Sermon 17th October 2010

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, preaches based on the reading from
Acts 16:25-40

Jail Break There have been some famous films about escapes from prison. Perhaps the greatest of them all is The Great Escape, about how British and American prisoners of war meticulously planned their escape for many months, digging a long tunnel through which 76 POWs escaped. Another famous film is The Shawshank Redemption. This is a fictional story in which a man, wrongly jailed for murdering his wife, spends 19 years single-handedly digging his way out of a brutal American prison with a small rock hammer. These escapes were carefully planned from inside the prison. Other prison escapes have involved outside accomplices who smuggled weapons into the prison. One such escape was when 38 IRA prisoners escaped from the Maze Prison in 1983.

Today’s reading from Acts is about a prison escape, or maybe more accurately a prison non-escape. At least it was a very different type of prison escape to the ones I have just described. Before looking at Paul and Silas’ jailbreak, let’s remind ourselves of why they were in prison.

As Adjoa explained last Sunday, Paul had cast out a demon tormenting a young slave girl who had had the power to foretell the future. The girl’s owners, who had been making good money out of her fortune telling, were incensed and had Paul and Silas arrested for ruining their business. It seems as if the powers of darkness had combined with the power of money to stop Paul and Silas preaching the good news about Jesus. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that they ran into opposition. I believe that there are powers of evil that oppose the Christian message. The Christian message also challenges the vested interests of those with money. And a third force joined in on the side of the powers of evil – political and religious prejudice. The slave girl’s owners also stirred up the crowds against Paul and Silas. “These men are Jews,” they said in verses 20-21, “and [they] are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” These men were anti-Roman, they claimed, and threatened our peace and prosperity with their foreign religious ways.

So an unholy alliance of the powers of darkness and the powers of money and prejudice had put Paul and Silas into prison. Things looked bleak for them; it looked like the opposition had won.

But Paul trusted in the loving power of God. The power of God’s love was central in Paul’s response to the slave girl, and Luke now focuses our attention on the jailer. As Adjoa said last week Philippi was a Roman colony, and he may well have been a retired Roman soldier, a battle-hardened veteran.

Paul and Silas were sent to jail by the magistrates who clearly wanted them out of the way to stop the rioting mob getting nasty. And next, to add injury to insult, they were whipped savagely and handed over to the jailer who was told to lock them up tight. So the jailer threw them into the inner cell and had their feet fastened in stocks. The jailer certainly wasn’t taking any chances, and had done nothing to make Paul and Silas feel kindly towards him. He was a mean and tough sort of person. And he had no idea what was about to hit him!

The jailer must have realised that these high security prisoners were unusual. Not everyone has the energy to pray and sing in prison, particularly when their feet are in stocks and they’ve been severely beaten earlier in the day. That takes some doing. Nonetheless the jailer must have thought they weren’t going anywhere in a hurry, for he had gone to sleep! Indeed, their chances of escape must have seemed non-existent. Paul and Silas were strangers in a foreign city; they were high security prisoners, safely locked up in the inmost and securest part of the prison. And unlike the POWs in the Great Escape they had had no time to plan their escape. And unlike the IRA prisoners in the escape from the Maze Prison, there were no accomplices on the outside who could smuggle weapons in to help them escape. Paul and Silas were going nowhere, the jailer must have thought.

As the jailer dozed off, he could scarcely have foreseen what was going to happen next, for suddenly he was confronted by the power of God in all its fullness. In verse 26 we read that suddenly “there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose”.

Paul and Silas had had no time to plan an escape; they had no human accomplices on the outside. But God was with them, and He timed the earthquake with incredible precision. What an amazing earthquake; it was strong enough to shake their chains loose, but at the same it caused no injuries. Now it is far from the case that God steps in supernaturally whenever Christians are thrown into prison. Subsequently Paul was to spend several years in prison and eventually was executed. Throughout the history of the church, countless Christians have been imprisoned, tortured and martyred for their faith. And yet there are occasions such as this one when God intervenes miraculously.

