centered living.  As we experience the ripeness of this full moon we may experience that certain things in our lives are also ready to be harvested and enjoyed. After all, it's the heart that knows what is best. I included 2 card readings: Card 1 - Mary Magdalene: 7:11 Card 2 - Thecla: 16:31   Resources (affiliate links): Oracle Card Deck: Goddess Power Oracle by Colette Baron Reid:  https://amzn.to/393QERC Connect with me on: Instagram: @nadinekuehnholistic Facebook: @nadinekuehnholistic Pinterest: @shehealsher Website: www.shehealsher.com Inquiries & Collabs:  Email: collab@shehealsher.com   Love, Nadine   Related Episodes: 161: The River of Change - New Moon in Leo & August Energies - New Moon Musings 160: Full Moon in Capricorn & Extended Card Readings - Full Moon Musings 157: The Art of Self-Pleasure 153: 100 Things - An Uplifting Daily Practice 148: Body Dysmorphia - My Healing Transformation 121: Boost Your Confidence & Let Your Feminine Lead (Solo) 111: It's Okay to Ask for Help - Self Love Sundays 108: 10 Self Care Practices Everyone Can Do - Self Love Sundays 107: The Art of Crying & Why Softness Is Your Strength - Self Love Sundays 104: The Power Of Our Words - Self Love Sundays 101: Making Time For Meditation - Self Love Sundays 091: On Self-Protection - Self Love Sundays 086: Fill Your Own Cup First - Self Love Sundays 084: Time For Beauty Sleep - Self Love Sundays 080: Be Unapologetically You - Self Love Sundays 078: 5 Ways To Maintain Your Energy - Self Love Sundays 075: Show Up For Yourself No Matter What - Self Love Sundays 073: Embodiment Ritual for Balance, Vitality & Self-Acceptance - Self Love Sundays 068: Date Yourself First - Self Love Sundays 155: Full Moon in Sag Energies & Card Readings, Full Moon Musings 154: June Energies & Card Readings 151: New Moon in Aries & Card Reading - New Moon Musings 145: 2022 Energies & New Moon in Capricorn - New Moon Musings 140: Full Moon in Aries & Goddess Card Reading - Full Moon Musings 137: Full Moon in Pisces & Card Reading - Full Moon Musings 136: Blue Moon Musings & Goddess Card Reading 135: Lion's Gate, New Moon in Leo & Card Reading - New Moon Musings 133: Full Moon Musings - Full Moon in Aquarius - Energy Reading & Card Reading 131: New Moon in Cancer, Energies & Card Reading - New Moon Musings 130: 130: New Moon in Gemini & Solar Eclipse & Card Reading - New Moon Musings 127: SuperMoon in Sagittarius & Total Lunar Eclipse & Energy Reading - Full Moon Musings 126: How Applying Dr. Joe Dispenza's Formula Changed My Life prt. 2 049: How Applying Dr. Joe Dispenza's Formula Has Shifted My Life & Spiritual Practice (Solo) 123: The 555 Portal - Great Opportunities & Personal Growth 122: Supermoon in Scorpio & Energy Reading - Full Moon Musings 118: New Moon in Aries & Energy Update April & Reading - New Moon Musings  116: Supermoon in Libra, Energy Update & Reading - Full Moon Musings  112: Full Moon Musings - Full Moon in Virgo - Inner & Outer Cleanse 105: Full Moon Musings - Go Big for Your Dreams - Full Moon in Leo 104: The Power Of Our Words - Self Love Sundays 103: Moon Musings, Personal Update & Believing In Miracles 102: It's All a Matter of Perspective - Self Love Sundays 098: Full Moon Musings - Full Moon in Cancer & Building a Strong Emotional Foundation 092: New Moon Musings - New Moon in Sagittarius & Total Solar Eclipse, Current Energies & Big Shift 089: Full Moon Musings - Full Moon in Gemini, Partial Lunar Eclipse 084: Time For Beauty Sleep - Self Love Sundays 083: New Moon Musings - New Moon in Scorpio: Unravelling; Manifesting Heart's Desires; Time for Self-Pleasure & Deep Connection 077: Full Moon Musings - Samhain/Halloween, Full Moon in Taurus, Magick, Ancestors, Goddess Invocation 073: Embodiment Ritual for Balance, Vitality & Self-Acceptance - Self Love Sundays 020: The Basics Of Astrology - How Your Natal Chart Can Help You Understand Who You Are with Joyce Mordoh

During the middle of the 2nd century, Paul was resuced from the Marcionites and Gnostics. He was elevated from honoured missionary to master theologian. I also discuss the Acts of Paul and his acolyte Thecla.

Thecla is someone that most of us would never have heard of, yet during her time, it seems she was a figure more popular than the Virgin Mary.

Thecla is someone that most of us would never have heard of, yet during her time, it seems she was a figure more popular than the Virgin Mary.

Beide willen ze duurzame shortsea schepen bouwen. Voor nu ligt een diesel-elektrische voortstuwing voor de hand, maar het spraakmakende duo laat tijdens de podcast alle duurzame opties passeren. De shortsea vloot is verouderd en dus moet er veel worden nieuwgebouwd de komende jaren. Dat is al flink terug te zien in de cijfers van de afgelopen jaren. Noord-Nederland heeft het druk met de bouw van innovatieve shortsea schepen. Laat je inspireren door de ideeën en visie van scheepsbouwer Thecla Bodewes, DGA bij Thecla Bodewes Shipyards en boegbeeld van de Topsector Water & Maritiem en door Johan Boomsma, directeur van Boomsma Shipping. NMT's Sectormanager Arnold de Bruijn leidt het gesprek. Stream snel de Podcast via de link hieronder, of zoek hem op in Apple Podcasts of Spotify!

Welcome to The Legendary Bullet series of the Ride Pure podcast. In this second episode, Gordon May speaks to Dutch round-the-world Bullet adventurer, Benno Graas. Accompanied by his wife, Thecla, as pillion, Benno has ridden his 1982 350 Bullet over 580,000 KM, mostly towing a purpose-built trailer. Their epic journeys include over one year of riding through Africa as well as extended trips around South and North America and Eastern Europe Unveiled 90 years ago in 1932, the legendary Bullet has stood the test of time as a sports bike, a trials bike, a commuter, a vehicle for exploration, the basis of tens of thousands of custom builds, and an ally of the armed forces. In India, it has been the king of the road since 1955 and unquestionably laid solid foundations for Royal Enfield as we know it today. In recognition of its unprecedented endurance as the "longest motorcycle model in continuous production", we will talk to people to whom the Bullet means everything over the coming months. They are explorers; restorers and mechanics; customisers and members of the Bullet riding community. If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to like, add us to your favorites, or even leave a review. Please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts to ensure you don't miss any future episodes. If you have ideas and suggestions for future episodes, do get in touch by email - ridepure@royalenfield.com. And do make sure you join us for the next Ride Pure podcast. Until then, we wish you great roads and safe riding.

Daily commemoration of the Great Feasts and the lives of the saints of the Orthodox Church.

Luke 4:32. | Thecla of Iconium/Ember Day September 2022 meditations are written by Lynn Jordal Martin and recorded by Ellie Singer.   Forward Day by Day is published and produced by Forward Movement. Explore our other podcasts, books, and blogs at forwardmovement.org

SAINT THECLA l PATRON SAINT OF TARRAGONA IN CATALONIA, SPAIN Feast Day – September 23 The persecution of Christians during the first years of Christianity was so severe that it produced many martyrs and saints. Among them was St. Thecla, a young noble virgin born, in 30 A.D. at Iconium, Konya,(now Turkey), who became Paul's close follower. She was a lovely but very brave girl. She listened to Paul's discourses and her favorite was Paul's sermon on “virginity” which led her to distance herself from her fiancé'. Thecla listened to Paul for three days and was convinced to follow Paul's teaching which says: “one must fear only one God and live in chastity.” Her fiance' and her mother, noticing her great attraction towards virginity accused her to the pagan authorities and Thecla was about to be burned at stake for being a Christian. But she was miraculously saved when a sudden storm came. She then escaped, disguised as a boy and travelled with Paul to Antioch of Pisidia. Being beautiful, Thecla attracted the attention of a nobleman named Alexander. He attempted to rape her but she fought him tearing off his coronet from his head. For this she was put on trial for assault and was sentenced to be eaten by wild beasts, yet when she was thrown to the wild beasts she was protected by a female beast. Instead of eating her, the beast licked her lovingly and did her no harm. Thecla rejoined Paul in Myra. Following the example of Paul, she preached the word of God and encouraged women to imitate her in her practice of chastity. According to some early writers, she lived in a cave in Seleucia, Cilicia for many years, while she continued to preach. Later, she transferred to a village in Syria called Maaloula. Thecla was not only a preacher in those places, but she became a healer, helping the poor and the abandoned and performed many miracles. Some pagans often accused her for being a Christian and she was always persecuted everywhere she went. Yet the Lord protected her. An ancient story says that while she was in her cave, her persecutors tried to get her. She prayed to God and the entrance of the cave was closed, to prevent them from entering, while a new passage opened for her to escape. She was able to go to Rome and prayed before the tomb of Paul. This cave is still found in Maaloula and is now a very important site for pilgrimages. There are several traditions written by the Church Fathers about St. Thecla. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote in the 4thcentury, that she made a great sacrifice in life, gave death to the cravings of the flesh, practiced great austerities and mortifications, and extinguished all earthly affections. Nothing seemed to remain in her but reason and spirit. The whole world seemed dead to herself as she was to the world. Thecla is said to have died at the age of ninety. Her veneration flourished particularly at Seleucia, Cilicia. St. Thecla is regarded as the first virgin martyr although technically she did not die a martyr's death because every time, she was to be killed miracles always happened while she showed a martyr's heroic faith. Virtue: piety, humility, fidelity, constancy, chastity, bravery and fortitude “St. Thecla, you loved chastity so much, please pray for our youth today that they may imitate your example.”

An Interview with Dr. Deborah Niederer Saxon The story of Paul and Thecla, well-known in antiquity, indicates a diversity of viewpoints about women's roles in the early Christian years. Her resistance to the cultural norm fits with the popular attitude among Christians toward dying the “noble death,—referring to those who stood firm upon their moral principles to the end. But Thecla's willingness to die, as well as her victory over her oppressors, differs from the message of submissiveness.

What does the Bible say about women in church leadership? Can a woman be a preacher, a Bible teacher, a pastor or an ordained minister?There is no denying that the Bible is filled with examples of women leaders. Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and Esther had spiritual authority over God's people. In the Early Church, Priscilla taught Apollos the Word of God. Phoebe was a deacon. Junia was considered an apostle. Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis were Paul's co-workers in his apostolic ministry. Lydia, Mary, Chloe, and Nymphas were house church leaders. Euodia and Syntyche were leaders in the Philippian church.Church history is filled with many mighty women leaders, like Thecla, Ammia, Perpetua, Felicitas, Syncletica, Marcella, Proba, Paula, Melania, Hilda, Hildegard in Germany, Argula von Grumbach, Katharina Zell, and Teresa of Avila, etc. They were great leaders, Bible teachers, preachers, theologians, writers, disciple-makers, evangelists, miracle-workers, prophetesses, and church-planters.Today, almost all major Protestant denominations recognise and ordain women pastors and ministers, like the Anglican, Assemblies of God, Church of God, Foursquare, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, The Salvation Army, and even some among the Reformed and Baptist. Many among them have women general superintendents, bishops, and archbishops.

Word and Songs | Getting to know Venerable Thecla Merlo - a woman of Great Faith & Unwavering Hope with Sr. Lines Salazar, fsp Happy month of love to each one of us! In this episode of Word and Songs, join us Daughters of St. Paul in praise and thanksgiving to God/ as we commemorate the 58th death anniversary of Venerable Thecla Merlo, the first Superior General of the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul. Her ultimate desire to become a saint determines the program of her life, how she would live it until the end. She was described by Fr. Silvano Gratilli, ssp in one of his writings, as a strong-willed, energetic, wise, and ardent woman… precisely because she knew how to “die in Christ”/ so as to live with Him and thus become a messenger of life. Prima Maestra once said: “When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we cannot help/ but pour this love out on the world.” I'm Sr. Lines of the Daughters of St. Paul inviting you to join me for half an hour, as we get to know Venerable Thecla Merlo - her thoughts, virtues, and values worth emulating so as to become a saint. Her life was a song of God's love. A love so immense to the point of exclaiming, “If I had a hundred lives, O Lord, I would give all to you.”

Thecla's story comes from a time when Christianity was beginning to find it's place in the world. In a time when life for women was designed around domestic duties and motherhood, she broke from the expected to carve the life she chose. This is beautifully expressed when she baptises herself to receive the seal of God whom she dedicates her life to. Thecla reminds us of how the strength of one's passion can make anything possible.Listen to Part Two at https://www.spreaker.com/user/8255993/thecla-part-two

