Bible studies- Tuesday
This year's Assembly Bible Studies are led by the Revd Dr
Israel Selvanayagam, Principal of the United College of
the Ascension. They appear daily in Hotline on the day they are given to
Assembly. Choose the study you would like to read from the menu below:
[ Sunday ] [ Monday ] [ Tuesday ]
Tuesday
An Alien Community of Hospitality
Once we had made our way to safety, we identified the island as Malta.
The natives treated us with uncommon kindness: because it had started to
rain and was cold they lit a bonfire and made us all welcome...They honoured
us with many marks of respect, and when we were leaving they put on board
the supplies we needed (Acts 28:1-2, 10)
Background
This is following the traumatic experience of passengers of a shipwreck,
including Paul and his companions, who found unexpected safety. Unlike
Jonah, Paul established a good rapport with the authorities and inter-faith
co-passengers in their trouble. That continued when they landed in Malta (=
refuge), an island situated south of Sicily in the centre of the
Mediterranean. The islanders were ‘natives’ who did not speak Greek but
probably a form of Phoenician. However, their kindness of welcoming those
who were stranded while journeying went beyond all the communicative
capabilities through words. Paul’s experience with a snake perplexed the
islanders. Their perceptions of him shifted from a ‘murderer’ to a god.
Highlights
Mission life is a journey which is very often uncharted. To face new
situations, we need faith in a God who is the Lord of history and geography.
There is no time when God is not, no place where God is absent.
God has no favourites in the face of tragedies and accidents. However, in
the midst of them there are new possibilities to understand new dimensions
of life and new opportunities to be witnesses. Jeremiah’s pastoral advice to
the Jewish exiles in Babylon is worth following (Jer. 29:4-9). We need to
give solidarity with our neighbours, particularly in their suffering.
It is unchristian to exploit situation of crisis or extraordinary
openness to impose our faith or ideas. Paul, who was committed to preach the
gospel ‘in season and out of season’, did not show any interest to preach
the gospel using the new situation in Malta. Interestingly, Paul’s usual
pattern of sending his companions to the places he visited to establish
churches, was not evident in the case of Malta.
To get acquainted with a new situation, in order to take initiatives, it
is necessary to have inner liberation breaking all the complex chains. If we
are truly liberated, we can easily establish rapport and communicate beyond
the limitations of culture and language.
Loving the strangers, a repeated commandment in the Hebrew scripture, is
not the monopoly of the ‘people of God’ and we can readily learn this from
people of other faiths and cultures. In a multi racial society the
Christian’s ability to make the strangers feel welcome stands out as one of
the greatest forms of witness to the gospel.
The hospitality of God has no bounds. Hospitality and kindness is the
best expression of godliness. We need to appreciate this wherever it is
found. We might learn from Hindus and Sikhs, for example, simple and
spontaneous ways of providing hospitality to outsiders.
Where there is no interest for hearing the gospel, out of a common
religious bond, still, if there is a request to pray for someone we should
do it, as Paul did happily when he was asked to pray the island chieftain’s
father who was suffering from recurrent bouts of fever and dysentery. Paul
‘visited him and, after prayer, laid his hands on him and healed him;
whereupon the other sick people on the island came and were cured’ (28:8-9).
Healing can take place without religious strings attached.
There are many marks of respect for strangers and stranded ones. A natural smile
flowing out of a loving heart may be most fundamental, without much cost! It may
not be always a one-off event unconnected with sensitive action. The islanders
of Malta were so imaginative as to provide supplies for the ongoing journey of
their strange guests. Not only by graciously giving, but also by gratefully
receiving, we can reflect the love of God. They challenge the popular notion
that people living in islands are closed, introverted and insular. It is often
the frozen hearts and cold relationship which need melting and warming.
Israel Selvanaygam |