Now unlike the traditional prison escape, Paul and Silas didn’t actually escape! In verse 27 we read that the jailer woke up and thought that the prisoners had escaped, and he was about to kill himself with his sword. But Paul shouted out, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

Now that may have been an even greater shock than the earthquake, that the prisoners had stayed put. The world had been turned upside down by an incredible power, but that power was not cruel or exploitative. It was the power of the rescuer, and God used it to rescue the jailer. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” he asked.

So, what did the jailer mean by this question; “What must I do to be saved?” Was he asking how salvation worked, the way we understand it now – that you are saved by repenting of your sins and believing in Jesus? Possibly, but Tom Wright, the recently retired Bishop of Durham, has a different interpretation. The jailer would have come from a pagan background and so would have had little idea of the technical meaning of salvation. Tom Wright suggests that he was asking, “Gentlemen, will you please tell me how I can get out of this mess?”

The jailer was indeed in a mess. It was midnight. There had been an earthquake, and he was going to be held responsible for the escape of all the prisoners. That was why he had been about to kill himself. He wouldn’t simply lose his job for allowing the prisoners to escape; he would have been tortured and executed. Suicide was the lesser of the two evils. So, how was he going to get out of this mess?

Paul answered his question, but at a far, far deeper level than the gaoler expected. Paul looked beyond the current mess that the jailer was in. Yes, he was in a mess, but Paul looked beyond his immediate worries, and offered him a solution way beyond what the jailer could have expected or hoped for. The jailer had a narrow perspective; he couldn’t see beyond his immediate need. But Paul knew that ultimately what he needed wasn’t just to be helped out of his current mess, but to know the truth about God and Jesus. And the jailer, impressed by his remarkable prisoners, listened to the message. ”Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”

It must have been some sermon that Paul and Silas preached, because the jailer believed – the jailer and his family. And they put their new found belief into practice. They cleaned Paul and Silas up. That must have been very humbling for the jailer, the battle-hardened soldier washing the wounds of his prisoners. And they were baptised to show that they belonged to Christ. Yes, they acknowledged Jesus as their Lord; they belonged to him, and were now part of his people. And they opened their home to Paul and Silas and gave them food. And at the end of verse 34 we see that the jailer and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God. Their lives had been transformed overnight.

Paul and Silas had shown remarkable care to the jailer and his family. And the final part of our reading shows Paul’s care and concern for the Christians in Philippi.

The magistrates eventually did the right thing which was also the convenient thing, and they told Paul and Silas to leave quietly. But still Paul was going nowhere, because he and Silas had suffered a great injustice. They were Roman citizens, and not only had their treatment been despicable, it was unlawful. And if Paul had decided to pursue it further, the magistrates knew that they could have been in big trouble. Now at first sight Paul’s stance seems a bit strange. Why was he standing on his dignity, claiming his rights as a Roman citizen? Wasn’t he allying himself with those very powers that had been attacking the church? But what Paul did was very clever. “No! Let them [the magistrates] come themselves and escort us out."

Paul was thinking of the young church in Philippi. He knew it was going to be tough for them, but he wanted to give them the best start he could. By getting the magistrates to escort them out, he was making a public statement to the whole town about the injustice that had happened. And it would have told the local people that the Christians in Philippi had influential friends. The fact that the magistrates themselves were eating humble pie and escorting them out of prison would have spoken volumes. But Paul also knew that his continued presence would have caused trouble. So after saying goodbye to the Christians in Philippi, Paul and Silas went on their way.

Paul’s time in Philippi was momentous. During his stay there, Jesus showed that he was Lord over the demonic powers of darkness; he showed that he was Lord over the power of money, and that he was Lord over political and religious prejudice. Jesus was Lord over them all. But Jesus is not the type of Lord who looks for cowering obedience. He is no dictator out to exploit or abuse us. Unlike the powers of darkness, Jesus uses his power to rescue us, to give us joy and purpose and hope. What a contrast to the powers of darkness that abused the slave girl! What a contrast also to the slave girl’s owners and the rioting mob. The slave girl was exploited and cruelly treated. But the jailer and his family found joy in their new faith.

