47th Day of Easter, Thursday May 28: Acts 27:1-44

Paul’s voyage to Rome is another ‘we’ section, written from the point of view of one who came along on the trip. It’s late in the season, and sailing around Crete invites trouble. Paul warns ‘them’, but the majority of ‘them’ decide to sail into the risks of stormy weather. This may be originally a true account of an actual sailing voyage, but it still works well as a metaphor, type and model. Often the majority chooses to take unnecessary risks, despite good counsel.

Carry on reading the tale of a storm at sea and a shipwreck with that same tension between description and implicit prescription. The same Paul who had warned of predictable preventable danger, now in the midst of actual danger becomes the Paul who comforts the crew that only their ship and stuff will be lost, not their lives. What do you fear, and what gives you courage: stuff or life?

In a crisis, in a shipwreck, would do you react? Paul encourages and feeds folks. The sailors try to abandon the ship and passengers. The soldiers plan to kill the prisoners rather than let them escape. It may be a true account – but these are truer lessons of people under pressure. In our economic and denominational shipwreck crises, who encourages and feeds, who bails out, and who plans killing?