A (6:56)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much. Thank you for your word. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. And thank you, Lord God, for all these people. We keep hearing these stories of these men and women who spread your word. These stories of these men and women who laid down their lives. These stories of these men and women who are willing to expose themselves to argumentation and to derision and to being mocked and to being killed for the opportunity to share your goodness, your truth, your love, your hope to the world. Lord, help us to be these kind of people. Help us to be this kind of men and women. Help us to belong to you more and more fully every day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Kind of a shorter reading today we have. Well, let's start with Proverbs, because there's something so insightful. I mean, obviously God's Word is always insightful. I think I probably always say that. But the last verse we read today is Proverbs, chapter 28, verse 21. To show partiality is not good. But for a piece of bread, a man will do wrong. That sense of it reminds me at least of Jacob and Esau. Remember the story of Esau coming in from hunting, coming in from the wilderness, and Jacob had the red stuff at the red porridge. And here is Esau who was willing to trade anything for a bit of stew. That was it. And that sense of, ah, man, bribery and the way in which we would do anything for. Maybe it's not a piece of bread. Maybe. Maybe your price is higher. Maybe my price is higher than a piece of bread. But we recognize man. Lord, I can be too fickle. In fact, too often I can be too fickle. So please help me to be resolute, right? Help me to let you be my north star. Your truth be the guiding compass that helps us walk through this life. Because again, when we know ourselves, we know how easily we can be toppled, how easily we can be set off course. Now, at the same time, we have the readings today. Acts of the apostles, chapter 18, and in 1 Corinthians, chapter 16. And we recognize how Jesus speaks to Paul here. Paul goes to Corinth, and we already have this now little backstory. We already talked about this a little bit. But Paul goes to Corinth. He's a tent maker by trade. So he meets this guy named Priscilla. Sorry, the guy is Aquila. And he and his Wife Priscilla, are tent makers that came to Corinth from Italy because Claudius, right, the emperor, had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. So here, this incredible way in which God uses these crooked lines to make a straight story, essentially, where we have Priscilla and Aquila, who are in Corinth because of persecution, and they encounter Paul, who brings them to Jesus and sets them on a new course. And that's one of the things, you know, Pope Benedict had said this. He said, being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty ideal. Basically, not because we're trying to be good or because we're trying to shoot for the stars, because we have, like, good morals. He says being a Christian is a result of. Of an encounter with a person. And that encounter with a person gives one's life a new horizon and sets it in a decisive direction. And you have this right here where Aquila and Priscilla, who are in Corinth because of exile, and they encounter Paul. And that encounter of Jesus through Paul radically transforms their lives. It's remarkable because from now on, Aquila and Priscilla are going to be missionaries themselves. They're going to be evangelists themselves. They're going to preach the Gospel and not just make tents in Corinth. They're going to go all over the place. We also have the introduction of how Timothy and Silas got to know the Corinthians. Because, you know, at the end of the letter Here today in 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, we have all these people who are named in the Acts of the Apostles, all these people even who are named at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthians. I think it's really remarkable that at the close of this letter, here is St. Paul, who this is going. Jumped over to Corinthians just for a second, that at the end of this letter, St. Paul says, When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he's doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him. Later on, St. Paul's going to say to Timothy, let no one despise you because of your youth. So that might be a reason why he's saying, let no one despise him, because Timothy was a young person. And so there is the sense that it could be tempting for the Corinthian church to look down on Timothy because of his youth. And yet here Paul says, let no one despise him. And later, when Paul writes to Timothy, he says, let no one despise you, because of your youth. And so there's something there that's just so powerful and beautiful. You realize these people were very close to each other. They knew each other, they worked together. Not only that, but in Acts of the Apostles. Today we encounter Apollos and we get a little bit of his backstory. Here's Apollos who is a convert, and Apollos who is eloquent, and Apollos who is well spoken, right? And he spoke accurately about the Lord Jesus, but he only had the baptism of John. So then what happens? He gets taught, and this is so incredibly important. When he gets taught by Priscilla and Aquila, he changes. So there's this thing called docility, docility. Sometimes we can think of docility as a bad word because it seems like, oh, you're so docile. You're just kind of, you know, passive. It's not. That's not what docility means. Docility means I'm open to being taught. If I'm docile, I'm open to being taught. Here is Apollos, who was incredibly gifted, right? He is a eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately. And then he gets corrected. And what happens? He gets corrected. He lets himself be taught. And it goes on to say, it's incredible that when we're open to being taught, when we're open to being corrected, God can do incredible things with us. Now, maybe when a person's really talented, they're less open to being corrected. But if a person is talented, gifted, skilled and open to being corrected, open to being taught, that means there's no limit, really. It's almost like the same way or similar to grace, that it's one thing to be blessed by the Lord, it's another thing to allow him to bless abundantly with his grace every aspect of our lives. I think sometimes a lot of us are tempted to only let God bless part of our lives. God, this is the part of my life you can bless because it belongs to you, but these other parts of my life belong to me. And so, I mean, yeah, go ahead and bless them, but not like, don't use them as well. And of course that's a trap. Don't do that. But here is Apollos who was incredibly blessed and then even further blessed because he allowed himself to be corrected. He allowed himself to be taught. Now remember, at the beginning of 1 Corinthians, Paul says that there's factions, some saying, I belong To Paul, some I belong to Apollos, some belong, I belong to Kepha. And yet here Paul is, commending to the Corinthians. Hey, receive Apollos. You know, as for our brother Apollos, I strongly encouraged, urged him to visit you. Like, you know, it'd be one thing if Paul was threatened by this division. If Paul was threatened by the factions, he would say, yeah, Apollos, you stay away. These are my folks, and I don't want you to try to win them to your side. Instead, he says, no, no, no. At the very end of this letter, I urged, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brethren. He says, but it was not at all his will to come. Now, now, that could mean it was not Apollos's will. It also could mean that it was not the Father's will, mean that it was not God's will for him. But here is St. Paul concluding these words with words that echo Acts 18. Now, I'm sorry, I'm going back and forth right between Acts and Corinthians, and I apologize if that's one of those things that you're like, this is so confusing, Father. Like, why are you doing this? It's only because it's so connected. And it blows my mind how connected our readings are today. How Connected Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians 16 is. Here is Jesus's last thing here. Here are Christ's words to Paul. And he says one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no man shall attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city. Now, Paul ultimately, of course, was many times was attacked, but he was told by Jesus Christ to be strong, to be courageous, to be bold, to not be afraid. And what does Paul say at the end of this letter to the Corinthians? He says, be watchful, stand firm in your faith. Be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. What an incredible gift Paul receives from the Lord. These words, do not be afraid. Move forward, have confidence in me. And then Paul is able to then say to the people, the people he loves the same things. Be watchful, stand firm in your faith. Be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. And this is the truth for every one of us. Those are words that every one of us can be blessed by, because they're the words of Jesus for us. Do not be afraid. Walk in courage, walk in faith. Let everything you do be done in love. Easier said than done. So we just pray. We ask God for his grace to be able to live that way, to be that kind of person, be that kind of people. And I want to be that kind of person. And I know you want to be that kind of person as well. That's why I'm praying for you. And please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