To finish, I am going to ask two questions. Who was really in control here, and who actually had the people’s best interests at heart? As Paul and Silas languished in prison, the powers of darkness and the powers of money and prejudice seemed to be in control. Now, they are powerful, and we should not be naive about that, but in the end it is the power of Christ that is in control, even in the darkest moments of life – and death. We can be confident in Him. Bad things do happen, but Jesus is with us, even in the valley of death.

And while the powers of darkness abuse and exploit, we can rejoice in the God who is there, the creator of the universe who always works for good. And that is the confidence that Paul has, and that is the joy of being a Christian. That was why the jailer was overjoyed. We shouldn’t underestimate the challenges we face, but on the other hand we shouldn’t be so overwhelmed by them that we lose sight of our God. Because our God really is in control, and He really is good.
God is good
All the time;
And all the time
God is good.
Amen.

Sermon 10th October 2010

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh Cunnell, preaches based on the reading from
Acts 16:11-24
It’s seems to be becoming a pattern that around the time I am down to preach I’m either about to have a press night for a play or have just had one. In one light I could go oh no too much on, like buses all coming at the same time! In another light I could look at the preaching schedule and say hurrah looks like I’ll have a job at that time then…
As anyone self employed here will know ‘looking like there is a job in the offing’ is always a ‘a good thing’!
Perhaps I should put a bid in for more preaching thus improving my likehood of employment…. Or perhaps not. Who knows…
Whatever the Godincidence of this is, as opposed to a coincidence, I am always delighted by this weaving of God through what appears to be my mundane everyday life.

Who knows? For instance did you hear about the beautiful Roman ceremonial helmet in the news this week? It was dug up in a field in Cumbria and was auctioned for £2m. In perfect condition it is known as a Phrygian bonnet.

If we look at verse 6 of Acts 16 our chapter today, we learn that Paul has been travelling through the region of Phrygia on his way to the city of this mornings reading, Philippi.

And the last part of the text of the play I’m doing is set in the Hills of… Phyrgia who would have thought it, when the preaching schedule was drawn up…

From Saul on the road to Damascus…becoming Paul travelling through Phrygia to Philippi, so the Gospel of Christ spreads through Europe and on to us in Herne Hill, and who knows the journeys God’s Gospel will send us on?!

Who knows what’s in store for any of us, employed, self employed, unemployed, home employed, retired, studying, starting school (being baptised like Laurie), becoming Bishop of Southwark like our area Bishop Christopher is about to become.

Who knows what is in store for us. Perhaps the times feel more uncertain than ever at the moment, with our economy, with severe cuts looming in public services, and those benefit cuts, all of whose knock on effects we are not yet fully clear about. It may feel like a worrying time for many of us.

In such times, one of our mission partners Simon Guillebaud from the Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi, whose dvd and book are currently available to buy or to borrow (I have a copies of each), Simon has a thought in one section of that dvd, which may be of interest

Safety, he suggests, is not the absence of danger but the presence of God.
Safety is not the absence of danger but the presence of God.

I want us to share the encouragement of those words this morning as we continue to follow Paul’s small band of believers who like many, or I would suggest actually ALL of us here, could also say “who knows what is in store for us”.
We have had enough trials and tribulations with our own clergy on the medical front in the past year to know how true that is, And we think of the Windsor family this morning who lost Charles suddenly this weekend after years of faithful mission service in Bolivia. We can trust that God has been a sustaining presence throughout and we pray that in all circumstances his love is felt, even when circumstances seem bewildering and distressing.

Safety is not the absence of danger but the presence of God.

So let us just remember a little of what Cameron said when introducing this series back in September, since we are now deep into the story of how Paul reached further and wider with the gospel than anyone had dared dream might even be possible.
Cameron spoke about the Gospel writer Luke’s focus in recounting these Acts of Mission, being:

to inspire us in our own Acts of Mission in spreading the Gospel far and wide, individually and as a church;

to help us understand that this mission is all, and only, about Jesus, and it's all the work of His Spirit.