Listen to Part One at https://www.spreaker.com/user/8255993/thecla-part-oneThecla's story comes from a time when Christianity was beginning to find it's place in the world. In a time when life for women was designed around domestic duties and motherhood, she broke from the expected to carve the life she chose. This is beautifully expressed when she baptises herself to receive the seal of God whom she dedicates her life to. Thecla reminds us of how the strength of one's passion can make anything possible.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Good morning and welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane, one of the pastors here, and we're so glad to have you with us today. We would love to connect with you. As we mentioned earlier, if you'd like to connect with us, a great place to start is to fill out that little connection card in your worship guide. And if you turn that in at the Welcome Center out there, we've got a gift that we'd love to give to you to thank you for being with us today.One quick announcement before we begin, there is a membership class happening today right after this service. So, if you are interested in membership, we would love to have you join us for that. Lunch will be provided that's going to be happening downstairs.So, we're getting really close to the end of our sermon series, Prodigal Church. We've been going through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. And for much of this letter, what we've seen is that Paul has been trying to win the heart, the soul of this prodigal church. That it seems in his absence that some false teachers have crept into the church and they were leading people astray.These were not just wolves in sheep's clothing. These were shepherds... wolves in shepherd's clothing that they were presenting themselves as teachers, as authorities. In the church, Paul sarcastically refers to them as super-apostles, because in reality, they were satanic apostles that the enemy had sent in to divide and to conquer the flock.And here near at the end of his letter, for the last couple of weeks, we've seen Paul is resorting to do something that he's been reluctant to do which is he begins to boast. He begins to defend his apostolic authority and present his case for why it is not only authentic but far superior to that of these false teachers, and his desire is not so much to defend himself as it is to defend this church that he loves.That these false apostles, they've won over some of the people in this church by boasting in their strengths. They've been boasting in their wins, in their gifting. And so, Paul begins to boast as well, but instead he boasts in his losses. He boasts in his sufferings. He boasts in his sacrificial love, and he wants the church to learn. He needs us to learn that you cannot judge spiritual authority by outward appearances.And these super-apostles, they were very eloquent. They were well-spoken, well-dressed. They were successful. They were influential. They were connected, highly educated. They had fans. They had money. They had charisma, but you can have all of those things and not even be a Christian. And so, don't be deceived that there are going to be plenty of people in this world, motivational speakers, spiritual gurus, leaders of false religions, who know how to draw big crowds to themselves, but this doesn't validate them as somebody truly worthy of being fouled.And so, instead of boasting in his strengths, Paul chooses to boast in the things that, from the world's perspective appear to be weaknesses, but these weaknesses are windows. They're like curtains that are being drawn back in order to show that the true power and authority of this man was not coming from himself. That Paul's power and authority, it was the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life and in his ministry and this is what validated him as an apostle.And so, what we've seen is, in many ways, to the world Paul appears to be almost pitiful, foolish. And yet to those who are being saved, Paul looks like a man who loves the church, who's willing to lay down his life, sacrifice everything for this church he loves. It shows us that he's a lot like Jesus Christ. And so, we're going to be talking about authority today.Before we begin, we need to address something and that is this, how do you feel when you are told to submit? If I were to tell you, "Submit to my authority," most of us say, "Yeah, that doesn't make me feel very good." Why is that? Why is that our gut reaction is just bristle or to push back against that sentiment? Is authority inherently bad? Is submission inherently bad, or are these things inherently good?There's a scene in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where the children are in Narnia. And if you remember, Narnia is this place that's under the watch of this evil witch and she's caused it to be a place that's described as being always winter but never Christmas. Rumors have begun to spread that Aslan who's the Christ figure of the book was on the move, and one of the signs of this is that in some places, the snow of winter is beginning to melt.And at one point in their journey, the children are actually found by Father Christmas, and he gives them presents. To Peter, he gives a sword. To Susan, he gives a bow. He gives them these gifts, but this is what he tells them. He says, "These are your presents. And they are tools, not toys. The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well."What's the difference between a tool and a toy? Toys are for pleasure, but tools are for a greater purpose. Toys are for our own amusement, but tools they're meant to build, to fix, to repair, to design, to create order out of chaos. So, what does this have to do with authority? Well, first of all, authority is a gift, and none of us have any legitimate authority in and of ourselves.Do you remember when Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, and Pilate says to him, "Don't you know that I have the power to release you or the power to crucify you, the authority to crucify you?" And Jesus answered him in John 19:11, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above."Authority is a gift from God, but it's not a toy. He doesn't give us authority to be used for our own pleasure, selfish ambition, or amusement. It's a tool. And as with any tool, even the very best of tools, it can be used improperly to cause harm, to cause destruction, but its intended purpose is to bring life and beauty, to create utility and value.And think of it like this, authority is like a hammer. And yeah, you can beat people over the head with it but that's not what it's made for. It isn't designed to beat people up. It's designed to build... to beat people down. It's designed to build people up. It's designed to help create a world in which things are as they ought to be where humanity is flourishing under the good authority of God, the Father.And so, Paul, throughout these letters, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, he's hammering this over and over that he wants the church to see and to acknowledge and to submit to his authority. He's hammering this not to beat them down. He's hammering it to build them up.I saw this a couple of weeks ago in 2 Corinthians 10:8, he says, "Even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed." In our passage today in Chapter 12:19, he says, "Do you think we've been all along have been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved."Today, we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 12. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up, we'll be looking at verses 11-21. And we're going to be talking about authority, we're going to try to glean some principles of what Christ-like authority looks like. Because we all need to learn to submit to authority, but we all need to learn how to wield authority as well.Paul's primary focus in this text has to do with authority in the church, but all of us are going to be given opportunities to wield authority in one way or another throughout our lives. And so, therefore, we all need to be prepared to do that in a Christ-like manner and so as we talk about these things today.This applies to pastors, to leaders in the church, but this also applies to husbands and wives, parents over their children, employers over their employees, managers over their teams, teachers over their students, officials over their citizens. I'd say this even applies to our own personal stewardship of the resources that God has entrusted under us, under our authority, our time, our talents, our treasures, the self-control, the discipline, that we exercise even over ourselves in order to put our own lives in order under the authority of Jesus Christ.And so, it doesn't matter how big or small, I want you to try to think and identify, "Where has God given me authority? What are those spheres of influence and authority that God has given to me and how can I be faithful in those areas? How can I be more like Christ with those responsibilities?" Because Jesus said, "If you're faithful over little, I will put you over much."So, three points for our sermon today is number one, a Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. And second Chris-like authority is expressed like a parent and third, Christ-like authority is foolish yet effective. So, if you have your Bibles, you can follow along. I'm going to pray for our sermon, and then we're going to just work through this passage one section at a time. So, if you would, let's spend some time in prayer.God, you are a good father and we thank you for your good authority over our lives. Jesus, all authority in heaven and on earth is yours, and you have shown us the power and goodness that true authority has not by domineering us but by dying for us. God, give us the faith to joyfully submit to you, to the authorities that you have placed over us, and to ourselves wield whatever authority we have been given in a godly, in a Christ-like manner.And we thank you for your word. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to us today through your word, and that by it we as your church would be strengthened, built up, and useful for you and for your kingdom and glory. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.Point number one, Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 12, looking at the first couple of verses 11 and 12, Paul says this that, "I have been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with the utmost patient, with signs and wonders and mighty works."And here in the first couple of verses, we see two signs that validate Paul's authority over this church. And the first is something that is specific to Paul and to his apostolic ministry, and the second is more general and it applies to all of us as well. And so, first of all, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs of the Spirit. And this is why Paul, he really shouldn't have had to defend himself before this church. He says, actually, in verse 11 that, "I ought to have been commended by you because you've seen the evidence of the Spirit in my ministry firsthand."Back in 1 Corinthians 9, he says, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? And are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. And this is my defense to those who would examine me."Now, the Corinthians had witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit in Paul's ministry firsthand and they owed their very existence as a church to it. When Paul first arrived in the city of Corinth, we see this in Acts 18. We're told in verse nine that many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Don't be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for, I am with you, and no one will attack you or harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." And he stayed there for a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.After this, Paul goes a little bit further on to the city of Ephesus, and we're told that he continued there in Acts 19:10 that he continued there for two years, so that all the residents of Asia's entire region heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not in ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."They had seen the Holy Spirit validate Paul in his ministry that he truly was a capital A apostle. And we need to understand this is something that was unique to the early church that there are no capital A apostles. Today, if you meet someone who claims to be one, they probably belong in that category of the super-apostles that Paul was refuting.What this means is that leadership in the church today, it doesn't need to be validated by miraculous signs and wonders like the apostles, but Christ-like authority in the church today is evidenced by how authority submits and obeys the apostles, their example, their teaching, and the writings of the New Testament. That when the apostles in the early church were writing the New Testament, they weren't just recording their opinions. This was the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God.And so, how does this apply to us? Well, first, for those in authority like myself as a pastor, any spiritual authority that I have over the church is thrown out the window the minute that I stand in defiance of Jesus Christ or stand in a place of judgment over God's word.Second, if you go to a church where the pastor is claiming to be an apostle like Paul, claiming to speak new revelation that is equal in authority to Scripture, or where the pastor is rejecting the authority of God's word, you need to call that pastor to repentance and or you need to leave that church. That legitimate authority over the church needs to be under the authority of Jesus Christ, the living word, and under the authority of Holy Scripture, the written word.So, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs, by wonders, by miracles of the Holy Spirit, and He had seen the risen Christ with his own eyes and was called by him to be an apostle. Second, Paul's Christ-like authority was evidenced by humble and confident submission to Christ. That true Christ-like authority is marked by submission to Christ's authority, and that this submission, it's a humility that leads to obedience that results in bold confidence. It's a humility that isn't harrowing. It's a confidence that isn't conceited.And that might seem paradoxical but this is why Paul can say what he says in verse 11. He says, 2 Corinthians 12:11, the second half of the verse that, "I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles," that's a very bold and confident thing to say, "even though," he continues, "even though I am nothing." He's extremely humble as well. He goes on to say that, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you and they were done so with the utmost patience." He's confident. He was humble.In 1 Corinthians 15:9, he says, "I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of the God that was with me."It's confident humility. It's humble confidence, and it's hard to describe but you know it when you see it. You see it in Jesus Christ. You see it in the apostle Paul. You see it in godly leaders who are walking in the Spirit. And the thing is, when you see it, it's usually not quite what you would expect.I'll just give you a quick example from my own life. Before we moved to Boston, my wife and I, this was actually almost 20 years ago, early on in our marriage, we volunteered at the youth group, the youth ministry of our former church. We were the young hip 20-somethings who led the worship team for this ministry of seven-year 80 high school students.One day, this guy shows up and he wants to volunteer in the youth group. And right now, we realized we have a problem, because this guy was not young and cool. He was very old and very gray. We were in the Midwest. And if you know the Midwest, everybody has a super thick news anchor accent. This guy had a very thick Southern accent which really made him a stick out.And then, on top of that, he was very overweight. He's a big guy and picture like a mixture between Santa Claus and Colonel Sanders. That's who we're dealing with. And he we found out he was actually a colonel, a retired colonel from the military. And the point is on the outside, he did not look like the kind of person that you would be looking for in a youth group volunteer. He wasn't hip, he wasn't cool, but he didn't care. So, he just starts showing up, he starts serving, starts hanging out, and he just starts engaging everybody.He loved to eat. And so, he and his wife, they just started taking people out for lunch after church, teens, the leaders, didn't matter. Pretty much anybody that they came in contact with, he'd just say, "Hey, we're going to eat. I'm buying, and you are coming with me." And my wife and I, we were on the receiving end of this a couple of times.So, you sit down to lunch with this guy. You order your food. And all of a sudden, 45 minutes go by and you feel like you just got mauled by Jesus. You feel like you just sparred with a lion, and he was so... it's hard to describe. He was tough, but he was super tender. He wasn't bringing up the teeth and the claws. He wasn't trying to be mean or intimidating, but he lets you feel his spiritual weight and strength.And so, on the one hand, he was very humble. He just exudes this deep genuine love and concern and care for every person that he talked to. And when you're with him, his presence was very comforting. It was very encouraging, and you would drop your guard and then without even asking, he would just start digging into all the details of your life. "How's your devotion time? How's your prayer time? How's your marriage? Well, let's talk about those super-secret sins that you need to repent of."And just with this incredible boldness and confidence, just starts asking all the awkward, hard questions. He was so bold, and he was so gentle at the same time. He just loves Jesus. He loved life. He loved people, and he's probably the most confident and at the same time the most humble man that I've ever met.His name was Jim. Eventually, Jim moved down to Texas. And a few years after that, unfortunately, he passed away. And you would not believe just the outpouring of people not just from our own church but from all over the country like he was in the military, he moved around a lot. You would not believe how many lives had been impacted by the confident humility of this man.Here's the thing. He was never given an official position of authority or leadership in the church but that didn't stop that Christ-like authority from just flowing out of it. It was commanding. It was powerful, and it was inspiring. On the other hand, it wasn't anything what you would expect to find if you were looking at outward appearances alone. It was clearly the power of the Holy Spirit in a man whose life was fully submitted to Christ.These false apostles, they had been boasting and winning people over with their gifting, with their eloquence, with their outward appearances of worldly success and charisma, and none of those things are bad. They're just not, any of themselves, good evidence of the Holy Spirit's power. You can have all of those things, and you can even appear to be quite godly on the outside and still be way off the mark.Paul put it like this in his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 13:1, he says, "Listen, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.Love is patient and kind, does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It doesn't insist in its own way. It's not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."If you remember the story of King Saul in the Old Testament, he was described as a man who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. He was big. He was strong. He was handsome. He looks like a king. David, on the other hand, was the least of his brothers, the youngest, the smallest, the runt, the one that was easiest to overlook. And yet, Saul was a fool, but David is described as a man after God's own heart. Soul's strength eventually failed the nation, but David's faith toppled giants.And if you remember the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel, 16:7, he says this, he says, "Listen, the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." When you read the New Testament, you get the impression that Paul probably wasn't much to look at. If you saw him walk into the room, you might not think, "Oh, there's the guy that's going to change the world." You might not notice him much at all.Historians have actually... an early Christian document that gives one of the only physical descriptions of Paul. This is not in the Bible, so don't take this as scriptural gospel truth, but it was probably handed down through some oral tradition. In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Onesiphorus describes Paul like this, he says, "He was a man of small stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness. For now, he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel."On the outside, he's just a man. On the inside, he was a man after God's own heart, who loved this church, whose heart was in beat, in rhythm with the heart of the Father and He cared for this prodigal son, this prodigal church as if it were his own child. And that brings us to point number two that Christ-like authority is expressed like a parent.2 Corinthians 12, continuing in verse 13, Paul writes, "For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?"Paul's authority over the church was parental. It was like that of a father over a son. And when you compare this to the false teachers, it shows us that Paul did something really important. That Paul avoided some of the biggest temptations that authority brings and that these false apostles had fallen for.Satan hates God's authority. And so, it should be no surprise that he would aim to twist and distort and tempt people to misuse their authority and does this in a couple of ways. Satan tempts us to misuse our authority by exploiting people through flattery. Secondly, by abandoning people through abdication and thirdly, by domineering people through coercion, and Paul avoided all of these things.First of all, Paul, he refused to exploit them through flattery. 2 Peter 2 warns that false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep."Earlier in his letter, Paul described the super-apostles as peddlers of the gospel. They were driven by greed, and they were twisting the truth in order to exploit the church. Paul, on the other hand, did not come to take. He had come to give. He says, he's not after their money, he was after their hearts and after their souls.2 Corinthians 12:14 says, "I'll not be a burden for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents but parents for their children, and I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?"And Paul's playing some 4D chess here. On the one hand, he's rebuking them, but he's rebuking them by reminding them of how much he loves them, of how much he is willing to sacrifice for them that he loved them with this parental fatherly love.What this meant was he was very patient. He was gentle. He was meek, and he was generous toward them. But it also meant that he refused to flatter them with false words. He wasn't just going to tell them what they wanted to hear. He loved them enough to speak the truth, to correct them, and when necessary even to rebuke and to discipline them.What's interesting is we see Paul express this same fatherly sentiment to another church, in another letter to another church. This time it's to a church that was in pretty good standing however. They were walking in obedience and faithfulness to Paul and to his gospel.And this is 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12, and look at the similarities here. He says, "For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.For you remember, brothers, our labors and toil. We worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we were proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory."Because we nurtured you with the gentleness of a mother, and with the strength of a father, we pleaded with you. We exhorted you. We encouraged you. We charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. It's the same heart for both of these churches, it's just these different circumstances. I think Paul would have much rather written to the Corinthians the same encouraging words that he wrote to the Thessalonians, but unfortunately the Corinthian church was in need of a lot more correction.And this brings us to the second and third temptation of authority which is how do you respond when people aren't responding to your authority? And typically, what happens is two things. First, we're tempted to abandon them through abdication and third, to domineer them through coercion. And I'm not going to say too much about point number two, but there is this temptation that when people are resistant, when things get hard, that we just write them off, just walk away and abdicate our authority and responsibility, and Paul doesn't do that.But the other temptation is to just flex the strong arm and to dominate your people into submission. It's like fight or flight kicks in. And the question is, how does Christ-like authority respond when people are insubordinate? When they need correction, or if they are rejecting your proper God-given authority?And what we see is that Paul doesn't run away from the problem, but he doesn't come to them as a tyrant. He doesn't come to them as judge, jury and executioner. He comes to them first as a father, father whose heart is broken and aching for a wayward child. And again, this is in contrast to the false teachers, because we know that the false teachers were exploiting the church.We also know they were domineering the church, and we saw this just a few weeks ago in Chapter 11. In 2 Corinthians 11:19, Paul says that, "You gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you," he's talking about these false teachers, "you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or even strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that."They'd been domineering the church. And Paul knew that there was sin in the church and he knows that it needs to be confronted, but he's not going to confront it by just rolling into town and smacking people around as tempting as that is to do sometimes. Paul understood that Christ doesn't call us to domineer people through threats, through violence, through coercion.1 Peter 5:1-4 says, "I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."On the one hand, Paul doesn't want to domineer the church. On the other hand, he can't just remain passive and indifferent, that the sin that is at the root of all of this, it's tearing the church apart, and so something needs to be done. And so, he's preparing to visit them, to come to them again. But as he does, he's coming as a good father, as a father who loves them, but also as a father who's ready to discipline them if that's what they need, ready to exercise proper church discipline toward those who refuse to repent.And we really see his heart in this matter in the last few verses of our passage today. Continuing on in Chapter 12:19-21 says, "Have you been thinking all along that we've been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved.For I fear that perhaps when I come I may not find you as I wish, and that you may not find me as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, sensuality, and the sensuality that they have practiced.Paul's coming, and he's coming with a heart that's breaking. Because no father enjoys disciplining their children, and yet no loving father can neglect the discipline of their children either. He needs to be tough, but he desires to be tender. He needs to be gentle, but he also needs to be truthful. And we see this over and over again.2 Corinthians 2, he wrote and said, "I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you." He instructed the Galatians in Chapter 6:1, "If anyone is caught in any transgression, that you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness."He taught his disciple, Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:24, that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. And God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escaped from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will."That true love and discipline, they go together. That parental authority it is patient and it is gentle, but it's not apathetic or passive or indifferent. That it confronts sin precisely because it cares. Most people are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep, right? The shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in order to go and to search and to save the one?Fewer people are familiar with Matthew 18, where Jesus gives the instructions for how to handle matters of church discipline. Very few people are familiar with the fact that those are actually the same passage but talking about the same thing. This is in Matthew 18:12-21."What do you think," Jesus says. "If a man has 100 sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So, it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."And then, immediately after that, he begins going into the instructions for church discipline. