Sermons

“Choose Your Own Adventure”

Acts 16:16-40 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – May 8, 2016

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words, that we might find hope and faith in the power of your presence among your people. We pray in the name of our Risen Lord, Amen.

DISCLAIMER: Before we begin, I need to warn you that you will be participating in an experiment this morning. What you are about to experience is a never-before-tried, completely untested, brand new art form within the field of homiletics. (That’s a fancy word for preaching.) If it goes well, we may become famous beyond our dreams. If it crashes and burns, we must all agree to go home and erase it from our memories forever and never speak of it again. If you are not willing to agree to these terms, I need to ask you to remove yourself to the Fellowship Hall for the next 15-20 minutes. Perhaps they can use your help in the nursery.

Okay. Now that we are all committed, a little background: As you may have just noticed, our reading for this morning was quite long. And it wasn’t long in a gospel of John way, where there’s really only one point and the author keeps saying it with the same seven or eight words re-arranged in every possible order. There was a lot in there; so much, in fact, that we cannot possibly cover it all in one sermon. And so today, we will be embarking on the first-ever “Choose Your Own Adventure” sermon. Some of you will remember the series of kids’ books by the same name. These are books that you can’t read straight through because they don’t make sense that way. Every few pages, you’re asked to make a decision, and given instructions about which page to turn to for each choice. If you follow the rules, you will get to the end of the story without having read the whole book. But the next time you pick it up, you can make different choices, resulting in a different story. It’s actually a good lesson for life, to help us realize that certain decisions close off particular possibilities forever.

Now I know that some of you spent time with this passage in Sunday school this morning, so you may be extra equipped to help us discern the way forward. But all of you will be allowed to vote. You all might want to pull out those Bibles and keep them open to page 136 as we go forward. In your bulletin, there are two slips of paper. One is green and one is yellow. When we get to a decision moment, you will be given a green option and a yellow option. Your job is to hold up the slip of paper that indicates which direction you want to take. If you didn’t get a bulletin, I have some extra voting cards right here you can have. If everyone has their voting card, let’s begin!

So, your first choice is whether you want this sermon to focus on the Good Guys or the Bad Guys. If you want to look at the Good Guys, hold up your green card. If you want to look at the Bad Guys, hold up your yellow card. [For Good Guys, continue reading. For Bad Guys, turn to page 10.]

GOOD GUYS

One of the reasons this story is so complicated is that it’s full of conflict. And because scripture has an agenda, there are definitely good guys and bad guys. Paul and his side kick Silas are obviously the heroes. But there are lesser characters who might qualify as good guys too, like the jailer. There are lots of conflicts, so you’ve got lots to work with. You’ve got the conflict between the spirit of divination and Paul. (And in the background, presumably, a conflict between the spirit of divination and the girl it was possessing, and one between the girl and her supposed owners.) You’ve got the conflict between the slave owners and Paul & Silas. You’ve got external and inner conflict with the jailer. And finally you’ve got conflict between Paul and the magistrates who wanted to avoid drawing attention to their mistake of locking him up in the first place. Some of these conflicts have clearly drawn lines, and some of them are a little more nuanced.

So your next decision is whether you want to examine the situations of Moral Clarity or Moral Ambiguity. If you’d like to look at Moral Clarity, hold up your green card. If you choose Moral Ambiguity, hold up your yellow card. [For Moral Clarity, continue reading. For Moral Ambiguity, turn to page 8.]

MORAL CLARITY

There are some very powerful moments in this story, when Paul loudly and clearly stands up for what is right. He and Silas are unfairly accused and throw in prison without a trial. Before they even get to jail, they are stripped and beaten with rods. They do not try to weasel out of what’s happening or respond violently. But they also don’t stop proclaiming God’s praise. All evening, in prison, they continue praying aloud and singing, keenly aware that the other prisoners are listening and anxious to seize the opportunity to spread the gospel to their unfortunate cell mates.

Once their miraculous rescue happens, Paul and Silas do something even more righteous: they stay right where they are. They reach out in love to the jailer, reassuring him when he is so frightened about what will happen to him for presiding over the biggest jailbreak Philippi has ever seen that he’s about to kill himself with his sword. “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” It takes enormous moral courage to respond that way in a situation like this.

