Two things I want us to keep in front of us as we consider the story of God in Corinth today.  Note that I didn’t say the story of Paul in Corinth.  To follow Jesus is to be(come) a part of God’s story.

The first thing is to note how the hand of God is at work.  Sometimes this is in retrospect.  Priscilla and Aquila are expelled from Rome.  In Corinth, Paul meets them and finds that they share a common trade.  They end up living, working and serving together.  Gallio acquits Paul of any wrongdoing not so much because he has a heart for justice, but because he’s indifferent to the whole dispute.  Paul is enabled to continue telling about the good news of Jesus.  It just so happened, we may say.  We may also say God’s hand is in this.  We’ve been talking about being called to Jesus and being called to a/this community of faith.  Think of all the things that had to happen to bring us together as those called to this community of faith! The second thing I want us to keep in front of us this morning is the promise made to Paul by God – “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you…”  God is with us, dear church family. In the midst of the unknown, uncertainties in our personal lives or in our life together.  God’s hand is at work, and God is with us.

May we hold onto this as good news today (and every day).  Following Jesus can be hard, you know.  We’ve been talking about context.  Context matters.  It can be challenging to be called to love and serve God in a large city.  A city that is thought of as a big deal.  A capital.  A city that is a centre of commerce.  A multicultural city that attracts people from all over who hold all kinds of different beliefs.  A vibrant, busy place in which sports are loved, and people who can speak and present themselves well and express themselves well are well thought of.

A place a lot like the city in which we live.  Corinth is where Paul finds himself in chapter 18 of the book of Acts.  Paul’s Greek tour continues.  After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.  We said last week that Athens was not the big deal city we might think of as we’re familiar with it in our time.  There were still things going on in Athens as we said –     educationally and philosophically especially – but the big town was Corinth.  It was the capital of the region.  It was located on the Isthmus of Corinth; along a trade route that linked the Aegean Sea with the Adriatic.  This meant ships did not have to go all the way south around the Peloponnese Peninsula.  They devised a method to drag ships overland.  Today there’s a canal that serves the same purpose.  People from all over were there.  There was a sizeable Jewish population.  From our story we see that it was a place for refugees.  Every two years, the Isthmian Games were held – second in importance to the Olympic Games themselves.

This is where Paul is called to serve God.  Throughout our time in Acts we’ve been constantly reminded that serving God is not something we’re called to do on our own.  Remember that Paul had left Silas and Timothy behind in Berea, and he’d been on his own since.  Coming to Corinth, Paul finds a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla.  They had been ordered to leave Rome by the emperor Claudius.  So we have the introduction of this wonderful couple.  Forced to leave their home in Rome by the emperor.  How many of us have been displaced voluntarily or involuntarily (or are children or grandchildren of displacement?)  They become two great friends of Paul.  Famous in early church history and known to many.  If they were around today, they probably would be known as Priquila, yes?  They would move on to Ephesus and eventually back to Rome.  The couple whom Paul would describe in his letter to Rome as risking their necks for his life (Rom 16:3-4), and for whom not only Paul gave thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles gave thanks. The couple with whom he shares a trade.  Tentmaking.  Not just like camping tents but workers in leather.  They take Paul in.  Once again we see the importance to the work of Jesus in welcoming one another in.  Jason entertained them as guests in Thessalonica.  Lydia urges Paul and Silas to come and stay at her home.  The jailer in Philippi took Paul and Silas to his home and cared for them and washed their wounds.

Because we do this together.

So they lived together, and they worked together.  Every sabbath (his day off), Paul would go to the synagogue and tell them about the Messiah.  Paul is bi-vocational.  Silas and Timothy arrive from   Macedonia, and I’m sure that was a happy reunion.  Perhaps they brought a monetary gift from Macedonia, because we read at this point that Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word – presumably full-time – telling that the Messiah was Jesus.

