“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 11: Priscilla and Aquila
October 1, 2023 — Ordinary Time
Acts 18:1-4, 18-21, 24-28
Pastor Mike
Paul first met Priscilla and Aquila in the city of Corinth, in Greece. He had come to Corinth with the intention of planting a church there and inviting people, both Jews and Gentiles, to follow Christ. No matter where Paul went in the Mediterranean world, his work as an apostle got him into trouble. He even catalogued his sufferings at one point in 2 Corinthians (16:11-29): frequent imprisonment, lashings, beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, sleeplessness, hunger – you name it! So when by some miracle Paul was able to make friends, they often became true companions and co-workers, and this is exactly what happened with Priscilla and Aquila. Their bond with Paul was immediate and lasting.
The couple had come to Corinth sometime before Paul. They had left Rome because of the government’s hostility toward Jews (Aquila was a Jew). They shared a religious background and framework with Paul, as well as a kind of outsider or newcomer status. But what really brought them together was their shared trade. Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila were all tentmakers – leatherworkers – and so for eighteen months, as they shared the gospel and built up a Christian congregation in Corinth, they also worked together on the side to make ends meet.
Eighteen months of close-quarters life, work, and ministry must have been rich and dense, because when Paul sensed that it was time for him to move on from Corinth and preach in another place, and set sail for Ephesus, Priscill and Aquila uprooted themselves again and went with him. Paul didn’t stay in Ephesus for long. He sailed on from there. But he left the tentmaking couple behind to carry on the work of establishing a Church. He trusted them to be faithful to the Way, which they were. They gathered a congregation into their own home.
The importance of Priscilla and Aquila in the early days of Christianity, as well as Paul’s personal affection for them, are made clear in some of Paul’s later letters like 1 Corinthians, 2 Timothy, and Romans where he specifically sends them greetings and thanks them for their ministry. His greeting in Romans is especially poignant. Paul writes, “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life… greet also the church at their house (16:3-4). It seems somewhere along the line Priscilla and Aquila even saved Paul’s life. I wish we knew the story behind it.
After Paul left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus, a young man named Apollos arrived in the city. Scripture describes him in glowing terms: “He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord, and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus” (Acts 18:24-25). Here was a talented preacher and teacher, full of promise – an enormous potential asset to the Christian community.
With Paul no longer in Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila were the leaders of the congregation, and they immediately recognized Apollos’ gifts. They also realized that Apollos, traveling alone, was a bit of a lone wolf, without mentorship or accountability or support. He had lots of raw talent and a good education, but his experience was limited. He hadn’t ever met Paul or the other Apostles from Jerusalem, and there were some gaps in his understanding of the Way, particularly concerning the Holy Spirit. So Priscilla and Aquila decide to help him, and their actions are the key to understanding not only their unique gifting but this whole sermon series, too.
When Priscilla and Aquila heard him [speak] they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.
Linger with that threefold movement and etch it in your memory: They heard, they took aside, they explained. They took the time to really experience him; they got involved in his life gently, not in a way that diminished him to others; and they showed him the Way.
Apollos was already speaking ‘accurately, but Priscilla and Aquila explained things to him more accurately. There’s wordplay there in the Greek, from akribos to akribesteron. Priscilla and Aquila recognized the gits, recognized the gaps – and knew that they had a finite window to take this young preacher aside and be a positive influence over his life and ministry. At the moment when Apollos was flexing his gifts and exploring his calling with others for the first time, God blessed him with this couple, who had been in the ministry longer, who had spent time with Paul, and who happily came alongside him to help him hone what he had to offer.
After some time, Apollos felt called to move on to another place and preach. He became, like Paul, a traveling missionary and teacher. The Christians in Ephesus, led by Priscilla and Aquila, encouraged him before he left, and they sent a letter of endorsement with him, commending him to disciples elsewhere. It was an ancient form of a letter of recommendation, calling upon others to take seriously the gifts and potential fruitfulness of this person.
Apollos sailed to Corinth, to the city where Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila first met, and he “greatly helped” the congregation there. He became so important to the Corinthian Christians that by the time Paul wrote his first letter to them, Paul had to scold them for dividing themselves according to which human apostle they liked best – Peter, Apollos, or himself.
Apollos was a rising star who kept on rising. Some scholars think he’s even the author of the New Testament book called Hebrews. There is a dimension to every calling that is interior and private. It seems Apollos already had an intuitive sense of his purpose. But callings make themselves known to others, and either someone will eventually come to you and say, I’ve noticed that you are really gifted in this – let me show you the Way, or we will go that person and say, I feel called, and I’m ready to step out and use my gifts but I’m afraid – will you show me the Way?
The point is that no matter what our gifts are and no matter how much formal education we might have, our journey is incomplete without the assistance of others, without the community who affirms and challenges what we believe about ourselves and sends us on with their blessing. We can only go so far on our own resources and understanding. We all need people who are more experienced in the Way to take us aside at critical stages of our development and refine our understanding.
Christian community happens when we trust one another to do this.
Christian community happens when we trust one another to do this.
What would happen if every time you came into this room, you trusted that the people around you were going to do their best to really see you, to see you as God sees you? What would happen if you could count on them to take you aside when the time was right and help you take your next step? What would happen if you knew you could go to them without embarrassment or shame?
And what would happen in you, through you, if every time you came into this room, you believed that others were trusting you to see them, to really seem them as God sees them? What would you do if you believed others had entrusted you with taking them aside to speak truth into their life?
Christian community must be richly layered and interconnected along generational lines and experiential lines. We can all take aside and be taken aside. We can all mentor and be mentored. We can all direct and take direction. We can all teach and be taught. The question is whether or not we trust one another enough to allow this culture of call to manifest here.
Are you willing to be taken aside and shown the Way?
Are you willing to ask for help when you need it?
Are you willing to respond to another person’s request for help?
Are you willing to stay vigilant as you watch for the gifts and callings of others to emerge?
Are you willing, and do you trust?
Those are the questions that will make or break the vitality of a congregation.
If you are like Ananias of Damascus, and God has challenged you to participate in the redemption of your enemies, may there be someone in your life who will take you aside and show you the Way.
If you are like Shiphrah and Puah, practicing disobedience and deceit in order to protect the lives of those under your care, may you know when the time has come to ask for help.
If you are like Jethro, offering counsel to future leaders; or like Rahab, living in the wall and using God’s people to get what you need; or Ja’el, putting sin to death; or Bezalel and Oholiab, witnessing to God through your creativity and craftsmanship – you will not come into the fullness of your purpose alone.
If you are like Eli, or the Centurion, or Lydia, Mary Magdalene, or Joseph of Arimathea – no matter who you are, for God’s community is a rich tapestry, spanning time and space and cultures – may there be people in your life who come to truly know you, who take you aside, and who show you the Way, and then may you return the blessing to someone else.
Let us end this series on call with the famous words from the book of Hebrews – and if these are indeed the words of Apollos, we can thank Priscilla and Aquila revealing the truth of our interdependence to him:
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 1:1-2a).
Amen.