And as Cameron alerted us, Luke cautions us that we are to expect stiff spiritual opposition at every turn!

Inspiration for mission,
all and only about Jesus and the work of His Spirit
expect stiff spiritual opposition
All these aspects we see in this morning’s adventure.

Last week Cameron spoke of ‘keeping on keeping on in faith’, heeding God’s ‘nos’ even when they are frustrating, and trusting in faith, that there will be a divine ‘yes’ ahead, in God’s time not ours.

This week having finally received that divine ‘yes’ in the dream which set Paul, Silas, Timothy and now Luke himself (note how the story is now told as we) on the road to Troas the name now of the ancient city of Troy, now the four set sail deep into Europe, bringing the Gospel to Us!
First the 4 sail to Samothrace, and then on to Neapolis and then on inland to the Macedonian city of Philippi.
Philippi was also a Roman Colony Luke tells us quite deliberately; giving us a context for what is about to happen. Colonies like this one were set up to keep the rule of Rome strong in the region. Often retired Roman soldiers would come to live in cities such as these to maintain a strong Roman presence.
Perhaps Luke tells us Philippi is a colony city to explain why Paul was teaching by the River and not in a synagogue as he had in so many other cities.
We must assume that the Jewish population of Philippi was so small that in this Maecedonian city colonised by the Romans there was no synagogue to attend, and so the alternative venue (as decreed in Jewish law for Sabbath worship), would have been a building or some outdoor space, in this case a River.
So in this European land with no substantial Jewish community of worshippers from which to build upon in his preaching of the Gospel Paul and his Apostles were incredibly vulnerable.

Nevertheless In his first European encounters Paul crosses boundaries of race and gender as he meets two very different women where they are, and the consequences of his being open to respond as directed by God bring results that Paul could not foresee.
When the first of these women, Lydia hears Paul teaching the Gospel of Christ by the river, she opens her heart to Jesus and her home to the preacher of his Gospel. This is a risk in a Roman colony city. Recently, in Rome there had been public disorder involving the Jewish population and many had been thrown out, so in a Roman controlled city like Philippi any Jews would be regarded with suspicion.
Even for Lydia an independent business woman trading in the highly sought after expensive purple cloth and owning her own home, spending time with Jews and adopting this strange new religion they preached was a risk.
And for Paul this risk taken at God’s command would soon mean his arrest and imprisonment.
For not only did he preach of Christ’s healing sacrifice, but in the power of the Holy spirit, as Christ had done , he cast out a demon tormenting a young slave girl. To her benefit undoubtedly but not to the benefit of her owner who was making good money from the powers the tormented girl had for fortune telling. And so the incensed business man has Paul arrested for ruining his business. It puts me in mind of the fury of slave traders confronted by Christian abolitionists in the past and today of the rage of multinantionals forced to restructure unjust business practices frequently due to pressure from contemporary Christian activists.

We may be called on in many different ways to spread the Gospel, and manifest the love and justice of our faith. And like Paul we may not know what path that may lead us along. No doubt Paul is imprisoned for spreading an illegal and dangerous new religion.

Nevertheless extraordinary things come out of this imprisonment as we shall hear next week, and in the meantime a young woman is freed from torment and who knows what her life may have become as a result.
. and an older woman completely at the opposite end of the economic spectrum becomes immersed in her new life in Christ helping to found the strong and longlived church at Philippi so lovingly written to and encouraged by Paul as we know from his letters to the Philippians.

And Who knows the impact ultimately on the slave girl’s owner. Yes he has Paul and Silas imprisoned, but his life may yet be changed forever as a result of Paul’s actions. Would he later review the way he had made his money off another’s suffering and wonder about the way he lived? Would he follow what happens to Paul once in prison and be affected by that?
In all our God inspired interventions we cannot know what God will do as a result, we cannot know how lives may be transformed. We can only respond to the call.

