Kristin in Indianapolis, Paul in Spain

In another hour or so, I'll put the last of my stuff in the car and head back to the mountains of North Carolina. I've been in Indianapolis, taking a class on Paul, another task done on the path to ordination in the Lutheran church (ELCA, the more progressive expression of Lutheranism in North America). It has been a great class, full of deep dives into Greek words and church history and Paul's theology, which can be summarized as Proclaim Christ Crucified. We even had a fun digression into what we would proclaim--I find it problematic to proclaim Christ Crucified. Christ incarnate, yes. Christ risen from the dead, yes. But crucified? That's the most important thing?The cross means something very different for Paul than it does for me. The cross as a symbol/shortcut does something very different for Paul. I get that. We talked about not knowing how Paul died, not for sure. Church custom/tradition posits that it's likely that he died in Rome, executed by Emperor Nero. But it's also…