Aquila and Priscilla: Gifted for Mission

(Week 6 of “Becoming . . .”)

Psalm 91:9-16

Acts 18:1-4, 18-28

 We’re talking this Fall about the ways all of us are gifted by God’s Spirit with strengths, capacities, interests, and skill sets.  This range of powers to lead and serve, to bless and heal, to provide and protect, to create and solve problems – these are not given to us to stockpile or store away.  These gifts are poured out upon us for one reason only – so that we can each make a contribution to the ongoing work of the living Christ in the world.

 

So we’ve been focused on the last line of our mission statement: “becoming the people God has called us to be.”  And the only way to become the person God has called you to be is to learn to recognize the ways you’ve been gifted, and then to find ways to use those strengths to bless others. 

If you feel a little lost, or unsure of yourself, it probably means that you’ve never quite been able to identify your range of strengths.  If you feel bored or lethargic, it’s probably because you aren’t living from your strengths.  Likewise, if you always feel stressed and overwhelmed, it probably means that the lion’s share of your energy is flowing in directions where you’re not particularly gifted.  And finally, if you’re feeling blocked, or left out, or underappreciated, it might be because you have gifts and strengths that you’re not using.

None of us are gifted by the Spirit in quite the same way.  But all of us are gifted with talents, strengths, abilities, interests, and capacities.  If you belong to Jesus Christ and his people, then you are already part of a missionary people, with a range of powers that are your unique way of serving and blessing others.

The couple from our reading today – Priscilla and Aquila – offer a wonderful picture of people who are becoming the people God has called them to be.  And their life stories provide help and instruction for people like us.  I think there are a couple of things we can learn from Priscilla and Aquila: First, we learn to value the storms we’ve weathered.  And second, we learn to see ourselves as participants in Christ’s ongoing mission.

So let’s talk first about the connection between the ways you’re gifted and the storms you’ve weathered.

So we know a few things about Priscilla and Aquila.  They were Jews.  They were married.  Aquila grew up in the region of Pontus, north of the Eastern edge of the Mediterranean (think NE corner of modern Turkey).  We don’t know where Priscilla grew up.  Maybe in Rome.  We don’t know where they met.  But they made their lives together in Rome.

They were skilled trades people and business owners.  They tanned animal hides for a variety of uses, including covering for tents.  They were leather-workers or tent-makers.  This would have been smelly work – working with animal hides and the chemical processes to treat them for durability and various uses.  It wasn’t glamorous work.  Some frowned on it because it involved manual labor.  It probably wasn’t on the top of the list of careers for young people.  But it was a useful and necessary trade.  They played an important part in their economy.  They made things people needed.  And they were apparently good at it.  They earned their living by solving a practical problem and providing a useful service.

We know that they were exiles and refugees.  They were Jews living in Rome in the middle decades of the first century.  All throughout the Roman Empire, Jewish synagogues were places of conflict.  Some Jews were convinced that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, believed the word that he was crucified and raised, and joined a movement of his followers called “The Way.”  But other Jews remained convinced that he was just one more pretender and imposter, and they saw Jewish followers of Jesus as a dangerous splinter group.  This conflict between Jews who followed the way of Jesus and those who didn’t became so heated in Rome that Emperor Claudius, in 49 CE ordered the leaders of the Jesus following Jesus out of Rome.  That group included Priscilla and Aquila.

Forced out of Rome, they packed their belongings, and along with their extended family and the employees of their business, they moved East to the city of Corinth in the region of Achaia or Greece.  And there among the people of the Way in Corinth, they met the traveling missionary Paul.  For a year and a half they developed a close relationship with Paul.  Paul was by training a leather worker and tent maker, and so it made sense that he would work for them.  But for a year and a half they learned from Paul more about the good news about Jesus.  And at the end of that time, when Paul left for Syria, he took Priscilla and Aquila – and their household and business – with him, and left them in Ephesus.  And they played an important role among the followers of Jesus at Ephesus.

So what might we learn from Priscilla and Aquila?  We learn something about the connections between our life experience and the ways we’re gifted by God.  Your relationships, your work, and your life experiences are some of the primary ways you’re gifted. 

Often we discount our life experience as a series of painful detours and distractions.  But what if your particular experiences are what make your life particularly valuable?  What if all that you’ve been through has the benefit of connecting you to others in life-giving ways?  As I look at my own path, I can now see how my weaknesses and brokenness make me more useful and available to others.  Don’t get me wrong.  I hate pain like everyone else.  But I also know that my failures, setbacks, and disappointments have slowed me down and connected me to other people in a way that never would have happened if everything in my life went perfectly.

