Starting a new story

 

As we read in read in today’s first reading from Acts 18:1-8, the story of the early church is a very human one. It is about people who are constantly on the move because of persecution or conflict. Here is Paul who left Athens and went down to Corinth. There he meets Aquila and Priscilla who had recently been expelled from Italy because the emperor told all the Jews to leave town. So, here we have Jewish people meeting up in Corinth. They discover that they share faith in Jesus Christ and that they are tentmakers. So Paul ends up lodging at Aquila and Priscilla’s place and also working with them as tentmakers in the local market. Next, Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia. Paul meanwhile continues to preach about Jesus among his fellow Jews. Sadly, they started hurling insults at him. So Paul took his cloak and shook it in front of them and showed them that he no longer shared the same dust that they walked on and that he was now going to preach among the gentiles, the non-Jewish people.

 

It’s a simple story of people making connections, feeling at home with one another and finding out that they share the same work as tentmakers. As they go around preaching their belief in Jesus as Messiah and Lord, some reject them and others come to believe. Nothing miraculous. Just people who were strong in their faith and convinced that their message needed to be shared with everyone. Perhaps we need that faith conviction and sense of connection with fellow Christians in this day and age when our numbers have declined and more and more don’t profess any religious faith at all. This is the new age of mission – not to people overseas and but to those who live nextdoor. It is time to start a new story about a new journey of mission. Let us pray then that is our faith is strong enough to tell others the Good News about Jesus Christ.