Daily Devotional • August 11
A Reading from Acts 20:17-38
17 From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. 18 When they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. 20 I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21 as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus.22 And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me.24 But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.
25 “And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. 26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. 29 I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn everyone with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. 35 In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
36 When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed.37 There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship.
Meditation
Paul’s lengthy journey from Assos (to which he had arrived on foot from Troas) to Miletus, located much farther south, where he will await the arrival of the Ephesian church elders, sets in motion what will be his heartfelt farewell to them. Paul was carrying with him gifts for the Jerusalem believers (whose church was experiencing difficulties) from churches in Asia and Greece. He may have been anxious to deliver these gifts at Pentecost, as it was the day of celebration and thanksgiving.
While sharing God’s word may entail a journey of only a few blocks or many miles, it is the message not the miles traveled that makes the way of the believer a difficult road. As Paul explains to the elders, there is humility, as well as many tears, and temptations that accompany serving the Lord. He was consistent in his message, whether preaching to the Jews or to the Greeks, and in his single-mindedness, he persevered despite carrying out his work under threat by those who sought to thwart his efforts.
Paul’s parting words echo those of his ascended Lord and Savior, in saying that he goes “bound in the spirit” unto Jerusalem to face what shall befall him there (despite not knowing exactly what form that will take); he acknowledges that those to whom he has preached shall see his face no more, but that the Holy Spirit will abide with them; and that “savage wolves” will come in among this flock and not spare them. This is the hard truth of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call the “cost of discipleship.”
Is our life’s value measured by what we put into it, or by what we get out of it? Paul coveted no worldly goods but counted his life as worthless unless it was devoted only to doing God’s work, illustrating what Jesus had said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Having cared for, comforted, and cried over the needs of these believers, Paul made God’s love visible and showed all how the missionary life is lived out; the believers’ love and sorrow at his departure was the response to what Paul gave unconditionally. Together they created a beautiful example of Christian fellowship.
Pamela A. Lewis taught French for 30 years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, New York, she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corsicana, Texas
The Diocese of Norwich – The Church of England
Pamela A. Lewis is a member of Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, in New York City. She writes on topics of faith.
