Iron & Altar

He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. - Acts 28:30b-31

Acts ends with Paul in chains, in a rented room in Rome, receiving all who came and preaching without hindrance. That is the whole of what the book needs to say at the end: the chains did not stop the proclamation. The man was a prisoner. The Gospel was not.

Complete assurance. Without hindrance. Those two phrases describe a posture - the interior posture of the man who has finished the course and is still running it, who is in Rome and still receiving, who is limited in every external way and unlimited in the things that actually matter.

Peter asks Jesus about the Beloved Disciple: what about him? Jesus redirects: what is that to you? Follow me. The man who follows has no claim on anyone else's path. He is not given the comparison or the rank. He is given the same instruction he was always given: follow me. That is the whole commission.

Tomorrow is Pentecost. The Spirit comes. The ordinary time begins. The long mission of preaching and receiving, with complete assurance and without hindrance, for the rest of the life.

What about him? The comparison is always there - the man whose path seems easier, whose outcome seems better, whose gifts seem larger. Jesus's answer is not about the other man. What is that to you? Follow me. This week, name the comparison you are making that is distracting from the following. Then release it. Your course is yours. Follow me.

Lord, let me receive all who come with complete assurance and without hindrance. Let the chains not stop the proclamation. And let the question about what happens to anyone else fall away. What is that to me? I am following you. Come, Holy Spirit. Alleluia. Amen.