No guarantees

       When I got married to my husband, we were quite blessed to have both of my in-laws present. They were quite elderly and no doubt had never even dreamt that their nice Jewish boy of a son would ever get married. It hadn't even been legal not too long ago. But we found each other and they welcomed me with broad, warm, open arms. When the ceremony ended and the reception was over, my mother-in-law came over to us and told me that 'he' was now my responsibility, no give backs and no guarantees.

         No guarantees.  We have no guarantees about anything in life, ever except that God loves us. So St. Paul finds that he is not welcome in the synagogue in Ephesus and speaks  instead for 2 years in the lecture hall of Tyrannus where both Greek and Jew hear the Word.

       As fate would have it, today we remember Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester, who is responsible in no small part for the King James translation of the Bible, the Bible of Bibles if you will.  Countless Christians swear by this translation as if it was handed down directly by God in the 1500's. Of course it is not the definitive work that some might argue it is. Even though Lancelot was an eminently qualified and a learned man, there is much more that has occurred in biblical scholarship since then. No doubt, the scholarship and revelations will continue and hopefully in concert with the Spirit we will come to greater knowledge and faith. 

       In the end, nothing can be definitive or counted on.  People that support you can retract their support. Words can be mistranslated. Biases can be overturned. Trusted sources will be found to be errant.

       The only exceptions are the love of God which is constant and unwavering and also that my husband is my responsibility now ( and I, his ). For everything else, open your eyes, hearts and minds and listen, watch and learn for the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 19:1-10

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ Then he said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They answered, ‘Into John’s baptism.’Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.’On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied— altogether there were about twelve of them.

 He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly, and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.