Please read this passage before reading this homily.
Paul and Barnabas continue their missionary journey. In Friday’s reading they had left Pisidian Antioch for Iconium, about 90 miles away. They then went to Lystra, a distance of about 20 miles. They probably walked the whole distance; there were no automobiles, horses or carriages for them.
At Lystra Paul healed a man crippled from birth. Luke tells us in the gospel and earlier in Acts, that Jesus had healed a man in similar circumstances, and that Peter had done the same thing. We can learn from this that Paul and Barnabas have authority from Christ and the same power that Peter had for preaching and proclaiming the good news of Jesus.
In Jesus, we believe that God took on human flesh and “came down to us in human form”. The crowds in Lystra who witnessed Paul’s healing of the crippled man started saying that the “gods had come down to them in human form.” They referred this to Paul and Barnabas, not to the coming of Christ. Paul and Barnabas tried strongly to persuade the people of Lystra to put their faith in the true God. It was with extremely difficult to restrain the people form offering sacrifice.
The missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas took months and miles, miles after village and village after miles. My journey is about 28 miles each way and about 45 minutes the slow way. Just as the Holy Spirit directed Paul and Barnabas, so does the Holy Spirit direct us, sometimes according to one contract and sometime according to another contract. Village after village the Holy Spirit directed Paul and Barnabas, and contract after contract the Holy Spirit directs the ministry at this institution and the ministry God has for each of us.
We must stand on our feet and walk month and mile after month and mile. God has called us out of being crippled into being apostles. We go from here with some uncertainty as to where we will go. We go, however, as the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us as the Spirit led Paul and Barnabas on their journeys.