Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 30 October 2014 "Paul arrived in Rome, not sure what lay ahead"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 30 October 2014 "Paul arrived in Rome, not sure what lay ahead"
Daily Scripture:  Acts 28:1-2 Once everyone was accounted for and we realized we had all made it, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold and we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and gathered us around it.
3-6 Paul pitched in and helped. He had gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from its torpor by the heat, struck his hand and held on. Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting his just deserts. Paul shook the snake off into the fire, none the worse for wear. They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god!
7-9 The head man in that part of the island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days. Publius’s father was sick at the time, down with a high fever and dysentery. Paul went to the old man’s room, and when he laid hands on him and prayed, the man was healed. Word of the healing got around fast, and soon everyone on the island who was sick came and got healed.
Rome
10-11 We spent a wonderful three months on Malta. They treated us royally, took care of all our needs and outfitted us for the rest of the journey. When an Egyptian ship that had wintered there in the harbor prepared to leave for Italy, we got on board. The ship had a carved Gemini for its figurehead: “the Heavenly Twins.”
12-14 We put in at Syracuse for three days and then went up the coast to Rhegium. Two days later, with the wind out of the south, we sailed into the Bay of Naples. We found Christian friends there and stayed with them for a week.
14-16 And then we came to Rome. Friends in Rome heard we were on the way and came out to meet us. One group got as far as Appian Court; another group met us at Three Taverns—emotion-packed meetings, as you can well imagine. Paul, brimming over with praise, led us in prayers of thanksgiving. When we actually entered Rome, they let Paul live in his own private quarters with a soldier who had been assigned to guard him.
Philippians 1: They Can’t Imprison the Message
12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.
15-17 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.
18-21 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.
22-26 As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better. But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here. So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. You can start looking forward to a great reunion when I come visit you again. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.
Reflection Questions:
Sent off to Rome on a Mediterranean sailing ship, Paul experienced a shipwreck (cf. Acts 27:13-44). Paul and his guards wintered on Malta (see map). The next spring, when he reached Rome, a company of Christians welcomed him. From Rome (cf. Philippians 4:22), Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi about his God-based confidence, both in life and in death.
We've read that Paul invested time and effort in major cities like Corinth and Ephesus. Now he saw first-hand the results of that focus. He had never been to Rome, yet as he arrived, Luke wrote, "the brothers and sisters there heard about us, [and] they came as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us." Imagine the flood of satisfied joy reflected in the words, "When Paul saw them, he gave thanks to God and was encouraged." When have you seen the time and effort you invested in others make a difference, perhaps larger than you ever dreamed? In what people or godly causes are you currently investing?
Writing Philippians, we believe, from a prison cell (not reflected at the end of Acts), Paul summed up his attitude: "Living serves Christ and dying is even better." Many of us can affirm the first part of the sentence; the second part may be more of a challenge. Hebrews 2:15 said by dying and rising again, Jesus "set free those who were held in slavery their entire lives by their fear of death." Clearly that was true for Paul. Has Jesus' presence set you free from the fear of death? In what ways is it liberating to surmount that fear?
Today's Prayer:
King Jesus, you taught Paul how to treasure every moment of this earthly life, and to use it for you, without fearing its inevitable end. Help me to keep growing into that attitude toward all the parts of your gift of life. Amen.
Insight From Dr. Amy Oden
Dr. Amy Oden is Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU. Teaching is her calling, and she looks forward to every day with students. For 25 years, Amy has taught theology and history, pursuing scholarship in service of the church.  
Paul’s journey to Rome is full of lots of action. Just picture it all–rough sailing on choppy seas, shipwreck, foreign lands, strange people, snakebite, healings, more stops in foreign ports, new encounters and adventures. I can imagine this as a Hollywood blockbuster full of dramatic moments, a sort of mash-up of Perfect Storm meets Cast Away. So it might be easy to miss a less dramatic but common thread through this account–stories of hospitality and welcome that abound at each point along the way.
When we slow down and look closely through these verses, welcoming the stranger is everywhere. Take a look: The natives of Malta offered “unusual kindness,” Publius hosted them for 3 days on his own dime, the rest of the people “bestowed many honors on them,” and these are not even fellow Christians, just locals welcoming strangers. The natives at Malta didn’t know Paul. They knew he was a prisoner, a criminal on his way to punishment, and still they offered welcome! Then, at Puteoli, they “were invited to stay” with believers for seven days. Finally, before they could even get all the way to the city limits of Rome, followers of Jesus, folks they do not even know, came out of the city to meet them and welcome them.
The practice of radical hospitality the people offered this stranger (Paul) is striking. And it can seem very alien and even dangerous to us today.  Maybe that’s because, in unexpected ways, it is indeed risky to welcome strangers. They challenge us and change us. They bring their strangeness into our lives, widening our angle of view so that we see things we didn’t see before (a “murderer” becomes a “god”?). They disrupt our assumptions about ourselves, about the world (what? Paul’s hand didn’t swell up from the snakebite?). Strangers bring their own gifts that meet us in our need (Paul healed many). Strangers can, if we let them, call out of us that deep longing we have to reach out to them with the very same welcome that God has already shown us. This is radical stuff, because God’s work in each of us is radical stuff.
Christians, including folks here at The Church of the Resurrection, reach out to newcomers to church or to the faith, to immigrants newly arrived, to recently released incarcerated folks who feel like strangers in society–all powerful witnesses to the welcome that comes from God. For most of us, welcome happens in small, daily ways. Today you and I will encounter strangers–at the grocery store, at work, among your children’s friends, on Facebook. All of these are opportunities to practice radical hospitality–a simple smile, an open heart, interest in knowing them, a word of hope. See how these strangers change you and open your eyes to God’s life around you.
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