36th Day of Easter, Sunday May 17: Acts 20:1-16

Welcome to the ‘we section’ of Acts. Did you notice that the story is now being told as if by somebody who was there? A list of companions were waiting ‘for us’ in Troas, but ‘we’ sailed from Philippi, to join them there. Does this mean that we have a firsthand original source woven into our edited version of Acts? Who was the ‘I’ who is able to say ‘we’? Some folks say it was Timothy – others say if was Luke. God knows, and hasn’t told me!

The story of Eutychus reinforces the sense of an eyewitness account. Paul was speaking past midnight, and a young man sitting in an upper window falls asleep and falls 3 floors to his death. Paul brings him back to life. Ever since, we’ve made sure that people hearing sermons don’t have far to fall if they fall asleep. Similarly, the itinerary of the sailing route from Troas to Assos to Mitylene to Chios, Samos, and Meletus reinforces the authority of a person who was there.

The last sentence today, however, shifts from authoritative recital of eyewitness experience to a hearsay speculation of Paul’s intention or state of mind. Why does Paul sail past Ephesus and Asia? He’s in a hurry to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem! Do you drive up Bathurst past the Chabad sign north of the tracks and south of Clark? They are counting down the days of Ha-omer after Passover, the 50 days of manna in Exodus, on the way to their Pentecost, the roots of ours.