Acts 21:1-36

Grace

To see God’s Kingdom come in the whole life of our neighbourhood, the way Jesus would, using Word, Deed and Sign.

Readings

Reading deeper…

Jim Reiher, The Book of Acts: A Social Justice Commentary, Chapter 21.

Devotion 1

Wait: Spend some time waiting on God, allowing God into those places of despair and hopelessness in your life and neighbourhood.

Read: Luke 24:1-12 as a Lectio Divina

1) Have one person read the verses through twice.

2) Speak out any words or phrases that stand out to you.

3) Read through the verses again.

4) What thoughts, feelings, and impressions do you sense? Share them.

5) Read the verses a final time.

6) What challenges or encouragements emerge? Share them with the group.

Share:

Devotion 2

Wait: Take time to sit in silence together, aware of the presence of God’s Spirit

Read: Luke 24:13-35

The story of the journey to Emmaus is perhaps one of the most poignant in Luke’s gospel. The dashed expectations of Cleopas and his companion are captured in their words to the stranger — “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (v 21). Brendan Byrne says, “The phrase reveals the conventional nature of this expectation—for a great leader who would liberate their people from the subjection under which they currently laboured”, an expectation which “had no place for a Messiah who would suffer and die, above all on a cross.”1

The stranger, however, begins to explain a new Way to the disciples — a Way which stands in continuity with the prophets who had gone before, and would be carried on by many who come after. It is the Way of redemptive suffering, where God’s reign comes about not as we turn the tables on our enemies, winning our redemption by inflicting violence on them, but as we live out God’s love and justice, refusing to take up arms or dehumanise others, even in the face of consequences which may come.

Later, as they come to share a meal together, the disciples finally recognise this stranger. But what is most significant here is how they recognise him. It is as Jesus breaks the bread, symbolically reenacting his own broken body (Lk 22:19) that he is recognised. And he invites us to share in this brokenness, living out the Way of God’s love and justice, and even bearing the consequences, to see God’s redemption come.

Ask: 

Share: Communion

Pray:

1. Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000, 189.

Devotion 3

Wait: 

Read: Acts 21: 1-16

We pick up the Acts narrative again this week, with Paul preparing to travel to Jerusalem. Twice in today’s reading he is warned “through the Spirit” about going to Jerusalem (vs 4, 11). Reiher concludes that “Paul made a monumental mistake when he went to Jerusalem,” disobeying God and consequently facing years of imprisonment and eventual death.2 But God’s will it might be a little more ambiguous than this — after all, we have already been told that it was the Holy Spirit who had compelled Paul to go to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21, 20:22).

Perhaps the sense of the warning of the disciples from Tyre was that , “[o]n the occasion when the Spirit was inspiring some to speak, some urges Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. On this scenario the Spirit had once again predicted what awaited Paul in Jerusalem (see 20:23), and this resulted in the Tyrians urging Paul not to go.”3  Or perhaps we are seeing something of the nature of prophecy in the New Testament, which was “not to be taken as a literal transcript of God’s words, but rather was something that needed to be weighed or sifted (see 1 Cor. 14:29).”4  In any case, Witherington’s comments are insightful: “What is striking about the entire section is that Luke is perfectly willing to portray a deep difference of opinion between equally sincere Christian groups… This must count against the view that Luke is portraying the early church in a totally idealistic fashion. 5

We should not miss in this passage the shape of Paul’s journey, and the ways that it follows that of Jesus before him. Jesus, too, knew of the fate that would surely await him in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus, too, resolutely made the journey despite knowing what the outcome would be. This is how Jesus would take up his cross. And he calls his followers to do the same (Lk 9:23).

Ask:

Share:

Pray:

 2. Jim Reiher, The Book of Acts: A Social Justice Commentary. Dandenong: UNOH, 2014, 149-150.

3. Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998, 630.

 4. Witherington, Acts, 631.

 5. Witherington, Acts, 631, n291.

Devotion 4

Wait: Spend some time waiting on God, aware of his presence in the storms of life.

Listen:Yahweh” by the Brilliance

Read: Acts 21:17-36

Ask:

Share:

Pray: