Saturday, May 30, 2020, the 49th and final day of Easter 2020, the seventh day of the seventh week                 (today’s lectionary)
 These ends are only the beginning
On this beautiful spring-summer day in May, on the Saturday before Pentecost, we come to the end of both the Book of Acts and the Gospel of John. Oh sad day. Such beautiful, fascinating stories of Jesus, Peter and Paul these readings have been.
Will Paul speak with authority before King Agrippa? Jesus wanted nothing to do with the Herods on the day before his crucifixion. But now Paul spoke well and convincingly. In fact the king would have freed him that very day had he not appealed to Caesar. The Roman governor Festus, on the other hand, was not convinced: “Paul, you’re crazy. You’ve spent too much time staring off into space! Get a grip on yourself.” But Paul didn’t back down at all. “With all respect, Festus, I’m not crazy at all.”
Oh well. Paul wanted to go to Rome. Like Jesus, he wasn’t looking for a quick release. Paul was sure God wanted him to go to Rome. And he was about to get free passage all the way. A storm here, a storm there, a miracle here, a healing there, and Paul made it all the way to Rome. Sidon, Myra, and the Good Harbor on Crete welcomed him. Phoenix and Claudia, sometime ports in a storm, almost killed Paul and the other 275 people on board their Egyptian ship.
The weather only got worse, but Paul told the sailors and soldiers that God had told him they would all live. They were too exhausted to argue. Paul even convinced them to eat breakfast during a lull, because they would need their strength when the ship fell apart a few hours later. Swimming and floating on boards from their ruined shipwrecked ship, everyone made it to the shores of Malta. All 276 of them.
While they were building a fire on the shore, a horrible snake bit Paul. Its fangs lodged in his arm for a moment or two before Paul shook it off. The natives expected him to keel over and die, but he didn’t, so they decided he was a god. Nothing new for Paul, right?
After Paul laid hands on and prayed for the leader’s father, and he was healed, everyone else who was sick came too. They all were healed as well. Paul was a hero. God’s love poured through him on Malta.
At last Paul arrived in Rome. Although hardly to a hero’s welcome, since no one had written that he was coming. But after three days he called the leaders of the Jews together. Although he was still under guard he was allowed to live alone. He explained why he had come, to protect Israel, not to attack it. As soon as they could arrange a time, the Jewish people in Rome came to Paul, who spoke to them all day and half the night. There was so much he had to tell them, so many of the Hebrew scriptures to explain. Moses and the prophets had written about Jesus!
Many were overjoyed and persuaded, but some were not. Paul was disgusted with them, actually, not patient at all, even though he wrote beautifully about patience in his letter to the Romans a bit later on. He poured the hot, angry words of Isaiah 6:9-10 down over their heads. “You will hear but never understand, for your hearts have grown dull and your ears deaf. Your eyes are blind. Oh, you fools! God will leave you behind and take his salvation to the Gentiles!”
. . . We leave Paul now. We don’t know how he dies. We don’t know if he ever appealed to Caesar. That really wasn’t the important thing. Paul lived in Rome for two years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ with boldness and without hindrance.
What else would he do? It couldn’t get any better than that.
I do imagine Luke spent a lot of time with Paul in Rome and heard his stories through and through. A recent movie, Paul, Apostle of God, takes us into those years in Rome with Luke and Paul. Margaret and I loved that movie, and we felt like we knew them both better than ever.
Where does the Lord live? In his holy temple in heaven, where he sits on his throne.
What does the Lord do? He tests the righteous and the wicked.
He seeks justice and loves just deeds.
Will we see the Lord?
The upright will see his face.
 Jesus’ disciples wanted to live with him when he returned. They expected their time on earth without him to be very short, which it was not. All died, even John. Jesus told Peter he would die, but he did not tell John. John lived to be a very old man but then, he died too.
No matter.
Paul died, Peter died, John died. But Jesus went before them all, before US all, and he marks a righteous path. When he calls us, “Follow me,” we can follow him singing and dancing, leaping and laughing and praising God. There is nothing to fear with Jesus, and we are always safe with him.
John testified to the stories in his book, and we know this testimony is true.
There are many other stories about Jesus, but too many even for the whole world. Telling them all would fill every book and then still overflow, as the waters cover the sea.               (Acts 28, Psalm 11, John 21)
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