In recent weeks we have been reflecting on the Acts of the Apostles, the New Testament book in which Luke gives us the sequel to the story he tells in his Gospel about "all that Jesus did and taught" up to his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven (Acts 1:1). Acts tells the story of how the risen Jesus sends out his followers to continue what he has begun. In the Gospel the story of Jesus is told on a limited geographical canvas, all within the small land of Israel. Now, in Acts, the same story continues on a larger canvas as the followers of Jesus, filled with his Spirit, go first to their own Jewish kinsfolk and then to the Gentiles, spreading out to the surrounding nations, speaking everywhere about Jesus and doing the same things that he did. They bring to people healing and freedom, forgiveness and new life; but, also just like Jesus, they experience opposition and suffering; like him they bring blessing but they are persecuted. The one big difference now is that the followers of Jesus claim nothing for themselves but point everyone who will listen to the Lord Jesus as the crucified and risen Saviour of the world.
Last week we heard about how God guided the apostle Paul and his companions to travel to Macedonia, where they come to the important city of Philippi. Here Lydia, a rich businesswoman, is the first person to believe the message about Jesus, and she is baptized, along with all her household. Today the story continues in Philippi with two dramatic episodes that illustrate the further impact of the Gospel and very different responses to it. We reflect on these episodes in Philippi both to understand more fully this foundational period in the history of the Church and also with the prayer that the same Lord who inspired and guided the Church then will be at work among us here today.
This is one of a few sections of Acts where the author appears to describe events at which he was himself present. He writes: "One day, as we were going to the place of prayer..." In most of Acts, and throughout Luke's Gospel, we don't hear this 'we'. At the start of the Gospel Luke explains that he assembled his narrative from reports collected from eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-4). Luke himself wasn't an eyewitness of Jesus but passes on what he was told by trustworthy sources in the early Church. Likewise, in most of Acts he is passing on what he has received from others. But it seems that occasionally Luke was himself present as an eyewitness, which would explain the vivid account he gives us here of a very memorable episode.
We were just walking along to the place of prayer, Luke writes, when this slave-girl starts following us. And she starts shouting out very loud to everyone around: "These men [Paul, Silas and their companions] are slaves [or servants] of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." Now we may think: Paul must surely appreciate such favourable local publicity. But no, he discerns something is badly wrong here. This is one of many points where the story of Paul echoes the story of his master Jesus. Just as the authority of Jesus is recognized by unclean spirits shouting out that he is the Holy One of God or the Son of the Most High (Luke 4:34, 8:28), so something similar happens to his servant Paul. The words of the slave-girl may in one sense be true, but they seem not to be coming from a healthy mind. Indeed they are not coming from the young woman herself at all. She is controlled by an unclean spirit that speaks through her. She is also controlled by uncaring men who exploit her to make money, because the spirit possessing her is one of divination. Superstitious nonsense, we may think, but many people in Philippi paid her owners good money for her to tell their fortunes. For her owners, you may say, she was a nice little earner. Paul discerns the oppressive reality here of spiritual darkness and human greed and like Jesus he speaks God's liberating power into this situation of desperate need. Paul orders the unclean spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to leave the young woman. And the spirit goes.
And now we see another parallel between Jesus and Paul. They bring healing, liberation, freedom, and what is the response? Anger, opposition. The owners of the slave-girl are furious that with the driving out of the unclean spirit "their hope of making money was gone", so they drag Paul and Silas before the local authorities.
Interestingly, this is not the only time in Acts that the preaching of the Gospel has economic consequences that are disruptive and controversial. A few chapters later, Luke describes how Paul's ministry in Ephesus causes so many people to turn to Christ from the worship of other gods that serious damage is done to the profitable local trade in silver shrines to the goddess Artemis (Acts 19:21-41). So the tradesmen in Ephesus band together and stir up a riot against Paul and other Christian leaders. It's striking that both at Ephesus and in Philippi the people who angrily oppose Paul and his message about Christ dress up their complaint in respectable, fine-sounding terms. Their real concern is that the Gospel preached and lived out by Paul is putting them out of business, but rather than just saying that bluntly they appeal to traditional and religious values, and they condemn Paul as an unwelcome disrupter of proper, respectable local practice. In Ephesus the crowds protesting against Paul's preaching shout repeatedly: "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (19:28) – i.e. don't let these foreign preachers overturn our venerable local religious traditions. And in Philippi the aggrieved owners of the slave-girl (who no longer makes money for them) complain that Paul and Silas are disturbing the whole city. Tapping into widespread anti-Jewish sentiment, they go on: "they are Jews, and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe" (16:20-21). Again echoing the story of Jesus, the opponents of the Gospel whip up an angry mob and get Paul and Silas beaten up before they are formally condemned by the local magistrates to a severe flogging [see 2 Corinthians 11:25: this was not the only time Paul endured this punishment].