Finally, of course, there is the interaction at the end of the story, when Paul refuses to be released quietly after having been so publicly humiliated the day before. His calling out of the magistrates’ attempt to hide their mistakes is impressive, and the dramatic bombshell of waiting till then to reveal that he’s a Roman citizen just adds to the heightened tension.

Throughout these conflicts, Paul’s moral clarity is expressed in two different ways, words and actions. He proclaims the truth in the face of those who would hide it, and he resists the evil happening to him both by not letting it deter him from his mission of proclaiming the gospel and by choosing to submit to it even when he doesn’t have to.

So your next decision is whether you want to look a little more closely at Words or Actions. If you want to look at the power of Words, hold up your green card. If you want to look at Actions, hold up your yellow card. [For Words, continue reading. For Actions, turn to page 7.]

WORDS

One of the interesting and somewhat mysterious things about how Paul uses words is when he chooses to speak and when he doesn’t. Early on, the only speaking Paul does is to exorcise the spirit of divination from the slave girl, but he only did that because it was annoying him. Throughout the scene of accusation and punishment that is the closest thing Paul and Silas get to a trial, the author has them silent. Why don’t they defend themselves? They could easily point out the falsehood in the slave owners’ accusations, but for some reason they don’t.

But once they get to prison, they are no longer silent. Not only does the writer of Acts make clear that Paul and Silas are praying aloud and singing songs of praise to God. We are also told that the rest of the prisoners were listening. So the words Paul and Silas were using then must have been pretty convincing. The words they later shared with the jailer and his family were equally powerful.

By the end of the story, Paul is spewing righteous indignation. When the message comes from the magistrates, by way of the police, that the jailer can let them go, Paul is furious. You think you can just quietly let us out of here? After parading us half-naked in the streets and publicly beating us yesterday? You think you’re just going to drop it, by way of a two-bit messenger? I don’t think so, he says. And by the way, do you realize you’ve done all this to men who are Roman citizens? That last bit especially is alarming enough that the magistrates show up quickly. And Paul gets what he wants: a face-to-face apology. Choosing our words carefully is a wonderful way to speak truth into the face of corruption and cowardice. Choosing the right moment to say them gives them even more power. Sometimes, when we are courageous enough to say what needs to be said, it changes things.

And now you have only one choice remaining (perhaps!). Do you want to go ahead and Get to the Good News or would you like to Go Back to the Start? If you’d like to Get to the Good News, hold up your green card. If you’d like to Go Back to the Start, hold up your yellow card. Just be aware, if you hold up a yellow card, you are voting to hear another entire sermon! [For Get to the Good News, continue reading. For Go Back to the Start, turn to page 2 and make different decisions than you did before.]

GET TO THE GOOD NEWS!

So with all of these complicated interpersonal and power dynamics, with all these Good Guys and Bad Guys, and all these various ways of doing the right thing, what is the good news within this passage? In its essence, this story is a message of hope and encouragement. This is the story that inspired the primary verses of the Civil Rights song, “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”. It’s a story that promises that if we are persistent – whether as the spirit of divination refusing to leave Paul and Silas alone, or like Paul and Silas themselves, praying and singing all night long in jail – our persistence will pay off. It’s a story that helps us believe that the truth will prevail – that it can change things, whether it’s spoken boldly or acted out dramatically. It is a story that encourages us to “keep our eyes on the prize”. Don’t lose track of your calling to share God’s love, though obstacles will arise. Do not let the forces of dishonesty and corruption pull you off your path of truth and light. Be bold but treat your opponents gently, for there is always the possibility that they will see the light through your courage and righteousness. In a time of rampant moral ambiguity and unbridled dishonesty, it is a gift to be assured that doing the right thing is never a bad choice. It is a blessing to be reminded that the truth will set us free. Alleluia and Amen!