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And if he listens to you, you have gained your brother." He says, "If not, then you take two or three witnesses. If they still won't listen, you bring it before the whole church."But you get the idea that before giving the instructions for how to do church discipline, Jesus gives us the heart of why to do church discipline. It's a shepherd's heart. Luke's gospel actually includes two more parables. He talks about the parable of the lost sheep, but then he tells the parable of the lost coin. And he concludes with the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son that this series is named for.Paul is preparing to come as a father, and he's preparing to exercise church discipline if he needs to. He's doing that precisely because he loves this church so much. He understands that these people that are walking in unrepentant sin are in danger, that they need to be brought home.A lot of people have a hard time with this. I'm talking about church discipline, talking about correcting, rebuking, things like this. It's hard because it doesn't feel good, but a good parent is never content to merely see their child feel good. A loving parent longs more than anything for their child to be good and to do good. And deep down, I think we all long for this kind of leadership. We all look for this kind of authority to be exercised over us as well.I grew up in a church that was very good at the gentle, loving part. It was not so good at the speaking the truth in love part, the calling people to repentance and challenging them to grow apart. And so, on Wednesday nights, I would go to youth group as a teenager and from very well-meaning people, I would hear this message of, "You're special. You're great. God has a wonderful plan for your life," and I would walk away just confused. I'd feel self-righteous. I'd feel unchanged, unchallenged, and uninspired, which is boring as I didn't get it.If I'm so great, then why do I need to go to church? If I'm so great, why do I need a savior? And almost every other night of the week, my best friend and I would go to taekwondo. And the instructor, just picture like a shorter, much louder version of Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was amazing, but he would lose his voice almost every night just shouting instructions at us, running us through these drills, and he wasn't afraid to really push us to the very limits and the challenges.On our very first night there, he made me spar with him. And he kicked me in the face, and I'm not proud of this. This was the late '90s. At the time, I had just a few weeks before just gotten my eyebrow pierced. He kicked me right in the face, rips at half, and there's blood everywhere. He apologized.But then he's like, "Okay. Go clean yourself up, and get back out here because we're not done." And he worked us hard. But very early on, he made it clear that he cared about us as well. He worked us hard because he saw potential in us even if we didn't see it in ourselves, and he expected us to live up to that potential.Not just at the gym, at home, in our school. He was always asking us about our grades. "Are things going well at school? Are you staying out of trouble? Are you respecting your mom and dad?" And if he found out that we were slacking at school or we were getting in trouble at home, he would discipline us. We would be doing lunges and push-ups all night long, and he came to be this authority figure in my life that I really looked up to.He was firm. He taught me respect and discipline, but he wasn't domineering or coercive. I always knew that he genuinely cared about me as a person, and he was trying to get the best out of me as his student and it inspired me. It made me want to rise up to whatever challenge that he put before us, and it helped us to accomplish a lot more than we thought that we could.Now I shouldn't have had to go outside the church to find a good example of good authority to learn humility and confidence, respect, self-discipline, things like this. But by God's common grace, I found that and it did do some good in my life. Still, it would have been so much greater if his good authority had actually been a godly authority, not just one that taught me to follow him but one that taught me to follow Christ, to submit my life to the one who is truly worth following. That's really the chief end of what our authority is all about, to lead others to follow Jesus.Christ-like authority, on the surface, it might seem backwards. But when you see it in action, even if it's imperfect, you begin to realize that it's inspiring. It's actually surprisingly powerful and effective. And this brings us to point number three that Christ-like authority is foolish, but it's also effective.I had a friend who pretty early on in their career wound up with two bosses. It was like the movie Office Space, right, the TPS reports, all of that. And they had these two bosses and the two bosses were very different as people and in their leadership style. I'm going to call the first boss, give-a-second Boss Take. Take was all about getting stuff done, very impersonal."Here's your work. Get it done. Is it done? Okay, here's some work. Tell me when it's done." And you pretty much only heard from them if they needed something or if something was going wrong. And when things went well, they would take all the credit for themselves. If things were going poorly, they would pass all the blame on to others.The other boss was Give, and Give was always investing in them, giving them advice, helping them plot out a career path, helping them build on their strengths, and pointing out their weaknesses so that they could work on those as well. And when things went well, they would share the credit with their team. If things went poorly, they would take responsibility themselves and then use that as opportunities to help their team develop and grow.Now, which of these two bosses do you suppose produce the best results? I mean, you don't have to think about it very long. It should be pretty obvious that the best results actually came from the leader who served, from the one who gave, who sacrificed what seemed like hours of their precious time investing into the people under their authority.When you have a boss that takes, you're only going to give. You're only going to put forth enough effort to keep them off your back or to make sure that you don't get fired. But when you have a boss that gives, you get excited to give yourself. You want to give your best. You want to work hard. You want to go the extra mile.And it's authority. It might seem backwards, but it's surprisingly effective. It's powerful. This is the leadership that was modeled by Jesus Christ, and so it was imparted to his disciples. And it's really it sparked a movement that completely transformed the world.The Empire, Rome, took the world by the power of the sword through coercion, and Jesus gave his life. He took the sword for the world, the Christianity won over the world through the power of the cross. On the one hand, 2,000 years later, one of those empires fell long ago and one is still standing and will never fall.Coercion can change people's actions, but only the love of Christ can change people's hearts. Cohesion can overpower an enemy, but the gospel can make an enemy into an ally, into a brother, into a friend. So, Paul was not afraid to exercise this self-sacrificing Christ-like authority because he knew that it was powerful. He knew that this had the power to transform this prodigal church.He knew that it had the power to transform the world, and he knew this because he'd already seen it transform something far more stubborn and rebellious. It had transformed his own prodigal heart. He talks about this in his letter to his disciples, Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, beginning of verse 12. He says this, "I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.He's called me under his authority even though formally, I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."He says, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.As we think about these things, my prayer for us today is that we would all come to have the humility of Paul, to know just how patient and merciful and gracious Jesus Christ has been toward us so that we live our lives in just gratitude and obedience to Him.My prayer is also that we would come to have the confidence of Paul, to know that we have been called and we have been appointed into the service of the only God, of the king of all ages. That all authority in heaven on earth belongs to Jesus Christ, and he has sent us out in his name with his authority to preach the gospel and to make disciples of all the nations.And my prayer for us today is that the power of God would be made perfect in our weaknesses so that we, individually and together, as a church would have more and more reason to boast not in ourselves but to boast in the Lord, but to boast in his power and all that he has done in and through us as a church.I'm going to close today by reading the words that Paul wrote at the very beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 18, Paul writes this, "For the world of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us we're being saved it is the power of God.For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.For Jews demand sign and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'"Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your good authority over our lives. We pray that you would humble our hearts to teach us to fully submit to you and to walk in the confidence of knowing that we've been sent in the name of the one to whom all authority and the heaven and earth belongs. God, we thank you for saving us, for appointing us into your service, for bringing us under your authority.And we pray, Lord that you would keep us from the temptation that authority brings, that the authority we have would be used for your glory. Be faithful to you that in our faithfulness, it would produce a fruitfulness that we see your power at work. So that in our weakness, the power of Christ will be on full display. So, now to you, the king of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Good morning and welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane, one of the pastors here, and we're so glad to have you with us today. We would love to connect with you. As we mentioned earlier, if you'd like to connect with us, a great place to start is to fill out that little connection card in your worship guide. And if you turn that in at the Welcome Center out there, we've got a gift that we'd love to give to you to thank you for being with us today. One quick announcement before we begin, there is a membership class happening today right after this service. So, if you are interested in membership, we would love to have you join us for that. Lunch will be provided that's going to be happening downstairs. So, we're getting really close to the end of our sermon series, Prodigal Church. We've been going through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. And for much of this letter, what we've seen is that Paul has been trying to win the heart, the soul of this prodigal church. That it seems in his absence that some false teachers have crept into the church and they were leading people astray. These were not just wolves in sheep's clothing. These were shepherds... wolves in shepherd's clothing that they were presenting themselves as teachers, as authorities. In the church, Paul sarcastically refers to them as super-apostles, because in reality, they were satanic apostles that the enemy had sent in to divide and to conquer the flock. And here near at the end of his letter, for the last couple of weeks, we've seen Paul is resorting to do something that he's been reluctant to do which is he begins to boast. He begins to defend his apostolic authority and present his case for why it is not only authentic but far superior to that of these false teachers, and his desire is not so much to defend himself as it is to defend this church that he loves. That these false apostles, they've won over some of the people in this church by boasting in their strengths. They've been boasting in their wins, in their gifting. And so, Paul begins to boast as well, but instead he boasts in his losses. He boasts in his sufferings. He boasts in his sacrificial love, and he wants the church to learn. He needs us to learn that you cannot judge spiritual authority by outward appearances. And these super-apostles, they were very eloquent. They were well-spoken, well-dressed. They were successful. They were influential. They were connected, highly educated. They had fans. They had money. They had charisma, but you can have all of those things and not even be a Christian. And so, don't be deceived that there are going to be plenty of people in this world, motivational speakers, spiritual gurus, leaders of false religions, who know how to draw big crowds to themselves, but this doesn't validate them as somebody truly worthy of being fouled. And so, instead of boasting in his strengths, Paul chooses to boast in the things that, from the world's perspective appear to be weaknesses, but these weaknesses are windows. They're like curtains that are being drawn back in order to show that the true power and authority of this man was not coming from himself. That Paul's power and authority, it was the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life and in his ministry and this is what validated him as an apostle. And so, what we've seen is, in many ways, to the world Paul appears to be almost pitiful, foolish. And yet to those who are being saved, Paul looks like a man who loves the church, who's willing to lay down his life, sacrifice everything for this church he loves. It shows us that he's a lot like Jesus Christ. And so, we're going to be talking about authority today. Before we begin, we need to address something and that is this, how do you feel when you are told to submit? If I were to tell you, "Submit to my authority," most of us say, "Yeah, that doesn't make me feel very good." Why is that? Why is that our gut reaction is just bristle or to push back against that sentiment? Is authority inherently bad? Is submission inherently bad, or are these things inherently good? There's a scene in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where the children are in Narnia. And if you remember, Narnia is this place that's under the watch of this evil witch and she's caused it to be a place that's described as being always winter but never Christmas. Rumors have begun to spread that Aslan who's the Christ figure of the book was on the move, and one of the signs of this is that in some places, the snow of winter is beginning to melt. And at one point in their journey, the children are actually found by Father Christmas, and he gives them presents. To Peter, he gives a sword. To Susan, he gives a bow. He gives them these gifts, but this is what he tells them. He says, "These are your presents. And they are tools, not toys. The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well." What's the difference between a tool and a toy? Toys are for pleasure, but tools are for a greater purpose. Toys are for our own amusement, but tools they're meant to build, to fix, to repair, to design, to create order out of chaos. So, what does this have to do with authority? Well, first of all, authority is a gift, and none of us have any legitimate authority in and of ourselves. Do you remember when Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, and Pilate says to him, "Don't you know that I have the power to release you or the power to crucify you, the authority to crucify you?" And Jesus answered him in John 19:11, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above." Authority is a gift from God, but it's not a toy. He doesn't give us authority to be used for our own pleasure, selfish ambition, or amusement. It's a tool. And as with any tool, even the very best of tools, it can be used improperly to cause harm, to cause destruction, but its intended purpose is to bring life and beauty, to create utility and value. And think of it like this, authority is like a hammer. And yeah, you can beat people over the head with it but that's not what it's made for. It isn't designed to beat people up. It's designed to build... to beat people down. It's designed to build people up. It's designed to help create a world in which things are as they ought to be where humanity is flourishing under the good authority of God, the Father. And so, Paul, throughout these letters, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, he's hammering this over and over that he wants the church to see and to acknowledge and to submit to his authority. He's hammering this not to beat them down. He's hammering it to build them up. I saw this a couple of weeks ago in 2 Corinthians 10:8, he says, "Even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed." In our passage today in Chapter 12:19, he says, "Do you think we've been all along have been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved." Today, we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 12. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up, we'll be looking at verses 11-21. And we're going to be talking about authority, we're going to try to glean some principles of what Christ-like authority looks like. Because we all need to learn to submit to authority, but we all need to learn how to wield authority as well. Paul's primary focus in this text has to do with authority in the church, but all of us are going to be given opportunities to wield authority in one way or another throughout our lives. And so, therefore, we all need to be prepared to do that in a Christ-like manner and so as we talk about these things today. This applies to pastors, to leaders in the church, but this also applies to husbands and wives, parents over their children, employers over their employees, managers over their teams, teachers over their students, officials over their citizens. I'd say this even applies to our own personal stewardship of the resources that God has entrusted under us, under our authority, our time, our talents, our treasures, the self-control, the discipline, that we exercise even over ourselves in order to put our own lives in order under the authority of Jesus Christ. And so, it doesn't matter how big or small, I want you to try to think and identify, "Where has God given me authority? What are those spheres of influence and authority that God has given to me and how can I be faithful in those areas? How can I be more like Christ with those responsibilities?" Because Jesus said, "If you're faithful over little, I will put you over much." So, three points for our sermon today is number one, a Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. And second Chris-like authority is expressed like a parent and third, Christ-like authority is foolish yet effective. So, if you have your Bibles, you can follow along. I'm going to pray for our sermon, and then we're going to just work through this passage one section at a time. So, if you would, let's spend some time in prayer. God, you are a good father and we thank you for your good authority over our lives. Jesus, all authority in heaven and on earth is yours, and you have shown us the power and goodness that true authority has not by domineering us but by dying for us. God, give us the faith to joyfully submit to you, to the authorities that you have placed over us, and to ourselves wield whatever authority we have been given in a godly, in a Christ-like manner. And we thank you for your word. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to us today through your word, and that by it we as your church would be strengthened, built up, and useful for you and for your kingdom and glory. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen. Point number one, Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 12, looking at the first couple of verses 11 and 12, Paul says this that, "I have been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with the utmost patient, with signs and wonders and mighty works." And here in the first couple of verses, we see two signs that validate Paul's authority over this church. And the first is something that is specific to Paul and to his apostolic ministry, and the second is more general and it applies to all of us as well. And so, first of all, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs of the Spirit. And this is why Paul, he really shouldn't have had to defend himself before this church. He says, actually, in verse 11 that, "I ought to have been commended by you because you've seen the evidence of the Spirit in my ministry firsthand." Back in 1 Corinthians 9, he says, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? And are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. And this is my defense to those who would examine me." Now, the Corinthians had witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit in Paul's ministry firsthand and they owed their very existence as a church to it. When Paul first arrived in the city of Corinth, we see this in Acts 18. We're told in verse nine that many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Don't be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for, I am with you, and no one will attack you or harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." And he stayed there for a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. After this, Paul goes a little bit further on to the city of Ephesus, and we're told that he continued there in Acts 19:10 that he continued there for two years, so that all the residents of Asia's entire region heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not in ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." They had seen the Holy Spirit validate Paul in his ministry that he truly was a capital A apostle. And we need to understand this is something that was unique to the early church that there are no capital A apostles. Today, if you meet someone who claims to be one, they probably belong in that category of the super-apostles that Paul was refuting. What this means is that leadership in the church today, it doesn't need to be validated by miraculous signs and wonders like the apostles, but Christ-like authority in the church today is evidenced by how authority submits and obeys the apostles, their example, their teaching, and the writings of the New Testament. That when the apostles in the early church were writing the New Testament, they weren't just recording their opinions. This was the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God. And so, how does this apply to us? Well, first, for those in authority like myself as a pastor, any spiritual authority that I have over the church is thrown out the window the minute that I stand in defiance of Jesus Christ or stand in a place of judgment over God's word. Second, if you go to a church where the pastor is claiming to be an apostle like Paul, claiming to speak new revelation that is equal in authority to Scripture, or where the pastor is rejecting the authority of God's word, you need to call that pastor to repentance and or you need to leave that church. That legitimate authority over the church needs to be under the authority of Jesus Christ, the living word, and under the authority of Holy Scripture, the written word. So, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs, by wonders, by miracles of the Holy Spirit, and He had seen the risen Christ with his own eyes and was called by him to be an apostle. Second, Paul's Christ-like authority was evidenced by humble and confident submission to Christ. That true Christ-like authority is marked by submission to Christ's authority, and that this submission, it's a humility that leads to obedience that results in bold confidence. It's a humility that isn't harrowing. It's a confidence that isn't conceited. And that might seem paradoxical but this is why Paul can say what he says in verse 11. He says, 2 Corinthians 12:11, the second half of the verse that, "I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles," that's a very bold and confident thing to say, "even though," he continues, "even though I am nothing." He's extremely humble as well. He goes on to say that, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you and they were done so with the utmost patience." He's confident. He was humble. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, he says, "I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of the God that was with me." It's confident humility. It's humble confidence, and it's hard to describe but you know it when you see it. You see it in Jesus Christ. You see it in the apostle Paul. You see it in godly leaders who are walking in the Spirit. And the thing is, when you see it, it's usually not quite what you would expect. I'll just give you a quick example from my own life. Before we moved to Boston, my wife and I, this was actually almost 20 years ago, early on in our marriage, we volunteered at the youth group, the youth ministry of our former church. We were the young hip 20-somethings who led the worship team for this ministry of seven-year 80 high school students. One day, this guy shows up and he wants to volunteer in the youth group. And right now, we realized we have a problem, because this guy was not young and cool. He was very old and very gray. We were in the Midwest. And if you know the Midwest, everybody has a super thick news anchor accent. This guy had a very thick Southern accent which really made him a stick out. And then, on top of that, he was very overweight. He's a big guy and picture like a mixture between Santa Claus and Colonel Sanders. That's who we're dealing with. And he we found out he was actually a colonel, a retired colonel from the military. And the point is on the outside, he did not look like the kind of person that you would be looking for in a youth group volunteer. He wasn't hip, he wasn't cool, but he didn't care. So, he just starts showing up, he starts serving, starts hanging out, and he just starts engaging everybody. He loved to eat. And so, he and his wife, they just started taking people out for lunch after church, teens, the leaders, didn't matter. Pretty much anybody that they came in contact with, he'd just say, "Hey, we're going to eat. I'm buying, and you are coming with me." And my wife and I, we were on the receiving end of this a couple of times. So, you sit down to lunch with this guy. You order your food. And all of a sudden, 45 minutes go by and you feel like you just got mauled by Jesus. You feel like you just sparred with a lion, and he was so... it's hard to describe. He was tough, but he was super tender. He wasn't bringing up the teeth and the claws. He wasn't trying to be mean or intimidating, but he lets you feel his spiritual weight and strength. And so, on the one hand, he was very humble. He just exudes this deep genuine love and concern and care for every person that he talked to. And when you're with him, his presence was very comforting. It was very encouraging, and you would drop your guard and then without even asking, he would just start digging into all the details of your life. "How's your devotion time? How's your prayer time? How's your marriage? Well, let's talk about those super-secret sins that you need to repent of." And just with this incredible boldness and confidence, just starts asking all the awkward, hard questions. He was so bold, and he was so gentle at the same time. He just loves Jesus. He loved life. He loved people, and he's probably the most confident and at the same time the most humble man that I've ever met. His name was Jim. Eventually, Jim moved down to Texas. And a few years after that, unfortunately, he passed away. And you would not believe just the outpouring of people not just from our own church but from all over the country like he was in the military, he moved around a lot. You would not believe how many lives had been impacted by the confident humility of this man. Here's the thing. He was never given an official position of authority or leadership in the church but that didn't stop that Christ-like authority from just flowing out of it. It was commanding. It was powerful, and it was inspiring. On the other hand, it wasn't anything what you would expect to find if you were looking at outward appearances alone. It was clearly the power of the Holy Spirit in a man whose life was fully submitted to Christ. These false apostles, they had been boasting and winning people over with their gifting, with their eloquence, with their outward appearances of worldly success and charisma, and none of those things are bad. They're just not, any of themselves, good evidence of the Holy Spirit's power. You can have all of those things, and you can even appear to be quite godly on the outside and still be way off the mark. Paul put it like this in his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 13:1, he says, "Listen, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind, does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It doesn't insist in its own way. It's not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." If you remember the story of King Saul in the Old Testament, he was described as a man who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. He was big. He was strong. He was handsome. He looks like a king. David, on the other hand, was the least of his brothers, the youngest, the smallest, the runt, the one that was easiest to overlook. And yet, Saul was a fool, but David is described as a man after God's own heart. Soul's strength eventually failed the nation, but David's faith toppled giants. And if you remember the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel, 16:7, he says this, he says, "Listen, the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." When you read the New Testament, you get the impression that Paul probably wasn't much to look at. If you saw him walk into the room, you might not think, "Oh, there's the guy that's going to change the world." You might not notice him much at all. Historians have actually... an early Christian document that gives one of the only physical descriptions of Paul. This is not in the Bible, so don't take this as scriptural gospel truth, but it was probably handed down through some oral tradition. In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Onesiphorus describes Paul like this, he says, "He was a man of small stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness. For now, he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel." On the outside, he's just a man. On the inside, he was a man after God's own heart, who loved this church, whose heart was in beat, in rhythm with the heart of the Father and He cared for this prodigal son, this prodigal church as if it were his own child. And that brings us to point number two that Christ-like authority is expressed like a parent. 2 Corinthians 12, continuing in verse 13, Paul writes, "For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?" Paul's authority over the church was parental. It was like that of a father over a son. And when you compare this to the false teachers, it shows us that Paul did something really important. That Paul avoided some of the biggest temptations that authority brings and that these false apostles had fallen for. Satan hates God's authority. And so, it should be no surprise that he would aim to twist and distort and tempt people to misuse their authority and does this in a couple of ways. Satan tempts us to misuse our authority by exploiting people through flattery. Secondly, by abandoning people through abdication and thirdly, by domineering people through coercion, and Paul avoided all of these things. First of all, Paul, he refused to exploit them through flattery. 2 Peter 2 warns that false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep." Earlier in his letter, Paul described the super-apostles as peddlers of the gospel. They were driven by greed, and they were twisting the truth in order to exploit the church. Paul, on the other hand, did not come to take. He had come to give. He says, he's not after their money, he was after their hearts and after their souls. 2 Corinthians 12:14 says, "I'll not be a burden for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents but parents for their children, and I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?" And Paul's playing some 4D chess here. On the one hand, he's rebuking them, but he's rebuking them by reminding them of how much he loves them, of how much he is willing to sacrifice for them that he loved them with this parental fatherly love. What this meant was he was very patient. He was gentle. He was meek, and he was generous toward them. But it also meant that he refused to flatter them with false words. He wasn't just going to tell them what they wanted to hear. He loved them enough to speak the truth, to correct them, and when necessary even to rebuke and to discipline them. What's interesting is we see Paul express this same fatherly sentiment to another church, in another letter to another church. This time it's to a church that was in pretty good standing however. They were walking in obedience and faithfulness to Paul and to his gospel. And this is 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12, and look at the similarities here. He says, "For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labors and toil. We worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we were proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." Because we nurtured you with the gentleness of a mother, and with the strength of a father, we pleaded with you. We exhorted you. We encouraged you. We charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. It's the same heart for both of these churches, it's just these different circumstances. I think Paul would have much rather written to the Corinthians the same encouraging words that he wrote to the Thessalonians, but unfortunately the Corinthian church was in need of a lot more correction. And this brings us to the second and third temptation of authority which is how do you respond when people aren't responding to your authority? And typically, what happens is two things. First, we're tempted to abandon them through abdication and third, to domineer them through coercion. And I'm not going to say too much about point number two, but there is this temptation that when people are resistant, when things get hard, that we just write them off, just walk away and abdicate our authority and responsibility, and Paul doesn't do that. But the other temptation is to just flex the strong arm and to dominate your people into submission. It's like fight or flight kicks in. And the question is, how does Christ-like authority respond when people are insubordinate? When they need correction, or if they are rejecting your proper God-given authority? And what we see is that Paul doesn't run away from the problem, but he doesn't come to them as a tyrant. He doesn't come to them as judge, jury and executioner. He comes to them first as a father, father whose heart is broken and aching for a wayward child. And again, this is in contrast to the false teachers, because we know that the false teachers were exploiting the church. We also know they were domineering the church, and we saw this just a few weeks ago in Chapter 11. In 2 Corinthians 11:19, Paul says that, "You gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you," he's talking about these false teachers, "you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or even strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that." They'd been domineering the church. And Paul knew that there was sin in the church and he knows that it needs to be confronted, but he's not going to confront it by just rolling into town and smacking people around as tempting as that is to do sometimes. Paul understood that Christ doesn't call us to domineer people through threats, through violence, through coercion. 1 Peter 5:1-4 says, "I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." On the one hand, Paul doesn't want to domineer the church. On the other hand, he can't just remain passive and indifferent, that the sin that is at the root of all of this, it's tearing the church apart, and so something needs to be done. And so, he's preparing to visit them, to come to them again. But as he does, he's coming as a good father, as a father who loves them, but also as a father who's ready to discipline them if that's what they need, ready to exercise proper church discipline toward those who refuse to repent. And we really see his heart in this matter in the last few verses of our passage today. Continuing on in Chapter 12:19-21 says, "Have you been thinking all along that we've been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may not find you as I wish, and that you may not find me as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, sensuality, and the sensuality that they have practiced. Paul's coming, and he's coming with a heart that's breaking. Because no father enjoys disciplining their children, and yet no loving father can neglect the discipline of their children either. He needs to be tough, but he desires to be tender. He needs to be gentle, but he also needs to be truthful. And we see this over and over again. 2 Corinthians 2, he wrote and said, "I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you." He instructed the Galatians in Chapter 6:1, "If anyone is caught in any transgression, that you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." He taught his disciple, Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:24, that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. And God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escaped from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will." That true love and discipline, they go together. That parental authority it is patient and it is gentle, but it's not apathetic or passive or indifferent. That it confronts sin precisely because it cares. Most people are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep, right? The shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in order to go and to search and to save the one? Fewer people are familiar with Matthew 18, where Jesus gives the instructions for how to handle matters of church discipline. Very few people are familiar with the fact that those are actually the same passage but talking about the same thing. This is in Matthew 18:12-21. "What do you think," Jesus says. "If a man has 100 sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So, it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." And then, immediately after that, he begins going into the instructions for church discipline. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And if he listens to you, you have gained your brother." He says, "If not, then you take two or three witnesses. If they still won't listen, you bring it before the whole church." But you get the idea that before giving the instructions for how to do church discipline, Jesus gives us the heart of why to do church discipline. It's a shepherd's heart. Luke's gospel actually includes two more parables. He talks about the parable of the lost sheep, but then he tells the parable of the lost coin. And he concludes with the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son that this series is named for. Paul is preparing to come as a father, and he's preparing to exercise church discipline if he needs to. He's doing that precisely because he loves this church so much. He understands that these people that are walking in unrepentant sin are in danger, that they need to be brought home. A lot of people have a hard time with this. I'm talking about church discipline, talking about correcting, rebuking, things like this. It's hard because it doesn't feel good, but a good parent is never content to merely see their child feel good. A loving parent longs more than anything for their child to be good and to do good. And deep down, I think we all long for this kind of leadership. We all look for this kind of authority to be exercised over us as well. I grew up in a church that was very good at the gentle, loving part. It was not so good at the speaking the truth in love part, the calling people to repentance and challenging them to grow apart. And so, on Wednesday nights, I would go to youth group as a teenager and from very well-meaning people, I would hear this message of, "You're special. You're great. God has a wonderful plan for your life," and I would walk away just confused. I'd feel self-righteous. I'd feel unchanged, unchallenged, and uninspired, which is boring as I didn't get it. If I'm so great, then why do I need to go to church? If I'm so great, why do I need a savior? And almost every other night of the week, my best friend and I would go to taekwondo. And the instructor, just picture like a shorter, much louder version of Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was amazing, but he would lose his voice almost every night just shouting instructions at us, running us through these drills, and he wasn't afraid to really push us to the very limits and the challenges. On our very first night there, he made me spar with him. And he kicked me in the face, and I'm not proud of this. This was the late '90s. At the time, I had just a few weeks before just gotten my eyebrow pierced. He kicked me right in the face, rips at half, and there's blood everywhere. He apologized. But then he's like, "Okay. Go clean yourself up, and get back out here because we're not done." And he worked us hard. But very early on, he made it clear that he cared about us as well. He worked us hard because he saw potential in us even if we didn't see it in ourselves, and he expected us to live up to that potential. Not just at the gym, at home, in our school. He was always asking us about our grades. "Are things going well at school? Are you staying out of trouble? Are you respecting your mom and dad?" And if he found out that we were slacking at school or we were getting in trouble at home, he would discipline us. We would be doing lunges and push-ups all night long, and he came to be this authority figure in my life that I really looked up to. He was firm. He taught me respect and discipline, but he wasn't domineering or coercive. I always knew that he genuinely cared about me as a person, and he was trying to get the best out of me as his student and it inspired me. It made me want to rise up to whatever challenge that he put before us, and it helped us to accomplish a lot more than we thought that we could. Now I shouldn't have had to go outside the church to find a good example of good authority to learn humility and confidence, respect, self-discipline, things like this. But by God's common grace, I found that and it did do some good in my life. Still, it would have been so much greater if his good authority had actually been a godly authority, not just one that taught me to follow him but one that taught me to follow Christ, to submit my life to the one who is truly worth following. That's really the chief end of what our authority is all about, to lead others to follow Jesus. Christ-like authority, on the surface, it might seem backwards. But when you see it in action, even if it's imperfect, you begin to realize that it's inspiring. It's actually surprisingly powerful and effective. And this brings us to point number three that Christ-like authority is foolish, but it's also effective. I had a friend who pretty early on in their career wound up with two bosses. It was like the movie Office Space, right, the TPS reports, all of that. And they had these two bosses and the two bosses were very different as people and in their leadership style. I'm going to call the first boss, give-a-second Boss Take. Take was all about getting stuff done, very impersonal. "Here's your work. Get it done. Is it done? Okay, here's some work. Tell me when it's done." And you pretty much only heard from them if they needed something or if something was going wrong. And when things went well, they would take all the credit for themselves. If things were going poorly, they would pass all the blame on to others. The other boss was Give, and Give was always investing in them, giving them advice, helping them plot out a career path, helping them build on their strengths, and pointing out their weaknesses so that they could work on those as well. And when things went well, they would share the credit with their team. If things went poorly, they would take responsibility themselves and then use that as opportunities to help their team develop and grow. Now, which of these two bosses do you suppose produce the best results? I mean, you don't have to think about it very long. It should be pretty obvious that the best results actually came from the leader who served, from the one who gave, who sacrificed what seemed like hours of their precious time investing into the people under their authority. When you have a boss that takes, you're only going to give. You're only going to put forth enough effort to keep them off your back or to make sure that you don't get fired. But when you have a boss that gives, you get excited to give yourself. You want to give your best. You want to work hard. You want to go the extra mile. And it's authority. It might seem backwards, but it's surprisingly effective. It's powerful. This is the leadership that was modeled by Jesus Christ, and so it was imparted to his disciples. And it's really it sparked a movement that completely transformed the world. The Empire, Rome, took the world by the power of the sword through coercion, and Jesus gave his life. He took the sword for the world, the Christianity won over the world through the power of the cross. On the one hand, 2,000 years later, one of those empires fell long ago and one is still standing and will never fall. Coercion can change people's actions, but only the love of Christ can change people's hearts. Cohesion can overpower an enemy, but the gospel can make an enemy into an ally, into a brother, into a friend. So, Paul was not afraid to exercise this self-sacrificing Christ-like authority because he knew that it was powerful. He knew that this had the power to transform this prodigal church. He knew that it had the power to transform the world, and he knew this because he'd already seen it transform something far more stubborn and rebellious. It had transformed his own prodigal heart. He talks about this in his letter to his disciples, Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, beginning of verse 12. He says this, "I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. He's called me under his authority even though formally, I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." He says, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. As we think about these things, my prayer for us today is that we would all come to have the humility of Paul, to know just how patient and merciful and gracious Jesus Christ has been toward us so that we live our lives in just gratitude and obedience to Him. My prayer is also that we would come to have the confidence of Paul, to know that we have been called and we have been appointed into the service of the only God, of the king of all ages. That all authority in heaven on earth belongs to Jesus Christ, and he has sent us out in his name with his authority to preach the gospel and to make disciples of all the nations. And my prayer for us today is that the power of God would be made perfect in our weaknesses so that we, individually and together, as a church would have more and more reason to boast not in ourselves but to boast in the Lord, but to boast in his power and all that he has done in and through us as a church. I'm going to close today by reading the words that Paul wrote at the very beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 18, Paul writes this, "For the world of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us we're being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand sign and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'" Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your good authority over our lives. We pray that you would humble our hearts to teach us to fully submit to you and to walk in the confidence of knowing that we've been sent in the name of the one to whom all authority and the heaven and earth belongs. God, we thank you for saving us, for appointing us into your service, for bringing us under your authority. And we pray, Lord that you would keep us from the temptation that authority brings, that the authority we have would be used for your glory. Be faithful to you that in our faithfulness, it would produce a fruitfulness that we see your power at work. So that in our weakness, the power of Christ will be on full display. So, now to you, the king of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

