St. James Prayer Break Gathering 09 22 2026

September 22, 2026
The focus of St. James Presbyterian Church’s weekly 30-minute Prayer Break Gathering is based on one of the scriptures of our PCUSA Daily Lectionary,          Acts 18.24-28.  Today we will be focusing our thoughts on verse 26.  As you read the scripture, may your discernment in the Spirit bring ease.

​Acts 18.24-28 
"24Now there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. 25He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord; and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately. 27And when he wished to cross over to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. On his arrival he greatly helped those who through grace had become believers, 28for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus." 
Meditation: There Is Still More
There is something I love about Apollos. Scripture does not introduce him cautiously. We are told that he is eloquent, well-versed in the scriptures, instructed in the Way of the Lord, and speaking with burning enthusiasm. Apollos knows something, and when he speaks, people listen.
And before we go any further, I want us to notice where he comes from: Alexandria. Africa.

Sometimes we have read the Bible for so long through pictures and imaginations that were handed to us that we can miss what is sitting right there in the text. This powerful teacher of Scripture comes to Ephesus from Africa. He comes carrying where he is from—his learning, his history, his formation, his voice—and God uses it.

There is good news in that, especially for those of us who have spent much of our lives in churches where we did not always see Africa, or ourselves, fully represented in the story we were being told. Africa was there. We were there. And God was already at work.

Then something else happens. Apollos begins teaching in the synagogue, and among those who hear him are Priscilla and Aquila. Scripture says, “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.” — Acts 18:26
I wonder whether we have sometimes moved too quickly to the idea that they are correcting Apollos. The text has just told us how much this man already knows, how faithfully he teaches, how deeply he understands Scripture, and how his words burn with enthusiasm. Priscilla and Aquila hear all of that. What if they are moved by it? What if they recognize in Apollos a colleague in the Way and want to share more with him?

Not because Apollos has somehow failed, and not because this African Jew from Alexandria could not possibly know enough. There is more because that is what happens when people of faith bring what they know into relationship with one another. Apollos has something to give Priscilla and Aquila, and Priscilla and Aquila have something to give Apollos. Nobody has to be made smaller for somebody else’s gift to matter. And there is something worth noticing in the partnership itself. Priscilla is named first, a woman openly sharing theological wisdom, and Aquila is right there beside her—not threatened by her gift, not diminished by it, but sharing faithfully with her in the work of the Gospel. Together they make room for Apollos, and together they become part of what God does next.

Then the believers encourage him, and the disciples welcome him when he arrives in Achaia. Nobody carries the Gospel alone. One person speaks and another shares. Somebody listens and somebody receives. Somebody encourages. Somebody welcomes. And grace keeps moving.

And this is you. You are Apollos. You are Priscilla. You are Aquila. These are not distant religious heroes moving through somebody else’s sacred story. They are people bringing what they have, receiving what another person carries, offering wisdom, being opened to wisdom, encouraging one another, and helping grace move a little farther down the road. That sounds a lot like us.

Some days we are the one with something to say. Some days somebody else opens something in us that we had not seen before. Some days we recognize a gift in another person and draw closer because we want to share what we know and receive what they know. Some days our whole ministry is simply encouraging somebody to keep going.

Maybe that is something we need to remember when we pray. Prayer does not require us to become somebody else before we come to God. We bring where we come from. We bring what our mothers and grandmothers taught us. We bring what experience has taught us. We bring the questions we still carry. We bring what we know, while remaining open to what someone else may share.

None of that makes our prayer less faithful. It makes it ours. The prayer that comes from your life does not have to sound like mine. The prayer that rises from an African American woman who has carried family and church and community may know something about God that the rest of us need to hear. The prayer that rises from someone whose experience is different from ours may open something in us that we did not yet know how to see. God does not ask us to erase ourselves in order to become useful. God meets us in the fullness of who we are, and grace does something with it. Apollos brings Alexandria. Priscilla brings her wisdom. Aquila brings his. The believers bring encouragement. The disciples bring welcome. Together they become witnesses to something larger than any one of them could carry alone.

So bring what you know and what others have given you. Bring where you come from. Bring your questions, your wisdom, your voice, and remain open to the gifts somebody else may bring alongside yours. There is room for all of it in the Way of God. And there is still more.
And when you bring your full self before God . . . for what do you pray?