Shaking Up the World

Shaking Up the World

Acts 16:16-34(The Message)

The book of Acts is the second volume of a work written by the same person or group of people who wrote the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke speaks about Jesus’ life and work and the Book of Acts is about those who were trying to do what Jesus asked after he was gone. So it is the first record of the early Church and the imperfect way that we human beings try to live up to Jesus’ call. Listen to this story from the book of Acts.

If we didn’t know better we might think that being a Christian, that being a believer, offers us a life that is easy or at the very least a life that provides a soft landing when we fall. We might read Jesus’ words of abundant life and new hope and think that following him guarantees us a clear path and a life free of messes. We might think that seeking a God of hope means that we can forever stand with fear at our backs. But even if our God is not a golden ticket to an easy life, our God can shake up the world and create possibilities where before there seemed to be nothing.

But then again, we remember the fight that Jesus fought. We remember how the right thing to do is usually not the easy thing to do. We look to Paul and Silas who are in Philippi attempting to share the story of Jesus and the message about the God that he knew. They start to attract some listeners and they are beginning to draw attention after probably a long and frustrating journey. And then they encounter a woman who they believe is possessed with a demon. The woman is given no name, like nearly all women in the Bible and according to the Book of Acts she is a slave, used as a psychic and, with her fortunetelling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. The woman is drawn to Paul and Silas, perhaps because of their message about a God of radical love who would welcome everyone, maybe even her too. But as she is drawn to them, she begins to annoy them deeply by following them around and repeating the same thing over and over. She says, "These men are working for the Most High God. They're laying out the road of salvation for you!"

Finally Paul and Silas become fed up with the woman, as anyone would and Paul shouts to her, “Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!" And according to the scripture, whatever was inside of her causing her to repeat her words and to behave in odd ways; comes out. But a problem quickly emerges. This woman was making money for her owners and with the demon gone she can no longer be the source of their lucrative scheme.

With their profit up in smoke, the owners of this slave woman go on a rampage. They find both Paul and Silas and they beat them, tear off their clothes and send them to jail. Their message is now trapped behind metal bars. Their light seems to be dim with no apparent way out. Their hearts are heavy as they are faced with the fear they thought died on the cross.

We might expect to read that they could not go on. We might expect to hear that they would retract all that they said. We might expect Paul and Silas to throw in the towel and say “To heck with this life, to heck with this God who didn’t prevent us from landing here!”

But in fact the Book of Acts tells us a different story. After a few hours in jail, and probably some time in prayer, we hear music begin to emerge from their cell. My life flows on in endless song, above earth's lamentation. I hear the clear, though far off hymn that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I'm clinging. Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing? The other prisoners cannot believe their ears. How could anyone sing in a situation like this? How could anyone praise God in a moment like this? How could anyone possibly be open to the Spirit in a mess like this? And just as the music lofted above, a huge earthquake hits the prison and the doors are blown open, and with their hearts pounding out of their chest, with the hope that seemed to be lost, springing forth all around them, the jailer awakes.

In the First Century, a jailer would have been entirely responsible for such a prison break and he would then have been obligated to take on the prison terms of those who had escaped. In deep despair at such a thought, the jailer pulls out his sword in an attempt to take his own life. But when Paul sees this, he stops him in his tracks and says, "Don't do that! We're all still here! Nobody's run away!"

And for some reason after Paul offers his oppressor a word of comfort, the tables are turned and Paul is asked a question that probably went straight to his heart. The jailer says, “What do I have to do to be saved, to really live?"

Imagine a man who spent his whole life keeping people behind bars. Imagine a man who day in and day out earned his living by making sure that people were trapped. Imagine a man whose job it was to imprison people, seeking to be free from the prison of his own and so he comes to Paul with the question, “What do I have to do to be saved, to really live?"

One minute Paul and Silas are at the end of their rope, thinking that their life is done, that their days of preaching and laughing are gone, and then God shakes up the world and creates possibilities where before there seemed to be nothing.

The jailer’s question creates an opening for the Spirit to blast in and shake up the world. The whole group hears about Jesus and the God he loved. They eat together, sing together and all are baptized together and it is nearly impossible to believe. From the bottom of a cold prison cell comes the question about what it means to be fully alive and God turns a mess into a chance for life.