“Baptised” A sermon based on Acts 16:16-34 June 2, 2019 Knox-Agincourt United Church.

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”, and it came out that very hour. When her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

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In the reading of Acts from last week, Paul and Silas were a little directionless. Their bags were packed, their local congregation gave them a big send-off, but they hadn’t really had a call. So they launched out - several times. Yet it seemed with every new road they headed down, something happened and they had to return.

And as with many things God does, the real directions came in a dream. "Come over here to Macedonia and help us!" the man in the dream had said – so they boarded the first ship headed for Macedonia.  Instead of a man in need, they found a woman in need. Despite her wealth from an import business and her independence, Lydia still registered a deep spiritual need for the gospel.

Today is the continued installment of the same story. Paul and Silas now in Philippi. Now, Paul wasn’t totally inexperienced. But most of his work had been around synagogues on the corners and groups of the chosen people right there. He’d go to the synagogues and proclaim the Good News through the law, the prophets, and the writings. That’s a fine strategy. Especially if you know Hebrew and value the Torah.

But what happens when the "directions" that God gives take you right out of your culture, language and comfort zone altogether? Paul suddenly encountered a new and formidable challenge: non-Jewish, non-Christian, non-Roman culture – but a culture of many different religions, and in the Greek beliefs, a pantheon of many gods. He was in what we now call Europe.

And imagine, walking into a totally unknown city, unknown language and culture, and hearing someone proclaim in the street -  "These men are servants of the Most High God. They have come to town to tell us all how to get saved!" This wasn’t a fore-runner with an announcement – this was a clairvoyant woman who drew on a spiritual force – but if she didn’t know about Jesus, how could it be the Holy Spirit?  She drew a bigger crowd than Paul – and made considerable money for her employers.

Her  employers - really her "owners." Such slave owners had no interest in the slaves, only the money they could make – and through this clairvoyant they had said to Paul and Silas "Your spiritual power is no match for ours." The gauntlet is thrown down.

A little sidebar here – her power supposedly came from what the locals called the "spirit of the python," the serpent that guarded the Oracle of Delphi at Mt. Parnassus and which was killed by Apollo. Yet it was believed that the python continued to live through clairvoyants, telling things about people and events that no one could possibly have known. She uses the title of “Most High God." Perhaps she had some insight or notion ahead of time what Paul would preach – but also, Most High God was the precise title used in the worship of Zeus, the king of the gods and goddesses in the Greek pantheon.

So Paul and Silas enter Philippi only to be challenged with hostility to their message. They would have to fight for a hearing of the gospel. Any defeat or backing down would shut the door which they felt had been opened to spread the good news. It came to a head one day as they were on their way out the city for a prayer meeting by the riverside. And again the words of the clairvoyant. “These men are from the Most High God.” Paul, reacting in anger, commanded the python spirit to leave the girl, invoking the name of Jesus as his authority. It worked. The python spirit slithered away.

The slave-owners saw all their money going down the drain. They whipped up a mob which turned to violence, and at the magistrate’s nod, brutally beat them and threw them into the local jailhouse - "the inner dungeon", and set their feet into the stocks. So much for following God’s directions. So much for dreams.

I find myself wondering if Luke – the author of Acts -  took all this time and effort to point us to  the various ways that people and systems seek to subvert the gospel from being shared or heard. And I wonder if all this drama is buildup to the core of this reading.

So Paul and Silas are sitting in stocks in the most secure part of the prison – likely no windows, moisture seeping all over, rats and fleas and whatever else there, nothing to lie down on safely – and they begin to sing about their faith. They sing. With apparently nothing to sing about.

There’s an earthquake - which is so powerful it forces the prison doors open – and just as the jailer is about to commit suicide rather than be killed for letting prisoners escape, Paul lets him know everyone is there.  Trembling, the poor terrified jailer, who now sees afresh, comes in, and says, "What do I do to be saved?" The drum roll begins . . . "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved - along with your entire household!" And they are baptised right there on the spot. No baptismal prep classes, no confirmation class – the Spirit speaks, and the church is born anew! All of this story, with its drama, really isn’t about Paul or Silas, or about doing mission – it is a story about baptism, and the Spirit. All of that incredible leadup – to one thing – the core of belief.

The jailer – born anew in the Spirit – takes them into his own house - he feeds them, cleans and binds their wounds. He and his entire family - so likely about four generations - are all baptised. It is a story about faith and hospitality, cemented by baptism. It is a story about the core of the faith – hospitality to strangers, regardless of who they may be. It is a story repeated time and time again throughout biblical texts – hospitality. It is a story about how we are to be changed by our own baptism to offer that hospitality whenever and wherever we can, regardless of consequences.

The man in the dream - was Lydia, whose heart had been opened. The man was also a slave who had been set free. The man was a jailer who asked, "How can I do this?" The dream, all of it, was manifestations of the Spirit and the call of baptism into new life. Amen.

Sources:
Don't Sing No Jail-House Blues a sermon based on Acts 16:16-34 by Rev. Thomas Hall