Vocation in Action

  John M.G. Barclay. Paul and the Gift. Eerdmans, 2015. Pgs. 656; $70 hardback. Most within the Christian tradition, especially those who are the byproduct of the Reformation, have celebrated Paul as the theologian of grace who came on the scene to save us all, both Jew and Gentile, from the destructive and impossibly demanding “works-righteousness” of Judaism. In 1977 that basic framework for understanding Judaism and Paul was challenged by E.P. Sanders’ book Paul and Palestinian Judaism . Sanders’ provocative insights generated a fresh wave of research on Paul’s theology in its Jewish context, which in turn fostered a new (but not monolithic) scholarly approach to reading the apostle (and Second Temple Judaism) known as the “new perspective”. Sanders and those who followed similar lines of research, have argued that the Judaism of Paul’s day has been unfairly mischaracterized within the Christian tradition, especially in the aftermath of the Reformation. They argue that Judaism in

  Scripture Readings: 1 Peter 1.3-7; 5.6-8;  Micah 3.5-12;  Psa 43;  Matt 23..1-12   Prayer of Invocation   Father, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you acceptable worship: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.   Proclamation   I’m going to go out on a limb and say that 2020 has been a disappointing year for all of us. We’ve not only had to deal with a disruptive pandemic that has altered church, work, home life, school, sports,  and entertainment, and a resurgence of racial tensions across the country and in our own community, but we also have been in the midst of a polemical and polarized presidential election that looks to only widen the divide we are experiencing in our country.    And in the midst of all this, we have our frustrations and disappointments that have nothing to do with Covid, or the election, or