To clarify: I'm not suggesting that Paul deliberately set out to cause economic or any other kind of disruption. He preached the Gospel and sought to nurture communities faithful to Jesus Christ. But where the Gospel and the principles for human life arising from it conflicted with the patterns of life in the world, including its economic structures, Paul stuck faithfully to the Gospel and accepted any unpopularity and suffering this brought with it.
That gives us plenty to think and pray about as we seek to be faithful to the same Lord today. In this world there has never been a time or a place into which the Christian faith has fitted entirely comfortably, disturbing nothing. The Gospel challenges us all. Always and everywhere, in all individuals and in all cultures, there are ideas and attitudes, ways of life, customs and embedded interests that are at odds with the justice, love and purity of God's ways – the ways into which God seeks to draw us, to reshape us and our world. So do we keep our hearts and minds open to how our faith might challenge and disrupt the practices and structures of the world around us today – not only but certainly not least in the economic sphere – and indeed how this might impact us individually, and the choices we make in our daily lives?
Coming back to today's story from Acts, it would be fascinating to know what happened to the slave-girl. Did she, for example, become part of the emerging church in Philippi? But Luke doesn't address every question we may have. Maybe he simply doesn't know. Anyway, the story moves on quickly to another dramatic episode that again speaks of the liberation and salvation that the Gospel offers to all people.
After their flogging, Paul and Silas are sent to the local prison. The magistrates have ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Here enters another interesting figure in Luke's story: the jailer of Philippi. What kind of man got that job? I'm guessing here, but I imagine him as a pretty tough character: Perhaps a former Roman soldier; weatherbeaten, muscular, scarred; a big bunch of keys and maybe a knife hanging at his belt. He has to deal with difficult people all day long. Sympathy and gentleness are not part of his job description. He takes Paul and Silas to the innermost cell, the darkest part of the prison, and fastens their feet in the stocks. His life wouldn't be worth living if these controversial prisoners were to escape, so he makes very sure they won't.
How would you respond in this situation if you were Paul? I don't know about you, but I recognize in myself the influence of growing up in a society with a great sense of entitlement. I think I'd be outraged by the infringement of my rights and would look for any leverage I could lay hold of to get myself out of there. 'Get me a lawyer! Get me the British Ambassador!' But how do Paul and Silas react? "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them." Here are human hearts that have truly become captive to Jesus Christ and been deeply shaped by his ways. Years later, Paul would write (from another prison) to the Christians in this same city of Philippi: "Rejoice in the Lord always ... Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything.... And the peace of God ... will guard your hearts and minds..." (Philippians 4:4-7). Here in prison, in the belly of the whale, we see just this attitude in Paul and Silas: rejoicing in the Lord who is always near, not worrying, held by God's peace. I have to acknowledge that I have a long way to go till my typical response to situations that are infinitely easier than what confronted Paul and Silas is anything like the trust and peace displayed by Paul and Silas.
So there they are, praying and praising God, when 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 sees what has happened he assumes the prisoners have all escaped and is about to kill himself, but Paul shouts out: "Don't harm yourself, we're all here." Perhaps it's this unexpectedly compassionate reaction from Paul, a man the jailer has just locked up in the depths of his prison, that gets through to this tough man. We don't know what exactly is going on in the jailer's heart and mind because Luke's narrative is very compressed and he simply tells us that the jailer falls trembling before Paul and Silas, takes them outside and asks, "What must I do to be saved?" To which they reply: "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." They explain more about Jesus and there and then in the middle of the night the jailer and all his family confess Jesus as Lord and are baptized. And joy wells up in them as they find themselves entering a new life, a new world. The Spirit prompts in them compassion and generosity as the jailer washes the wounds of Paul and Silas and brings them into his home, sharing a meal with them. Quite possibly they break bread and share wine in the name of Jesus.
It is in these extraordinary ways that the Church of Jesus Christ starts to emerge and grow in the city of Philippi, the first place in what we today call 'Europe' where the Christian faith was planted. Amid all that Paul and Silas have experienced of brutal violence, injustice and captivity, God acts to bring about liberation and new life. And God acts through Paul and Silas, these followers of Jesus who are prepared to name him boldly in the world, and when they are persecuted for doing so to respond with Christlike grace and patience. So a new community is emerging as very different people come to believe in Jesus: first a rich businesswoman, then a tough jailer are baptized, along with their families, the beginnings of a new community centred on Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. The story of Jesus is being told again in a new place, is being made real in the world, in the lives of his followers. Yes, there is opposition from those who can only see in the Gospel of Jesus Christ a threat to how they insist on living their lives; but to those who are open to God's gift, God gives abundantly: liberation, forgiveness, new life.
Revd David Marshall