Thursday, October 18, 2012

Encouragement At Last

Acts 27:27-44
When my father was a child he found himself losing badly at a board game until, with the roll of the dice, his circumstances improved somewhat. According to the family legend that has been handed down ever since, my father looked up with triumph and said, “Encouragement at last!” Of course, that has become one of the family catchphrases. According to Acts, the ship that carried Paul and two-hundred seventy-five others on a journey toward Rome was rocked by storms for two weeks. It was on that fourteenth day that Paul urged the others to eat, assuring them that they would survive the ordeal. “After he had said this,” we read, “he took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all of them were encouraged and took food for themselves” (Acts 27:35-36). In other words, “encouragement at last!”

Part of the power this story coveys comes from the way in which Paul’s actions point back to Jesus and the last supper. Like those on the ship Jesus, too, was facing a life-threatening storm. But in the face of fear and doubt Jesus took bread and broke it and offered it to his disciples as a sign of hope. Now Paul was, in a similar way, offering hope to those with whom he traveled.

Approaching the Lord’s table during communion is, to me, like standing on a boat in the midst of a raging sea. I know that problems surround all who gather there; I know that the world is full of fear-inducing situations, that it is easy to feel lost and out of our depth. But I also know that the meal we share at the table is a true source of hope and comfort. We need not fear what the world can or will do. We need only trust that God will guide us through the storms. Maybe it is in this act of defiance, this utter trust in God regardless of what the world says, that the church makes its most daring and hope-inducing claims. Encouragement at last.


Prayer: Lord, give you people the strength to live with hope and faith, even as the storms press in upon us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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