We live in a world that is God’s broken creation, colonised by the importance of our selfish human desires at the expense of the weak, the defenceless, at the expense of living the abundant life God intended for us.
We do not live in a world of all joy and no pain, of all safety and no danger. As Christians we are to live in the world as it is, to listen for God’s call, to be guided by faith and in the power of the Holy spirit to work to restore the world in whichever way God blesses us to do so, with whatever gifts we have.
We will spend eternity in our Father’s kingdom but he made this world and made us to live in it as it is, once perfect and now broken: and in his strength we live to help return our world to that once perfect creation, to bring God’s kingdom to our world.

I’m sure many of us feel overwhelmed by our circumstances at times, by that sense of what next! But since we do not have that God perspective we can only trust as Simon Guillebaud suggests that
Safety is not the absence of danger but the presence of God….

And move around in our piece of the world with that encouragement, using the gifts we have, while being guided by God.

I was listening to a woman called Ingrid Bettancourt on the radio this week. She was kidnapped by Columbian Guerrillas and held captive in the jungle for 6 years, her children grew up without her and away from her, her husband ‘moved on’. Along with other prisoners not only did she have to contend with the many dangers of a vast Columbian jungle but also with the brutality of guards who were replaced every 6 months, never allowing for friendships to develop. After 5 failed attempts at escape she was chained by the neck night and day to a tree.
Eventually government forces staged a daring but successful rescue earlier this year and Ingrid was freed. Asked on the radio about her feelings towards her captors she paused a long while and then said, her main feeling was love. Love, because she knew God’s love was with her all through her ordeal and even now in the aftermath of it all, she felt in her heart that God put her in that Jungle for 6 years for a reason, that His love was to be shared and she is now waiting for his call to know what she is to do with that experience.

In the middle of terrible situations we may not know what’s coming next or how we can even get through the day, nevertheless our heavenly father is always with us, the torments of this world physical and spiritual were suffered by Jesus his son, and by yes Paul whose dangerous adventures in faith we are following and their faithfulness to God’s call has transformed the lives of millions as I’m sure Chalres Widsor’s faithful service has transformed many lives in Bolivia.

We none of us are immune from suffering, but there is also joy. The joy of Paul finally understanding where God wanted him to go next. The joy of Lydia coming to Christ through Paul’s preaching, welcoming Christ into her heart and Paul and the other Apostles in to her home, the joy of the slave girl released from the torment of her fortune telling, the joy of Ingrid Bettancourt released from the Jungle waiting for God’s call, even my joy in getting through a show with so many words, in God’s strength using the gifts he has given me to serve the play I am in and the people I work with.

In God’s strength alone do we carry on and therein lies our comfort and our joy. We all have terror moments in our lives, griefs, a painful work conversation, confronting a loved one’s behaviour, admitting something shameful, supporting someone or something when all around are opposed, witnessing our faith in a hostile environment. Where are you God we cry in distress.

When we open our hearts to God, who knows where he will lead us, Who knows what interventions we will be involved in that may change lives around us forever, may change our life’s journey.

Because we do not know and cannot predict what will happen, what can we hold onto in certainty? The presence of God at all times and in all circumstances in our lives. And what can we do with that certainty? Open our hearts to our knowing God.

Paul by being open to respond as directed by God brought results that he could not foresee. We have only human vision not our heavenly Father’s God vision.

May we open our hearts to God this morning following his call even though we don’t know what will happen next, allowing him to use us to transform his broken world, trusting in God’s vision to be our guide, Christ sacrificial love to be our inspiration and our comfort, and the power of the holy spirit to be our strength in the face of all spiritual opposition.

And one more thing I learnt this week, returning to the Phrygian bonnet, it has always been a symbol of liberty or freedom.
So may we be freed from our worries by leaving them in God’s care, freed to hear his call for our lives, freed to accept his Grace and live in his strength.
Safety is not the absence of danger but the presence of God.
Amen

Sermon 3rd October 2010

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches - based on the reading from Acts 16: verses 1-10.


Whilst on pilgrimage in Israel, Joe Bloggs decided to climb to the top of Mount Sinai. His fervent hope was to become like Moses, and get close enough to speak with God in person.