On this week's 51%, we kick off our series speaking to women religious leaders and celebrate the different ways that women worship. Sister Danielle Bonetti teaches the importance of worship through service, and the women behind the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church share their hopes for the future of the UMC. Guests: Sister Danielle Bonetti, Providence Coordinator of the Justice Ministry for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet; Kathleen Ryan, priest with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests; Heather Williams (pastor) and Alison Klock (associate pastor) of the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. For many of us, the topic of religion plays a considerable role in our lives, whether you're born and raised in your beliefs, “newly reformed,” devout, agnostic, or even atheistic. Our feelings on the afterlife have a way of guiding our life paths - but many of today's mainstream religions are, at least traditionally, male-led. So, with the holiday season in full swing, consider this part one of a series speaking to women religious leaders about why they worship, how they worship, and the issues they care about most in their respective faiths. Because increasingly so, women are finding ways to take part and lead. Today we'll start in Latham, New York, at the provincial house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a Roman Catholic group of women religious that traces back to the mid-1600s in France. The Latham headquarters serves primarily as a home for retired sisters, but it also houses its administrative offices, including the office of Sister Danielle Bonetti, the group's Province Coordinator of the Justice Ministry. “The Sisters of St. Joseph were founded in 1650. In those days, in the 1600s, if a woman entered a religious life, there was only one form of religious life, and that was cloistered convents. And so they have to spend their whole time praying and just living behind a cloister,” Bonetti explains. “What Father Medaille wanted to do was have little cells of women dedicated to serving others, who he called ‘the dear neighbor.' There was a strong Jesuit influence, and what they call ‘ignatian spirituality,' so that attracted me a great deal. Because I've always been attracted to the ignatian way of praying and imaging God.” Bonetti says the Roman Catholic faith was always a major part of her life. She went to join the Sisters of St. Joseph at just 18 years old, with hopes of serving in one of several ministries. The Sisters of St. Joseph notably started Albany College of Saint Rose in 1920, and played a role in the development of St. Mary's Hospital (now St. Mary's Healthcare) in Amsterdam. “But I was always wanting to do pastoral work, to be out with people,” says Bonetti. “So I was lucky, I got to do the very beginnings of parish work, of Sisters being in parish work. I was a religious ed director. I was always in the Albany diocese, and I was out in Oneonta for five years, and then in Troy. So I organized all the religious ed for the children who didn't go to Catholic school. What did that work look like? In those days I mainly worked to train the lay people who were gonna be what we would call the ‘catechist,' or the religion teacher. And in Oneonta, it was kind of exciting. It was a very rural parish, in the city of Oneonta we had the mother parish, and then we had these little missions. And so every day I was in a different little town, and I had a group of, usually, mothers who were (at that time) home during the day, and they would be the teachers. These children would be released from school, and we'd walk them to — it was a rural area, so we would use whatever building we could. One time, we even rented a grange hall and we had the classes there. One time there was an undertaker who let us use the basement of his establishment — which wasn't the best place to have class, but we did it. And being with the young mothers was wonderful, because it was a chance to get to know them, and for many of them it was their entry back into the workplace. Many of those women went on and stayed in that field, became religious ed directors themselves, youth ministers. So it was a chance to work with adults as well as the children. Later on, like the 1980s, late 1980s, I was like the assistant to the pastor, and I did hospital visiting. I had time to visit the parishioners who were homebound. [The pastor] would do the funeral, and I would do the wake service. It was what they called a “pastoral associate” role.  What kind of work do you do now? I organize things to help the Sisters grow in their understanding of justice issues, which is a tremendous commitment on our part as a community. We see ourselves as advocating for those on the margin of our society, doing legislative actions, [advocating for the passage] bills and laws that will lead to a more just society. I work with a group called Capital District Border Watch, and these are people very committed to work for immigrant rights, especially the people that are being detained at the border. So I just did a project yesterday with our senior Sisters here, where we made Christmas cards for the people who are now being held in detention. And I translated phrases into Spanish, so they wrote the phrases in Spanish to tell people that we're thinking of them and praying for them. But then I also work with the Capital District Council of Churches, and also the New York State Council of Churches, where we'll visit with legislators to look at New York legislation. Now that we can get out more, I'm starting to meet with groups. I've tried to get in touch with what's happening with the Afghan refugees who are coming into the area.  What other kinds of leadership positions do you see women taking in the Church? I think this is a crucial time for the Church right now. We've had some real soul-searching moments that still are very difficult. And I think the Church has the opportunity, especially with Pope Francis, to reach out to women — and he is doing that, he's starting to include women in leadership roles at the Vatican. And here in this diocese, we had many Sisters in leadership roles. When I worked for the diocese, almost every diocesean department was led by a woman, lay woman or a Sister, and that was a wonderful time in the Church. We're in a different time now, we don't have as many Sisters. But I think the Church has the opportunity of using the gifts of women — lay women, married women — and integrating that into the very life of the Church. I think women are studying theology and becoming very experienced in areas like teaching theology and spiritual direction. We have many Sisters, including myself, who do spiritual direction. We help men and women talk about and get in touch with how God is leading them in their life.  So it sounds like the acts of service are almost a way of worshiping. They are. They're very much tied into the way we envision God among us. Emmanuel means “God among us,” and we have a rich, rich tradition of spirituality. Of how we pray and how we approach God, and how we reach out to others. We see that as all connected. You know, we don't say, “Here you pray, here you serve others, and here you study scripture.” We're very strong about relationships. We really believe that our God is a God of relationships. Jesus didn't send a program, he came himself and was among us, and formed relationships. And so we feel that the best way to serve people is to be in a relationship with them. And we're enriched, you know, it's not a one-sided thing. I can't think of one experience in my life as a Sister that hasn't enriched me as much as I've given. My favorite, very favorite scripture story is “The Visitation,” where Mary, when she realized she was pregnant, she heard the angel speak to her — and she heard that her cousin was pregnant — went out right away to visit her cousin, and to be with her. You can just visualize, she was an older woman, and here's this very young woman. Both of them were pregnant, and they were both there to help each other and to, probably, try to understand what was happening. Because both were pregnancies that weren't expected. That's my very favorite, because I think women have always done that for each other, and you want to encourage that. And that doesn't exclude men, because I think men are called to the same kind of reaching out to others. Rather than top-down, it's much more one-to-one to each other.  While Sister Danielle points out that there are many ways women lead within the Roman Catholic Church, the Church currently does not allow women to become priests. Our next guest, Kathleen Ryan, was ordained in 2015 by an organization that hopes to change that. The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests says it is technically excommunicated by the Vatican, but it still sees itself as loyal members of the Church, and it has ministers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and elsewhere around the world. Ryan is one of multiple priests at The Upper Room, a non-hierarchical, Inclusive Catholic Community in Albany, New York. Like Sister Danielle, Ryan says her faith was an important part of her life from a young age.  What made you want to become a priest? I wanted to be very active [in the Church]. I was baptized Roman Catholic, and I grew up in the Catholic Church. But from the very beginning, I always felt like an outsider. The men — and the boys, my brothers — were able to do things in the Church that I wasn't able. So I always participated in every way I could as a young person, and then also as an adult. I was parish president, you know, I did all the things that the Church would allow women to do. But we were never really a full participant. And then in 2002 this movement began — and I didn't hear about it until 2013 — and one of the bishops, her name is Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, she was coming to Albany to do “A Conversation with a Woman Bishop.” I went to hear her speak, and when I got home, I said to my husband, “We just found our church.” This was so inclusive, including men. And it's a theology of blessing. The Catholic Church, we grew up with the theology of “original sin,” and we no longer accept that any more than we accept that canon law says that women cannot be priests. So for you, what was the process of becoming a priest? Well, there's a police background check, psychological background check. But a lot of new theology. It's progressive theology, the kind of theology that you cannot get in the typical seminary nowadays. And so we've created, through a program called People's Catholic Seminary, which is open to the public, a very progressive study of Christianity. We don't believe that everybody has to be baptized. I mean, it's nice — we do baptisms if you request it — but you're baptized into the church, into the community, and not to get that sin off your soul, so to speak. We're pro-immigrant, we are very socially justice minded. We're not for war. And yet we're a continuum, so if you talk to 200 women priests, you'll probably get differences of where we are on the continuum. But in general, we are an inclusive community who accepts anybody who feels they have the call, and are willing to study. Do you see this becoming more prevalent in the future of the Church? Well, we hope so. For a while we were hoping that the Catholic Church, the Vatican, would see us and say, “Hey, women should be part of us, too.” Well, it's not happening. If anything, many of our women priests have gotten letters of excommunication. They won't excommunicate a male priest who has abused, but they'll excommunicate me, who decided I wanted to be a woman priest. So their level of why they excommunicate — they're saying it's traditional, they say that Jesus did not have women priests. But he didn't have priests, for one. But he also did have many women who followed him and formed communities at his time. There was 12 disciples, but there was a lot women, and some are named, but more are not named because at the time women were not named in writings. It was just uncommon. There was a woman who walked with Paul, her name was Thecla. She worked with Paul in getting the message out of Jesus — and Jesus' message always was, “God loves you, and you need to love everybody else.” He didn't have all these canon laws. You know, he was Jewish, and he obeyed the Jewish traditions, but he did it with great love. And that's what Paul was saying. His words got kind of turned sometimes, but Thecla was right with him. She herself became a bishop. During the persecutions, they tried to kill her in the coliseums, and the legend is that she went in with the lions, and the lions just laid down. They didn't kill her. So she is as famous as Paul was at the time, but the Church kind of let that disappear. There's actually writings called, “The Book of Paul and Thecla.” Well, they left out the “Thecla.” Women have disappeared. Mary Magdalene is often considered to be a prostitute. Well, she wasn't. She was a follower of Jesus, and she was the first one to see Jesus resurrected. He came to her first. Why, because women weren't important? Women were very important.  Do you have a favorite biblical message or story you'd like to share? My favorite is “The Road to Emmaus.” So it's after Jesus was crucified, and the word was that he was resurrected, but not everybody saw it. And a disciple of his called Cleopas and his “companion” were walking to Emmaus. Well, the companion, we suspect strongly, was a woman, and most likely his wife, because women in those days would not walk alone. And the two of them were walking on the road to Emmaus, and talking about what they'd heard about Jesus being resurrected after the crucifixion, and they were all upset. And Jesus appears to them, but they don't recognize him. The way I look at it, Jesus followed them and chased after them to catch up to them. And he explained to them what happened in Jerusalem, why the crucifixion, why it had to happen, and what it means for now. And they still didn't recognize him until he sat with him and broke the bread. Cleopas and his wife ran back to Jerusalem — it's about seven miles away — to tell the disciples what they witnessed. And by that time Jesus had been appearing in different places, including to the other disciples. What I love about it is, first of all, [Jesus] chased after them to let them know what was really happening. He followed them, he pursued them. And I think God always pursues us. We're always on some path going in some direction, and somehow God pursues us. Our last guests today are the leaders of the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church in Saratoga Springs, New York. The UMC is one of the largest Protestant churches in the U.S., behind the Southern Baptist Convention, but a long-held stalemate over its stance on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy is prompting threats of a split by some of its more conservative churches.  Pastor Heather Williams has been at the front of her congregation for the past eight years. Her associate pastor, Alison Klock, could be considered its next generation: she graduated from Drew Theological School this past spring, is working toward becoming ordained, and splits her time as a program director for a Christian summer camp at Sky Lake, a retreat center in Windsor, New York. The pair shared with me their love for their congregation, their views on women in the Bible, and their hopes for the future of the UMC.  What made you want to become a pastor? Klock: I would say, for me, it was definitely a process that began because I had so many mentors in my life who sort of ushered me forward in this process. Because I would say I was maybe 11/12-years-old when I started to sense a call on my life toward ordained ministry, but I didn't know how to identify that. But other people who had been through this process were able to identify that in me, and they said, “Had you considered this?” or “Maybe we'll get you signed up for this.” And before you knew it, I was a 12-year-old girl who was reading scriptures on a Sunday, and going to summer programs where you learn about leadership in the church, and all these sorts of opportunities were thrown my way because people saw something in me. Williams: And for me, in ministry over the last 20-ish years…at first, I just thought my pastor had a cool job. To be honest, I always wanted to do what he did. But now, after 20 years, my real passion has grown into mentoring and uplifting and nurturing women in leadership.  Tell me more about the community you have at the Saratoga Springs UMC. Williams: We have this incredible group of generous and kind people, and yesterday, a member donated land for us to start a Habitat build across from the high school in Saratoga Springs.  So, like a Habitat for Humanity kind of build? Williams: Yes. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. We're a reconciling congregation, and in the United Methodist Church, that means that we are open and affirming of people from the LGBTQ community. That decision was made in 1995. And they embody the position of welcoming everyone. It is one of the healthiest churches I've ever seen, and they do welcome children, and love them, and make space for them to be them. We created a “little kid nook” in the back, with rocking chairs for parents and soft toys for children to play, in the sanctuary itself. This Sunday we had a baby cry, and it just took everyone's breath away, because it's been so long that we've heard a baby cry in the sanctuary, because of COVID and everything.  You said that a big part of your passion now is inspiring leadership, and working with women. Can you tell me a bit more about that? Williams: Sure. I am currently working on my Doctor of Ministry degree at Drew University, “Women in Religious Leadership.” And now I think I'm more formally thinking that that is my call. How exactly that will take shape, I'm not exactly sure. It's still a rough environment. It's still an environment where people assume my husband is the pastor being appointed to the church. It's still a place where people touch you unwarranted. It's still a place where you feel your voice is not seen as…and I think the political environment that we had for the last four years nurtured that type of ability to disempower, disengage, or push aside the voices of women.  One thing I've been asking my guests is — either in the UMC or in the church in general — what do you see as some of the biggest obstacles facing the church? And what do you see as some of the biggest opportunities? Williams: I think, for me, one of the obstacles is the rigidity around doing church differently. I read this book, Another Way, for my class in seminary, and it had this acronym, C.A.R.E., about leadership and creating a safe place, and hearing the voices [of everyone]. And that's one style of leadership that we won't embody, because church growth looks like, and I'm just gonna be real, a young, white man in skinny jeans and a large church. And the numbers are growing and growing and growing. That's what is seen as valuable or successful leadership in the church. And women don't lead that way. Women lead in teams. Women lead in community. Women lead in relationship. We don't lead in a top-down way where numbers are the most important thing. But the greatest hope is our denomination is in the middle of upheaval. So my hope is that, out of this upheaval, will come a brand new thing that the spirit of the living God will breathe into. That's my hope. Klock: Yeah, I was gonna speak on that a little bit, too. Our denomination, as it stands now, is the product of several, several years of denominations coming together and splitting for different political/social reasons. So yeah, where we are now is a product of that, and we are in the process of moving forward, too. And there's talks of splits, and that's very anxiety-provoking, because when something splits we don't know what will stand, but as Heather said, we're confident that the Spirit will burst something beautiful out of this new creation, whatever it is. Williams: One of the things we are planning: we are having an old-fashioned tent revival. “Resurgence: This is What Holiness Looks Like.” May 6 and 7 at our church, we're bringing in a renowned musician, Mark Miller. And the point of our gathering is to build hope. To build hope and for people to see the voice in the denomination, the things you've been hearing in the news, that's not what we are all. This is what holiness looks like. Being engaged in social justice, and showing up, and being present with one another no matter what. And we will not go back to a denomination that says you cannot recognize the full humanity of all people and provide full pastoral care. We won't go back. Our congregation refuses to adhere to that.  Lastly, do you have a favorite message or character from the Bible that you'd like to share? Klock: One of my favorite women in the Bible is actually “The Woman at the Well.” And the reason I like this story is because it's oftentimes a story that conservative folks will use to villainize women. It's a story where Jesus recognizes a woman who is living with a man who is not her husband, and she's been married several other times. She goes out in the middle of the day to get water from the well, and Jesus is there, and he says, “I know who you are,” and he references that. And so people will use that as a way to talk about, you know, “Jesus is calling you away from your sinful life.” But what I really like about that story is that Jesus is sitting there — it's noon on a really hot, summer's day — and he says, “Do you have water?” And she offers him water. And I don't think people recognize the significance of that. That Jesus asked this woman for something that is life-saving. Something that is life-giving. And that she is able to give this to him. She is the only one that's able to give this to him. So I think by people using this story as solely an opportunity to talk about sexual morality — they're missing the point, of the way that Jesus asks each of us, of all genders, of all walks of life, for our life-giving resources, to offer to him, to create something beautiful. Williams: Allison preached a beautiful sermon on Sunday about Mary and Elizabeth. In her sermon, she made me realize the need, for my own life and my own heart, to claim the beauty and the light that God has planted in me. And you can recognize that when you're in the presence of your Elizabeth.  You're the second person who's brought up that story. I think that's cool. I was speaking with Sister Danielle, and she mentioned that that was one of her favorite stories, too. Because Mary was so young, and she made the trip to go and see [Elizabeth], and [Sister Danielle mentioned] it being a story of women supporting each other. Williams: Yeah, she literally ran for the hills, that's what the scripture says. To go see Elizabeth. But yeah, there are so many other stories of women in the scripture, some of them fraught with racism and classism. We see too many times the ability of one woman, because of their status, to be able to subjugate, or abuse, or mistreat another woman because of their status. And so I guess that's why it's so important to me.  That's a wrap on this week's 51%. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's hosted by me, Jesse King, our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and that theme underneath me right now? That's “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. A big thanks to all of the women who took part in this episode: Sister Danielle Bonetti, Kathleen Ryan, Pastor Heather Williams and Associate Pastor Alison Klock. We'll continue our celebration of women religious leaders next week. Until then, I'm Jesse King for 51%.

