Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray:
Father,
When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory.
Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.
Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Today's chapters are Acts 14-16.
If you remember from Greek mythology, Zeus was the chief of the gods, but Hermes was the messenger. We know that Paul was physically unimpressive (2 Cor 10:10), but Barnabas must have really cut a fine figure if the Lycaonians took him for Zeus! Paul will write to the Corinthians about having been stoned (2 Cor 11:25). It was not something people usually survived, but Paul got up and kept on preaching. Still, even Paul must have recognized that it was time to head back to Antioch. And so they did, but not before looping back and establishing clergy ("presbyters," literally "elders") in each of the communities.
The news that there are now communities composed of Gentile and (some) Jewish believers hit a nerve in Jerusalem. There, the Jesus believers (all ethnically Jewish) continued to observe the laws of their ancestors. The interculturality of the new communities in which the Gentile men remained uncircumcised (and therefore, physically outside of the covenant with Abraham) seemed to put a question mark on all of the Mosaic customs and on Judaism itself.
The meeting of the Apostles to discuss the relationship of Gentiles and Jews within the fellowship of the Church is called the "Council of Jerusalem." Notice the way the two chief Apostles, Peter and James (the ascetic leader of the Jerusalem community) go about this discernment. The decision is communicated as coming from "the Holy Spirit and us." Still, it will be hard to swallow.
On the second missionary journey, Paul is now the leader of a new apostolic band. And this time Luke, our author, is with him. (This is testified to in 16:10, where the story of a vision of a Macedonian man is followed up with "we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.") Paul's first convert in Macedonia is the influential businesswoman Lydia. The community of Philippi (a city with a large population of retired Roman soldiers) will become Paul's great consolation. His letter to them is called "the Epistle of Joy" for more reasons than one.
Start reading here.
Now that we're being introduced to Saul of Tarsus, it's time for me to introduce you to my single favorite volume on St Paul. This is the book I would recommend to someone who wanted to read one (only one) book that combined the life and letters of St Paul. Written by the noted Scripture scholar N. T. Wright, this is a flowing narrative that is Scripturally enlightening and historically sound. Paul: A Biography gives the reader a way of following Paul through the Acts of the Apostles and as he writes his letters and makes Paul the person that much more approachable.
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