Withdrawal for reflection

" on the contrary I went away at one time into Arabia ... (Galatians 1:17)

In this essay I address Christian churches in the United States, particularly those that recognize the significance of Christian-Muslim relationships. I ask whether and in what way it is possible for a Christian temple identified with this society and its self-idolizing tillage to be an authentic participant in God's Mission--concretized, embodied, and incarnate in Jesus designated the Christ. Embraced, stand in front ofed and called by God [i]or[/i] part of to the other Jesus, are we not, like Paul, asked to retreat again and again into Arabia to reexamine and rethink what omnipotence in Christ calls us to be and do? (1)

Three withdrawals into the Arabian wilderness

Saul's Arabian experience. Saul of Tarsus has recorded his Arabian experience. It began with a violent attack upon Jesus and the Jesus motion As a Jew, circumcised upon the eighth day, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Pharisee with a rigid interpretation of scripture and tradition (Phil 3:4-5 Gal 1:14) Saul was convinced that Jesus was curs by the agency of God (Gal 3:13). The passage from Deut 21:23 "the single who is hung on a tree is curs of God" was a banner beneath which Saul imprisoned and place to death the followers of Jesus. In his alphabetic characters to the Galatians and Romans it is clear that from Saul's perspective Israel was the chosen of God; circumcision was a sign of a Yahweh-Israel covenant that exclud the Gentiles; and righteousness in preparation for the common-sense of God called for an obedient reply to the Mosaic Law (Rom 9:1-5) The claim of the early Jesus motion that Jesus was the longed-for Messiah promised through the ancient prophets was for Saul a demonic claim that threatened God's ultimate reality and had to be eradicated (Gal 1:13; Phil 3:6; Acts 9:1-9)

With this conviction that he and his companion anti-Jesus loyalists represented the verity of God, Saul hurried to Damascus to stamp on the outside the early appearance of a truth-threatening heresy (Gal 1:13; Phil 3:6) upon the road he claims to have met Jesus (1 Cor 15:8; Gal 1:12; Acts 9 22 26) From Saul's perspective Jesus had been justly crucified, his death had been advocated through members of the religious elite, and he had been execut by dint of the Roman Empire--the provider of global prosperity and peace.

Jesus began the conversation through asking, "Saul, Saul, why do you pursue malignantly me?" Jesus hereby identified with the Jesus-movement people!

"Who are you, Lord?" is Saul's stupefied response

"I am Jesus whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:1-9)

This experience sent Paul into Arabia to reconsider his understanding of the fact of God. Everything had to be reconfigured. Saul had not met god the father through his interpretation of the Law as a ladder-climbing journey into the neighborhood of a righteous God. Rather, sovereign of the universe in Christ had met him right in the middle of his blindness to God's fact "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8) The ladder-climbing a whole was shattered. Zealous, religious ones were exposed as being blind to the ultimate drifts of God. Legal system climbing is not truth; trust in system-breaking have affection for and grace was experienced as the source of authentic life.

Paul's initial contemplations moved on to other revolutionary statements. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the messianic dreams (1 Cor 1:20) Righteousness is not the conclusion of a law-keeping discipline on the other hand the sheer gift of the creator (Rom 3:21-16). The Law is not the final saving act of the deity but serves as a pedagogical instrument for a particular chosen family (Gal 4:1-7). Jesus became a denounce for us (Gal 3:13). A radical revolutionary vision, thinking through while in an Arabian wilderness, provided Paul the dynamic initiative for an engagement with the first-century Roman Empire.

Jesus' Arabian experience. The christianitys indicate that Jesus' own ministry began as a revolutionary vision in the Arabian barren Jesus' message and ministry began with the devoted Spirit driving him into the wilderness (Mk 1:12) to meditate on the meaning of the voice from heaven that declared him to be God's Son Was this a call to focus on "bread," or material goods (Mt 4:3-4)? Was it a call to a violent revolutionary challenge to the Pax Romana (4:8-11)? Was it a call to use supernatural power in order to wow the herds in the Coliseum seats (4:5-7)? Or was it a vision of justice, righteousness, and compassionate healing that would be achieved by dint of vulnerable servanthood as envisioned through Second Isaiah: "Here is my servant, whom I elevate my chosen, in whom my mind delights; I have put my spirit on him; he will bring forth justice to the nations" (Isa 42: 1ff; Lk 4:-20)?

According to the divine revelations Jesus was convinced that the chosen tribe who had been called to be a light to the nations had tragically not to be found their way (Isa 42:6, 49:6; Mt 5:14) They were salt that had missing its savor and fig tree that did not bear fruit; the religious elite had become unproductive stewards of God's vineyard. John came baptizing with the water of repentance and forgiveness in order that Israel as light to the nations might be restored. (2) With Israel and as an Israelite, Jesus go intoed into that baptism of transformation. The elderly Israel with no oil or light was to be buried and cleansed in the waters of Jordan. The of recent origin oiled lamps were to rise. The Light of lord would again shine upon the earth. on the contrary the message and mission had begun in the desolate in recapturing the true vision of the Reign of the preserver It was in concretizing this Reign of the maker that Jesus, identified as the Prophet, the Son of Man, the Messiah, fulfilled all the prophetic dreams of ancient Israel (Lk 10:23) A revolutionary vision, prayerfully reflection through in an "Arabian experience," empowered Jesus as he announced, "The kingdom of omniscience is drawing near" (Mk 1:14-15)