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Week Eighteen, Day One

Acts 18: 18-28

Chapter 18 ends with Paul and his partners—Silas, Timothy and Priscilla and her husband Aquila—planting churches in Ephesus, Galatia, Phrygia and, eventually, Corinth. In Ephesus, we meet Apollos who becomes a chief missionary and preacher. All of these places and people will be heard from again in Paul's epistles that comprise much of the New Testament. Without reading these stories in Acts, there would be little context for reading those letters. The ironic thing is that the writing of the letters probably came first. Luke, having read those letters, is now trying to explain to us who these people are and why Paul wrote to the Galatians, Ephesians and Corinthians.

In these verses, Christianity is referred to as “The Way of the Lord” and “The Way of God.” Priscilla and Aquila were the ones who explained The Way of God to Apollos. It is unfortunate that preachers and teachers have given up that approach to the Christian faith. The Church has fought and divided and split many times over doctrine and theology. What a different thing Christianity might be, and what different people we Christians might be, if we simply had understood that we were people of “The Way of Jesus.”

Living as Jesus lived, and treating people as Jesus did, are only vaguely and distantly related to the religious industry known as Christianity. There have been times when people have genuinely sought to recover the way of Jesus, but they have been short lived. I can remember as a child seeing the Jesus people who grew their hair long, dressed simply, and talked a lot about peace and love. Then they grew up to be stockbrokers, CEOs, bankers and lawyers. The Way of Power and The Way of Money seemed too powerfully alluring.

So, is it too late for us? As we read through the book of Acts, one of the things that strike me is that people like Paul, or Barnabas, or Aquila all were successful established adults who gave up their way of life and living to authentically follow the Way of Jesus. If they could do it, so can we. The question is why don't we?

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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