Listener comments end at: 27:45 The Claw of the Conciliator Chapter 18, "Mirrors" Severian wakes up as Thecla. Hethor's critter is hunting them, so Sev wakes up Jonas and they go to Inire's mirrors.    Links:      - The Yarn of the Nancy Bell      - Stephen Frug on Jonas * Facebook   - Chapter 16 Jonas (part 2) - Chapter 16, Jonas (part 1) * Reddit - Chapter 16 (part 2) - Chapter 16 (part 1) - This episode is sponsored by Secret Doors! - You can become a patron and hear additional episodes at https://www.patreon.com/rereadingwolfe - You can get episodes on your podcast app or on our Youtube channel. Note: Youtube subscribers in some locales might not be able to access all the episodes. However, you can get every episodes at the website and on your favorite podcast app.  If you have problems accessing the podcast on your favorite platform, let us know. - Questions, comments, corrections, additions, alternate theories? Connect with us on on Facebook ...or on Twitter @rereadingwolfe ...or on Instagram: rereadingwolfepodcast ...or on Reddit: rereadingwolfepodcast  * Intro from The Alligator, Annihilation soundtrack by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow * Break Music from Symphony #2 - I by Arvo Pärt, performed by NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic * Outro from "Go To The Mirrors" by The Who * Logo art by SonOfWitz  Outros and alternate outros are cued on the Rereading Wolfe Podcast Spotify playlist IF the songs are available on Spotify.

