My Grandad's Letter

I moved into my new house last December and (Don’t judge me for this) – I am still unpacking boxes – including some that never got unpacked from the previous move ten years ago…

And while I was going through some boxes this week, I came across this – It’s a letter to me from my granddad written to me when I was twelve years old just a year before he died. He lived in New Zealand – so I have very few memories of him, so finding this little letter was really precious. Its written on one of those old fashioned air letter forms and the rest of it must have been to my mum and brother – but this was his special bit to me.

Letters can be really special – I think I am perhaps the only person left who still writes postcards – because I remember it is to receive a letter that’s personal – that isn’t just junk mail.

So this morning N read to us the beginning of Paul’s letters - Colossians Chapter 1 v1-14.

At first sight it might not look that interesting – but this passage is both typical of the way St Paul starts his letters – and also deeply rich and full of depth.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (col 1:1-2)

I want you to imagine back in ancient Roman times – a Roman letter is on a scroll [mime unrolling it]

You can’t unroll it all the way to the end to find out who it is from [mime unrolling a really huge letter]

So just like an envelope on a modern letter, it begins by saying who it is from, who it s too, and then like we begin our letters with “Dear Miss Acheampong” “Dear Mrs Patel” “Dear Mr Jones” – it begins with a formal greeting.

So far so good. Every letter is written like that.

So who is it from, who is it to, and what is the greeting?

Who is it from?

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Paul the apostle – we have heard that SO MANY times that we don’t even notice it. But hang on

"In these days jhe Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, khe called his disciples land mchose from them twelve, whom he named napostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and pAndrew his brother, and pJames and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and qMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called rthe Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor".[Luke 6:12-16 see also Matthew 10:1-4 and Mark 3:13-18]

Paul’s name isn’t in that list. I know in Acts 1:12-26 after what Judas did they replace him – but the one Judas is replaced with is …. Matthias

And yet here Paul describes himself as an Apostle -as one sent by Jesus. It’s a big claim. He’s not the only Apostle mentioned outside the twelve – there are one or two others – including even one woman Junia (Romans 16:7) – but it is still a big claim

Paul’s authority comes not from human beings – but from the fact God chose him. On the road to Damascus the risen Jesus appeared to perhaps unlikely candidate of all – Saul the persecutor – and turned him into Paul the apostle.

Sometimes we may have to stand up to people and challenge them like Paul – like during the second world war – when the German Lutheran priest Bonhoeffer stood up to the Nazis over their treatment of the Jews – or when Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 stood up to the dictatorship in El Savador for their treatment of the poor and their suppression of freedom – and was gunned down at the altar. Or like Christians today in Iran – who risk their lives committing the “crime” of telling people about Jesus. I am currently re-reading “I dared to call him Father” an account of a Muslim woman in Pakistan who became a Christian and the opposition she faced - we may have to stand up to people. But we need to remember with what authority we do that – Paul an apostle of Christ by the will of God…. “by the will of God”

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, AND Timothy our brother,

Lets see if anyone can remember my sermon from last week – yes I am repeating myself – but the so does the bible. When Jesus sent out the Seventy in Luke chapter 10 – he sent them out in…. [take the answer – pairs]