With Christmas cards soon to start arriving at homes around the world, BRUCE C WEARNE reflects on the role of Paul as ‘postman’, delivering the “Good News” of Jesus Christ…
Paul, called of Christ Jesus to be his postman, according to the purpose of God, and [endorsed by] brother Sosthenes, to the church of God as it is in Corinth: to those specially prepared for service in Christ Jesus, called to be holy ones, set apart, together with all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, there and everywhere else, themselves and everyone. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul had a habit of beginning his letters by introducing himself. We tend to view him in elevated terms as an ‘Apostle’ – we define that as a “commissioned messenger”. Paul and the other apostles align themselves with those similarly named and commissioned by Jesus Himself. These were the students in His school, specially chosen by to be taught in His face-to-face tutorials about the Kingdom of God.
Looking back, we conclude that His plan was to prepare them for the difficult task of carry His teaching, His message, with them wherever they went. They were commissioned for a lifetime of bearing a message, a full-time postie responsibility. That is worth pondering. The New Testament tells us that the church began as a group of posties – and don’t forget that the female postie – Mary Magdalene – who was instrumental in getting them to reconvene after they had decided to resign from the job, to throw in their postie’s badges.
DELIVERY EXPECTED? Give thanks for your postie this Christmas season, says Bruce Wearne, reflecting on how Paul and the other New Testament apostles had a not dissimilar job. PICTURE: Gemma Evans/Unsplash
“By calling His followers to deliver His message, Jesus implicitly endorses the task of messengers, the work of the suburban postie, those employed to deliver the letters that are addressed to us.”
I can imagine some readers taking this and making Sunday’s sermon about it. Well, go ahead. Make my day. We may use the term “apostle” to refer to someone in archaic high and exalted office. By its traditional usage – the one holy, catholic and apostolic church – we are reminded of those who provided us with the doctrine by which the Christian life is to be lived. Yes. And we honour those as apostles. They carried the message wherever they went and our faith is built upon theirs. Our faith depends on the pioneering work of Christian posties. That is how we should think about the traditional usage that carries with it a high and exalted authority.
Why is it high and exalted? We confess that these posties were called by Jesus Himself. The apostles, by using this word to describe themselves, were using the term Jesus used when He referred to them as His “sent out ones”. Paul, as the one who wrote letters incessantly, describes himself living in the line of service into which he had been conscripted by Jesus Himself. The term apostle refers to a particular kind of servant, one who was asked by the Master to go and deliver a message.
So, consider this: we live in God’s creation and we confess that with Jesus we live in a creation redeemed and on its way to full redemption. By calling His followers to deliver His message, Jesus implicitly endorses the task of messengers, the work of the suburban postie, those employed to deliver the letters that are addressed to us.
Of course, to describe Jesus’ hand-picked disciples as postmen and postwomen, as specially-commissioned messengers, is not to limit Christian discipleship to merely “handing over the Gospel envelope”, putting a letter through the slot of a letter box, or handing a person a written message that says “Jesus is your saviour!” But the humble work of the local “postie” is indeed implicitly endorsed by this designation as a vocation worthy of our fullest thankful respect. And, as we shall see time and again in Paul’s letters (for example, to the Corinthian church), the humble act of delivering a message finds its place, like all other vocations, as humble service within God’s Kingdom.
Paul identifies himself as a “Christian postie”, an apostle of Jesus Christ. As a “postie”, he had a remarkable story to tell. He had been knocked off his postman’s horse on his way to Damascus on official business. He was carrying letters authorising the arrest of those believing Jesus of Nazareth to be Israel’s Messiah who had been raised from the dead. He was leader of what we might today call a terrorist hit squad. He also carried letters giving official authorisation for the arrest of those he was persecuting. And then he was met in a vision by Jesus Himself – Paul had been persecuting Israel’s Messiah and His people. So, he had little choice in the matter. He had been carrying letters authorising persecution; he would henceforth be sent on his way with a message declaring God’s mercy for all in Israel’s Messiah, for Gentile as much as for Jew. When you are sent on your way by God’s Son then you don’t argue.
Paul’s letters don’t tell us the story of his conversion experience. He was happy to leave that task to others, to his associate Luke. Luke was a story-teller, and he was busy compiling his account of these events that resulted from God’s Son sojourning in the midst of His people for a season. That sojourn is presupposed by Luke and Paul as God’s definitive revelation, not just for the various Christian synagogues that received Paul’s letters, but for all people at all times. The story of the sojourn of God’s Son amongst His people is what led to Paul to obey Christ’s command and content himself with the work of the “postie”. Jesus Christ has made the postie’s work possible.
It is all to do with the work of His hands, all the way back to creation when God said:
Be fruitful, flourish,
Multiply, fill the earth,
And bring all of it under your hand To the glorious fulfillment
That is my purpose for it all.
Among the Jews dispersed around the Roman Empire and beyond, the word had to get out – the Messiah, the One under whose hand all the Earth in all its glory was initially set and through whom it will be finally completed, this same Person is the one whom God has designated to be judge. He has come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth announcing the Kingdom of Heaven, a rule of comfort and peace. And so, God’s Older Testament people had to come to know about this and that their synagogues and gatherings and families were called to overflow with this message of comfort and peace to all the peoples of the world… Behold your God!
And this message is to all those specially prepared by God Himself for service in Christ Jesus, called to be holy ones, to take their place as the Temple of God, the chosen dwelling of the Most High.
In other words, let’s learn to read Paul’s letters by allowing ourselves – heart, soul, mind and strength – to be fully and completely taken up in the message that Israel’s Messiah has come. The postie’s message is this: God has accepted the sacrifice of the person who could truly fulfil the demands of the Son of Man, whose sacrifice has even made it possible for to give due thanks for the work posties provide.
Let’s keep this in mind when we send out Christmas greetings this year. Don’t neglect to thank your postie and get your Christmas celebration on track by encouraging your brothers and sisters in the Lord to be thankful to the Almighty Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, Immanuel, who allows the message of the world’s redemption to be carried to us also by posties! We have much to be truly thankful for because of God’s provision to us of posties.