For a moment, pretend that you have received a letter from a friend who gives the following description of a person she recently met.  She writes that he was "a man of middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were far apart; he had large eyes, and his eyebrows met, and his nose was somewhat long."[i]   Now honestly, would you be much impressed?  Probably not, yet the description which I just gave you is the only one in history with any credibility that tells us what the Apostle Paul looked like.   [i] From "The Acts of Paul and Thecla," as quoted by Christianity Today, August 11, 1997, p. 39.    

Pastor Bill: [0:00] Hello and welcome to season 3 episode 52 of the Berean Manifesto: Faith, Hope, and Love for the Modern Christian. Tonight we are going to be talking about something that may, make some people feel rather passionate about one way or another. We are not here to tell you how to think, or what to believe, but your present the way we see things and what evidence we can provide that led us to believe certain things that way. If you then want to walk away from this conversation and go well the evidence they provided I don't agree with, that, that's good evidence and I'm going to continue believing the way I believe. That's great. At the end of the day we're both going to walk away agreeing that Jesus was born as a man died for you know... what's the right words... the propitiation of our sins, not our actions but sin nature, so that we can walk in a relationship with God so that we have the hope of looking forward to an eternity with Him. You're going to walk away sharing that belief, I know, I'm not doing a soft open I mean I'm doing a soft open I'm not doing a hard open. Um no, I'm talking to Biggs on Twitch, he says, "well how was your week?" as if he's like don't forget guys everything goes bad if you don't do a warm up first. Um yeah, so we will be looking at some scriptures tonight and we will be talking a bit about this Universal Bible Tome that Newms and I both have because it's got some great things that we need to talk about and so that's that's where we are. Tonight's episode is called, "Not Inerrant but Infallible" Peekaboo my little Groggy is joining us on Twitch welcome Groggy, glad you're here tonight.   Pastor Newms: [2:23] Oooo, one of these days he's gonna get you for saying that.   Pastor Bill: [2:24] My little Groggy, my little Groggy. Oooh he's several states away what's he going to do? Come to Texas and finally meet me face-to-face? Ooh, I'm scared. We'll go have some barbecue or something together, that'd be awesome. All right, so how was your week pastor Newms?   Pastor Newms: [2:59] We started a new war in Star Trek last night. That's really been it I've not done a ton this week, was pretty much mainly focused on work celebrated the fifth of November yesterday. So other than that yeah it was pretty good. I got a new mask I got a nice new mask I like my new.   Pastor Bill: [3:26] Yeah you did, your Guy Fawkes mask.   Pastor Newms: [3:29] Yes yes to celebrate the.   Pastor Bill: [3:34] And for those of you listening to podcast not watching live he picked up an all black mask with golden highlights to make it look like Guy Fawkes, also reminiscent of the V movie - V for Vendetta. Yeah that he watches on November 5th every year because that's how his brain works. There are certain movies that you have to watch on certain days, Mean Girls on October third and V is for Vendetta on November 5th. Biggs on Twitch says Groggy's going to drive his Corvette and have a road trip down to Texas, Biggs is volunteering Groggy for a road trip to Texas in his Corvette that's lovely I look forward to seeing. Alright, so?   Pastor Newms: [4:26] How was your week Pastor Bill.   Pastor Bill: [4:27] How was my week? Um, well my week was was pretty good I mean. See the problem with asking about the whole week is I don't really remember whole weeks I remember like I can tell you what I did today and probably what I did yesterday. But I can also tell you useless information like. I don't know, useless information about things in history that nobody cares about but stuff about me and my week I just I just draw a blank you know, yeah so I went and had barbecue yesterday for lunch at this alien establishment built around the Aurora alien just down the road and it was great barbecue. First time I've ever been able to say that because you know everything is subjective and then in my subjective opinion it's the first great barbecue that I've had so. So yeah, so that's that and I did some work around the house this week just fixed some stuff that need to be fixed and.   Pastor Newms: [5:41] You messed with some computer rigging of things was that this week or was that last week graphic stuff.   Pastor Bill: [5:47] I can't remember.   Pastor Newms: [5:50] I don't remember.   Pastor Bill: [5:51] I don't remember what I've done this week but I guess that's a good sign because I mean is it wasn't a bad week.   Pastor Newms: [5:57] Right exactly yeah.   Pastor Bill: [5:59] So nothing bad happened, so I'm thankful for that they can see you know that's a good place to start. But like you said we, we in Star Trek Fleet command we had a down week no story arc which was just kind of frustrating but we did have, after a few days of almost literally nothing in the game, they finally dropped a Crucible Of War event which is a three-day just grind of hostiles to which Newms looked at it and went this is just my daily what I do in the game what are you guys complaining about, and I'm like no no this is considered Star Trek grind and he's like this is just what I do daily I don't understand what's wrong with you guys. Yeah, but for me, I was I was tired of seeing the color red personally but I don't play games the same way that Newms does which has been a point of conversation over the past four days that I'm glad we can move on to different conversations now. Things about how we don't like the people we're allied with in a current War, but we're going to be good soldiers and fight the good fight anyway and and hope for the war to end soon so we can go back to not liking the people that were allied with. So that's that that was my week and so now I guess we'll do Getting to Know the Pastors and since this is an even-numbered episode season 3 episode 52 that means that Newms will pull a card from his box and we will answer.   Pastor Newms: [7:39] Alright as not how we're going to be able to read the question all right.   Pastor Bill: [7:46] Yeah you can't read the back of the car.   Pastor Newms: "If you could have one book instantly memorized cover to cover, which book would you choose?"   Pastor Bill: [8:03] Um that would have to be Grey's Anatomy.   Pastor Newms: [8:10] The book, there's a book?   Pastor Bill: [8:14] Yeah it's the book that's got the man sprawled out on the front of it and his arms are in different positions it's a medical textbook.   Pastor Newms: [8:23] Oh okay, why?   Pastor Bill: [8:27] Oh you you thought I meant like a novelized version of the show Grey's Anatomy I'm talking about the medical textbook Grey's Anatomy.   Pastor Newms: [8:37] But why.   Pastor Bill: [8:39] Because I want to know everything and that's a really good place to start.   Pastor Newms: [8:54] This is one of those I can't answer there's too many valid answers that that I can't formulate a decent answer to it.   Pastor Bill: [9:10] Now if you thought either one of us were going to say the Bible then welcome to the Berean Manifesto, It's good to have you here. We don't give flaky answers, we avoid the obvious flaky answers and go for deep meaning stuff obviously every Christian would want to have the Bible memorized.   Pastor Newms: [9:32] But that's not a book it's a collection of books.   Pastor Bill: [9:34] That's a collection of books but it's bound as a and sold as a single unit.   Pastor Newms: [9:40] No but that was my thought was I can't pick a single book because it is in and of itself not a single book.   Pastor Bill: [9:48] It's an anthology but it is it's a work of it's an anthology work you know.   Pastor Newms: [9:57] Yeah.   Pastor Bill: [9:59] Bound as a single book anyway.   Pastor Newms: [10:04] But then I was so many other books on my on my you know this just in I don't know man.   Pastor Bill: [10:11] Just the one you'd want to memorize I mean just like.   Pastor Newms: [10:13] See I do.   Pastor Bill: [10:14] And then you could be sitting back one day on a on a stranded Island on a on the beach and some strain on the middle of the ocean and be like all right I'm going to walk my brain through. Yeah ABatBrain on Twitch says coding for dummies.   Pastor Newms: [10:36] The problem with memorizing a coding book would be the fact that one the language is changed constantly so memorizing one feature wouldn't the concept stay the same but that's not the hard part of coding the concepts are the easy part the hard part of coding is the syntax.   Pastor Bill: [10:57] Biggs is throwing shade I'm surprised it took them this long to start throwing shade, we're 16 minutes and he's throwing shade at me for drinking apple juice and then sipping my dr. pepper.   Pastor Newms: [11:10] You are nasty but we all know that already so I don't know why anyone.   Pastor Bill: [11:14] It's not like I'm pouring both of them in my mouth at the same time.   Pastor Newms: [11:17] You're nasty, you're always nasty, it's fine we love you for it. But you nasty.   Pastor Bill: [11:27] See now Zaydees got to go straight for the cheat they didn't which says all Edgar Allan Poe's work and the original Beowulf I don't know that you can find that all printed in one book.   Pastor Newms: [11:37] Olive olive.   Pastor Bill: [11:39] To memorize.   Pastor Newms: [11:40] All of Poe actually we own all in one book if you're classifying an anthology as one book.   Pastor Bill: [11:49] Because you said and Beowulf.   Pastor Newms: [11:50] Beowulf yeah I know that's where that's where your. Oh dummy must be blanked out it's coming across on this platform it might not on Twitch because.   Pastor Bill: [12:10] So true.   Pastor Newms: [12:12] You I think Biggs you actually have your filter set on. Cuz it's coming across twitch correctly so I think it's because you have your profanity filter on and I guess dummy is one of the no no words on. On Twitch yet comes across perfectly fine so yeah that's that's that's on your side Biggs I'll have to show you how to turn that off at some point.   Pastor Bill: [12:46] HPuffPhoenix says all of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Well if you can't answer do we need to pull another card because nobody got to know you well.   Pastor Newms: [13:07] "Through the use of a time machine you are traveling back to the year 1850."   Pastor Bill: [13:12] No, I'm not - that ain't happening.   Pastor Newms: [13:15] You may take with you one and only one product or invention from the modern error what would you take with you to impress and all our forebears? None of it because they would burn you at the stake.   Pastor Bill: [13:27] The Time Machine they would be impressed and then I would come home I aint staying in and 1850.   Pastor Newms: [13:34] But even that they would burn you at the stake they would destroy you they would call you now no no man. I'll go forward, hopefully it's better that direction I need some robotic I need some robotic limbs I need a brain to computer interface.   Pastor Bill: [13:54] It just gets worse than both directions from here trust me I can guarantee it he just gets worse in both directions. I trust Phoenix says no she's just knowing that to a bat brain is quoting Monty Python she's a witch will she float.   Pastor Newms: [14:25] Big big guns of the only thing I.   Pastor Bill: [14:29] Take big gun you just wipe them out and be like that fixes the problem.   Pastor Newms: [14:33] Like it's really like dot dot dot dot dot dot dot as they're getting you know and just deal with it move on because it's not.   Pastor Bill: [14:43] You wipe yourself out no no these are smart bullets they won't hit anything that's close to my own DNA so I'm not wiping out any of my ancestors.   Pastor Newms: [14:53] Well you couldn't the rule the true laws of time wouldn't allow that sorry.   Pastor Bill: [14:58] Well they would. Yes it's like a stream you can throw a rock in the Stream and divert the stream but it's just going to reconnect and and and do the same eventuality anyway.   Pastor Newms: [15:14] Because as soon as soon as you killed someone who, destroyed you you've now destroyed the ability to go back and kill any of them it doesn't I don't believe in the fragmentation of time I believe in the straight one, line anyhoo that is not what we're talking about tonight we are.   Pastor Bill: [15:37] I believe in I believe in similar eventual outcomes. In regards to changing time you believe in self-fulfilling, if you go back in time and change something it was because you already did that before, yeah that's what you believe and that's the perfect leave at that's just as valid as believing that time is ruled by three magical Wizards that sit outside of time and are part reptilian and. Because you're talking time travel that's 100%.   Pastor Newms: [16:17] Theoretical today.   Pastor Bill: [16:24] You'd think if time travel was possible we'd know by now well no you wouldn't not if you can't time travel back further than the machine you created then you wouldn't know it or anyway.   Pastor Newms: [16:39] There's a lot of time paradoxes that can happen in time paradoxes are no fun.   Pastor Bill: [16:44] See this is how you get to know the pastor's you're learn more about us right now than you probably bargained for what we believe about time travel and get it. Okay oh he's puffing smoke a wrote a book speaking of streams did you know that if a beaver's dam gets messed up they don't have the mental capacity to process it was destroyed and be upset, they simply just start over. I mean I think it's less of that and more of the they're not sure how to pump all the water back out after they patch the hole it's just flooded there's no choice.   Pastor Newms: [17:36] You got to start over.   Pastor Bill: [17:37] They don't have hydraulic pumps or anything.   Pastor Newms: [17:40] Got to start over all right.   Pastor Bill: [17:57] You and I were both raised I'm gonna go out on a limb and say. To believe that the Bible from cover to cover is the inerrant word of God spoken about in John 1:1. The word was with God the Word was God.   Pastor Newms: [18:22] No I was not taught that part I was taught that that word, became flesh so that that word was the motive that's what I was taught but I was taught that the word of God is inspired inherent and infallible yes.   Pastor Bill: [18:42] Inspired inerrant and infallible. And I was raised believing that it was inerrant, I can't remember too much emphasis being put on the inspired part I was kind of downplayed I think and the infallible definitely, and then I was taught to believe that, when it's Edward in John 1:1 it was specifically talking about this the 66 books and that these 66 books, became a living flesh being who was the person Jesus. And that's what I taught I was taught that this was. Everything Jesus was made up of its whole mental capacity as whole everything was this and a lot of Evangelical churches, that I know of have taught that are still teaching that, that this is tantamount to equal with Jesus and equal with God and therefore is Holy in and of itself. You can't write in it you can't question it you can't study it you can't comparatively, analyze it you have to be respectful of it it's Untouchable it's basically all the definitions you give to an idol. That's what that is and.   Pastor Newms: [20:28] Yeah see and I wasn't taught anywhere close to that in most I can't say like when I was like our little little kid because some of those churches were a little fun but. Even you know schools and stuff that I went to didn't go that far. Not saying I agree with everything they did teach about the Bible but. I didn't go that far that far. That actually cuz we haven't had that part of the conversation before and that explains some other feelings that you have. And because if I was taught that I would definitely have some more issues around it in how you speak sometimes but continue.   Pastor Bill: [21:23] See your learning stuff two decades in and you're still learning stuff about.   Pastor Newms: [21:28] Because you don't love me enough to tell me these things ahead of time.   Pastor Bill: [21:30] Little just come out like they they wait until the right time then they pop out and I'm like bleep yeah here you go below information right, so where you stand today in all of your study and all of your prayer and all of your belief and all of your everything do you still stand 100% on this inspired inerrant and infallible. Position. Let me just stop you right there if your beliefs weren't messy then you wouldn't be giving this topic the respect it deserves.   Pastor Newms: [22:18] Well yeah so. I believe that scripture is inspired the problem is the definition of scripture, the problem is the definition of all and the problem is and then that then takes the next steps and continues through the inerrancy and the infallibility now I believe. That God in the Holy Spirit. Kept the ideals and the overarching importance, of the Bible too its form and protected against. Complete and total an ally Annihilation I don't necessarily agree that, there is a specific version a specific and that's where you start getting into the issues of inherent C and infallibility is because, translations, translate certain aspects completely different and can mean completely different things and how they translate it and that is where you start to get into the messy part of this conversation in my opinion.   Pastor Bill: [23:45] Okay so let me let me boil that down to a much simpler statement okay you believe that all scripture is god-breathed and therefore inerrant. Scripture we haven't defined what scripture is in that statement. But that you believe what second Timothy 3:16 Says all scripture is god-breathed and then we take that step to say well it is therefore then inerrant you also believe that. The Bible is this collection of 66 books is infallible. It's not necessarily inherent from cover to cover but infallible.   Pastor Newms: [24:33] Yes I do not believe the Bible goes against God in any way and I do not believe I don't believe there's errors written.   Pastor Bill: [24:45] No well you you've left room for.   Pastor Newms: [24:50] Well now you're cutting out and I can't hear you so.   Pastor Bill: [24:52] Sorry you've left room for historical inaccuracies. To contradict yourself but in infallibility you've said that even if those details are reported different that the message it teaches has been. Simply put the inerrancy of the Bible means that someone believes that and then we're not talking about the inerrancy of the word scripture, because we'll talk about the definition of the word scripture here a little bit we're talking about specifically the 66 books. The Theology of the inerrancy of the Bible those 66 books, it means that you believe that every sentence within its text is reliably historically and literally the accurate and true words of God. That means you hang your hat on every statement as being 100% this happened, this is true the details are perfectly accurate and in no way biased or influence by culture, that's what the Theology of inerrancy of the Bible teaches and a lot of people when they say I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible they don't realize. What they're claiming about the Theology of, the inerrancy of the Bible right and so whenever we have this conversation with people about will do you believe in the inerrancy of the Bible a most people don't understand what that theology actually teaches, and if they would take time to actually go through line by line what that theology teaches it's likely they would partially agree with that but not fully agree with that, you're saying you can't hear me right now which is fine.   Pastor Newms: [27:07] You're breaking up real bad.   Pastor Bill: [27:08] They would say they partially agree with the Theology of inerrancy but not fully agree when they go through line by line what that theology teaches, the infallibility of the Bible as a theology, teaches that the text within the Bible is reliably capable, of communicating the intended message that God and the author that God inspired wanted communicated. So God inspired the author to write the author wrote down and the actual message the intended information, was communicated and that even if there are contradictions and slight details I'm breaking up again. Why are we having such a hard time, even though it may be slight problems in slight details as in Matthew saying one thing happened and Mark saying it happened differently because two people have two different perspectives, that's okay because two people can tell the same story and the story still be true even though two people look at it differently. That's infallibility not inerrancy okay so let's talk about what the definition of scripture, actually is okay the Greek word means holy writ. Or it can be used for anything that's written it's graph a graph graph a, scripture make sure I'm using the right word yeah graphe, it's graphe a any document that's written down by hand is can you can use the word graphic for, it's the word scripture and so when they use the word scripture in the Bible though as as writers of, documents that they intend to, inspire people to live a certain way or correct certain things about Doctrine so basically we're talking about every book of the New Testament, when they're intending to teach and they use the word scripture they don't mean any written document they literally mean a holy writing okay, so when we go and we look at, what the defining Mark is for understanding what a scripture is and when they were. Struggling for hundreds of years starting in I want to say. What year was that by 367 ad they had it, pretty well figured out but the struggle started in I want to say it was 150 ad. They were struggling with what New Testament books to endorse as quote-unquote scripture and they didn't have they hadn't land it on, the books that we have right now there were several books that get left out of the original, thing that people were advising people to read as a new testament and then there's this, modern overwhelming teaching, that it was just understood that everything we believed to be the Old Testament was always, considered scripture was always used for teaching was always used for correcting was always scripture right that the Old Testament was always scripture except, when you go back and you look at the things that, Paul quoted the things that Peter quoted the things that Jesus himself quotes, um now I know for sure Jesus but I'm stretching for Paul and Peter you're not going to find them quoting. From Old Testament books that aren't part of the law collection and the prophets collection, which means Joshua Judges Ruth first and second Samuel first and second Kings first and second chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, none of these books when Jesus walked the Earth were actually considered scripture, and even Jesus himself I know for sure because I went and did the researcher there today he never quotes from any of those books. He references Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum habakkuk Zephaniah haggai Zechariah Malachi and Psalms which are the books of the law, and all of the minor and major prophets as well as Psalms these are the only books that Jesus ever referenced. All the gospels where we have everything that he ever said. As recorded I mean obviously he said of the things you know cause you can't say pass me the salt, without saying pass me the salt and obviously they didn't write down when he was out of meal and was like they're gonna get some of that salt because you know surely he did, ask for things surely he used regular words surely they had regular conversations sure they at some point he was like man, I gotta go take a dump so I'll be back in a few. I mean obviously you didn't use those words but the equivalent of hey man I got to go take care of this I'll be back and they didn't write that down in the Bible. Only references these specific books and it's the same books that you find, being referenced by the rest of the New Testament and you got all these books that weren't referenced, because they weren't really considered scripture they were considered poetry they were considered history, they were considered other things they weren't considered to be scripture but then today we quote from things like, Joshua and judges and Esther and job and Proverbs and we go well the scripture says we find no evidence anywhere in the Bible. That leads us to believe any of those books were considered scripture until-- a hundred and fifty a d-- We don't even have a historical reference to those being scripture until a hundred and fifty a d-- And at some point someone decided Well all this Jewish collection is all scripture now when it wasn't before now I'm not opposed, to having Revelations and gain New Revelations and God doing a new thing that's how Revelations work you know I'm not one of those people that and we talked about this a couple weeks ago, when someone says well they didn't start teaching that until so and so as their main point that's a red flag, that's that shouldn't be your main point right because God can can make New Revelations on the same scripture so I'm not opposed to that but when we are defining what is scripture. We can't point to a collection of books that didn't even start to be collected as that collection. Until over a hundred years after the death of Christ. We can't just blanket say all of this description. That's not how that works even Paul himself in some of his writings he'll say. Now this is what I believe I don't want you to take it as a command from the Lord this is my opinion blah. Now obviously that's not scripture that's Paul even categorically saying this is not scripture this is my personal opinion right. And so. We have to understand that in second Timothy 3:16 when it says all scripture is dot-dot-dot gonna go god-breathed. Paul is not talking about a collection of 66 books that some is going to start putting together. 90 - 60 years after he writes that that's not what he's referencing. We know that's always referencing because we know Paul's not a prophet, never claimed to be a prophet never met any prophecies and that would most definitely be a prophecy, to say you know we're gonna put together a thing and we're gonna call it the Bible and it's gonna be scripture and then you've got Jude. Referencing a do what's called a deuterocanonical, deuterocanonical deuterocanonical Book of Enoch okay so there's apocryphal books meaning their books that were believed to have been written after Malachi, but before Matthew, better than included in most Jewish studies modern Jewish studies and in most Catholic Bibles those are the apocryphal books then you got to deuterocanonical canonical canonical books. That are books that Christians around the world have adopted as Canon. But the Catholic church does not endorse and the Jewish belief is that yeah it would be good for you to read it but it's not part of your required studies, like The Book of Enoch okay scripture can exist in those books. And there was something I wanted to talk about where did you go why is that zooming out.   Pastor Newms: [38:28] Hey Pastor Bill you have a hole in your shirt.   Pastor Bill: [38:34] Stop that. I know, the cat did it. Makes me angry.   Pastor Newms: [38:43] I was like at the at the moment it's right next to the p in your name it's just right there just.   Pastor Bill: [38:51] Why is my computer trying to make me zoom in or zoom out right now that doesn't make any sense oh maybe because my arm is on the keyboard I'm reaching over my keyboard. Okay so by 353. What year was that 364 all.   Pastor Newms: [39:18] I'm not good with the years.   Pastor Bill: [39:23] 367 by 367 ad there were was a collection of books that they believed were authentic, New Testament scripture, okay so we're talking 267 years after the time of Christ a bunch of churches and their leadership finally decided that of the Ada, eight zero gospel accounts that had been found, and the numerous letters claimed to have been written by Paul or Peter or James or Jude or, judah's Bartholomew I mean the list goes on and on and on all these letters that they had that didn't make it. They came up with a system for deciding what should be a new testament book what shouldn't be New Testament book and they were actually using these words by them Old Testament and New Testament, number one was Apostolic did it come from an apostle did one of the Apostles of Christ pin this work, that was number one if it if they did then it automatically made the first cut they automatically went okay this goes in the in the good pile, surprisingly enough only Matthew Mark Luke and John, of 80 gospels those are the only four that met the first run even though mark, I didn't actually meet Jesus, it's believed that Mark was only writing down Peters words because Peter was old and was having vision problems and couldn't couldn't right you know he's got that old arthritic thing going on and so Mark was writing down Peters words, number two authentic does it have the ring of Truth did it sound when read out loud. To those people like it was something that was worthy of being included in a holy document, or did it sound like it was written by Joe Schmo down the road who is just a normal guy was it eloquent or was it simpleton. Number three ancient has it been used from the earliest of times do the ideas taught in this writing. Line up with and builds upon the ideas that the church in general, has taught over the years for instance. By this time he had agree all agreed on what the Trinity was on the belief of the trinity, and if any phrase in any of these books these writings that were being considered made it sound like the author, did wasn't endorsing the trinity then it got kicked out accepted. Were most of the known churches using this writing. And at this time only 23 of the now 27 books that we have were actually in wide use, 23 of them and then the others were added because they met a certain amount of these other criteria. Number 5 accurate, does it conform to the theological teachings of the church. In the year 360 ad. If it didn't agree with the teachings of the church and 360 ad for whatever reason it was disqualified. And that's how they came to agree loosely. What the 27 books of the New Testament would be now we know that Paul wrote a lot of letters and we know that you know they're out there, and there's a lot of arguments online that point to a lot of scriptures. And a lot of non scriptures in my opinion that say things like the words that were delivering to you are scripture. Except when you go back and read them it says things like the words that we did deliver to you in person. Our God breathed inspired of God and now we're writing you a follow-up letter, because that it ended up you need encouragement you'd fallen off the trail you've blah blah blah so you don't actually have the original teachings, that Paul and Peter and all these guys were going around teaching because they weren't writing those down they were delivering them orally. We only have their follow-up letters highlighting the areas where their people were struggling with or needed encouragement in only the hard things we don't have any of the easy stuff, that they actually taught face-to-face which is very frustrating to me all right. Um because it would be nice to have all that other stuff. Are you with me so far Pastor Newms everything you want to add or contract or whatever.   Pastor Newms: [45:29] Well so we are 51 minutes and a now I'll say it. English is a terrible language.   Pastor Bill: [45:40] English is so hard so hard.   Pastor Newms: [45:43] And so there's a lot that. You know people teach in Herrin see teacher people teach infallibility and they don't agree on what those words even mean, I was reading one article today that taught the up.   Pastor Bill: [46:02] Ah Zaidee.   Pastor Newms: [46:06] Of the opposite of what we're talking about right now which is what most people believe inherently and infallible seemed means they were teaching the exact opposite that. The infallibility means it's never ever ever inaccurate and its inherent meaning it it can't be proven wrong and it was like wait that.   Pastor Bill: [46:32] That's backwards of what the rest of the world believes those words mean come on.   Pastor Newms: [46:37] It's so it I mean it's a problem.   Pastor Bill: [46:40] Yeah that's the problem.   Pastor Newms: [46:41] And you know I think. Over time we have stretched, what our beliefs are from individuals and groups of individuals who had goals in mind, and sadly I think that has tainted. Some of the translations and some of the beliefs that the modern church has because of that. You know it's one of them things.   Pastor Bill: [47:30] It's one of them things it really is okay so if you don't have anything else you want to talk about about the definition of scripture the word scripture or what is you know.   Pastor Newms: [47:43] So you know for me I believe. The 66 books that we have are all important I think they are all. They all at some point meet the definition of scripture that's given in. Timothy but I don't necessarily believe every aspect in them. Does because of situations like where Paul says this is my opinion where Paul says bring me my coat you know there's nothing we can get doctrinally, that brick that builds up the church or that is used for Doctrine and bring me my coat, the rest of the writings around that are really good and I believe that. You know God did Keep. You know preserved the knowledge that we need in those books. But. You know there is that aspect of you can't trust a single translation several of the translations are wrong in my opinion in different places, because of how they translate the Greek or the Hebrew or. Things like that whereas some are really good. Which is why I study with it at least 3 anytime I study because. Different people translated each time. But that's that's my thing and then you have the Council of nicaea later the other councils that came after the times you're talking about.   Pastor Bill: [49:50] For total councils.   Pastor Newms: [49:54] And well there were four that talked about scripture correct.   Pastor Bill: [49:59] Right for that dealt with what are we where are we calling cannon not exclusively dealt with what are we calling Cannon but dealt with what are we calling.   Pastor Newms: [50:08] But there were there were other councils that, determined things that determined what they would like like what you were mentioning of hey it has to be one of the beliefs that the church holds those other. Councils are where those were set. And so it is interesting to look at some of those historically and how that shaped modern Christianity. And of course my favorite story ever comes from one of them so but anyway. We're not going to we're not going to tell it today we're not going to tell us today on purpose so that way people are like which news is favorite story and then they'll have to hear it at some point.   Pastor Bill: [51:01] The man.   Pastor Newms: [51:04] Because we'll get to it we're getting to the season where it's going to be used well we can't get through November and December without it coming up but stay with us you'll get it. What else did you want to say Pastor Bill while you're looking through your nose.   Pastor Bill: [51:22] So I actually was looking at my notes I was reading the letter of. The thinness and effing Asia's the first person in 83 67 this was his Easter letter, to Believers that was revealed at the Pascal Festival where we get the first complete list of the 66 books that, we hold to be Cannon because I like. I like his his sixth paragraph in this letter he's talking about you know here's here's the Old Testament books here's the New Testament books, and then he sums up what I think is a very very very important point, that the church forgot over the years that allowed this, to leave the status of what it is and become what I growing up was taught that it was okay, and and I read what he said here he says after giving the list he does one paragraph for Old Testament one paragraph for New Testament he says, these are Fountains of Salvation that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain in these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness, let no man add to these, neither let him take out from these for concerning these Lord put to shame the Sadducees and said he do are not knowing the scriptures and he reprove the Jews saying, search the scriptures for these are they that testify of me so let me. Kind of modernize that some he said these 66 books are what you need to know. To understand your salvation, and all the details for salvation that you need to know are within these books and the other books that, people have gone to they don't have the doctrines in them that you need for salvation they're not wrong, they're not invalid. But this is your basis of understanding salvation the doctrine of understanding salvation exists Within These pages. That was his point study these these 66 books to understand salvation. In nowhere in there did he say. This alone is the exhaustive word of God and nowhere in there did he say that every jot and Tittle of these 66 books, is the inspired word of God he said the doctrine of salvation that you need. Is Within These pages and that's true this is probably, the most important collection of writings ever. But when I go to the Old Testament and I see instructions to the Israelites about the right way and the wrong way to sell your daughter into slavery, and I see instructions to the priest about how to decide if a woman has been unfaithful to her husband. And cause a miscarriage and shrivel up their womb. These are not details that the book is intended for. These are details of what God dealt with those people according to their culture at that time that is part of an overall story to understand why. Why Jesus why Jesus says a man human why Jesus sacrifice what does that mean to me. I don't look at the Old Testament and go, these are instructions on how I'm supposed to live my life I need to go get some dust and mix it in with some water and mix it in with this plant that by the way would probably just make a gross kind of tea and not cause any kind of miscarriage. And it's probably just. A way to tell the man to grow up and love his wife so that she's not feeling like she needs to go out and look for justification in the arms of another man. Because I can almost guarantee you one hundred percent of the time when that happened that, the woman was found innocent because even the tone of the text is satirical in nature like, getting off on a tangent I've seen so many videos using that as God endorses abortion right here in this shit I'm like that's not. Text means at all breathe okay yeah I like bit so often, you know in my later teenage years and grown up you'd hear like Bible stands for basic instructions before leaving Earth, and it's interesting that that yeah but it's so interesting in that and that what is it called anagram, anyway it's so interesting that that lines up so well when it literally has nothing to do with why it's called Bible but it's so accurate, yeah the Bible is the basic instruction and I do mean basic as in, you know I'm over it that's so Elementary I mean Ian basic as in you build a foundation for a building, and you build on top of that Foundation that's the Bible this is the foundation of our Christian beliefs and then we build on top of it, and too often we've got so many Christians standing outside of the building worshipping the foundation. Instead of building on top of the foundation. But that's my personal experience okay so this Universal Bible don't let the name, throw you because it first it through me until I actually looked at what was inside of it before I bought it as far as universal what they mean is it's got what every. Christian sect will say sect considers to be Canaan scripture so what the Samaritan believers, hold as Canon Bible what the Hebrew Believers hold his Cannon Bible what the Orthodox Believers holders can in Bible what the Catholics hold his Cannon Bible but the Syriac Believers holds Canada Bible but the Ethiopian, Believers hold as Cannon Bible and then what the pro majority of, North American Believers are the Protestants what the Parsons hold as the Canon Bible okay. And so you've got all the the books that you would expect to have you know all the 39 Old Testament books you've got all the 27 New Testament books, then you've got other things that you wouldn't expect that like I said in the words of this this guy, Athanasius they're good they're not the basis of the doctrine of salvation, but they're good for enriching your Christian faith and your walk you've got the epistle to the Ladeoetians written by Paul, you've got a book called the acts of Paul and Thecla you've got a third Corinthians letter, you know First Corinthians second with is now a third Corinthians letter that Paul had written. And then you've got the apart for apocryphal and deuterocanonical books first as draws second as dress 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th Maccabees the Epistle of Jeremiah the prayer of Azariah the book of Baruch, the prayer of Manasseh Bell and the Dragon, interesting story wisdom of sirach wisdom of Solomon not to be confused with the Song of Solomon because it's not, the parts of Esther that were removed they're here, um Tobit Judith Susanna Enoch, all three books merged into one text jubilees first Clement the Ascension of Isaiah Shepherd of hermas the Didact I don't know he said that detach, The Apocalypse of Baruch did counting of Josephus of the 6th Jewish War, and the fourth Bucca book of Barack. These are all the books that are considered Canon by any believers, and then you've also got Psalms chapter 151 which isn't in, the partisan Canon Bible which is interesting. And yeah so if you wanted to get a look into all that all the extra books and see you know. What is considered Canon by other believers who have gone yeah this is this is great stuff to have, um to know to enrich your faith to grow shoot us a message and I can send you the link to where you can go get this it won't be one of those I'll get a kickback when you buy it because, we're not going to do that that's that's pointless, if you want this resource then I'm more than happy to send you the link and I'm not going to get anything out of it but it's really great and, it's a little difficult to navigate because of just just the way they've laid out the chapters and there's no you know names at the top of the pages too, just open randomly and see where you are but there is a, table of contents so you can find the beginning of a book and then work your way forward to where you want to be it does have the the first numbers and all that so but yeah there's so much more, that Christians have identified as Canon that exists, outside of the 66 books that more or less the Catholic Church, decided for the Protestants that we would hold as Cannon so. Is scripture inerrant yes. Is every jot and Tittle of the Bible scripture not in my opinion based off of my research. Is the Bible infallible yes I believe all 66 books do the job of being available to teach the message intended. Now of course those words can be twisted and corrupted and taught wrong and on and on and on and on. They are available to teach the message intended and capable of and so. When you're moving forward in your Christian walk and you're trying to decide well what do I believe where do I go what do I do this is that Foundation if you start to believe something, that then this directly contradicts. Then we need to understand, what is that contradiction and why does it exist, is that contradiction because you don't fully understand what is they believe or is that contradiction that you don't fully understand the content matter here, is it because there's a cultural thing being taught in a certain part of script of, there goes it's hard to get around these words of just blanket calling it scripture because of the way I was raised you know is there a context thing where it's a cultural you know cautionary Tale, which happens a lot so yes we face those issues we've got a question from someone on Twitch, the call themselves haitham 9 kin way I hope I said that right it's hard with you switch to him sometime is it wrong that I love Jesus even though, I'm assuming that was supposed to be the word gay they put geh and so. I'm gonna say it's not wrong to love Jesus no matter who you are or, how you are or what you're into and we don't normally use those kind of words in this context what you've gone you know forward with and saying there, but no it's not wrong to love Jesus Just As You Are, and if something in your life needs to be different that's not my call, that's not Pastor newms is call that's not anyone's call except for between you and God, if you love Jesus and you pursue Jesus and you pursue relationship with God and you study the Bible, and that is then up to you, if you feel like something in your life is wrong and if you feel like that needs to change that's between you and God. Can I love cows even though I'm not a Christian someone else asks on Twitch I think you're confusing Christianity with Hinduism, and you can love cows even if you're not a Hindu well the twitch chat is really popping right now it's nice.   Pastor Newms: [1:07:19] Yeah.   Pastor Bill: [1:07:21] All right so we're 13 minutes over our normal time so we will head and wrap this up, I want everyone out there to understand that we want everyone to be able to be a part of what we're doing, and they have a safe space here no matter who you are, what you believe or what your orientation is Haytham 9 Kenway I would love to have a conversation with you off of the live about having a relationship with Jesus and, your question was there can I ask Jesus for forgiveness I'm really really gay and I think there's a lot of stigma, that you're dealing with in that question alone and so there's a lot to unpack there that I'd like to unpack off the air. What do you asking forgiveness for cuz if it's for being yourself then you know, that's a stigma that you're going to need to deal with that has nothing to do with your relationship with Jesus, because you come to Jesus as you are but we're going to wrap this up for tonight, this podcast comes out on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time anywhere that you can get podcasts every Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. Central Standard time we're here live and you can join us live, and be a part of the conversation and ask questions and we always have a theme that we're going with on the Sunday nights and so we'd love to have people, come in and join the conversation and so for tonight we're going to sign off and we love you guys I hope you have a great week.   Pastor Newms: Stay safe.   Pastor Bill: And, "Until next time..."

