After the years if tumult, volcanic, action and controversy Paul enjoyed a period of quite routine. The voices went silent, the passions subsided, Paul found himself in the position of a guru with pupils coming to him eager for tutorials. This was Rome. Paul’s journeyings had come to an end He had the opportunity to do what came naturally to him: make this new Way accessible to the Jews (if they would listen) and to the Gentiles (if not). The ship was in still waters. There was time to think, time to look back and time to consider the next step.
It is human nature to react when some new strategy or policy makes an appearance. Usually that reaction takes the form of opposition. Paul had encountered that from charlatans, business interests, and everyday puzzled citizens. Dispassionate inquiry was something new. To have such an opportunity must have been bliss. It was too good to last. We are not told by the New Testament writers what happened after the days of quiet.
Two years without anybody upsetting the apple-cart: it must have seemed unbelievable. Do we hear Spain mentioned? Paul had considered it as a possibility. The western Mediterranean beckoned, as did Armenia and maybe India. We come up against one of the impediments to guessing just as we do when we think of the oral period before the Gospels were written.
Those silent years must hjave been productive. To give an old campaigner a training role was to invest in an unknown future and at the same time to be ready for innovation. Some of Paul’s seasoned operators must have been itching to know what was coming. Might there be the appointment of district commissioners (in North Africa, say) or youth agencies (to gain a rising generation), or perhaps even travelling representatives to boost interest in Christo-Judaean relationships? The narrative of ‘Acts’ does not encourage us to think that the early Christian believers were more pioneering than Paul himself.
ADEL ADS.
Few parish magazines can claim to have the financial backbone of ‘Adel Bells’. The 60-page magazine has a robust income from ads. organised by Beryl Thompson. Editing the magazine is Marjorie Cole and leading the ministry team in this Leeds parish is Alison Battye.
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