We saw last week the fallout from Peter’s visit to the house
of Cornelius, a gentile and Roman officer, who believes and is baptised. When criticised for this Peter makes the
defence that God took the initiative by filling Cornelius and the members of
his household with the Holy Spirit.
Peter had to be open to what God was doing, and so did his fellow
Christians back in Jerusalem. This
sparked off in us questions about how open we are to respond to God’s moving in
each of us.
As we move through the weeks of Easter, our readings lead us
to towards Ascension and Pentecost – Jesus handing on the active work of
bringing in the kingdom to us his disciples, as we are motivated and led by his
Spirit.
We last met Paul when he was Saul, meeting Jesus on the
Damascus road. By chapter 16 he has
become a missionary, who has undertaken one journey in Cyprus, Pamphylia and
Galatia. He has fallen out with his
friend Barnabas and has decided to go north with Silas and Timothy, into
un-evangelised territory. (We learn
something of Luke’s interests from the fact that Barnabas goes back to Cyprus,
and we do not hear of him again.)
How do we make sense of Paul’s story? We are told that he and his companions head
north through Phrygia and Galatia. They
do this because they have been prevented from going into Asia to preach by the
Holy Spirit. We are given no indication
about how this worked. They therefore
head north towards Bythinia, and again the Spirit of Jesus blocks them. So they wind up at Troas, on the coast. While there, Paul gets a vision, not
dissimilar to what had happened before to Peter, but now he is being called to
cross the sea to a new continent. The
vision comes during the night, so was he asleep and dreaming, or was he
awake? Did he see an actual Galatian
man, or was this some angelic vision?
The bible record is clear and concise, but we could have wished for more
explanations about what was actually happening.
My best surmise is that Paul and his companions have left
the main base in London to visit the newish centre at Winchester. They want to go Salisbury, but have been
firmly convinced that this is not God’s will for them (Prophecy? Circumstances?
Lack of certainty?) They therefore head
for Winchester, but this is also not right and they end up in Portsmouth. I can imagine some debates among them; what
are we doing here? How sure are we about
what God is saying? What is our purpose
or vision?
Were they there for a few days? A few weeks?
Had they been praying for a definitive answer, or was Paul taken by
surprise? It is as if a Frenchman had
popped into his consciousness, saying please come over here. Was this a new thought, or did it confirm
something that Paul had been wondering about?
However this all came about, it does seem that the whole
group prayerfully decided to follow the lead and act in accordance with the
vision. (Notice in passing that the
group has grown; the narrator (Luke) has joined them and speaks of “we” rather
than “they”.) We are observing an
important part of life in the light of Easter: that the risen Jesus guides us
by his Spirit and shows us how we should live.
During his conversation with his disciples at the last supper (John 14),
he says he will be leaving them, and that their hearts should not be
troubled. This is because he will send
them someone else just like him – the parakletos,
variously translated as the Advocate, the Comforter; by this he meant the Holy
Spirit, who we have seen actively guiding and sometimes frustrating Paul as he
has sought direction. (You will, I am
sure, be familiar with the thought that what we call The Acts of the Apostles
should rather be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit.) We might even be supposed to wonder if this
is what it was like for Jesus here on earth, constantly responding to the
promptings and leadings of his Father.
We therefore see this union between openness to the Spirit
and the mundane and necessary booking of boat tickets and making of travel
plans, God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven. Paul was a businessman (he made tents), who
was also an active disciple and servant, building community and sharing the
faith. This was all because he was
pre-eminently living a life centred on Jesus, and radically open to the
promptings of the Spirit.
The fruit of this can be (and was for Paul) that we see God
at work. Paul’s usual practice was to go
the synagogue and start by preaching to Jews that their Messiah had come. The Jewish community in Philippi was
obviously so small that there was no synagogue, so he uses his cultural
knowledge to go where he might expect to find Jewish believers or gentile
people aspiring to worship the Jewish God.
Thus he encounters Lydia, who is from the very province of Asia that he
had earlier been forbidden to evangelise.
It is as if he was not allowed to visit Salisbury, but here he is at a
market place in St Malo, meeting up with a Salisbury girl who is desperate to
encounter God and grow in him.
I am left wondering if the God who works all things together
for the good of the elect was doing two things at once? By bringing Paul to Macedonia, the Holy
Spirit is planting the church in Europe, and this has strategic consequences for
the worldwide church, ultimately for us.
Equally important, though, is the story of woman who was a traveller and
a merchant, and who was open to receive the life of God into her own heart.
We as a church community have a
calling to follow and a mission in this town and more widely; I ask you pray
for the PCC as we seek to follow God’s leading.
Equally importantly, each of us has an individual call to follow Jesus,
and to allow his Spirit to work in our lives.
This next two weeks in the run up to Pentecost is a time to be open to
all that God has for us. Jesus said “Anyone
who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them…. But the
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will
teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to
you.”
Discussion Starters
1.
What do you see in this story, God giving clear
direction to Paul and the others, or a time of confusion and doubt?
2.
What do you make of the fact that Paul is
steered away from the familiar to new directions?
3.
“If you love me, keep my commandments …” What are you aware that God might be calling
you to? Who can gather round you in
prayer and support to help you work this out?
4.
What do you think that God might be wanting to
say to St Michael’s, and especially to our PCC, through this story?
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