Head out on the highway

May 23, 2020               (today’s lectionary)

Head out on the highway

Paul traveled in orderly sequence. This time around (the second), he knew where he was going because he knew where he had been. He visited each congregation established on his first visit.

But Luke spends nearly no time writing about this. He heads directly to Ephesus, where Paul will soon spend three years, and where currently a Jew named Apollos is speaking with authority. He and Paul have no conflict. Apollos gave great assistance to those who had come to believe through grace, and encouraged his listeners to accept Jesus as Christ.

The King of the earth is God.

Most high, awesome, great King

He sits, he reigns, he gathers us together

He is the Guardian of the Galaxy, he is supreme, he is God.

 I think of Paul alone out on the highway. Looking for adventure and whatever comes his way. He has been gripped by Jesus in a love embrace. I suppose he met very few fellow travelers. And he did not, like Abraham Lincoln, read a book while walking.

Paul mostly talked to Jesus, that’s what I think. Their conversations filled Paul’s mind and heart. Jesus told Paul much of what he also told his disciples in the Upper Room.

Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

Ask and receive, so that your joy may be complete.

I am sure Jesus talked to Paul that way, because Jesus talks to me too. In his words with the disciples, with Paul, with me and each of us, Jesus shows his love, as he moves beyond metaphor and parable into clear instruction, direction, command.

I no longer speak to you in figures but I am telling you clearly about the Father.

The Father himself loves you!

So as I leave the world and return to the Father, ask and receive, and again,  ask and receive.

I tell you, your joy will be complete.

Get your motor runnin’ …               (Acts 18, Psalm 47, John 16)

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