Tentmakers
Day 515, Thursday, Jan. 8
Acts 18:1-17
You may not have thought about it before, but Paul had a day job. We usually think of him spending his time teaching and preaching, but he a paid evangelist. Many of the people he met seem to have been generous in providing him with food and lodging as he traveled, but he also worked as a tentmaker.
We see in the opening verses of chapter 18 that when Paul went to Corinth he met a believing couple there, Aquila and Priscilla. They were also tentmakers, so Paul worked alongside them, both in their craft and in ministry. We will meet Aquila and Priscilla again.
In Corinth Paul follows his usual practice of starting his ministry in the synagogue. When the Jews there reject him, he changes course. “From now on I will go to the Gentiles,” he says.
This represents a further step beyond what we read about yesterday in Athens. Paul is increasingly seeing his ministry as directed toward the gentiles—people who are neither Jewish nor already inclined to worship the God of the Jews.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Thursday meditation

Psalms 58:1-11
Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies. Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.
Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; Lord, tear out the fangs of those lions! Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short. May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.
Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns—whether they be green or dry—the wicked will be swept away. The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked. Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

Prayer focus
Lord, give us eyes to see those beyond our own community who can be reached with your good news.