Just a fragment
Lily Cathcart
May 23, 2023
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Acts 12: 12-17 (NRSVA)
12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, ‘You are out of your mind!’ But she insisted that it was so. They said, ‘It is his angel.’ 16 Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed. 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, ‘Tell this to James and to the believers.’ Then he left and went to another place.
Like many of the stories we are looking at this week, the story of Rhoda the maid is like a fragment of clothing found by an archeologist and from it we can imagine a life but never fully know it. But we, like archeologists, have some clues. We know she knew enough of Peter that she was excited to see him, so excited she forgot to open the door to him and ran straight away to tell the household. We know that she stuck to her story even in the face of doubt and ridicule. Those in themselves are big things to know about a person.
I hope that Rhoda went on to have a good life. That she continued to get excited. That she continued to hold her own. I hope that she remembered that moment she saw Peter for years to come. I hope that she kept some doors closed but remembered to open other ones. I hope that the fabric of her life ahead was as full of God and strength and light as the fragment we have been lucky enough to discover.
PRAYER:
Dear God of fragments and wholeness
You know the whole truth of Rhoda and so many we briefly meet in the Bible
Help us to be inspired by their stories
Help us to be strong, faithful, excited and even a little forgetful
Amen
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