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Week Sixteen, Day Five

Acts 17: 1-15

Having given birth to the church in Philippi, the missionaries moved on to Thessalonica. There, too, their preaching was met with a positive response and with resistance. Paul and Silas preached in the synagogue, and many Jews believed in Jesus. An even greater number of Greeks believed, and Luke notes that a significant number of the leading women of the city came to believe. From the very beginning, women responded to the message of Jesus. Because of the sexism of that day (and this), their stories were not told. We have to read between the lines, but there is overwhelming evidence that Christianity became established because of the support of first-century women.

In Thessalonica, some Jewish leaders didn't like what Paul was saying, so they used a political argument to stir up trouble against him. They reported that the missionaries were claiming that Jesus was a king, but Roman law had established that there was no king but Caesar. It is, of course, the argument used against Jesus. The duplicity of the religious right defending the status quo by manipulating the government to serve their purposes is nothing new.

They couldn't find Paul and Silas and ended up dragging some of the new believers into court. Among them was a man named Jason. They demanded that he tell them where they were, but he apparently really didn't know. He had simply offered them his home as a gathering place.

What is worth our attention is the description of Paul and Silas that the religious leaders use: “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also.” Regardless of how the accusation is couched, the thing that religious people then and now seem to fear most is having their world turned upside down. When will we learn that this is how the Spirit always works, blowing through our lives and scattering our neat stacks of beliefs and certainties everywhere?

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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