Daily Devotion for Lent 2020 - Day 17

Scripture Reading: Acts 11:19-29 (NRSV)

We see the scattering of the devout that was first referenced in chapter 8. 

The Jewish diaspora that was ongoing prior to these events put pockets of Judaism on the map throughout the known world.  The early Christians meant to share their faith with those communities because they would be the natural recipients of a perspective that could be seen as essentially Jewish at the time.  Of course, some argued that it broke too far from Judaism and so there was persecution.

But even though the original recipients of the faith may have seen that sharing it to the ends of the earth meant for it to move among the Jewish populations already present, it begins to go beyond their expectations and understanding.

Persecution seems to do the opposite of the intended suppression.  It breaks out into the wider world and becomes unstoppable.

Here I'm enjoying a meal in Mexico outside of
a home we were building.  I was there to provide
bread and life for the community and found that
the woman who fixed this meal gave it to me instead! 

We see the faith travel to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch among the Jewish communities there.  Then in Antioch which is the third largest city in the Roman Empire, we see it jump to the Hellenists.  These were likely Greek-speaking Jews which shows some distance between them and their fellows who could still speak their native tongue.  One could see how this would quickly jump to other Greek-speaking non-Jews. 


Truth is truth, no matter the language or culture.  People will share truth.

As our routines are disrupted from the Coronavirus, we may have a variety of responses.  We might be afraid or irritated or annoyed.  We simply may be unsure about what will happen. 

What does the truth of the Christian witness say to those who are infected?  We see the early church respond to a famine that was worldwide to them (in their knowledge).  How do we make a difference even in our attitude toward one another in this time of crisis?

Prayer for the day:

God, we cannot love you unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other.  God, we know you in the breaking of the bread, and we know each other in the breaking of the bread, and we are not alone anymore.  We see that Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust where there is companionship.  Help us to live out this faith in Christ.  Amen.


Prayer adapted from the Postscript of The Long Loneliness, the Autobiography of Dorothy Day, (Harper and Row, 1963).