This sermon is much better watched than read, as it was a performance. View it HERE, beginning at 36:30. It was preached by myself (preacher) and the Rev. Victoria Larson ("slave girl").
Easter 7C
May 29, 2022
Acts 16:16-34
INTRODUCTION:
We’ve made it to the end of the Easter season - though of course we will continue to celebrate the resurrection every day until Jesus comes again - a day in fact referred to at the stunning conclusion of the Bible that we will hear today from Revelation. “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!” It’s the same plea we make at the communion table, as we look toward the glorious day of Christ’s return.
Also on this 7th and last Sunday of Easter, we will find ourselves back in the upper room with Jesus and his disciples on the night of Jesus’ betrayal. Remarkably, we will have a chance to eavesdrop as Jesus prays for his disciples - and also for us (aka “those who will believe in [Jesus] because of [the disciples’] word”). Can you believe that we would be a topic of conversation among the Trinity?! So cool! So, settle into that, and hear Jesus’ prayer for you.
But first, we will hear from the Acts of the Apostles. Where we left off last week, Paul and Silas had just been led, to their surprise, to Philippi, to plant a church there. Things have been going well so far… but today, they will run into some trouble. So, let’s listen to see what happens next!
[READ]
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| Howson, J. S. (John Saul), 1816-1885, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons |
PREACHER: Things are going well for Paul and Silas. They have begun the establishment of a church in Philippi, with the help of Lydia. Paul was already growing a deep affection for this church, and his heart was filled with gratitude for them, and for the work the Spirit was already doing through them. To offer praise to God, they head to a place of prayer, when they are joined by a girl who, it so happens, has a spirit of divination.
SLAVE-GIRL: [overlapping] I had a spirit of divination.
This is not as cool as it sounds.
I know it sounds like it should be amazing–
everyone wants to know what the future holds.
That’s what made my owners rich.
“Prophesy,” they’d say to me,
after the coins clinked from one hand to another,
and without my willing it,
without my wanting it,
the spirit would stir into sibilance.
It felt like a snake wrapped around my middle,
stealing my breath,
squeezing out words that weren’t mine.
It would leave me gasping,
frightened, exhausted,
staring after
another satisfied customer.
And then one day,
I was in the marketplace,
waiting for my owners to finish haggling
with a new customer,
when they walked by.
The balding man and the quiet guy.
The spirit saw them first.
I felt its familiar shudder.
But this time, it felt different.
This time, it felt afraid.
This time, the words weren’t forced out of my mouth.
This time, it was like the words were forced out of the spirit,
and arrived silently in my head.
Those men are slaves of the Most High God,
and they proclaim a way of salvation.
I looked at my owners,
reaching their deal,
brokering my body,
placing a price tag on my possession
just like they had
every day
since I was a little girl.
And I thought,
You want a prophet?
Fine.
That’s what you’ll get.
I stood up.
I pointed.
I shouted:
"These men are slaves of the Most High God,
who proclaim to you a way of salvation."
PREACHER: “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation!” This is what she kept hollering after them. And she kept at it for several days, and well, we may call him “Saint” Paul, but everyone has their limits. Luke tells us Paul grew to be “very much annoyed” by her persistence. Annoyed by what, I wonder? That she was blowing their cover? That she was stealing their thunder? That her incessant shouting made it difficult for them to get their own message out? Or maybe it was the annoyance any parent of a 4-year-old knows, in which one simply can’t stand another moment of pestering. Paul tried to be patient, but he was. About. To. Lose. It.
SLAVE-GIRL: I could see their frustration building.
Their shoulders rose a little higher
every time I shouted the truth
about who and whose they were.
Until finally,
the balding one whirled around
and looked me right in the eye.
And for a moment,
I felt hope.
But then the hope turned cold,
because I recognized what he was seeing.
Same as everyone else:
he might have been looking at me,
but he was seeing… it.
PREACHER: “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And the demon left her. It sounds like good news, right? But I have to wonder… How pure were his motives? Was he trying to save the girl, or was he trying to save himself from her relentless shouting? I suspect it was more about the latter. I suspect Paul cared little for this girl who “annoyed” him, and was more interested in the easy way out. We know that feeling! Just get rid of the annoying thing, the thing that troubles or inconveniences us, and move on. Paul took the route of a quick fix, rather than taking the time to actually see the girl, to hear her story, to understand the problem, and truly to liberate her not only from the demon, but from the system that held her captive as someone only valued for her brokenness, for her demon. If he’d stayed and listened and seen her, I wonder how it all might have gone differently.
SLAVE-GIRL:
It all might have gone differently.
The two men were still looking at me.
The spirit was gone.
Gone.
And I thought,
If they can do that,
What else might they do?
Could they free me?
Could I go with them?
I opened my mouth to speak–
and felt a hand clap onto my shoulder.
It was one of my owners.
She was staring at the bald one.
“What did you do?”
The other grabbed my arm
and made me look at him.
“Prophesy!” he told me.
But I didn’t say anything.
He shoved.
I fell to the ground
and stayed there
as he turned back to the two men
to shout some more.
I was free from the spirit.
But I was still a slave.
The only thing that had changed
was my worth.
I was worth less now.
I was worth less
because I had been healed.
How messed up is that?
My owners hauled the two men
up before the authorities.
And they were beaten–
a shock, since the men were Roman citizens.
And they were imprisoned.
My owners disappeared.
They’d gone home, I guess.
I told myself I should do the same.
But I didn’t follow.
I lingered outside the prison
where the two men were kept
feeling like I was inside with them.