ACTIONS

This story may be evidence of the truth of that old saying that “Actions speak louder than words.” Though there is a lot of drama within this story, with a lot of different characters and numerous different conflicts, there can be no denying that the heart of this story is Paul’s interaction with the jailer. Paul has been praying and singing all night, but the most transformative thing he does wasn’t with words, but with movement. Or perhaps more accurately, lack of movement. Paul and Silas’ choice to remain in their cells – and the fact that somehow they convinced all the other prisoners to stay too – is what turns this conflicted tale into a salvation story. The jailer may or may not have been a good guy. He was part of a corrupt system. But though he worked for and presumably profited from that system, he was also obviously terrified of that system. His first impulse upon seeing the jail doors wide open and assuming the prisoners had all fled (because after all, why wouldn’t they have?) is to kill himself because surely that would be better than what would be done to him if he didn’t. Was it out of concern for the jailer that Paul and the prisoners stayed? Regardless of the motive, that choice turns out to be transformative. The decision to sacrifice their freedom a little longer, to submit to the system even when it was no longer holding them, so touched the jailer’s heart that he gave himself to the way of Christ that very night, along with his entire household. This truly is the heart of the story, and a reminder of how powerful the consequences of our decisions can be. Our choices can change lives.

And now you have only one choice remaining (perhaps!). Do you want to go ahead and Get to the Good News or would you like to Go Back to the Start? If you’d like to Get to the Good News, hold up your green card. If you’d like to Go Back to the Start, hold up your yellow card. Just be aware, if you hold up a yellow card, you are voting to hear another entire sermon! [For Get to the Good News, turn to page 6. For Go Back to the Start, turn to page 2 and make different decisions than you did before.]

MORAL AMBIGUITY

While over all, it is clear that Paul is the hero of this story, there are some moments when he doesn’t come off as well as we might prefer. Right out of the gate, we have him doing the right thing for the wrong reason. For days this slave girl is compelled to follow him and Silas around, because the spirit of divination that has possessed her cannot keep itself from crying out that Paul and Silas are slaves of the Most High God. It’s always been fascinating to me how insistent the gospels are about their impression that “spirits” of the kind that possess people always seem to recognize the presence of God more clearly and dramatically than any of the mere mortals in the vicinity.

Sadly, Paul doesn’t seem that concerned about how the spirit of divination makes the slave girl’s life hard. The only reason he eventually exorcises the spirit, commanding it in the name of Jesus Christ to leave her, is because he’s tired of it bugging him! Even worse, there is nothing in this story at all that questions the morality of the system of slavery. Nobody questions the supposed right of the slave owners to “own” this girl; and nobody makes any attempt to free her from anything other than the annoying spirit. About the best we can say for Paul in this circumstance is that he’s human like the rest of us, and therefore shaped by the assumptions and mores of his society.

A more hopeful story of moral ambiguity lies in the plot line of the jailer. At the beginning of the story, he is a cog within a corrupt system. When he is told to guard Paul and Silas extra carefully, he follows orders and places them in the “innermost” cell with their feet in stocks. As the story progresses though, it becomes clear that he’s more than just a rule follower. Is he a bad guy or a good guy? He defies these categories by being a bad guy who is transformed into a good guy.

Whether you’re a mostly good guy who has bad moments or a bad-ish guy who could become good, there are multiple ways that transformation happens. So now you get to choose whether you want to move forward looking at the moral power of Words or Actions. If you want to explore the power of Words, hold up your green card. If you want to look at Actions, hold up your yellow card. [For Words, turn to page 5. For Actions, turn to page 7.]

BAD GUYS

One of the reasons this story is so complicated is that it’s full of conflict. And because scripture has an agenda, there are definitely good guys and bad guys. This story actually has more villains than it does heroes. Some are more obvious than others. The worst ones are probably the slave owners, but right behind them you’ve got the magistrates, and their lackeys, the jailer, the police and whoever was carrying out those beatings. You could also argue that the spirit of divination qualifies as a bad guy in this story. So there’s a lot to choose from.

It’s time to make another choice. Do we want to look at bad guys who are clearly corrupt, or do we want to explore the morally ambiguous characters? If you’d like to focus on the Corruption in this story, hold up your green card. If you’d like to look at Moral Ambiguity, hold up your yellow card. [For Corruption, continue reading. For Moral Ambiguity (bad guys version), turn to page 16.]

CORRUPTION

While we all love stories in which bad people’s hearts are changed and everyone ends up loving each other at the end, there is no way around the fact that there are some unambiguously evil villains in this story. The most corrupt, of course, are the slave owners. I mean, first of all, they’re slave owners. That’s a pretty clear hint. But then we see what they do after Paul exorcises the spirit of divination from their slave girl. They had been raking in the bucks having her tell people’s fortunes. So they’re super mad when Paul makes that impossible and cuts off their revenue stream. But do they admit that when they go to the authorities? Of course not! Instead they invent some trumped-up charges that sound impressive and horrible, but have nothing to do with why they want Paul and Silas thrown in jail. They’re not only exploitative; they’re dishonest and sneaky.

