And along came Paul - Continuing our safari into the Early church. . .

          Are you like me? When I was a young adult I had to ask the big questions, one of which was, “Does organized religion fit me?”  

           And after much personal agonizing and arguments with my fundamentalist Dad, I realized, it didn’t.  Well, that led me down a path of discovery through the jungles, deserts, mountains and valleys of ancient philosophies, New Age alternatives and eventually to the exquisitely comforting books, “A Course in Miracles”.  There I made my ‘home’ for more than thirty-five years, studying it, teaching it, writing about it, and now just practicing it.

          But, just as the Course says, time ( and the process of correction) will be like a carpet rolling itself back up. And so I find myself once more needing to give the Bible another chance , traveling  full circle to the beginning.

         When I study something I love to share my insights with others and so my blog turned into the first book in this series entitled “Snapshots” – and what I call armchair safaris into Christian history. The process dragged me into researching the life of Jesus. An eye and heart opening experience. (See the column to the left) The second “Snapshots” book covers the early Church. What happened after Jesus’ death and how his disciples and the party crasher, Paul, created a whole new religion with lots of partisan yelling and screaming. The third “Snapshots” takes us from Europe to the Holy Land for the crashing of cultures during the Crusades and its ongoing results.

           So, if you are like me and find yourself not fully divorced from the religious ties of your past, come enjoy these blogs, turned into books, and safari into the Christian past.

         With that, let's continue where we left off in the second "Snapshots - Armchair Safari into the Early Church".

And along came Paul. . . 

           A new bride and groom’s families must make the proper arrangements, and one of the first on the list is to call the Tentmaker.

          What???  You read that right. The young couple will need their own place that expands with their growing needs, so every couple needs a tent and therefore a Tentmaker.  And our very own Paul is called and contracted for these projects.

          This may seem mildly interesting and a sidebar to the amazingly dangerous, demanding and satisfying story of Paul’s mission. But wait, the tent making trade was formative in creating the man we think we know, and also gave him the necessary income to travel the thousands of miles around the Mediterranean over decades as missionary for the teachings of Jesus. As Tentmaker he also was plunked slapdab in the seething, internationally eclectic marketplaces in all the major cities giving him access to a candy store of possible converts.

          The first building block of his character began with training as a tentmaker in boyhood since rabbinical sermons demand that fathers teach their sons a trade. Being the son of a Pharisee, and thus inheriting that status, adds the second of the three foundation blocks that make Paul the man he was. The third is his pugnacious, passionate commitment to a ‘cause’.

          Now, it’s time to grab our cameras and drop down into Antioch, Paul’s main base to which he continually returns between exhaustive travel. Here we find the main marketplace, crowded, noisy, and filled with scent of spices and the smells of animals. Stuffed as close as possible to each other are vendors of a surprising variety of items from all over the world. Wines and olive oils from the area we know of  as Spain across to the Holy Land. Grains from Egypt.  Pottery from Greece, spices from India and silks from China. Try not to get distracted taking too many photos and follow me over here into a more open space.

And there he is under that large black tent with open sides, the curtains rolled up to allow the breeze to flow through. We find Paul, still called Saul, sitting at a small loom. He is weaving a three foot wide section of black goat hair into a piece long enough to fill his client’s order. He will make several of these long strips and then from his compact bag use tools to sew water right seams creating a tent the size requested.

          But wait, he hears a commotion coming from a group of on the other side of the marketplace and pushes his stocky body quickly over to support his fellow Pharisees that are there. Pharisees are the proud, strong arms of the Jewish Temple. They guard against heresy, improper behavior and lack of piousness. Any threat to Tradition is met swiftly and mercilessly.

          This won’t be pretty, so take photos under caution. We can see a Jesus follower, Stephen by name, cornered by the Temple police, the Pharisees. Stephen is screaming out his belief in the crucified Jesus as risen messiah. The Pharisees have warned Stephen again and again against this heresy and now they take action. Stripping him of his robe they push him against a wall, form a ring and begin stoning him. Saul moves forward to watch and adds his own words of encouragement to the men with stones.

          Saul is a passionate man, proud of his role as defender of the Jewish Tradition. To say his eyes are filled with a form of righteous indignation very close to hate toward Stephen would probably be accurate.

          Let’s take a short breather and return to our present day studio to calm ourselves. This has been a gruesome discovery about Saul and the Pharisees and their acts of violence toward Jesus followers. We need to ask ourselves how this righteously angry man can turn on a dime and become the St. Paul of history. So, let’s take that much needed break before we continue.

(Paul's saga will continue but please note that I sometimes take a break and blog something else to share with you, so enjoy the variety and have patience as I tiptoe through the enticing tulips of history and life)