50th Day of Easter, Pentecost Sunday May 31: Acts 28:30-31

Paul lived in Rome 2 years, paying his own way, teaching boldly and without hindrance. Acts ignores his death. It concludes with the end of the other argument of Acts: telling truth, and doing good.

Acts doesn’t tell the story of Paul’s death. Does it imply ‘happily ever after’? Certainly not – everybody knew the tales of Paul’s martyrdom – beheaded, as befitted a Roman citizen, rather than crucified. But it was his life that mattered, not his death. Could the same be said of Jesus – or of us?

So ends the Acts of the Apostles. As with the parable of the Good Samaritan from the same Lucan tradition, the charge is implicit: go and do likewise. Pentecost marks the empowerment and equipping of the saints, the community, to go off in the power of the Holy Spirit, to tell truth, and do good. You next!