July 9, 2006
“God's Jailbirds”
Acts 16:16-34
Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

Several noteworthy things happen in the 16^th Chapter of Acts that oughta pique your interest: an exorcism, songs in the darkness, a timely earthquake, and a conversion. But this morning I want to focus on freedom and truth because these 2 are the hardest to define. A word about each...

“Freedom” was the last word spoken in the movie “Braveheart,” the heroic story of William Wallace of Scotland. And if anybody was free, he was. The thing is though, he was bound in chains and being tortured to death as he said it. Wallace was dying but he was dying as a free man.

That’s why some people appear to be free and yet bound. And why others who are in chains, can be the freest spirits of all. Sometimes people choke on freedom. There’s something about losing our freedom, or even the threat of it, that brings out the best in people. And in others, the worst.

Our greatest literature was written behind bars: The Apostle Paul penned much of the New Testament from a Roman dungeon. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, from a Bedford cell. Deitrich Bonhoeffer inspired many with his “Letters and Papers”from a Flossenberg prison, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s best work was a letter from a Birmingham jail. There’s something stronger than prison walls, and that is a liberated human spirit.

What makes any land great is not its wealth but the bigness of heart. Freedom is one thing Americans will die for. This country was founded because people were not free. Our basic freedom is espoused in the Constitution: “all are created equal with inalienable rights, for the pursuit of freedom and happiness.” Freedom to get an education, to explore ideas and pursue truth. Free to get married and raise a family. Freedom to get a job and be self-sufficient. Also we enjoy religious freedom. But a whole lot of folks today are afraid of a free-spirit. Look what religion did to Jesus!

Freedom’s just another word for “nothing left to lose!” We have too much and that makes us not so free. So we are surrounded by burglar alarms, always going off at the wrong time. Or our full medicine cabinets, and our insurance policies, our phobias--of difference, illness, aging, insolvency.

This country has been blessed with an unprecedented measure of freedom and as long as we don’t abuse it, we can stay that way. But while we are mostly free here, we’re also very lonely, isolated, driven; so compulsive in our pursuit of freedom that we can’t even enjoy it.

So what is freedom? True freedom. Luke, the master story-teller spins a good yarn and then lets you make up your own mind. Our text in Acts is about people who were free and some who were bound.

The gospel had just arrived in Europe, in the persons of Paul and Silas and the people of Macedonia hardly noticed the little troupe from Troas. But it was a momentous occasion in history and Paul knew it. What was at stake in those early days was vital: would Christianity remain a Jewish sect within Israel or would the faith of Jesus be for all people everywhere? Paul’s success or failure in Europe would be determinative. So he preached to anybody who’d listen in Philippi. There Paul made his first European convert–and built his church around a wealthy woman, named Lydia. And right after his first success, predictably comes trouble because the powers-that-be were upset at the changes that took place.

Another woman lived there who was driving Paul crazy, following him around wherever he went, shadowing him, shouting: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation!”
What’s so bad about that? It was true. And wasn’t it free advertising? But to Paul, she was an embarrassment and a detriment. Paul didn’t know her, but she told the truth about him. You see the truth doesn’t always set you free. Sometimes it makes you mad! So which is it, freedom or madness?

She was a fortune telling slave-girl, taken advantage of because of her mental imbalance. But she made lots of money for her owners. This is the kind of person following the missionaries around--a picture of enslavement.

If anybody here has suffered through the misfortune of somebody close to you with Alzheimer’s, you could tell us about bondage. Its as if something has you, something you can’t shake, some dark, uncontrollable force that you are powerless to break. That’s our slave girl.

But how you first hear the Gospel is important and it’s clear that Paul didn’t want to be characterized by one-possessed interpreting him. He didn’t want to mislead others about religious faith. In spite of Jesus advising us to, “Be wise as serpents,” gullibility remains one of the blights in today’s world because people are so easily misled in their religious faith.

I heard a professor recently respond to a question: “What does the “Christian” in Texas Christian University mean? Doesn’t that say a lot about where we are today? For people to wonder what “Christian” means? I can understand that because just about anything that passes for “Christian” goes with a lot of people. And our text shows it is neither new nor fatal. But all sorts of outrageous claims of truth are in the media, that makes the word “Christian” mean something good or bad, depending upon your perspective. Especially on the Internet, where rumors are often taken as fact.

This has become such a rampant national problem, a website has been established for the sole purpose of distinguishing the real and from the phony, called “TruthorFiction.com.” How can we tell the difference? When it comes to church, it isn’t easy. Paul knew it was important how the Gospel is presented. He was neither a servant of Zeus nor an affirmer of the status quo, so he stopped the slave girl from presenting a misguided look at faith in Christ.

The next time you hear somebody say, “Hate is a Bible virtue,” or “Apart from our church, there is no salvation.” Or somebody blaming people for the way they’re born and calling it “Christian,” there’s a simple test to determine the truth of any religious claim you might come across.

Memorize this: Does this lead to an increase in the love between God and neighbor and us? And if it is true, then who gets hurt by it? “Christian” can mean many things. But surely it means increasing our love and lessening our hurt. I hope that helps us determine what is true.

Can it pass the loving test? Does it pass the who-gets-hurt test? People have learned how to pass the loving test but fail the who-gets-hurt test. If something increases love but hurts the little people, I’m suspicious. Paul’s had it with the woman’s mad raving. So he decides to cure her! Which he does. That puts her in a real bind because he set her free. But she’s still a slave, not considered a person, only somebody’s property.

Her owners only saw dollar signs and “when their hope for gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into court.” After Paul set her free, nobody celebrated the healing, because the greedy mercenaries were not free. They couldn’t, because what they owned, owned them.

That’s what happens when religion gets mixed up with economics. Her owners did what vested ones always do when their business interests are threatened. And Paul and Silas learned a lesson the hard way in Philippi, that’s still true to this day: culture is Christianity’s greatest threat. And messing with the profits of avaricious slave-owners can get you killed!

They said, “Look judge, we’re not against a little religion, but these Jews are turning our city upside down, by advocating customs which are not lawful for us Romans to accept.” Pilate said it. The business community in Philippi said it. When push comes to shove, people can always appeal to custom. In church it comes off as, “We never did it that way before.”

Luke crams an awful lot into this story. Missionaries introduce the gospel to Europe, Lydia is converted and a church is started. They have an unpleasant encounter with a slave-girl, & get thrown in jail, but are miraculously set free. But, they’re more interested in converting the jailer, which God does. Then they stare down the magistrates and leave. The time span for all this is “some days.” Who’s free and who’s bound? Who is really owned here? Watch it as nation, race, and tradition--join in lock-step behind the drachma. And predictably, truth and freedom take a hit.

The whole town falls into line behind the business leaders. They jump on the missionaries and lock them up in stocks (the wooden kind). See the irony? The liberators are no longer free. After a compassionate act, setting a pitiful woman free, Jesus’ people lose their freedom for doing it. The gospel will get you in trouble--depending upon, of course, the degree to which you practice it. I’d say Paul and Silas got close to practicing it about as much as Jesus. Who first came preaching “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free...” You know how he ended up.

So Paul and Silas are imprisoned and their outlook was pretty bleak. Nah, that’s not the way Luke tells it. He tells it as if adversity can become an opportunity! Do we need to hear that? “At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners listened to them...” Bound in chains, yet singing and conducting a prayer meeting in jail? When things were darkest for God’s tiny church, that’s when the earth convulses, the prison shakes, the doors fly open and the stocks fall off!

The jailer wakes up and is horrified. He knows what happens when prisoners escape on their watch, which is why he accepts his fate and prepares to fall on his sword. Obviously just having the key to somebody’s cell doesn’t make you free, any more than iron bars makes a prison. Luke is telling us freedom is as slippery to get ahold of as the truth!

So Paul shouts, “Stop! Do yourself no harm. We’re still here, just one more verse of ‘Just as I am.’” The jailer is mystified that they weren’t trying to escape. “Why aren’t you guys running like the rest of them?” “We may be in jail but we belong to Jesus. So can you.” And the jailer joins the church and Paul baptized him. So what is freedom?

To hear Luke tell it, everyone who appears to be free--the slave-girl’s owners, the judges, the jailer--turn out to be enslaved. And everyone who appears to be enslaved--the poor girl, Paul, Silas--they are the ones who are free. I just wanted ya’ll to see that Jesus does things like this to people.

Pastoral Prayer: Liberating Lord, giver of new life and hope, we come before you in praise and song. Because you live, our lives are changed for the better. We are your chosen people but we are no longer a frightened people. Because you live, we have the courage to face life and death. Because you live, we can accept ourselves and reach out to others. We are a community of faith, but no longer a scattered people. Because you live, we come together in worship and bear witness from our weakness as well as our strength, in the presence of your reign among us and the promise of your reign to come.

Set us free from greed and injustice where little people are taken advantage of. Unbind us from all that keeps us from becoming what you want us to be. Thank you for leaders like Paul and Silas, who taught us how to live with integrity without having to please the crowd or the authorities.

Embolden us like them, when they disturbed an entire city in defiance of societal customs, to hasten the increase of justice and caring for the abused, strength for the weak and hope for the helpless.

We make time in our prayers for all who are living on the edge, some barely hanging by a thread; others recuperating from time in the hospital, some facing surgery, others facing death. We remember all who are suffering and confined by the forces of aging that narrows their world more and more. May the faithfulness of our lives in this church and the genuineness of our love for its people, proclaim to the world that none of God’s creatures is ever alone.

Steady us when the inevitable earthquakes crash into our lives, and fill us with joy in this worship, like the Philippian jailer, whose life changed the moment he cast his lot with the church. Set us all free that we might show forth your glory. Amen.