Contradiction

What do you do with contradictory messages? I have been getting lots lately. And I am just not sure what to do with them. And on top of that, I have been reading Paul, which always makes me uncomfortable. As if I didn't have enough contradictions in my spiritual and vocational life.

I really struggle with the writings of Paul, because his stuff is chock full of contradictions. He seems to the eminent politician who, in his own words, is trying to "be all things to all people" (1 Corinthians 9:22).

On one hand he asserts, in Christ, there is neither male nor female (Galatians 3:28), and his "all are one" statement seems pretty egalitarian. Then he claims that women are to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22) and that no woman shall have authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:12). Not so egalitarian after all.

In the same Galatians passage, Paul claims that in Christ there is neither slave nor free (3:28) But no, he won't go so far as to proclaim liberation for the slaves. Instead, he says they, that slaves should give honor to their masters (1 Timothy 6:1)

You know, Paul does this so often that it's hard for me to give much stock to anything that he writes. That's right, you read it here: I do not profess a Pauline faith! There I said it.

But the Church seems to put so much credence to the writings of this man. And maybe that's why the Church is in such a state. The church cannot figure out what it is, who it is called to be, and and ends trying to appeal to everyone and bowing down to the the culture around us. [The church doesn't look a whole lot different from corporate America, with the exception of the liturgical garb. We use their gimmicks for marketing, and we are just as obsessed with numbers.] Like Paul, we try to be all things to all people. And we fail to be anything authentic or real. And we fail to be agents of change, we fail to allow ourselves to truly participate in something new that could emerge, if we only let it.

Paul said that people need not be circumcised to be a part of that early Christian community (Romans 2:28-29). "Out with the old, in with the new," he proclaimed. "We're talking about a New Covenant, people!" But then he persuades Timothy, his protege to be circumcised (Acts 16:3), sacrificing the vision of what could be to the pressures of maintaining the status quo. He nods to the powers that be, instead of holding to a faith in the powers that are about to be.

Our churches today do the same thing, saying we want to do a new thing, to let God speak in amazing new ways. But when it comes down to it, we ain't gonna let it happen. We, too, hang to our old rituals, religious jargon, and ideas of what it means to be a church. And in the process we sacrifice the vision of being a truly relevant, meaningful, life-giving, liberating force in this world.

My question is this: does it have to be so?