He is opposed and reviled.  The message of Jesus is going to be received in different ways, as we have seen.  Let us measure ourselves by our faithfulness in speaking the message and living the message.  Paul has done his part.  He shakes the dust off his clothes and tells them that he is innocent of their blood.  Paul has done his proclaiming job.  The rest is out of his hands (and may we be coming ever more to know what is up to us and what is up to God).  “From now on I will go to the Gentiles,” Paul says.  It doesn’t mean he’ll never go near a synagogue again.  It will continue to be Paul’s practice in a new city to seek out the synagogue.  For right now in Corinth, though, he’s going to go not far away actually.  A house across the street owned by a man named Titius Justus. Paul sets up a church there.  Then Luke tells us – “Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians  who heard Paul became believers and were baptized.” (18:8)

There are encouraging things happening, sure, and Luke might not want to be making too many presumptions about Paul’s general state of mind here.  I want us to look, though, at how Paul himself describes his coming to Corinth: “And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” (1 Cor 2:3) How might he be received in this city?  How might things go in this city?    Look at some of the things that Paul has gone through before he’s arrived at this point.  Having to escape Damascus by being lowered over the wall in a basket.  He’s been stoned and left for dead outside Lystra.  He’s been beaten and jailed with Silas in Philippi.  He’s incited riots in Berea.  He’s been scoffed at in Athens.

There have been things that have encouraged him, too.  Remember Dionysus, Demaris, and the others in Athens. 

Isn’t this much like our lives?  A commonality in the human experience is suffering and loss.  We’ll be talking more about this as we get to the last section of Acts.  Paul will be arrested in Jerusalem and spend the rest of the story under arrest.  Paul will hear from the Holy Spirit that the road ahead of him is marked with imprisonment and persecution.

Of course, we meet encouragement, joy, and good times too.  These are our lives, and we do well to recognize it and celebrate it too.

Into the middle of this comes a word from God.  One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision – “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.”

I am with you.  God with us.  God in us.  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  This is the essence of what we’re doing here.  These prepositions – with, in.  Someone has said that Christianity is at heart not propositional but prepositional.  We’re not simply dealing with a set of propositions.  We proclaim God who created us to be with him.  To follow Christ is to place our lives in the middle of the story of how God chose to be with us in the person of his son.  Of how God is with us in the person of the Holy Spirit and how one day we will be with God in a whole new way when a voice is heard saying “Look, the home of God is among mortals!”

God with us.  Paul is reminded of this promise.

We need to be reminded, do we not?  We may not have a vision like Paul did, but we can hear God’s voice in God’s word.  How do we rest in the promise of God’s presence with us?  We’re going to take some time this morning to stop.  To hear the words of God.  To sit with them.

Words like this:

Genesis 28:15 – Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

Genesis 48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your ancestors.”

Joshua 1:9 I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

1 Chronicles 17:2 Nathan said to David, “Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.”

Isaiah 43:5a Do not fear, for I am with you…

Jeremiah 1:8 Do not be afraid of them.  For I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

Luke 1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one!  The Lord is with you.”

Matthew 28:20b And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Acts 18:10 … for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.

That’s the other thing going on here, of course. Not only is God with us, but there are many of us here in this city who are God’s people; proclaiming that love is stronger than fear, joy is deeper than sorrow, unity is more real than division, and life is stronger than death. (quote from H Nouwen pg 13)

As this scene closes, Paul is brought before the city tribunal, accused of breaking the law in his worship of God.  Paul doesn’t even have to speak here.  Gallio, the Roman proconsul, decrees the dispute to be a matter of “words and names in your own law,” and Paul and his fellow Christians remain free to worship together.  This ruling came about more from Gallio’s indifference than sense of justice (note that he does nothing when Sosthenes the synagogue leader is beaten by the crowd).  God is working through people from Priscilla and Aquila to Gallio, and Paul ends up staying in Corinth for a year and a half.

May we continue to hold on to God’s words to Paul – “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, for I am with you…

Let us pray a prayer of Teresa of Avila to close:

Let nothing disturb you

Let nothing frighten you.

Those who cling to God

will lack nothing.

Let nothing disturb you

Let nothing frighten you, God alone is enough

Amen