What is The Acts of Paul and Thecla? Should the The Acts of Paul and Thecla be in the Bible?

TTW we were delighted to talk with our special guest friend Rev. Lindsey Turner about the Strength-card themes of the radical, nonbinary Christian figure of Thecla, and finding strength in the high desert. Leigh Ann shares the solo road trip story behind the High Desert Tarot Strength image and Áine recounts her first surfing lesson after pulling a card for this episode. Note: if you haven't heard the term "AFAB" before, it refers to "assigned feminine at birth." Also, #sorrynotsorry we can't stop saying, "love that journey for you." It's because we're obsessed with Alexis Rose, from Schitt's Creek. Check out Lindsey's offerings as a nonbinary astrologer & pastor @bad.pastor and on Patreon! Here's your link to our Strength Card Playlist. Featuring original music from our hilarious & multi-talented friend Erin McMullin. Questions or feedback: thehighdeserttarot@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram & TikTok @highdeserttarot for cheugy Disney adult memes on bisexuality and more. Check out our Etsy store too for Strength Card stickers to adorn your car for the next road trip. Love ya!

Lecture

Today we have 2 saints listen to find out who they are.

She was born in Iconium of prominent pagan parents. At the age of eighteen she was instructed in the Faith of Christ by the Apostle Paul himself. She forsook her family and her betrothed, vowing herself to a life of virginity in the service of Christ. She traveled in the ministry of the Gospel with St Paul. After many travels and sufferings for the sake of Christ, she retired to Seleucia to devote herself to prayer and asceticism. There she healed many of the sick by her prayers, and brought many more to the Faith. Some local doctors envied her and sent some young men to rape her, superstitiously thinking that her healing powers might reside in her virginity. The Prologue says 'Thecla fled from these insolent young men and, when she saw that they would catch her, prayed to God for help in front of a rock, and the rock opened and hid the holy maiden and bride of Christ. This rock was her hiding-place and her tomb.'

‘Heresy' sells. Maybe it's because it's mysterious, dangerous, or entertaining. But the idea of ancient ‘Christian heresies' is misleading. The tendency to make ideas ‘right' or ‘wrong' confuses the issues. Strong early Christian women, such as Mary Magdalene, Thecla, and Perpetua, posed a threat to the developing male hierarchy, but their words seem to be consistent with the words of the men.  Heresy, then, is not a natural category; it is more about who the power brokers were.

anarchy ......(7)... jesus Spoke with Christian Marxist writer Christian Chiakulas about the religiosity of communism, historical materialism, christian atheism, managing tankies, spiritually driven social justice, leftist semantics, the bible without dogma, growing up atheist, feminism in the early church, St. Thecla, how The Kingdom of God was a communist radical feminist liberation movement, living prefiguratively, Marx v. Bakunin on the role of the peasant class, violent vanguardism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, real world consequences to theory, leftist fascist creep, different bible translations, communist v. anarchist writing styles, and propaganda of the deed. *I regret not mentioning it in the show, but St. Thecla is the patron saint of Catalonia, and with all the stuff going on down there now, it's fun to hear her story! Referenced: A Stab In the Dark at Christian Marxism http://www.patheos.com/blogs/radicalchristianmillennial/2017/06/stab-dark-christian-marxism/ The State of Small Farms In The World http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15001217 Further reading: "Das Kapital" - Karl Marx The Story of Paul & St. Thecla "The Kingdom of God is Within You"- Tolstoy "Bloodstained" - AK Press Authors: John Dominic Crossan, Reza Aslan, Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman, Vladimir Lenin, Lucy Parsons, Friedrich Engels Other articles by Christian: Inspired by this interview: Prefigurative Politics: How Jesus Lived the Kingdom Of God http://www.patheos.com/blogs/radicalchristianmillennial/2017/10/prefigurative-politics-living-kingdom-god/ Also one of my favorites: Would Jesus Punch a Nazi? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/radicalchristianmillennial/2017/08/jesus-punch-nazi/ Resources: The anarchist library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index The Marxist internet archive: https://www.marxists.org/

How are women viewed in the Bible? What stories does the Bible contain about women? Explore the books of Ruth & Esther; discuss how Paul and Jesus interacted with women; and encounter an early Christian woman named Thecla, who became a famous apostle.