Then, in lesser regard, you have the magistrates of what is clearly a corrupt criminal justice system. The “trial” Paul and Silas get is really nothing more than being the victims of public false accusations, and then public, violent humiliation and punishment, ending in unjust imprisonment. Sure, they’ve recognized their mistakes by the end of the story and try to rectify them, but they’re still trying to save face even once that happens. Who are these magistrates, and how did they get put in charge? Is their level of corruption any better than the slave owners’?

So here’s our next choice. Which do you think is a more powerful force of corruption, Money or Pride & Power? If you want to look at Money hold up your green card. If you want to look at Pride & Power, hold up your yellow card. [For Money, continue reading. For Pride & Power, turn to page 15.]

MONEY

If we’re going to look at money as the primary source of corruption, that means we’re probably mostly talking about the slave owners. There is no reason to believe that money didn’t also corrupt the magistrates and various other cogs within the corrupt criminal justice system, but our story doesn’t give us much to go on with that. So let’s think a little more about how money works within the slave owners’ situation. The fact that they could own slaves at all seems to be an indication that they had a fair amount of wealth. But to be using this particular slave girl as an income source because she was possessed by a spirit of divination is particularly wicked. There are so many unanswered questions with all this. Had they paid money to get that spirit into the slave girl? What was she doing before she was possessed? Did they actually treat her better when she was fortune-telling because she would be in the public eye? And if so, did that mean her life was going to get worse once the spirit was gone? Would she go back to being under-fed and mistreated as a hidden-away kitchen maid or something?

Clearly, the slave owners knew that what they were doing wasn’t quite above board, or they would have just openly complained about Paul removing their revenue stream. But they didn’t. What is it about money that connects so easily to shame and corruption? And what is it about money that makes it so easy to stop seeing other people as fully human and worthy of love? The gospels tell us that the love of money is the root of all evil. We have all felt its corrupting power in our own lives, whether it was tempting us to do something unholy or telling us lies about how to measure our own worth. So what is the best way to resist the siren, corrupting call of money? You decide. Is it better to passively submit and let your innocence shame the system toward righteousness, risking Martyrdom, or is it better to Use Your Privilege to work within the system to change things? Paul did both, so we can look at either method. If you want to explore Martyrdom, raise your green card. If you want to explore what it means to Use Your Privilege, raise your yellow card. [For Martyrdom, continue reading. For Use Your Privilege, turn to page 14.]

MARTYRDOM

It’s fascinating to me that the writer of Acts has Paul and Silas saying absolutely nothing during the scene of their public humiliation. They do not resist being dragged before the authorities. They do not protest the false accusations. They do not attempt to keep from being publicly stripped and beaten. And so they end up in jail. Given what we know about Paul’s powerful personality, this seems very unusual. Then again, maybe he’s playing a long game. Maybe he senses that going along with things for a time will put him in an advantageous position to turn the tables later. It’s not that Paul and Silas give in. They go right back to proclaiming the gospel once they’re settled into their shackles. And though it doesn’t say so, it seems like they converted the whole prison, since no one ran away when the doors were shaken open. Bearing witness to the cruelty of a corrupt system by non-violently submitting to its violence is one of the most direct ways to follow Jesus, for it is what he did the night of his betrayal. And as we see with the Easter story, in the end, new life comes from Paul and Silas’ humble submission as well, within the conversion of the jailer and his family, along with whatever untold transformations happened in the lives of the other prisoners.

And now you have only one choice remaining (perhaps!). Do you want to go ahead and Get to the Good News or would you like to Go Back to the Start? If you’d like to Get to the Good News, hold up your green card. If you’d like to Go Back to the Start, hold up your yellow card. Just be aware, if you hold up a yellow card, you are voting to hear another entire sermon! [For Get to the Good News, turn to page 6. For Go Back to the Start, turn to page 2 and make different decisions than you did before.]

