Monday, March 26, 2012

Act 18:18-26

Prisca or Priscilla

I wish I had something grander ready for my 200th blog post, but today all of my inspiration was (both unfortunately and thankfully) reserved for my MFA thesis.

And I'm running out of women of the Bible that I already have something to say about. Next two weeks should be interesting.

We don't know as many details about Prisca, but the story in Acts 18 is pretty cool.

PRISCA

It happened a lot in those days. There was so much confusion. People heard stories then went away with half-remembered tales of miracles and deaths and resurrections. I'm sure it sounded like fairy stories when it reached many ears. Perhaps even in its proper form it would sound like fairy stories to some.

Apollo was a different case than most. He was an old disciple of John the Baptist who hadn't gotten the message that the Son of Man for whom John cleared the way had already come - and gone. He took it better than he might have. He said only that he would have liked to have met this Jesus.

It was so easy, in those days, for fighting to break out. What was true, what was rumor, what was a true teaching, what was the meaning of a parable story. Aquila and I knew our job was to be the still, quiet voice keeping everyone from bedlam. Paul was the voice crying out in the marketplace, calling from rooftops, making trouble. That's what you need at the start, and when things have gone too far south.

But there's a place in between, where the building of the Church happens. That is where we worked. We took those who were well-meaning but misguided aside and told them the truth as we knew it. We spoke long and eloquently and privately, lest anyone feel threatened and challenged in their faith. There were enough things to besiege our faith in those days.

Apollos was another orator and debater, that was easy to see at once. He could scarcely listen, at first, for arguing, and, when he finally did, he sat perched, waiting for me to say something he could dispute, something he could use to unravel my argument. But I have been blessed to speak with the voice of the Spirit, and I think Him that Apollos never found the excuse he waited for - the excuse to dismiss me.

Such a man listened to me, and changed what he argued because of me. I often wondered at such things. I was not a crusader. I was not a prophet. I was not an apostle boldly proclaiming where the Word of God had not yet reached. I was the one who stepped quietly in when the Church was still new, to keep it from veering off track. I was the one who watched words so carefully and corrected so gently. I was the one who saw how important were the small moments after the great speech that first changed a heart. I guided the hands and the mind as they first began their work.