Blogging toward Sunday (Acts 16:9-15)
In this series, authors offer reflections on the Sunday lectionary texts.
Here is a narrative in which a vision leads to a new practical beginning. Paul was ready for a vision. He was seeking a way of ministry “out of no way.” That new way was given “in a vision,” a perception of reality outside the ordinary and beyond all conventionalism. This “chief apostle” is “on the loose,” unencumbered and ready for what is given by God—not a bad characterization of the church and its ministry when that ministry is not imprisoned in old thought categories or paralyzed by its traditions (or its property).
The vision led to proclamation of the news. This “pre-institutional” church was free for news that challenged all old patterns and that invited to new life. We are not told the substance of his preaching. But we know it from his preaching in Acts and in the Epistle, even given the critical tension between the two. The news is that in Jesus of Nazareth, the world has become open to God’s generosity; Paul’s listeners are invited to generosity based on God’s bottomless mercy. Paul did not need a vision to get “the message.” He needed a vision only to find a venue for his preaching.