USE YOUR PRIVILEGE

As it turns out, resisting corruption is often about the best method for the right moment. Paul has privileges that he doesn’t turn to until he’s good and ready. Certainly, throughout this story, we can assume he has the privilege of enough education to understand the law and his rights. Why he doesn’t choose to use that knowledge sooner we cannot know. But isn’t it a beautiful moment when he finally does? The jailer shares the message that the police have brought, after a long and dramatic night: You’re free to go. Essentially, let’s just pretend none of this ever happened. But Paul is having none of that! This is the moment when he chooses to pull himself up to his full stature as a Roman citizen and demand fair treatment. He won’t go quietly. The magistrates must come release him themselves. Oh, and by the way, did you know we’re Roman citizens? That last bit especially is alarming enough that the magistrates show up quickly. And Paul gets what he wants: a face-to-face apology. Choosing our words carefully is a wonderful way to speak truth into the face of corruption and cowardice, especially if we occupy a place within society that gives us greater likelihood of being heard. Choosing the right moment to say them gives them even more power. Sometimes, when we are courageous enough to use our privilege to full effect, it changes things.

And now you have only one choice remaining (perhaps!). Do you want to go ahead and Get to the Good News or would you like to Go Back to the Start? If you’d like to Get to the Good News, hold up your green card. If you’d like to Go Back to the Start, hold up your yellow card. Just be aware, if you hold up a yellow card, you are voting to hear another entire sermon! [For Get to the Good News, turn to page 6. For Go Back to the Start, turn to page 2 and make different decisions than you did before.]

PRIDE & POWER

If we’re going to examine pride and power as motives for corruption, we’re mostly looking at the magistrates. And theirs is a sorry case. What we discover there is that the motives of pride and power are always accompanied by another unwelcome friend, fear. Why did they let the slave owners get away with such outrageous accusations? Why did they order Paul and Silas to be stripped and beaten and imprisoned? And how on earth – after doing all that one day – do you turn around early the next morning, and essentially say “Oops. My bad. You can go.”? The telling moment is their reaction to finding out that Paul and Silas are Roman citizens. The writer of Acts tells us that they were “afraid”. Though they seem to be running this corrupt system, that moment reminds everyone that the magistrates, too, like the jailer, are merely cogs, who can be removed and punished if they fail to function properly. The thing about grasping for power is that you never get enough. The thing about basing your pride in your power is that there’s always going to be someone with more power who can crush you at a moment’s notice. It is no wonder these forces are so corrosive to the human soul. The question is what is the best way to resist them?

You decide. Is it better to passively submit and let your innocence shame the system toward righteousness, risking Martyrdom, or is it better to Use Your Privilege to work within the system to change things? Paul did both, so we can look at either method. If you want to explore Martyrdom, raise your green card. If you want to explore what it means to Use Your Privilege, raise your yellow card. [For Martyrdom, turn to page 13. For Use Your Privilege, turn to page 14.]

MORAL AMBIGUITY (bad guys version)

As we said, there are some obvious villains in this story. But what about the ones who aren’t as easy to classify as bad guys or good guys? I’m thinking of two. First of all, what is it with that spirit of divination? This isn’t something we have any experience with in our culture, but they’re all over scripture. And they always have this one thing in common: they recognize and loudly proclaim the presence of God whenever Jesus or one of the disciples shows up. What does that mean? Are they truly bad? Are they something else? Are they a powerful metaphor for how we often relate to our own internal struggles with evil? We may feel like we’re being tempted by a force within us that is somehow not us, but at the same time, that force is usually also making clear to us the presence of God, so that we know the temptation is the wrong path, regardless of how attractive it may seem. It is vitally important for us to confess that evil is not always something outside of our own hearts. If a little mercy for these spirits can help us do that, we should thank them.

A more hopeful story of moral ambiguity lies in the plot line of the jailer. At the beginning of the story, he is a cog within a corrupt system. When he is told to guard Paul and Silas extra carefully, he follows orders and places them in the “innermost” cell with their feet in stocks. As the story progresses though, it becomes clear that he’s more than just a rule follower. Is he a bad guy or a good guy? He defies these categories by being a bad guy who is transformed into a good guy.

It is good to address these ambiguities. But really, the forces of evil press strongly on all of us. So let’s go back to that a bit. You decide. Which do you think is a more powerful force of corruption, Money or Pride & Power? If you want to look at Money hold up your green card. If you want to look at Pride & Power, hold up your yellow card. [For Money, turn to page 12. For Pride & Power, turn to page 15.]