Once up at the summit, he found himself in a thick cloud of God's holy presence. With a trembling voice he asked: “Lord God, what does a million years mean to you?”

Instantly the Lord replied: “A minute.”

Emboldened, Joe Bloggs enquired: “And what does a million £ mean to you, Lord?”

And the Lord replied: “A penny.”

Then Joe Bloggs asked: “Lord, can I please have a penny?”

And the Lord replied: “Yes you can, my son – in a minute.”

OK, so in some ways it is another tenuous connection, because the action has been happening thick and fast here of late. After taking a mere 3 weeks for Paul's first missionary journey, today we're starting on his second. Not only did we zoom through the 2 years or so it took for that first journey. Since 2 weeks ago we've also jumped forward another 3 years in the story! In the process we've skipped over 1 of the key moments in the life of the Early Church – though I'll refer to that episode as we go along. But the connection to that story lies in the fact that today we are confronted by issues of how God's ways and timings can be so different from ours. And, as I said at the start of Paul's first journey, the reason Luke records incidents like this is for us to learn from them!

That's the issue which God most wants us to grapple with today, I'd suggest. How do we understand what and when and how He wants – and doesn't. But there's plenty more besides going on here in Acts chapter 16. So, if you have undone your seatbelt in the past month, fasten it back up! But let's then pick up the story with how the pace of real life did slow down after Paul's first journey. As we heard at the end of Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas went back to the church in Antioch that had originally sent them out. They told them their adventures; and then settled back into being part of normal church life again, for up to the next two years.

As I've said, this was a crucial time for the Early Church. The biggest issue they faced was how to be God's people now as a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. There isn't time to explore it in any depth - though it is important to note that this really isn't an issue for Christians today. What that tells us most of all is that the church sorted it out then; and we can read of how they did in Acts chapter 15. If you despair of Synods and Councils, here's one that did an amazing job under God's guidance! Of course it wasn't perfect, and there remained vital practicalities to be worked out – as we'll see later. But these church leaders grasped the nettle of their day; they met in Jerusalem to talk it all out; and they found real solutions.

And we really must note how those solutions did just what they were intended to. Chapter 16 verse 5 is another of Luke's famous summary passages, when he paused to reflect on where the church had reached at specific points in its life. Once the church leaders had found God's best way forward on the Jew-Gentile debate, the results were remarkable. Just as they had before the Jerusalem Council, all the churches were made stronger in faith and grew in numbers every day! And of course it's easy to think that this was Luke putting the most positive spin on what was really a tricky time for the church. But he didn't do that kind of thing – as we know!

Again, there's not time to look at the detail now; but Acts chapter 15 ends with an explosion, between Barnabas and Paul! There's no getting away from the unpleasant facts: both of them thought they were right; neither was willing to give any ground; there's not even a sense that they agreed to disagree. They couldn't go on together, so they went their separate ways. Barnabas took John Mark with him, which is what Paul had refused to allow. Luke didn't try to cover this up in any way, or even hint that all was later resolved between these 3. We know from Paul's letters that it was – but Luke even left us to work out for ourselves that God took this mess and made 2 missionary journeys out of it.

That in itself is gracious and wonderful – and holds important lessons for us to learn. Like that God can use even the worst messes we make; but that's no excuse for having ungodly arguments, or leaving them unresolved. However, as he continued the story of Acts, Luke left the mess and God's grace in it to speak for themselves. He focused on Paul's journey, knowing that a critical moment lay ahead. So, in chapter 15 verse 40 Paul set out with his new companion, Silas (also known as Sylvanus), from the Jerusalem church. What better way to present a united front on the church leaders' key decisions on Jews and Gentiles! That's what they then delivered to the churches that had Paul set up on his first journey.

