Saturday, June 4, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Coming to the end of Acts and John
I am just beginning to realize this is the last day of Easter. Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday, a Monday a special Mary Day, and then the lectionary reads, “Tuesday of the 10th week of Ordinary Time.” Get your party chops out, put them on, and celebrate.
I realize Ordinary Time also invites celebration, but surely in a somewhat different way. Why not just sing and dance and be merry while the quieter kind of celebration awaits? I’m planning some kind of feast for whoever will join me, and perhaps even, on Pentecost, a Fire in our firepit.
Now that we’re back in Illinois for a couple of months, we have a lovely back yard with a fire pit, beautiful grill and a new plancha to top off the grill. For this Pentecost brunch we can fill our plancha with smashburgers, bacon and eggs, and some nice grilled fish, in memory of faraway Lenten Fridays.
When he entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.
Paul, the high-functioning introvert, at last gets a few moments to himself. But he doesn’t quite know how to do this anymore. He’s a gatherer now, emulating Jesus, who prayed in the morning and then spent his days with the people.
Three days later, Paul called together the leaders of the Jews.
He just couldn’t help himself. He wanted to explain, he wanted to build support, and above all, he wanted to talk about Jesus. And he did. Paul’s time in Rome was not wasted!
He remained for two full years in his lodgings. He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus ends, along with the season of Easter, the book of Acts. And what in the bible comes next? Romans 1. Paul had much to say then to the Romans, and he is still saying it through his letter, with power and joy, today. Lord, let me receive Paul’s words through the Spirit in which they were written.
I remember a movie 10 or so years ago about Paul, visited by Luke in his Roman digs, first a lovely home, then a dark prison. Paul told Luke his stories. Then Luke wrote the book of Acts. And two thousand years later, we are reading what Luke wrote about the stories Paul told him.
The just will gaze on your face, O Lord.
I imagine sitting with them, with Luke and Paul, either in the sunny back yard of the mansion or, more compellingly, on the cold rock ledge of a prison cell. My eyes closed, just sitting there, just listening.
And now too at the end of Easter we also come to the end of the Gospel of John, and next week’s lectionary will look completely different.
There are many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.
Here is John, finishing these words under the light of a dripping candle. Here is John, setting down his pen and taking a deep breath. He knows how many stories have not been told, but he also knows how he has listened, and how he wrote down what he heard, and that God is pleased. Well done, good and faithful servant.
(Acts 28, Psalm 11, John 16, John 21)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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