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Home Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. May 11, 2009 - Monday Meditation (With Him - Nothing is too Difficult!)
May 11, 2009 - Monday Meditation (With Him - Nothing is too Difficult!) PDF Print E-mail
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Sections - The Daily B.R.E.A.D.
Written by Bobot Apit   
Thursday, 07 May 2009 05:48
L ife after the resurrection of Jesus does not mean smooth sailing. It means entering the kingdom through many hardships; but it also means that the risen Lord does indeed open doors and enable healing, conversion and courage in the face of rejection.


Acts 14:5-18
Psalm 115:1-2, 3-4, 15-16

J ohn 14:21-26  He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." (22) Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" (23) Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (24) He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. (25) "These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. (26) But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all  that I have said to you.
    


* Meditation by Dennis Hamm, S.J.
 
T hat first reading, about Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, comes up rarely, and it is worth lingering over. And since the portion in our Lectionary ends in a kind of cliff-hanger, I will take us ten verses beyond the portion so that we get the point.

Half way through the first mission trip, Paul and Barnabas cause such an uproar in Iconium that a crowd of Jews and gentiles runs them out of town in an attempt to stone them. They move on to Lystra, where they preach the good news and at first experience amazing success.

Like the time in Acts 3, when Peter and John encountered the man born lame at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and heal him in the name of the risen Jesus, so Paul and Barnabas encounter another man lame from birth. Seeing that he has faith to be healed, Paul commands him to stand up. Like the guy at the Temple gate, this man not only stands. He jumps. When the locals witness this, they take Paul and Barnabas to be gods. Amazingly, they take Barnabas to be the top god, Zeus, and Paul, because he is doing the speaking, they take to be Hermes, the messenger of Zeus. The local Zeus priest springs into action with oxen and garlands to perform a worship service on the spot!

Also like Peter and John, after the healing of the lame Temple beggar, Paul and Barnabas try to refocus this enthusiasm and insist that the healing occurred not through any power of theirs but through the living God, the same God they have known through the rains and the fruitfulness of the earth. This only increases the crowd’s enthusiasm for offering sacrifice to them.

But the point of the narrative really isn’t clear if you stop right there, where today’s first reading stops in the Lectionary. For the next verses tell us that the would-be stoners from Iconium and Pisidian Antioch catch up with Paul and Barnabas and win that enthusiastic crowd over to their side.
 
As Luke tells it, the very people who had been ready to worship  Paul and Barnabas pitch in to stone Paul who is dragged out of the city and left for dead. Remarkably, when disciples gather around him, he is able to get up. After a night’s rest, they proceed to Derbe, where their evangelization makes “a considerable number of disciples.” Most amazingly of all, they then have the gumption to return to the very towns where rejection had trumped their successes, to strengthen the spirits of the disciples they had mode. They encourage them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” They then appoint leaders in these budding and vulnerable communities and pray with them. 
 
When they get back to their home base, Antioch of Syria, they report to the church “what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.”

The point of Luke’s narrative is to demonstrate that the power of the risen Lord Jesus works through ordinary human beings in a way that can be rejected, not stopped, and is much deeper than either the mindless enthusiasm or the violent rejection of the crowds in Lystra.
 
What the Gospel of John speaks of as the work of the Holy Spirit, and the indwelling of Father and Son, Luke portrays in his narrative about the formation of stable communities in the midst of that chaos. The same dynamic occurs in the mission of the church in our world today. Life after the resurrection of Jesus does not mean smooth sailing. It means entering the kingdom through many hardships; but it also means that the risen Lord does indeed open doors and enable healing, conversion and courage in the face of rejection.


Supplementary Reading
Amazing Grace

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' – Mark 2:1-5




Jesus said, "Which is easier? To forgive sins or to heal a paralytic?" He continued to say to the crowd, and then to the paralytic, "In order to show you that I have the authority to forgive sins, pick up your mat and go home." To everyone's amazement, the man stood up, picked up his mat, and walked out of the house!

How would you have answered the question—is it easier to forgive or to miraculously heal someone? In this miracle, Jesus makes it clear that even though he cares about our physical well-being and can perform miracles, it is even more important to him that our sins be forgiven. This was the first and foremost reason he came. This is still his number one priority for us—to forgive us.

Forgiveness—what a gift! Grace—how amazing!

* * *

Put yourself in the paralytic's place. What would your life look like if you fully embraced the forgiveness and grace of God?

* * *
    
Note:  This excerpt was taken from the "Power for Life Daily Devotional"
GOD BLESS US ALL!

PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.




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