If you've got the journey map, you can see how Paul went overland, leaving Cyprus to Barnabas. By the start of chapter 16 Paul had got as far as Lystra, where the issues became very topical! Paul wanted to take a young local believer with him on his missionary journey – but Timothy wasn't circumcised. “So what?”, we might ask. Christians don't have to be circumcised: that's a Jewish thing – and precisely what the Council had just dealt with. This was all quite complicated, though. Timothy was ethnically Jewish, because his mother was; it was his Greek father who was the 'problem'. If Paul was going to keep starting preaching about Jesus in synagogues, local Jews needed to accept his whole party. The only way they would do that was if Timothy was seen as fully Jewish. So Rabbi Paul had to do the relevant deed before they set out.

Off the party then went, with Timothy included, not least to deliver the message from the Council to local believers. As we've seen, the effect of that was that the church grew in faith, and numbers – daily! That wasn't any reason to relax, though: the message about Jesus was for all people everywhere. It became clear that this was God's time to move on to new places; but to exactly where was the big question for Paul and his companions! At first all they got was a series of Divine 'No's'! It didn't matter which direction they tried to go: south into Pamphylia? No; north into Galatia? No. As they kept going west across modern Turkey, they tried again, to turn north, or south. Each time it was 'No'; so on westwards they went.

Eventually the party ran out of land. They'd made it all the way to the port of Troas, as far west as you can go in Turkey. From there many destinations were possible – but the question still was 'where?'. Then at last God made the way forward clear, in a positive rather than a negative fashion. This may only be projection, of course; but I think that Paul and company could've been rather fed up by this stage. They had walked for weeks, maybe months, never being sure of exactly where God was leading them – until Troas. Given their prior experiences, I'd guess that some of the 'No's' came with a bump. But Luke didn't ever detail how God's Spirit (who's also know as the Spirit of Jesus) told them where he didn't want them to go. It's not until this dream/vision in Troas that we know clearly what God's plan was!

It's also in Troas that Luke joined the story in person. Note how the party became 'we' in verse 10 for the first time. So if he'd thought it important that his readers know how God says 'No', Luke could easily have written a fresh record of that down here. Oasis leader Steve Chalke once said that our problem is that we understand life backwards. The hard part of that equation comes from the fact that we have to live life forwards! So I wonder if there's an element here of Luke's emphasis being on the positive, the exciting way ahead. The uncertainties had been resolved; the frustrations were all over; the path was clear as day; God had spoken in a vision; they could move onward and upward confidently.

There is no doubt that this was a truly significant moment for the gospel. Here the good news about Jesus crossed over into mainland Europe, in modern Greece. It took root there, spread across the whole continent, and has shaped it (and us) for 2 000 years. What an amazing dream God gave Paul; what incredible things he did off the back of getting Paul to Troas by hook or by crook. It's quite right that Luke should want to move events on, with stories of how the gospel began to shake Europe just as it had the Middle East. And of course that is what we'll be looking at – and hopefully learning from – in the weeks ahead. Our aim is still for this same good news of Jesus to shape, and shake, our lives and this community.

But in my final thoughts today I want to go back, though – to what we might see as those dark days for Paul and his companions. This is something most of us experience – no matter how much we pray, ask God to show us his way, and listen as best we can for answers. All that becomes clear to us is that whatever route we're trying to go in faith isn't God's way. We often then have to press on again, in a different direction, still in faith; and we may not seem to do much better next time either. That's certainly 1 description of the PCC's experience of trying to discern God's future for St John's, for example. For years we have tried different ways forward in faith, and no doors have stayed open. We're trying again, though, in faith. There are various ways to read what's happening there now – and only time will tell which of those readings is right.

And that is exactly my concluding point. There are these times in our walk with God when we must 'just' press on in faith, only hearing God's 'No', and not knowing for sure which way to turn next. Yes, that can be hard, frustrating, painful even. But this story encourages us to keep on trusting that God truly does have a plan, and that, when He gets us there, it may well be amazing. It helps greatly to know too that God can use any messes we may make along the way. But most of all we can be sure that in His right time God really will speak His glorious 'Yes' – and then there will be no more doubt. So if today you have not got there yet, to hearing that glorious Divine 'Yes', keep on keeping on, knowing what is surely yet to come. And so let's pray ...