Sermon For September 3, 2000
HEBREW TESTAMENT: The Voyage to Malta ~ Acts 27:27-38
It is good to have the ground under my feet again. I’m not a sailor I’m a soldier, Julius, centurion of the Emperor. I, Julius, have seen many things in my years as a soldier. I’ve sailed when I needed to, but I hope that it will be a long time before I sail again.
I’ve survived a most horrendous trip with a prisoner ship. Not just any prisoner ship, though. We had one aboard, a man named Paul. Again, I have met all kinds in my years as a solider, but this Paul, this follower of the group they called “The Way,” this Paul, he wins the prize. It’s Paul’s fault, after all, that I was even aboard the ship. You see, Paul had caused the anger of the Jews in Jerusalem. They were bickering back and forth about some of the finer points of their law, an argument that was none of our business at all, but people incited the crowds. You know how a crowd is. They begin to take on a personality of their own. A group of people losing control of their emotions, screaming out with a higher and higher pitch. So it was that I was on the streets, listening. They called out for Paul’s death, for a religious argument! They wanted him out of the way. It was very clear that if something was not done, that they would take him out and stone him on their own. So my men and I arrested him. For his own safety. He finally came to trial. It was then that we found out that he is a Roman citizen, a Roman citizen, in shackles. I was embarrassed. It is not the way we treat our citizens. He was brought up before the court. His accusers came and stood before us. They babbled on and on about these religious differences. How he was destroying the faith of their ancestor Moses. How he was going to bring about the downfall of their whole way of life. I have never heard such craziness at all. Paul was calm during all of this. He stood as a lawyer before the court, explaining his position very clearly. He said, “My friends, it is a matter of disagreement about resurrection.” He said that he was a Pharisee, one of the groups of scholars of the faith. The Pharisee’s were supporters of resurrection; the Sadducees would have no part of it.
When Paul spoke, he spoke with great clarity. His fellow Jews who listened grew angrier and angrier by the moment. The governor said, “It is very clear that this man has done no wrong, we have no reason to punish him.” We tried to send him back to Jerusalem so that he might be able to face more accusers there and resolve this issue, but Paul resisted. He said, “I am and Roman citizen, and I appeal to Caesar. Appeal to Caesar! Appeal to Caesar left us no choice! When a Roman citizen says that he wants to go to the highest court in the Empire, there he will go. If it were not for Paul’s appeal, he would have been a free man. As it was, I chose not the treat him as a convict any longer. I gave him a few days to visit with his friends before we prepared to leave. We set sail and eventually came to land in Myra, in the country of Turkey. We were there for a number of days before we signed on with an Alexandrian ship headed to the west. We set sail. The winds however were against us. We made very little progress. We were forced to turn and proceed up the downward side of the Isle of Crete. Then, the winds began to brew up from the northeast, and there was nothing we could do but turn and run with the wind. We reached a place called Fair Haven. Paul encouraged us to stay there, but I did not listen to him. A Jewish Lawyer, what did he know about the sea? The captain said that there was no way we could stay there for the winter. We decided that we would try to get to Phoenix where they had a safe harbor. We knew that we would be able to make it through the winter, if we could just make it to Phoenix.
The winds continued to blow against us. Finally, we had to reef down the sail and then drop the main sail all together, so that we would just bounce with the wind and not be driven farther off course. I was sure that none of us would never live to see another day. None of us live to set foot upon land again. It was then that Paul came up and said that he had had a dream, a vision, a visit from an angel. What the angel had told him, was that we would lose the ship and the supplies, but that every person aboard would be saved. It was only a day or two after that that we thought we were going to lose the boats that we carry along with us. The sailors secured them tighter, then passed a rope down under the ship, so that we might hold it together in the rough seas. Later that day, some of the sailor snuck off to the side intending to go into the small boats and head for land. It was then that Paul stood up and spoke, and this time I listened to him because we had no options. He said, “If you allow these men to leave they will jeopardize the lives of all of us. So without hesitation, I gave the order and the soldiers cut the ropes, dropping the small boats into the sea. We would live or die together.
When morning finally came, we could see the faint outlines of land. The ship began to break up and I gave the order that those who could swim should head for shore. All the rest should find a board, a barrel to hold onto, so that they too might make it to the shore. The storms came, even the sailors among us feared for their lives. The swimmers began to make their way to the shore. We could hear the hull hit the rocks, hear the creaks and crashes as the boat began to break apart. I don’t know how long it was, when I found myself on the shore, wet and covered in sand. Some of the people of the island already had fires going. They began to gather all the survivors. Two days later when I was able to make count, everyone had made it to the shore, just as Paul had said. It was a miracle, but it was not the first miracle. Stories began to spread about this man Paul. Some said that when he reached to put a piece of wood on the fire, that a snake had come out from the warmth and had attached itself to his hand. People of the island who knew that it was a prisoner’s ship said, “This man must have done something very wrong, because even though he had survived the ship wreck, this snake will kill him most certainly.” The story said that Paul shook the snake off into the fire and went on with his work, showing no affect at all. A day later Publius, the magistrate of the island invited some of us to come and stay at his house. He brought this man, Paul up, also, to the house. Now the father of Publius was very sick, almost near death. Paul went in and prayed with him, spoke to him, placed his had on his fevered brow, and within hours this man, who was almost dead, began to improve. As a couple of days went by, he was restored to health. Never, never have I seen anything like this in all of my life.
Now it is Spring, and soon we shall set sail again for Rome. He will have his hearing with the Emperor. We will see what is to become of this man Paul.