Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, August 10, 2013 Read – Acts 21:1-16 The journey to Jerusalem continues. The itinerary is quite detailed and gives the impression of one who was on the journey – we need to remember that we are still in a “we” section of Luke’s story. As I have mentioned earlier, perhaps the author of Acts really was along on this part of the journey – not as a co-worker of Paul, but as an observer. We have met him on the sea voyages but we will soon learn that he will now travel up to Jerusalem with Paul and the others. There, once again, he will disappear from sight until a few years later when he will reappear for Paul’s last voyage on a ship on that fateful journey to Rome when the ship will be caught up in a storm and wrecked on an island south of Rome. It is tempting to speculate about the use of “we” in this part of the story. We cannot speak with certainly, but the theory I have suggested does seem to have some credibility. Aside from these interesting details about the journey, Luke does not fail to carry through his main theme of telling about the “farewell tour” of Paul. And once again the story is written in parallel with the journey of Jesus Luke told earlier in his gospel. Just as Jesus knows he will journey to Jerusalem and be handed over to the Gentile, so also Paul is warned of the same fate awaiting him. Following Mark, Luke used “passion predictions” to highlight the journey of Jesus. The words spoken by Agabus function almost like a “passion prediction” in Luke’s story in Acts. Luke tells us something rather strange when he tells us that it was “by the Holy Spirit” that the friends of Paul warned him not to go to Jerusalem and of the fate that was certain to engulf him there. Was Paul not listening to the Spirit? Luke had told us earlier of that same Spirit telling Paul in a dream that he must go to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome. Does the Spirit speak mixed messages? There is a very human character to this story. Paul’s friends did not want him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer there. Could it be that they thought it was the Spirit speaking to them when it was only their human emotion of love and caring that was telling them to warn Paul not to go? Perhaps this business of hearing the message of the Spirit was as difficult and confusing for them as it is for us. How does God speak to us? How do we know it is really God? How do we know what God is saying? All of those are hard questions with no definitive answers! Listening to the Spirit is not so easy – it’s not easy now and it never was. Once Paul’s decision was made, Luke tells us some important words regarding the conclusion his friends came to – they conclude by praying, “God’s will be done!” Maybe that’s the best any of us can do. We try to hear and try to discern and then we leave it in God’s hands. Once again, the response, “God’s will be done,” echoes the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was agonizing over the destiny God had in store for him – “Not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). We have noticed earlier that Luke told the story of the death of Stephen in such a way that Stephen’s death echoed the death of Jesus – they are written as parallel accounts. Now we have seen how Luke is doing the same thing with respect to Paul. The telling of these three stories in parallel accounts is not an accident but a deliberate action by Luke. The brilliance of Luke as an author is revealed in his careful crafting of his story. And, once again, the story itself bears witness to the human hand of the author in the telling of the story. The inspiration of scripture does not mean that the human author has no part in the decision that is made as if they were some kind of “blind and thoughtless scribe” simply writing what the Spirit says. We do the Bible a disservice when we fail to appreciate the humanity involved and the skill and responsibility of the authors. We value the Bible when we let it speak for itself and let its authors be responsible for their creative work – and in the process we come to understand the Word of God in a far more complex and powerful way.