Acts 16:16-34
16 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.
17While 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."
18 She kept doing this for many days. But 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.
19 But 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.
20When they had brought them before the magistrates, they
said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews
21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as
Romans to adopt or observe."
22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates
had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw
them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened
their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 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.
27When 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.
28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm
yourself, for we are all here."
29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell
down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?"
31 They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will
be saved, you and your household."
32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who
were in his house.
33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed
their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
34 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.
SERMON
I know this scripture is most often remembered as the story
of Paul and Silas in jail but I’m most interested in the unnamed characters,
the supporting roles. I’m intrigued by the story of the slave girl. I wonder
what her name was. I wonder from where she came. I wonder how she came to be
enslaved. I wonder if she was forced into slavery because of her own poverty,
or if she was born into slavery because of her parent’s poverty. I wonder what
was her debt and how long she must work to pay it off. I wonder if her time of
indebtedness was the Biblical average of seven years. How many more years did
she have to be enslaved when she met Paul and Silas?
I wonder how it came to be that she became a fortune-teller
slave. She had the gift of
divination, and made a great deal of money for her owners by
fortune-telling. I wonder if she was really crazy or really gifted. I wonder
the same thing about fortune-tellers today. Do they have a gift from God, a
special awareness like a prophet relaying a dream, or are they pulling the wool
over people’s eye’s in a dishonest hoax. The slave girl is said to have the
spirit of the snake, and I have heard of other Biblical snakes who seem to know
the future, especially when it comes to the knowledge of good and evil. And
that is exactly what the salve girls has. She is pointing out the Good News of
salvation, and lifting up Paul and Silas. I don’t imagine the snake in the
garden of Eden getting its power from outside of God because it tells the
truth, and likewise, I don’t imagine the slave girl’s power coming from outside
of God because she tells the truth.
”While she followed Paul and Silas, she would cry out,
"These men are slaves of the
“Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of
salvation."” What could be more true. Paul and Silas are slaves to the
gospel. They are in poverty, having given up all they had, to follow Christ.
They are enslaved to preaching the Good News of salvation. The slave girl is
right. Isn’t she telling the truth? Isn’t she following them to tell others
about Christ? Isn’t she doing the same thing as Paul and Silas? Would her gift
of fortune telling not help their case? It seems that she is doing the right
thing.
I don’t know why Paul gets annoyed. The scripture says she
kept calling out for many
days, and I suppose even if someone is spreading the gospel,
hearing the same phrase called out for days upon days could get exhausting. But
I don’t think this tedious repetition is why Paul gets annoyed with her. Maybe
Paul felt like she was proselytizing rather than evangelizing, being pushy by
calling out, instead of welcoming. Maybe Paul felt like it his show, and she
was taking all the glory. Or perhaps, Paul felt like it was Jesus’ show, and
she was taking away the glory.
Perhaps with her fame as a fortune teller, the scene became
about her, and not her words. Perhaps as a slave her intensions seemed off, as if
she was making money for her owners by proclaiming the gospel, instead of
prospering the gospel itself. I wonder if her enslavement was how Paul knew
something was wrong. Because even as she followed them, and proclaimed the Good
News, as long as she could still tell fortunes she was still a slave, a slave
to her owners, and not a slave to God, like Paul and Silas.
So, “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.” I wonder what she felt like. The scripture doesn’t say. I wonder if she
felt healed? I wonder if she felt freed, because she truly was. A slave in
Biblical times could become free if they were wounded, and their debts would be
canceled. In taking away her ability to tell fortunes, Paul also took away her
enslavement. Now the slave girl could seek true freedom, to choose Christ for
herself. I wonder what she did next.
The scripture doesn’t say. But I have an idea because I know
the only way to respond to God’s healing, is to respond by healing others. I
imagine her free telling the same prophesy and crying out, "These men are
slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."” I
imagine her subverting the idea of slavery from human slavery, to slavery for
God.
It seems like the same thing, that nothing really would have
changed. But the difference is that true healing in Christ, not only heals the
person, but seeks to heal the system. The salves become free, the slave holders
become free, the inprisioned Paul and Silas become free, the distressed and
sucicidal jailer becomes free. When Christ heals, the system and the individual
righted and free. In our time, three kidnapped women held in a house become
free, and we question the corrupt systems that held them there. In our time,
there is a starving protest at Guantanamo,
like Paul and Silas singing hymns in jail, and these things help us look at our
broken prision system and seek freedom. We are under siege of military men and
women committing sucicide and violence, like the jailer, and we look at our
systems, and seek freedom.
This is what God’s freedom looks like, it looks like a woman
becoming free to choose to be enslaved to God. It looks like the freedom to
tell others the good news. It looks like the freedom that changes the system.
It looks like an unnamed slave girl foreshadowing the big story of Paul and
Silas. It looks like an unnamed slave girl living and telling the story of
Christ’s salvation.
