Now we see through a glass darkly, Paul wrote to believers
in Corinth two thousand years ago. A few years earlier, Pontius Pilate looked
at the prisoner Jesus and asked him, ‘What is truth?’
Yesterday, our weekly group came together to continue our study
of the early church as reported in Acts. There was an immediate sense of
anxiety and turbulence, as differing views were shared, passionately, about
current events and the reporting of them. We pulled away from the yawning hole down
which we were sliding by raising our voices and singing praises to the God of
truth, the Prince of Peace. After a time of prayer, with our hearts and minds
as one, we looked into the Bible. There in Acts 21 we read about a crowd of
people who were agitated by the truth as they saw it, and were passionately
crying out for Paul’s death. A Roman intervened and arrested Paul, taking him
out of the immediate danger of being lynched.
Half way through our reading of the passage, a disturbed
young man suddenly burst into our space and began a very disruptive, aggressive
challenge to us. Like a tornado, a sense of chaos descended on us. A couple of
wise women calmed him and ushered him out, and we continued to read. We were
determined to keep our focus on God.
‘Please let me speak,’ Paul asked the commander. When he
received permission, he addressed the crowd in their own language, and told
them his story, about his miraculous meeting with Jesus Christ on the road to
Damascus.
During these turbulent days, may we who follow the Prince of
Peace keep our eyes on him. May we use any opportunity we have to introduce
Jesus into the conversations we have. May we share our stories about our own
encounters with the Son of God. May we all speak with humility, recognising the
facet of truth we perceive is not the whole picture.
As Joseph told his brothers all those years ago in Egypt, what
they meant for harm God used to bring blessing. ‘I am the way, the truth and
the life,’ Jesus declared. He is the truth. Lord, protect and defend the
innocent and vulnerable.
May this terrible war end soon in blessing upon blessing as
we trust in the God of hope and peace. The God who is Truth. May he protect and
defend the innocent and the vulnerable, confuse the plans of the aggressors,
and restore peace.
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