Who was I,
if I wasn’t “the slave girl who had a spirit of divination”?
Just another slave girl.
Just another no one,
trapped.
PREACHER: Trapped. Paul and Silas were trapped. Imprisoned. Even if you haven’t been in prison yourself, or even been in a prison to know what one looks like, we all know about being imprisoned because that’s what original sin does to us: we are imprisoned by our sin, our fear, our shame. We are imprisoned by addictions, by illnesses both mental and physical. We are imprisoned by grief. And it can feel very much like being ushered into the innermost cell of a jail, and shackled there, because that is how difficult it is to break free from those myriad things that imprison us. What are we to do, when we feel so helpless, so trapped?
SLAVE-GIRL: That’s when I heard them singing.
PREACHER: Now, I love to sing, but when I am imprisoned in these ways, I don’t feel much like singing. I feel helpless, breathless, trapped in a reality, a cycle I dearly want to break, yet do not know how.
And yet singing is just what Paul and Silas do. In the darkness of that innermost cell, with fellow prisoners gathered round, with little concrete hope for their future… Paul and Silas sang. Maybe they sang today’s Psalm, a text that, as good Jews, they likely would have known by heart - a Psalm about how fire goes before the Lord, burning up enemies, how lightning lights up the world and the earth sees and trembles. It trembles!
[sing] “The heavens declare your righteousness, O Lord;
and all the peoples see your glory!”
SLAVE-GIRL:
Just as their voices reached the crescendo,
the whole earth joined in,
and the vibration of its voice
shook the ground beneath our feet.
In the darkness,
the world fell apart.
And the walls of the jail came down.
PREACHER: What a glorious example of God’s power! Just in their greatest hour of need, when there was no hope, when they were trapped, God came through with a saving earthquake. Earthquakes, these life-changing events that shake our very foundations, certainly have the power to free us if we let them. They can change the course of our lives! If God could free Paul, Silas, all the others - and even the jailor! - and bring them freedom from that which imprisoned them, then just think what God can do for us, and for our own imprisonments! And so we can trust that God will come also to us, and free us, in our time of need.
SLAVE-GIRL: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne!” [continues to sing this verse as Preacher tries to preach over her]
PREACHER: Would you stop it?!
SLAVE-GIRL: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne!”
PREACHER: Excuse me, you are being sort of annoying right now. I’m trying to wrap this up with a hopeful message for everyone.
SLAVE-GIRL: That’s not the end of the story.
PREACHER: Well, yeah, I know, but we’ve got to move on with the service, so can’t this just wait for later?
SLAVE-GIRL: I’ve been waiting long enough.
You have too.
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne.”
I’ve seen the power of this Most High God.
But I’m still waiting to see it everywhere.
I’m still waiting to see righteousness fill the earth.
I’m still waiting for justice to shape this world.
And I’m so tired of waiting.
Aren’t you?
You read my story again and again
in your sacred places.
I know how tempting it is to end it
right here
with those men
and their newfound freedom.
But I’m still here.
And I’m still enslaved.
PREACHER: Well yes, I know, but… the world is so full of brokenness. It is frankly exhausting. Sometimes I just can’t take any more pain, and so I’d rather focus on the good news, the part of the story we see with the jailor, and Paul and Silas. They are liberated, and so are we. That’s good news!
SLAVE-GIRL: It’s only good news for me,
and for everyone like me,
if you treat that good news
like a good beginning,
not a happy ending.
Those two men in the marketplace–
the ones who spent their night in jail singing hymns–
They knew that.
That’s what got them through the flogging and the earthquake.
That’s what let them sit in the ruins of everything
and have hope.
Because they didn’t believe that was the end.
They didn’t believe sin and death got the last word.
And they let that good news
be the place where they started from,
not the place where they stopped.
That good news drove them into action.
PREACHER: I agree with you… but how? I know there are people still wailing in grief, still crying for justice. I know how far we are from God’s hope and vision for this world and for God’s people. I know that. But it is hard. And uncomfortable. And, if I'm honest, inconvenient. And I want to give people a break from the pain of the world. It’s nice just to hear a joyful, life-giving message sometimes, you know?
SLAVE-GIRL: (mulish) It’s not just nice.
That message is necessary.
It’s not possible to
to believe this world is capable of change
without believing that sin’s chains are broken
and hell’s gates are crushed
and death died.
But if that’s where you stop telling the story,
then you miss the rest.
You miss the part where those men
get up the next day
and go back to the authorities
and tell them that they were wrong,
wrong to beat them,
because under their own law,
Roman citizens are not punished without a trial.
You miss the part
where the powers and principalities
apologize.
You miss the part
where the world
changes
just
a little
bit.
PREACHER: Yes, you are right. They don’t leave it there. They demand justice.
SLAVE-GIRL: Yes. They do.
PREACHER: Well, what do we do now then?
SLAVE-GIRL: …Take a page out of that bald man’s book.
Believe in the good news,
and don’t be afraid to begin.
PREACHER: Maybe we begin by singing together. Will you sing with us?
SLAVE-GIRL: (slowly, The Church's One Foundation)
…Yet saints their watch are keeping;
their cry goes up, "How long?"
PREACHER: and soon the night of weeping
BOTH: shall be the morn of song.
Let us pray… Liberating God, do not let us shy away from the voices of the weeping and the oppressed. Do not let us turn our backs on injustice. Empower us to raise our prayerful song, and to see our own liberation not as a happy ending, but as a good beginning toward seeking the same freedom for your whole creation. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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