God uses people who remain open and flexible.  I would imagine this couple saw themselves operating their business and living out the rest of their lives in Rome.  That was home for them.  But life didn’t go as planned.  They were forced to flee Rome.  They had no choice but to reorient their plans and imagine a different kind of future.  They made the best of a new chapter in life.  They took up with Paul’s project, became partners, using their trade and business skills to be a blessing to the congregation in Ephesus.  They formed new friendships and deepened their commitment as followers of Jesus.

Many of you have moved already.  And you survived.  Many of you will move from here at some point.  And you will survive.  Moving to a different place is a large scale disruption.  Our family has done it several times.  It requires a complex and painful leaving of ties and relationships.  And a risky and time-demanding immersion in a new place and new relationships.  All that was once familiar and easy becomes a struggle and a challenge.  But often life is outside our control.  You might need to move – for family reasons, for education, for work.  And if you do, it will be a chance to deepen yourself and your commitment to Christ’s mission wherever you find yourself.  Your primary loyalty is to the living Christ and his ongoing ministry of healing and blessing and loving the world.  You just happen to live here and be a part of this particular congregation.

This couple, their life experience, and the way they were present amongst fellow members of the Way – all of this calls to mind the way copper achieves patina over time.  When our new copper gutters and downspouts were affixed, they were shiny orange (and sort of ugly!).  But someone pointed out this week that they have already begun to patina in places.  They are already transforming towards that mottled, mossy, beautiful green of patina.

When I think of this couple I think of others in congregations where I’ve served.  People who brought their life experience into the community in wise ways.   I think of the Antonuccis in Connecticut.   Jay and Anna were raising three wonderful but challenging girls through adolescence.  And in them we saw an honesty and transparency about raising children within the life of the church.  Jay was a straight-talking, no-nonsense manager of the service department at a large car dealership.  He drank 10 large Dunkin’ Donuts coffees a day (just to give you a sense of his energy levels).  And every Sunday morning he brought our young, hard-to-handle Henry a new matchbox car.  He did it because he enjoyed it.  But he also did it because I was always up front, and it gave Stephanie a break from wrestling with him during worship.

I think of Susan, who joined our congregation in New York City at a difficult period in her life.  She had lost her mother, ended a career in marketing, and had been disappointed by a congregation and was struggling with anger at God.  She became a wise and loving parent to many in our congregation who were younger.  A woman proud of her Scottish heritage, she walked her Scottish terrier - outfitted in a tartan plaid doggie kilt – each year in the Scottish Heritage Parade.  And she would invite Oliver to walk with her in the parade.

Priscilla and Aquila were wise people, with a deep and understanding faith, and they took responsibility for the shape of others’ lives.  They were the adults in the room.

Now let’s shift gears and talk a little about how we can learn to see ourselves as part of Christ’s mission in the world.  In fact, all the ways we’ve been gifted are ways of equipping us to play our own roles in God’s mission to make the good news of Jesus Christ visible in the world.

In times of great change, we need solid, mature, stable people who can direct traffic and keep us grounded and focused.  Acts 18 is a time of profound change and significant unknowns.  All is in flux, and there is much work to be done, the outcome not at all sure.  That’s a decent description of where we find ourselves now as God’s people living and working together as a congregation.  We are trying to figure out how to be faithful in a changing culture.  We’re trying to figure out what it looks like to follow Jesus and love others in the 21^st century.  We’re trying to figure out how to be salt and light as Presbyterians in a context where denominational labels don’t matter like they once did.  These are exciting, challenging times to reflect on our strategy and mission and calling.  And we’ll have to rely on our Priscillas and Aquilas if we want to flourish.

Priscilla and Aquila saw themselves as missionaries.  They were part of a mission project.  They were ambassadors and networkers for the cause of Christ.  They made of their lives an open embrace of helping promote the Way of Jesus.  When they left Rome they moved to Corinth.  When they left Corinth with Paul they moved to Ephesus.  And it was there that they met Apollo, the eloquent, persuasive and passionate preacher, a Jew from Alexandria who had become a follower of the Way.  Apollo was like a lot of our young people here – talented, passionate, full of potential, but lacking seasoning and experience, not quite sure how to live the fullness of the good news.  And by spending time with experienced, older Christians who had weathered the storms of life, Apollos blossomed as an important piece in the growth and expansion of the early church. 

We’re all missionaries.  This life of mission work might seem exaggerated or excessive.  You might feel like you’re not equipped.  But you have joined a movement of people known as the Way.  Everyone is part of the movement.  Everyone participates in the mission.  There’s much responsibility.  But there’s also power and joy.  So bring your life experiences, your ups and downs.  Bring your work life and your travels.  Bring your relationships, your marriage or singleness, your extended family and your friendships.  Bring it all – bring all of yourself as an offering to God.  And let God bless others through all the gifts you have been given.